Nueva Orleans Before Katrina, Hispanics accounted for 3 percent of New Orleans’ population, with just 1,900 Mexicans showing up in the 2004 Census. No one knows for certain how many new ones have arrived, but estimates put the number between 10,000 and 50,000.
posted by ColdChef
on May 9, 2006 -
105 comments
Latin
America
Turning
Left?
From the top
:
Lula da Silva*,
Lopez Obrador,
Nestor Kirchner,
Hugo Chavez*,
Alvaro Uribe,
Michelle Bachelet*,
Ollanta Humala,
Alfredo Palacio,
Oscar Berger,
Leonel Fernandez,
Oscar Arias,
Tony Saca,
Tabare Vazquez,
Martín Torrijos,
Evo Morales*
Manuel Zelaya,
Nicanor Duarte,
Daniel Ortega,
Rene Preval*.
posted by airguitar
on Apr 13, 2006 -
30 comments
Cenotes (say-NO-tays), scattered across the Yucatan peninsula,
vary greatly in shape and size, but are often quite
beautiful in any case. Some cenotes were apparently used for ritual
human sacrifice by the Mayans, and some, say scientists, contain waterlife which may be helpful in
treating cancer. However, these cenotes and their connected ecosystems may be in danger if the rapid and largely unchecked
development of the
Maya Riviera continues.
posted by Stauf
on Mar 26, 2006 -
16 comments
"The make him into something he wasn't." Today, on the 200th anniversary of his birth, a national holiday, Mexico both honors and reconsiders Benito Juarez (Wikipedia:
Eng/
Span): "
Mexico's
Lincoln," the nation's first indigenous president, who served two
terms in the 1860s and 1870s. The capital city's
airport, a
border city of 1.1M,
universities, and streets and monuments in just
about every town are
named after Juarez, widely considered a national hero. Politicians left and right invoke his name, especially this year as Mexico prepares to elect a new president in July. For many in the Latin American left, he's a regional icon in the vein of Simon Bolivar and Ernesto "Che" Guevara; Havana unveiled a
bust (Span) of him last year. He's held up as a defender of the poor and the indigenous and an opponent to free trade. Today, however, some historians say
he was neither. For those who read Spanish, a leading Mexican (right-of-center) newspaper,
El Universal, also touches on the topic in
"Juarez, a controversial icon."
posted by donpedro
on Mar 21, 2006 -
5 comments
Want the real "Real Thing", plenty of people know to look for the yellow cap and stock up on some
passover Coke. But unsanctioned by the corporation,
Mexican Coke is now showing up in the USA, in the old fashioned glass bottles.
posted by 445supermag
on Mar 19, 2006 -
62 comments
Tzintzuntzan was the capital city of the
Purépecha Empire (also known as
Tarascan).
Culturally (
scroll to middle of page) isolated from the rest of precolumbian Mexico, the origins of the Purépecha is still unknown. Their
language is one that is not even provisionally linked with any other
language and is still spoken by about 200,000
natives around Michoacan. The Purépechas were the only
state to become an empire in the Western Mexico cultures.
posted by ozomatli
on Dec 13, 2005 -
18 comments
lacitedesmortes - documentary on women murdered in ciudad juarez -- lacitedesmontes.net is not in English, but through its flash presentation and navigation, it should explain enough about the brutality of the unfortunate events that took place in Ciudad Juarez. Since 1993,
almost 400 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico.
While the region's law enforcement as well as state's attorney general were either incompetent or corrupt, more than a dozen
women's rights groups were created to solve the murder as well as to stop the violence in the region. Thanks to international organizations such as
Amnesty,
UNIFEM, and
IACHR, the number of violent murder on women in the region has degreased for a while, however,
the battle still continues.
More resources
here.
posted by grafholic
on Oct 13, 2005 -
11 comments
"New Mexico, Cleaner than Regular Mexico" This isn't the first time that Urban Outfitters has crossed the line of good taste.
Two years ago, [Urban Outfitters] stopped selling a game called "Ghettopoly" after protests by black civil rights leaders. Last year, it halted sales of a T-shirt that read "Everyone Loves A Jewish Girl," surrounded by dollar signs, after the Anti-Defamation League objected.
As could be expected,
not everone finds this stuff funny.
posted by billysumday
on Jul 22, 2005 -
46 comments
Strange Curiosity The island seems to be Mexico's largest. Shows up on Google
satellite but not on the
map. Google Earth yields a few placenames, leading to finding the true name of the island: "Isla Tiburon" presently an
ecological reserve with the nickname "Shark Island". Aside from surrounding shark tours and an occasional
visit by kayak, it seems this place is lonely and untouched.
posted by thisisdrew
on Jul 20, 2005 -
19 comments
Postage stamps with a side of race baiting. The Mexican postal service released a series of five stamps today featuring a 1940's era cartoon of a fat lipped jug eared negro child, known for his hapless adventures, and his Aunt Jemima (classic edition, not modern sassy Jemima) mother.
posted by jonson
on Jun 29, 2005 -
28 comments
Mountain Voices. 'This website presents interviews with over 300 people who live in mountain and highland regions round the world. Their testimonies offer a personal perspective on change and development.'
posted by plep
on Apr 10, 2005 -
2 comments
Mystery of 'chirping' pyramid decoded: "A theory that the ancient Mayans built their pyramids to act as giant resonators to produce strange and evocative echoes has been supported by a team of Belgian scientists." Others are not so sure... Coincidence, or engineering? Did the designers of
El Castillo pyramid cannily build in a sound effect that mimics the warble of the sacred quetzal bird? Listen for yourself, with the
.wav file (first set is the real bird, the second is the pyramid) featured in
this Acoustical Society of America page. I prefer to think it's deliberate; after all, it's possible that early man was experimenting with cave acoustics to to create
sound-enhanced rock art (there are sound samples for this included
here - unfortunately a Geocities site). Also of interest, the BBC programme "
Acoustic Shadows"
(requires RealPlayer - *heavy sigh*).
posted by taz
on Feb 8, 2005 -
24 comments
"Writing a whodunit may sound like an odd thing to do when you are running an insurgency"... Nevertheless,
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, the mysterious, offbeat leader of the
Zapatistas, and
Paco Ignacio Taibo II, a Mexican crime novelist, are coauthoring a mystery novel live--alternating chapters each week--in the pages of the Mexican newspaper,
La Jornada. So far, they have finished chapters
one,
two and
three (pdf) of
Muertos Incomodos, (The Awkward Dead). Is there a precedent for this experiment? I love this sort of thing but, unfortunately, my Spanish is insufficient. Any Spanish speakers care to review?
posted by boo
on Dec 22, 2004 -
13 comments
7,000 Years of Religious Ritual Is Traced in Mexico Archaeologists have traced the development of religion in one location over a 7,000-year period, reporting that as an early society changed from foraging to settlement to the formation of an archaic state, religion also evolved to match the changing social structure.
This archaeological record, because of its length and completeness, sheds an unusually clear light on the origins of religion, a universal human behavior but one whose evolutionary and social roots are still not well understood.
posted by Postroad
on Dec 21, 2004 -
33 comments
Aztecs at the Royal Academy. The exhibition may be over but the website can still be enjoyed.
posted by plep
on Jun 4, 2003 -
3 comments
"Are You a Manly Man Full of Vigor?" Such was the come-on in John Romulus Brinkley's ads for his goat-gland operations. He made enough money from them to start first station KFKB (Kansas First, Kansas Best!), then (after he was run out of Kansas) XER out of Del Rio, Mexico, at a half-million watts the most powerful station in the world, which made the Carter Family (among many others) famous. Read William Bryk's brilliant account, and if you get nostalgic for the old days of AM, listen to the
Blasters' great "
Border Radio."
posted by languagehat
on May 29, 2003 -
7 comments
So how will you spend Easter? Are your plans just a tad pedestrian? If egg hunts leave you cold, perhaps you need a bit more edge. For many, things begin this week. In Czechoslovakia, men carry woven willow sticks and
whip girls on the legs, but in Taxco, Mexico, it's all about
self-flagellation. In the U.S., many go theatrical with a
living last supper; in the Philippines they favor more authenticity - every year about 20 people
re-enact the crucifixion, nails & all. If that's too real, you could
order supplies to build a backyard
corpus shrine for next year.
- more -
posted by madamjujujive
on Apr 14, 2003 -
23 comments
CIA funds "alternative" media through nonprofit foundations? "The multi-billion dollar Ford Foundation's historic relationship to the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] is rarely mentioned on Pacifica's DEMOCRACY NOW / Deep Dish TV show, on FAIR's COUNTERSPIN show, on the WORKING ASSETS RADIO show, on The Nation Institute's RADIO NATION show, on David Barsamian's ALTERNATIVE RADIO show or in the pages of PROGRESSIVE, MOTHER JONES and Z magazine. One reason may be because the Ford Foundation and other Establishment foundations subsidize the Establishment Left's alternative media gatekeepers / censors" -- heavy claims. A several part report, in considerable detail. My note - the Mexican PRI, when it ran Mexico, used to fund a whole constellation of Mexican Leftist groups - the threat of withdrawing funding $ proved a very effective way of keeping dissent within "safe" limits.
posted by troutfishing
on Oct 30, 2002 -
27 comments
today a fellow mexican will be executed in texas , for killing a cover agent 13 years ago… besides the mexican government, e.u. & u.n. are also calling for clemency; they argue that u.s. authorities denied him legal assistance from the consulate. right now, suárez medina only wants to die. the question is: isn't it better to die than be in prison all your life? i would prefer to be killed instead of living in jail more than 20 years. the sad about suárez medina case is that he has been in jail 13 years from now and anyway he is going to be killed! the texas government should have killed him immediately he was found guilty. “i prefer to die than spend the rest of my life here inside because here there is no life.” said suárez in an interview. in punishment standards i find worst to live in jail forever than being executed. what would be worst for you?
posted by trismegisto
on Aug 14, 2002 -
30 comments
One of the teams in the Mexico vs. USA World Cup game
made history. As of before the game, the USA has never won a knockout game of the World Cup - Mexico had never won a knockout game of the World Cup when not in Mexico. Click the article to see which team made history - or if you don't want it spoiled, don't click at all!
posted by twiggy
on Jun 17, 2002 -
28 comments
Deserts are dry? Sue. "The families of 11 immigrants who died [while] illegally crossing into Arizona from Mexico have filed a $41 million claim against two federal agencies, saying the government's refusal to put water out in the desert contributed to the migrants' deaths." Do they have a case?
posted by darukaru
on May 11, 2002 -
53 comments
