The Universe That Is Mexico

Title: El Universal
Type of Website: online newspaper
Great source of...: News about Mexico... in English!

Real Mexico-philes know all about this website, of course. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention it. I envision that this little blog will someday be a great resource for people moving to Mexico or just interested in Mexico. And so leaving out El Universal would be akin to forgetting to mention the Virgen of Guadalupe or something (OK, maybe not that bad... )

According to their website, this newspaper, which is better known as in its paper, you-can-spill-coffee-on-it version, has been headed up by the same man, Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz since 1969. The little blurb about that (in Spanish) talks about "la constante lucha por la dignificacion en la relacion entre prensa y gobierno"... the constant fight for dignity in the relationship between the press and government. Hear hear!

But the English part of this newspaper is actually the Mexico edition of the Miami Herald and is called "Mexico News" in the site map. The main newspaper is a Mexican newspaper in Spanish (El Gran Diario de Mexico, no less!). So its really a great website for those of us trying to learn Spanish. We can start off reading the Spanish stories as best we can, and then turn to the ones in English after our brains are weary from the tiresome task of translation.

So, what can you learn on El Universal? Tonite I learned that four players from the Mexican World Cup soccer team were in the running for the "team of the stars" to be announced next Friday, that Cancun is now targeting upscale travelers and that the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute is warning ahead of time that there will be no technical or legal reason to challenge the validity of the results of the presidential election. A cursory glance at the headlines shows that the elections are very much on everyone's minds. I also learned that the institute, called the IFE, expects to call the results at 11 pm on Sunday night.

As Sunday comes around, you can believe I'll be checking in to www.mexiconews.com.mx because I won't want to be waiting for my brain to be doing those slow translations.