Laying Mexico Bare

Jeremy Schwartz moved to Mexico City with his wife less than a year ago. He is Cox Newspapers man with his ear to the ground in Mexico City. His blog is published on the Austin newspaper website, www.statesman.com.

I like Jeremy's writing style... it is spare and to the point. He doesn't romanticize or poeticize (is that a word?). He's all about facts, insights and the kinds of things you hear over coffee or a drink. He gives you an idea what is being talked about on the streets of Mexico City.

He also communicates, though seldom overtly, what it is like being a young professional expat in Mexico City.

Today's short blurb was a brief look at a few of the slew of books coming out this week about last year's Presidential election in Mexico. Over the last few months he has covered the President of Mexico's activities, the experience of shopping for shoes in Mexico, rich and poor at the movie theatres and Mexico City rainstorms. And everything in between.

He doesn't write every day, and when he writes something, its interesting and not too long and complicated. A nugget of information for busy minds in a busy world.

About Mexico.

In English.

Lighting the World through Bliss

I was reading a new (to me) blog this morning, written by a woman who lives alternately on a boat and in San Carlos, Mexico (a lovely seaside town at the edge of the desert in Northern Mexico). It's a great blog, well-written and insightful. The writer seems full of life and love for the life she lives in Mexico.

But what caught my eye this morning was a brief mention of the BoGolight. And because the BoGolight seems like such a fabulous idea, I wanted to spread the word (and credit my source).

The BoGoLight company was started by a man who was a diplomat for 20 years. It is his mission to improve the lives of the less fortunate through eco-friendly technology. His first project is the BoGo Light. It's a solar-powered flashlight that last up to 20 years, charges in 8 hours and provides 4-5 hours of light. The rechargeable batteries last for 2 years and replacements are available worldwide. For us, it is a great camping or emergency flashlight.

But the best part is that very time you buy a BoGo light, the company sends one to an organization to help someone less fortunate. Mostly, they seem to be focused on Africa, but I notice they are also sending them to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why is light so important? You can read on the website how providing families in Africa with a cheap and reliable source of light saves them up to one-third of their income that is usually spent on kerosene, their usual source of light. Having light allows the women to cook without kerosene fumes and allows the children to study after working in the fields all day.

If you are at all interested, check out the BoGo Light website to learn more. And then buy one! Everybody wins!

Luis Barragan

You may have noticed that my postings have slowed down lately. This is partly due to being tremendously busy, but also partly due to running out of good websites to talk about.

So I'm starting a new series. I'll still be highlighting websites about Mexico that are written in English, but I am going to be focusing on famous Mexican people, either living or dead. Just people that I find interesting that call Mexico their home.

I'm starting with Luis Barragan, one of the first Mexicans that I became aware of, strangely. I fell in love with photos of his homes... there was something about a hot pink wall next to an orange wall that just blew my entire conception of space. I loved his willingness to break the boundaries of convention with color. Only later would I realize what a patently Mexican trait that really is.

The main website about this famous architect is offered by his foundation and is available in German, English and Spanish. It features a biography, where I learned that he was born in Guadalajara in 1902 and realized his first project in 1927. He traveled to Europe and the US during his life, but spent most of it in Mexico City. He was awarded the very prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1980 and he died in 1988.

He is known for his very original style, which is both modernistic and distinctly Mexican. He is without a doubt the father of Mexican modern architecture, and is known around the world. He was one of the first architects to use color in his work.

If you are interested in his work, you will enjoy the Foundation's website. One of the best features is in the Visitor's Guide section, where they map out all of his works in Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Another good website for information about this gifted architect is the Pritzker Prize website, which has a comprehensive photo gallery of some of his work, as well as the text of his acceptance speech.

Do you have any famous Mexicans that you are interested in? Let me know... or just visit here regularly to learn more!

Some Like It Hot and Spicy

This is a website that will singe your eyebrows if you get too close to the monitor. Any real student of Mexico owes it to themselves at some point to go beyond the trivial and the travel, and explore Mexico with an edge to it. Mexico and the Mexican gestalt is about things that can make your eyes tear up and your nose run.

Mexico's a big country, an even bigger culture and the Mexican heart and soul encompasses many things. This particular blog is called The Unapologetic Mexican (although it doesn't have capital letters...) and it lives somewhere out on the periphery of the gestalt. It's written by one who doesn't feel the need to apologize, and who does his unapologetic writing and ranting with a sense of humour. And good graphics.

And the guy is funny and witty. He writes with passion and pathos. His style is intimate and intelligent. Oh, Blogger, I think I'm in love!! OK, it's only a blog. But with insight about the Latina culture... from the best kind of person to teach it: someone who has needed to learn.

Because this Mexican unapologetically grew up with a white mother and didn't get inculcated into his raza until later in life. Don't forget to read the "Mi Familia" section... that's where I found the pathos part. And his bit about some words he coined in "Nezua Brings Palabra". And I'm still in the middle of the story called "The Grand American Dream and el Barco de la Ilusion"....delicious! Root around in the corners of his blog and you'll find many tasty bits... writing about his grandmother, book reviews, comments on the news.

Some of the writing about current events might make this blog feel a bit like biting into a nice crunchy fresh habanero. You know it might hurt a bit... but the rush is SO worth it.

Enjoy!

The MEX Files

Yep, I love this blog. It has something for everyone eventually. If you are interested in Mexico, that is.

Spend a little time with Richard and Lyn-2, the writers, and you'll be treated to diatribes on everything from politics to perros, WalMart to Starbucks, Oaxaca to...to....Oscar Creighton (look it up!). Sometimes there are great articles from Spanish-language newspapers translated into English for your reading pleasure (Richard is a translator for a living). Sometimes, a history lesson. Sometimes, a rant. You just never know what you are going to get with the Mex Files!

What you do know is that you are going to get it from a writer who obviously knows a lot about Mexico. And so you'll probably learn something new.

And THAT is what makes this a great website!! Bookmark it...

Uno, dos, tres, quatro!

Nancy and Paul, who currently live in Washington State, are moving to Mexico... and because of blog technology and Nancy's prolific and expressive writing, you can share the journey. Regular readers of this blog have been following Nancy and Paul as they traveled throughout Mexico to decide where they were going to move to when Paul retires. Recently, they have decided to move to Mazatlan, and now the real countdown begins as they experience the process of moving to another country.

What I love about this blog is the intimate picture of what so many of us who live here have gone through. We maybe have not all gone through it with the joy, peace and luxurious timeframe that Nancy enjoys, but we have all taken the steps that these two are taking. Deciding where to live, deciding whether to buy or rent, what to do with the car, the "stuff"... there are so many big and little decisions involved in moving. Those decisions are multiplied in significance and emotional impact when you are moving away from friends and family to a new country.

As Nancy's writing conveys, moving to Mexico is both about leaving things you love behind and moving towards adventure, mystery and a new way of life.

If you have moved to Mexico already, I think you'll enjoy watching these two go through the process, which allows you to revisit your own process and see how much you have learned since you moved. If you are moving yourself or thinking of making this move, you will probably learn a few things as well as gain a comfortable feeling of not being alone in your venture.

I know I am enjoying following the real-life story of two people making the big move to Mexico... I invite you to join me. Altogether now: uno, dos, tres...

Doing Business in Mexico

I love this blog. Why? Because this information is hard to find and it is good, useful information for anyone living in and/or working in Mexico.

Lee Iwan works in Corporate Mexico in Leon, Guanajuato. Leon is one of Mexico's thriving manufacturing centers, is the leather tanning and shoe manufacturing capital of Mexico (who knew?) and is located in Mexico's heartland. Lee doesn't mention who he works for, but says in his profile that he has worked in retail, wholesale, service, manufacturing and agricultural industries internationally. He certainly seems to have an international perspective and a good handle on business life in Mexico.

His blog, entitled Business South of the Border, treats a different subject with each post. Recent subjects have included the way employee Christmas bonuses are paid in Mexico, new low-cost airlines that are flying to Mexico and "what every business person should know about Mexican politics".

One of my favorite posts, from October 2006, is about the value of Patience and Chaos in doing business in Mexico. It is, in my opinion, an absolutely brilliant and spot-on observation and I reprint it here as an example of the valuable information you can find on this website, both for your working and your personal life if you live in Mexico or deal regularly with Mexicans...

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Patience.

Mexicans are patient people. The have great tolerance for human error. They run on a schedule that is influenced by work concerns, family concerns, their own mental health, and takes into consideration outside factors and influences that might interfere with their plans.

This is not to say that Mexicans are never in a hurry, or are willing to accept poor quality, or like to move slowly.

What it means is that they are not overly disturbed and motivated to emotional outbursts and threats if something gets in their way, or does not go as planned. They patiently seek a solution, and if no solution is present, they accept the reality of the situation.

Chaos

Chaos is part of Mexican culture and society. Lack of long term planning is quite common (at government, business, personal levels), and everything gets done at the last minute. The curious part is that everything DOES get done.

This chaos and disorganization draws strong criticism from individuals used to order, control, planning and expected outcomes in their own countries. Remember that it is a characteristic of Mexico, not good, not bad, just different.

Living in a chaotic environment allows the Mexicans to rapidly adapt to any situation, take advantages of opportunities quickly, and survive quite well in a very changing world.

There is spontaneity in Mexico. Social engagements are arranged at a moments notice, or simply just happen, unplanned and casually. Things just happen. Expect last minute changes in plans, events, and agendas. “Expect the unexpected” is great advice.

Not surprisingly, Mexico is a country where social relationships and social networks are extremely important. These personal bonds and relationships, which are reinforced constantly, help to create order and get things done.

As is the case of all stereotypes, these observations are broad based and may, or may not, have any validity.

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The emphasis in bold letters is mine. And I especially love the last sentence, italicized by the author. Because it should be put at the end of any article written about Mexico or Mexicans. You can try to generalize about something here, but you will be immediately proven wrong at the next possible moment. It has something to do with the inherent chaos of life down here. And it is what allows the magic to shine through.

Anyway, whether or not you do business in Mexico, I encourage you to spend time on this blog if you want to learn about the Mexican way of doing things. No matter how much you think you know about Mexico and Mexicans, I can almost guarantee you will learn something.

Prensa Latina

For my first recommendation in the Year of the Dolphin, 2007, I am happy to report this very useful site, Prensa Latina, the Latin American News Agency.

What makes this site so valuable is that it is up-to-the minute reporting of issues affecting the Latino World... in English. I was led to this website tonite by searching on "Yucatan" (the state where I live) on a new search engine called Swamii (also not a bad site to know about). The news items I read were recent (today's news) and were things I had not read about by doing the same search in Google News. There was a news story about AMLO traveling in the Yucatan this weekend and another one with details about recent locust swarms in the Yucatan. Both news stories filed today which I probably could have read about in the local Spanish-language paper. But now I have this resource too.

Try it... you just might bookmark it!

Getting Married in Mexico

Are you thinking of getting married in Mexico? If you are in the market for a wedding, you've probably considered the option of what is known as a Destination Wedding these days. And if you're thinking of getting married while on vacation, Mexico is probably one of the first places that comes to mind.

Before I tell you about this website that consolidates information about weddings in Mexico, let me say that my husband and I were married away from home... in Italy, to be exact. It wasn't as common in those days (10 years ago) and we had a hard time finding someone to coordinate the event (in Venice). Nowadays, you can choose from a whole list of people and getting married in a romantic location is a much more popular idea.

Getting married in a foreign country has its pros and cons. It is expensive for your guests (we solved that problem by not having any). And it may not be legal in your country (we solved that by having a civil wedding before we left). The ceremony was incredibly special, romantic beyond belief and something I will remember on my deathbed as a highlight of my life. We were married at midnight on the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy as the bells chimed and the bands played. About 200 people from around the world came to watch as we stood in front of the golden Basilica and the wedding "official" who was dressed as a doge (the traditional ruler of Venice).

Now, weddings in foreign countries are a lot easier to manage. And Stray Weddings has a very helpful website that makes getting married in Mexico a breeze. They have a free e-book report about the Top Ten Resorts for Weddings in the Yucatan Peninsula. They also have listings of wedding planners, travel agents, translators, photographers and musicians (although in my experience, all you really need is a good wedding planner and they will help you find everyone else). Our good friends Paradise Weddings are listed as one of their wedding planners and I know that they do it all, from flowers to music to videos to napkins.

They have recently started a blog with more detailed info about what documents you need to get married, photos of chapels and other details that will be important to a future bride.

So now, do you want to see photos of our wedding? Sure you do...

Mexico With Heart

I wish I had more time right now to read this website. I've spent about a half hour here, and instead of feeling like I've gotten a good overview and I can write a nice review about it, I feel as if I have just dipped my toe in the water and I'm anxious to go in for a swim!

The woman who writes this webpage (and associated blog) is Rosana Hart. She has been traveling to Mexico for many years (she talked about going to Acapulco as a child... oh! how I wish I could have seen it then!). She has created a website that gives good information about the top cities in Mexico: Acapulco, Cancun, Cuernavaca, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, etc. She lives in the Guadalajara area, and so she writes about that as well.

But she and her husband have also traveled and continue to travel through Mexico, so there is a lot more in her blog and in the section called Mexico with Heart, the Book. I loved a section on El Chorrito, a town with a shrine to the Virgen of Guadalupe (about whom I just wrote an article on Yucatan Living) and another article on Ciudad Victoria, a place I visited this summer. Wish I had read this article *before* I went there!! Another great article is her Sixteen Ways to Meet People, apparently written from years of experience and a must-read for anyone wanting to come to Mexico and see beyond the tourist hype.

Anyway, I'm bookmarking this website and I'll be going back to read more when I have some real time to devote to it. If you are interested in Mexico, I suggest you do the same.

Slow Life in Mexico City

Another blog? Yep, another blog. Another blog by an English-speaking expatriate living in Mexico.

This one happens to be a real Englishman... Seth is from the UK (although apparently he has no plans to go back). He is in Mexico working for Amnesty International, a worthy cause and something that makes me like him already.

Reading the blog, you'll soon learn that Seth is a very likeable guy. I'm not sure what first clued me into this. Was it the fact that he was a good enough sport to dress up like a girl for a party where boys dressed like girls and girls like boys? Maybe it is the fact that he cooks for his roommate Frank, in exchange for Frank's Spanish assistance. Or maybe its because I agree with him politically. Or maybe its just his all around good nature and the fact that he's working for Amnesty International.

In any case, this blog is really just all about Seth, and Seth's adventures in Mexico City. He's from England, went to school in London, but curiously the blog starts (about eight months ago) in Norway of all places. Seth has a thing for Norway. It seems that Amnesty International was the one to send him to Mexico, and so he is here now and writing about it.

He's a fresh face with a fresh attitude to Mexico. His blog is a refreshing read.

Historic Haciendas

I came across this website a few weeks ago and finally got a chance to look at in depth tonite. Historic Haciendas is certainly not the prettiest or best designed website I've seen. But it does offer a little glimpse into a world (and an opportunity) that I knew very little about.

Historic haciendas is an independent collection of hacienda hotels and vacation rentals in Jalisco, within driving distance from Guadalajara. Each hacienda and hotel appears to be privately owned, and has between three and twenty four rooms to rent. Some of them have spas in the hacienda, and they all seem to offer tours doing everything from historic walks to horseback riding. Almost every one of them looks beautiful and, of course, unique in its design and history.

One hacienda, Hacienda Sepulveda (obviously named after a famous boulevard in the San Fernando Valley...) has 11 rooms and was built in 1684. According to the website, the current owner has spent TEN years renovating the hacienda to be a hotel. The photos show beautiful stone walls, boveda ceilings and arched pasillos. The eleven suites all rent for between $145 and 180 USD per night.

The subject matter is unique and I doubt you can find out about these places in many other websites. But the website design is absolutely horrendous. The navigation alone is a case study in what not to do. It works, barely, but it looks bad and it looks different on every page. All the pages are different colors and designs as well. It has got to be one of the strangest websites I've seen in a long time.

But, you aren't going there for an example in website design. Instead, I'm thinking you'll be going there to drool over the photos of beautiful buildings turned into luxurious hotels. And maybe, hopefully, to plan to visit one of them someday.

Unknown Mexico

If you have lived for any amount of time in Mexico, you are probably aware of those beautiful magazines, Mexico Desconocido (Unknown Mexico) that tempt you in the checkout lines at the grocery stores. You pick one up, and try to pick your way through the beautiful looking magazine that promises to illuminate all the wonderful corners and cultures of Mexico for you. But alas, it is all in Spanish and you resign yourself to mostly looking at the beautiful photos.

Well, gracias a Dios, there is the internet. And Mexico Desconocido has a website, with a very healthy English language side to it. And as of today, Mexico Desconocido is no longer unknown, at least to the readership of Mexico-in-English!

Basically, Mexico Desconocido has Travel, Shopping and Publication sections. These sections appear to be only in Spanish. But within the English section, there are two divisions: Discover and Live. I'm not really clear on the distinction between these two. Under the Discover section, you'll find History, Nature, Culture & Society and Monuments & Historical Centers. Under the Live section, there's Sports, Beaches & Spas, Counties and Museums & Archaeological Zones. This is not the way I would have divided these categories; this is not intuitive to my Western mind. But there you have it.

Each category is further divided into sub-categories, and within each sub-category are anywhere from 10 to 40 or 50 articles. It appears that these articles are reprints of articles previously published in the magazine, as they are notated with the author name and dates. Some that I've read are dated back as far as 1994. The depth of information about different parts of Mexico, its traditions, culture, treasures and people. Just casually exploring, I have come across articles about everything from Ricardo Bell, "the clown that made our grandparents laugh" to the mining museum in Pachuca. I've found articles about the Xalapa Museum of Anthropology (surely one of the most beautiful museums I've ever seen) to the History of the Altar of Forgiveness in the Cathedral in Mexico City.

Now don't get *too* excited. Some of the articles are nothing more than a paragraph or two of rehashed facts that are all too familiar to the casual student of all things Mexican...hardly desconocido. But at least one half of the articles are in-depth, interesting and full of details and tasty tidbits of information.

This website is a gold mine of little nuggets of information about Mexico. I'm bookmarking it, and next time I go on a little roadtrip, I'm going to research my destination with this website. I might find out about a little church I might have missed otherwise or a tradition I might not have otherwise known about. After you visit it, you might decide to do the same.

Bookmark the Larpman

Here's a website recommended by one of our readers. And what a great find!

Larpman.com has some valuable information that you don't find on other sites. The website is divided into four simple categories: Transportation, Books, Maps and Photos. Four categories of resources that are useful when planning a trip to Mexico.

The books category is a simple listing of a few books that John Barreiro (the Larpman, one would assume) recommends. These are links to his Amazon affiliate listings, of course, so he stands to make a few cents whenever you order one of these books through him. The books are pretty predictable...no surprises there at all.

The maps category is more indepth, and therefore more valuable. Not only are there links to INEGI, Mexico's geographical institute that produces excellent quality maps, and Mapquest, Expedia, multi-map and the obvious Maps of Mexico, but there is a link to the Google Maps website with 97 separate places within Mexico already mapped for you. Señor Barreiro has also developed his own way to view Google satellite maps, called LarpMax, which I did not want to tax my broadband to test, but which sounds promising.

The third category is Photos. Larpman.com links to various websites that have photo galleries of Mexican locations. He promises that this section will grow, as now it only covers five areas: Mexico City, Puerto Escondido, Guanajuato and Palenque. Our other website, Yucatan Living, has a very nice photo gallery of the Yucatan, which I would love to suggest to Mr. Barreiro.

Which brings me to one of the flaws of this website. There is absolutely no way to communicate with the creator of the site. Mr. Barreiro has crafted a valuable site from which he makes money through Google Ads, Amazon referrals and possibly other affiliates. I don't have a problem with this. But in this 21st Century, when communication is so easy, why not have a way to provide feedback or suggestions? I'm sure he has his reasons... perhaps he'll notice this posting and let us know!

Last, but most definitely not least, is the section on Transportation. I find this to be the most valuable information on the website. Larpman has done his homework, and while I cannot attest to the accuracy of all the information without duplicating his research, it looks good and has got to be some of the most detailed on the web on this subject (in English, anyway).

The Transportation Section is divided into 5 sections: Air, Bus, Train, Auto and Bicycle.

The Air section provides all the airlines that fly to and within Mexico, and listings of which cities are covered by each airline, as well as links to aviation photo websites. Each mention is followed by a link to the airline's website and a link to the Wikipedia page about that airline, if there is one.

The Bus Section includes information about how to purchase bus tickets, a rundown on the difference between the different bus classes, links to bus company websites, schedules and a special section on busses at the Mexico City airport, complete with schedules. This alone is worth bookmarking this website. But there's more! A section on bus travel from the USA to Mexico, complete with the hours and distances for common routes and links to the American bus companies that travel to Mexico. The last section under Bus Travel explains how to travel into Mexico by bus from the South (from Belize & Guatemala), again with links to the bus companies.

But wait! Maybe you've heard about the trains in Mexico and want to travel that way. Señor Barreiro has researched that as well, and shares his knowledge. There are links to the different rail services (the "remaining" rail service, as he puts it) with explanations of routes, times and distances. This is the weakest section of the website, however. The photos appear to be missing (weren't uploaded to his server...) and one of the paragraphs in the introduction is about the bus system, not about trains. Again, if there was a way to give feedback, this might have been fixed before this review.

The Auto Section, entitled "Driving to and within Mexico" is Under Construction, as is the Bicycle Section, but we can probably look forward to similarly detailed and well-researched information. Though I would caution anyone that the rules about cars seem to change all the time here in Mexico, as laws are changed and updated. I can speak from experience when I say that you need to be prepared with a modicum of patience when bringing your car into or out of Mexico. There are times when you might need it.

Overall, this is a well-researched and well-designed website. It has valuable information and it is easy to find that information. The navigation bar at the top is simple and always tells you where you are in the website and there is a site map in case you get lost. Kudos to John Barreiro for his excellent research and presentation... now if only we could tell him personally!

Si-Mexico

Si-Mexico is basically a web-based travel agency. If you don't know much more about Mexico than that you want to go there, this website is a good place to start. You can pick any of the popular cities that you might want to visit and find a healthy list of hotels where you can stay. You can compare airfare rates from a number of different services and airlines, book your hotel and even book excursions... all in Mexico and all from this website.

In addition, it has some useful reference information. My two favorites are a page on all the airport codes for the different cities in Mexico and the listing of events and festivities throughout the country during the different months of the year. These are both helpful tidbits of information when you are planning a Mexican trip.

While the ability to search for airfare from competing services all in one place is impressive, the hotel search and booking facility is less impressive. While it is a good place to get a listing of the largest hotels in a given Mexican city, I found that the hotels listed in my hometown are the "safe" hotels, and probably the ones that subscribe to a central booking service. Some of my favorite hotels are too small to subscribe, and so they aren't included in this website. Also, there was one hotel on the list for my city that I am very familiar with. The fares represented on the website are NOT cheaper than the fares published on the hotel's own website. In fact, they are a lot more expensive.

Now in Si-Mexico's defense, they do give a guarantee that they will refund the difference if you find a lower price. At least there is that, but you'll have to catch the discrepancy of course, and apply for the refund. Why not just get the price right?

The website also seems to promise the ability to book excursions out of the major destinations, such as Swimming With the Dolphins in Cancun or Sunset Sailing in Puerto Vallarta. But when the link was clicked on, neither Firefox nor Safari (yes, I'm using a Mac laptop) was able to serve up the desired page of information and booking form. All I got was a blank page with the Si-Mexico logo.

So, while the site has some flaws, I still find it a useful resource. I imagine it is especially useful to the new, first or second-time traveler to the famous vacation destinations of Mexico. I can see how it would provide a one-stop internet shop to the less experienced traveler.

MexiData

MexiData is a website maintained and written by a group of businessmen and politicians with insight into the workings of the government and business of Mexico. The columnists are Enrique Andrade Gonzalez, an attorney and business consultant and former Director of Audiences and Hearings for Vicente Fox until two years ago, Kenneth Emmond, a Canadian journalist and consultant who lives in Mexico, Carlos Luken, a consultant and real estate develpor and Barnard Thompson, a long-time consultant in risk analysis who is also the editor and who lives in San Diego. Mr. Thompson runs MIRA, Mexico Information and Research Associates which helps US companies do business in Latin America.

Without spending all day reading the website, I cannot say where these guys fall in the political spectrum between liberal and conservative. One of the categories of information on this website are columns written about their opinions on current affairs affecting or originating in Mexico. The columns are well thought out, informative but not very in-depth.

The second category of data on this website is Media Watch. These are columns written in Spanish for Mexican and other spanish-language newspapers, translated into English. For those of us with not enough fluency in Spanish or time to puzzle out a whole article, this section is a great resource.

But the best resource of all on this website is the Reports section. Here the group has uploaded various .pdf files with reports from all over. There is a lot of good information here. One of the first to catch my eye was the InterAmerican Development Banks' report on Migrant Remittances from the USA to Latin America. Did you know that the cost of transferring remittances has fallen 50% over the last six years? And that remittances from migrants constitutes one of the broadest and most effective poverty allevation programs in the world? I knew it was doing a lot of people a lot of good. Did you know that immigrants constitute 23% of working people in the production sector and 20% of service workers in the US?
Did you know that the majority of immigrants in the US did not have jobs in their home country before they came to the US? And that if they did have work before, within a month they were making an average of six times their former salary? And that almost 40% of immigrants found a job within two weeks of crossing the border?

In this section you can also read reports from Amnesty International about violence against women in Mexico. You can read the Global Competitiveness Report from the Executive Summary of the World Economic Forum, for instance. There is even a Maquiladora Employment report just recently released by the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas.

In other words, there is a wealth of information for anyone doing research or someone just plain curious, like me. Enjoy!

Adventures of a Third World Shopkeeper

Every once in awhile, I find a new and interesting website by looking at the list of websites that are linking to Mexico-in-English. Adventures of a Third World Shopkeeper is one such website. As I was perusing the website for the first time last night, I wondered "How is it I have not found this until now?"


"Eddie" (and I'm not sure it's his real name, but no importa... ) has been blogging about his version of the Mexican expatriate experience since 2002. He is one of the few British voices that I've come across, and thus his political views on the country he left behind and the one he lives in are different. In one of his early posts about why he wanted to leave and what he was looking forward to in Mexico, I was surprised to see a list of reasons totally different from the one I'm used to hearing from mostly ex-USA expats. But politics is not the reason I will continue to check into this blog.

Eddie is married to a bilingual Mexican and has a 2-year old daughter, born in Mexico. He and his wife own a glass shop, a "cristaleria", the kind of specialty shop you would never find in the USA. He lives near his wife's family. And he lives in a city that no one would mistake as a tourist center. He is thus living as close to a "typical" authentic Mexican life as an expat can get, I would think. And lucky for us, he writes about it.

He doesn't paint a totally rosy picture. In fact, he doesn't paint pictures at all: there are no photos on "Adventures of a Third World Shopkeeper". And after five years, he is still amazed by the things he sees every day in this new culture. One of his favorite phrases is "I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried." Come to think of it, that's a phrase I've been hearing more and more from the people around me about everyday life here.

Eddie writes in a conversational style that is easy to read. He writes in detail about conversations he has in his store, things he hears from his father-in-law or what he reads in the paper. If you want to get a feel for the nitty gritty of 'normal' Mexican life (okay, 'normal' Mexican life doesn't exist...), you'll enjoy Eddie's blog.

My favorite thing about this website? Underneath the title, Eddie writes: "After all, life as a third-world shopkeeper has to be better than as a first-world wage slave." I agree wholeheartedly. Read the blog and see for yourself.

Complete Blogroll

To prevent the list on the side of this blog from growing unwieldy, I am providing a
list of all previously reviewed blogs here:

Black Mexico

San Felipe

Mexico Uncovered

First Mate

BoGo Light

The MEX Files

Countdown to Mexico

Doing Business in Mexico

Prensa Latina

Mexico With Heart

Historic Haciendas

Mexico Desconocido

Bookmark the Larpman
Si-Mexico
MexiData
Third World Shopkeeper
Beyond the Border
The Road to Merida
Billie's Blog
Blog Day Around the World
Good Airs or Buenos Aires
Latino Pundit
Cooking Diva from Panama
Blogging El Salvador
Beautiful Horizons
Mexican Laws
My Life in Chacala
Ricardo's Blog
Cabo San Lucas Beaches
El Universal
Viva Veracruz
El Antiquario
Yucatan Living
Through the Looking Glass
2035 miles
MATT.org
Jon's Mexico Page
The Cancun Blog
Hopalog Travelogue
Quality Peoples
Living in Mexico
MexicoMedStudent
Guajiro Dreams
KATravels
Sparks Mexico
Go2Mexico
Surf Mexico
MexConnect
Mexico Insights
Mexperience

Across the Border

Here we have a blog written by professionals. This is a blog sponsored by the Express News and Channel 5 in San Antonio, Texas. The blog is written by a collection of journalists deep into Mexico (Monterrey, Mexico City, etc.) and along the border. It's reporters writing about Mexico for an interested U.S. audience.

Knowing that the blog was written by journalists, I had high hopes as I started reading the posts. I wouldn't say my hopes were dashed, exactly. Let's just say they were readjusted.

I was expecting some good in-depth writing on subjects that matter to people on both sides of the border. Alas, this does not seem to be the content of this particular blog. Instead, the posts seem to be short stories that are either original reporting or translations (and summations) of articles written elsewhere in Spanish. This is not a bad thing... in fact, it's rather a good thing.

One of the writers, Dane Schiller, appears to live in and report on what's happening in Mexico City. Because this is a blog, the stories are less formal than you might read elsewhere. And they are opinion, hearsay, gestalt and zeitgeist type of stories. Things that work on a blog but not in a newspaper. So there is a story about how people are being required or paid to camp out in support of Lopez Obrador. Or what it was like watching the movie about the World Trade disaster inside an auditorium in Mexico City's World Trade Center. Today's story details how the clash in Oaxaca is heating up and talks about some of the political implications of how the government might respond.

What I realized reading this blog is that probably these reporters are paid to write this blog. It has the feeling of work to me. Well, and of course it comes under the umbrella of the company they work for, so they can't be as free to express themselves as if this was a personal blog. Still, some of the information and some of the little slice-of-life articles are interesting. The reporting is timely, if not in depth, and does give me a small but clear window into the important events that people are talking about in Mexico.

So I plan to read it for that: short, timely stories about main events. For more indepth, personal and thoughtful articles about what is going on in Mexico, I will probably look elsewhere.

A Family Goes to Merida

Sometimes these websites that I review get really close to home. In fact, this one emerges from a house about a block and a half from my home! This family of five comes from Scottsdale, AZ and has decided to try living in Merida for two months. They are jumping into this new culture with a lot of enthusiasm and a digital camera. Their website has a blog which has been chronicling their experiences since before they left.

What I love about this blog is that it really is a blow-by-blow account of the strangeness of moving straight from the States to the Yucatan. The woman who writes it is going through so many of the same things that we went through five years ago when we first moved here. And of course, Merida is my home now and doesn't seem as strange anymore. So the bathroom with a shower in the cocina economica, the aisle of yogurt at WalMart or the water system that seems to have a mind of its own are just de rigeur now. But reading this blog reminds me of what life was like for us when we first moved.

Another interesting thread in this blog is something that you don't see talked about much in the english-speaking blogosphere about Mexico: racism. The writer is white, writer's husband is black and she has three sons of mixed race. They have experienced some racist remarks on the streets here, which doesn't surprise me. I don't think people here are racist... I think they are ignorant. There is not a very large black population in Merida so most people here, I'm guessing, have little or no preconceived ideas about black people. There is a large gay population, but little or no prejudice against gays. In other words, the Yucatecan people aren't intrinsically prejudiced against people who are somehow different. In fact, it seems to us to be one of the most tolerant places we have ever been in the world.

But what the Yucatan and Mexico do have is a class system that is hundreds of years old where the whiter you are, the richer and more important you are. "Indios" are indigenous Indians (Mayans, Nahuatls, etc.) and they have darker skin. If there is prejudice here, it's against the indigenous people, whose skin is darker to begin with and darkened by their labor in the sun. Add on top of that the growing influence of television and movies as the US culture infiltrates its way into the heads of young Mexicans... and well, you have an interesting concoction. I, for one, will be watching this blog to see if there are any other insights into this situation as this family gets more acclimated to Merida and the surroundings.

And then of course, there is the big "reality show" question here: will the Smith Family like Merida enough to move here? Or will they, after two months of living like locals, decide to move home to the United States? I, for one, will be tuning in to find out. Or maybe I'll just ask them over dinner later this week...