Tag Archives: mexico

in english

Veracruz 1-2 Chivas

The Mexican football league follows a very strange system for those that follow European competitions. It has two tournaments per year (Apertura during the fall and Clausura in spring) and a system of league followed by playoffs. 18 teams are divided in three groups based on last year’s performance out of which the top 2 qualify to the quarterfinals, and another 4 teams to a preliminary play-off round. If you don’t get it, don’t worry, neither did I when I was a kid…

Why is this important? Because Chivas did qualify to the preliminary play-off phase, and played on wednesday against Veracruz, beating them 1-2. Tonight the “holy flock” plays at home, and we hope to get to the quarters. It would be very important for the team and the fans to win the league given that we haven’t won in 9 years, we’re still the team with the most titles in the league, and this year is our 100th anniversary (we had big celebrations in May).

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with wednesday’s goals and I hope I wake up a happy man tomorrow morning.

en español

Constitución de Cádiz

Juro que no sé por qué siempre que hablo con algún amigo catalán o valenciano que conozca un poco de historia siempre terminamos hablando sobre la Constitución de Cádiz. Ésta fue la primera constitución liberal en el reino español, la cual reconocía “Las Españas” como partes integrales del reino, ya estuvieran éstas en la península o en ultramar. ¿Por qué es esto importante? Porque algunos historiadores piensan que si la constitución de Cádiz no hubiera sido prohibida por Fernando VII, las colonias americanas no se habrían independizado (p.ej. algo que muchos mexicanos no saben es que la guerra de independencia de México empezó como una protesta contar el rey, no contra España), y sin forzar demasiado la imagiación se puede llegar a pensar que viviríamos en una especie de confederación, en lugar de ser el cúmulo de países descoyuntados que somos. No sé si sea plausible dado un entorno histórico que contiene tanto la revolución francesa como la estadounidense ni tampoco si estuviéramos mejor o peor, pero es interesante pensarlo.

en español

La situación de Oaxaca

Después de ya varios meses fueron desalojados ayer los maestros de la APPO (Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca) del centro de la ciudad de Oaxaca por la Policía Federal Preventiva. Por desgracia, hay reportes de que hubo un muerto. El conflicto empezó con un plantón en mayo porque los maestros de la entidad demandaron mejores salarios, pero sufrió una escalada porque en un enfrentamiento entre éstos y la policía estatal hubo un muerto, con lo cual los maestros exigieron la renuncia del gobernador de Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz, del PRI. La capital del estado ha estado tomada desde finales de mayo, con las consecuentes pérdidas económicas en una entidad que depende mucho del turismo nacional y extranjero (por ejemplo, el festival de la Guelaguetza fue cancelado). Ahora que se ha reestablecido el orden en la ciudad sería buena idea forzar la renuncia del gobernador que no gobierna para garantizar el cambio en una entidad que es de las más rezagadas del país.

in english

The fence

I posted this Paco Calderón cartoon last week, and this morning I was thinking about this situation. I believe in following the laws of the country you reside in regardless of whether you agree with them or not, but I think the current situation is rather tragicomic. If the current US government were really serious about curbing illegal immigration to their country, they would simply enforce the laws they have regarding the prohibition of employment of people without papers (as it is done, for example, in Finland). The idea of building a fence simply smells of populism to me, trying to appease the anti-immigration constituency before the Congress elections this month.

This doesn’t mean that the governments of the countries of origin of those illegal immigrants (namely Mexico) should forget their responsibility to get jobs for their own population by ensuring the conditions for job creation by private enterprises is there. It would be unsustainable to pay for those jobs with taxes, especially since currently the tax income in Mexico is so low compared to GDP.

en español, in english

Plastilina Mosh

Another post in the series of Rock en Español. Plastilina Mosh is a duet from the northern city of Monterrey in Mexico. Their style has been described as alternative rock (I think it’s anything but) and they tend to mix Spanish, English and other languages in the same song. They are usually associated with the “Nintendo generation” as that is how both band members met. I bought one of their CDs in Japan, of all places. Some examples of their music below.

Peligroso Pop (Hola Chicuelos, 2003)

Mr. P Mosh (Aquamosh, 1998)
Afroman (Aquamosh, 1998)
Monster Truck (Aquamosh, 1998)
Te lo juro por Madonna (Hola Chicuelos, 2003)
Los Oxidados (Hola Chicuelos, 2003)
Millionaire (Tasty, 2006)

More information from Wikipedia or the official site.

in english

Precolumbian art exhibitions in Europe

I’m very glad to see that there is a number of Mesoamerican precolumbian art exhibitions doing the rounds in Europe during the past years. At least there are initiatives to educate them about the existence of ancient civilisations such as the Aztecs or the Mayas.

Masters of Precolumbian Art
In Brussels

Maya Exhibition in Helsinki
In Helsinki

The most amazing exhibition I saw outside of the Americas on this subject was the Aztecs exhibition in Berlin (which was also in London and Tokyo). However, if you are really interested in these two civilizations, there is no better option than going to the National Anthropology Musem in Mexico City for a concise view. You can also visit the different ruins in the country if you want to have a better idea of how did they live, like Chichén Itzá or Teotihuacán.

Pyramid at Chichén Itzá

en español, in english

Caifanes/Jaguares

Continuing with the series of posts of Spanish-Language Rock, Caifanes was the band that revived Rock in Mexico in the late 80’s. They started as a sort of Mexican The Cure but started bringing in some influences from traditional music, which are noticeable in some of their songs. After a series of hits, they disbanded in 1995 because of some problems between the Saúl Hernández, the lead singer, and Alejandro Marcovich, the lead guitar. However, Hernández continued and created a band called Jaguares. Some videos below:

Afuera (El Nervio del Volcán, 1994) Notice the prehispanic influence in the guitar solo

Mátenme porque me muero (Caifanes, 1988)
La Negra Tomasa (Caifanes, 1988)
La célula que explota (El diablito, 1990) Notice the mix of rock with mariachi
Nubes (El Silencio, 1992)
No dejes que (El Silencio, 1992)
La llorona (El Nervio del Volcán, 1994)
Aquí no es así (El Nervio del Volcán, 1994)
Quisiera ser alcohol (El Nervio del Volcán, 1994)
Dime Jaguar (El Equilibrio de los Jaguares, 1996)
Detrás de los Cerros (El Equilibrio de los Jaguares, 1996)
Fin (Bajo el Azul de tu Misterio, 1999)
Tú (Bajo el Azul de tu Misterio, 1999)
Como Tú (Cuando la Sangre Galopa, 2001)
La Vida no es igual (Cuando la Sangre Galopa, 2001)
Te lo pido por favor (El Primer Instinto, 2002) Originally a ballad by Juan Gabriel

More information here and here.

in english

Racism and “otherness”

Yesterday, after finishing a company visit our class took the bus back to school. We were more than 20, and in the bus we were of course speaking English, as it is our only lingua franca. You can imagine our surprise when some kids (the oldest one was probably 15) started shouting stuff at us from the back of the bus in English. After ignoring them for a while, they switched their verbal abuse to Dutch and French, at which point I got very annoyed as it was mostly directed towards the girls in the class. We continued to ignore them (and I have to admit that I had to restrain myself a couple of times) until we reached our destination, but it was around 40 minutes of intense bullying.

It was worthless to waste my time on those kids (who, by the way, also seemed to be from an Arab immigrant background), but I couldn’t answer in their language properly, which is a handicap, and physical action is completely out of the question. I was also not very happy with the fact that this can happen here (I’ve heard it’s a problem in France too)

Discussing this situation with the Chinese guys in our group, I was dismayed to hear that it is not uncommon for them to get that kind of treatment. I have had problems a couple of times (In Finland I was called “vitun turkkilainen” twice, had problems once with a bouncer in a bar since closed and once a 15-year-old try to spit on me while skating, whereas here I’ve been asked twice if I’m Maghrebi in a hostile voice) but it was rather uncommon. In Finland that behaviour in a city bus wouldn’t happen as kids are educated differently, whereas in Mexico they would probably get their asses handed to them anyway.

I know it’s a chicken and egg situation, in the sense that bad treatment from one side will cause bad treatment from the other, but I can’t help to feel pissed off by this behaviour. I don’t expect everyone to live “happily ever after”, but that is just not acceptable, regardless of who does it.