The Circle Is Complete

First, me on ABC NEWS a few years ago:

This appeared on a rarely watched digital channel known as ABC NEWS NOW.

Then, Monday, Bwendy made it on to national news TV, as well:

Yes, this is a photo of my TV.

I guess the circle really won’t be complete until Charlie gets his air time, too. (Notice that you can discern our dominant hands by the location of our earpieces. Mine on my left ear, Brendan’s on his right. Yeah, that’s not a long corkscrew pasta dangling from my hair, silly.)

I think we both decided the hardest part is that you’re talking directly to a camera, and therefore you have no idea when you are being telecast, or when they’re cutting away to the anchor or b-roll footage as you drone on. So you can’t ever roll your eyes or make the “no shit, Sherlock” face that I’m famously known for.

(But, I would argue, cameras are smarter than most TV anchors, so I prefer talking to the camera.)

A Sad Turn of Events in Michoacan, AKA: How to Survive a Gunfight

As if Michoacan is not beautiful enough, its forests also host one of the world's greatest migrations, the wintering monarchs.

Last month we traveled throughout the exquisitely handsome Mexican state of Michoacan, which I chronicled in Way Off the Beaten Path: The Coast of Michoacan, Mexico and Come With Me to Patzcuaro, Michoacan.

So it was with a sad heart that I read about a drug cartel uprising in the state this past weekend, in which at least a dozen police officers were murdered. The cartels targeted police stations across the state, as detailed in this post from The Zapata Tales, written by a blogger who lives in Patzcuaro:

“It looked like Baghdad.  There were bullet holes in the police station, the windows, the walls. Across the street, sitting next to a gas pump where some poor sap was likely getting a fillup, sat a silver Meriva like the one we once owned. Full of bullet holes too, shredded metal.”

The attacks were in retaliation for the police arresting a top cartel leader.

And, many of the attacks were on the very streets Brendan, Charlie and I rode on, which, when we visited, were flanked by scenery that was about as close to paradise as I’ve ever seen (Michoacan is frequently regaled as Mexico’s most beautiful state, and I not only agree with that assessment but would argue it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world). My biggest fear at the time was falling mangos or a flat tire (or getting stuck in the sand at the beach). My home is now full of art from Michoacan, some of the most amazing I’ve seen in my travels across 22 states in this country. We never once felt unsafe, although cartels have been operating in this state for some time.

The cartels are ruthless in their efforts to supply drug-hungry Americans, but most of the violence in recent years has been much  closer geographically to my friends and family in Texas than to me here in Mexico City.

This time, though, the recent violence was abnormal enough that I received this email this afternoon, from the U.S. Embassy Warden (an email alert service I signed up for after first moving here). I’m at no immediate risk, so the warning doesn’t frighten me, it saddens me. Tell me: How long will Mexico continue to suffer from this violence? What will it take to stop drug-related violence? How many people have to die? Is it really that important to keep drugs illegal?

The U.S. Embassy advises U.S. citizens residing or traveling in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, to be aware of recent violent attacks targeting state and federal police officials, and wishes to remind U.S. citizens of the Travel Alert for Mexico dated February 20, 2009.  Several Mexican police officials have been killed at various locations throughout the state.  The U.S. Embassy is not aware of any attempts to target U.S. citizens with this violence; however, citizens are advised to maintain awareness of their surroundings when travelling throughout the state and to avoid large crowds and demonstrations.

Actions to Take if Caught in the Middle of a Gunfight/Gunfire

The U.S. Embassy takes this opportunity to remind U.S. citizens of guidance sent on October 22, 2008, recommending the following courses of action to take if you find yourself in a situation in or near gunfire:

-       Always be aware of your surroundings.
-     Whenever possible, carry a cell-phone with up to date contact information for emergencies.
-    When gunfire/explosions are heard, immediately move to a safe area with good cover.  For example, look for something substantial to hide behind, seek cover in a room made of solid construction (e.g. concrete, steel, etc.), stay away from doors and windows, and do not venture out to try and observe the conflict.
-      Immediately convey the sense of danger/threat to those around you.
-     Do not attempt to move to a vehicle if you are in a safe area. Remain there until local security tells you that it is safe to move.
-      Always carry information about your personal medical needs.

I, The Owl

“Being bright-eyed and raring to go first thing in the morning is not just a case of how much sleep someone has had, nor is it a reflection of willpower. Genes may largely determine it.”

One of my dog's best attributes is how sleepy he looks in the mornings -- just like me.

While this may not excuse me being a total bitch in the morning, I have to say it is comforting to read this, from an excellent blog post in today’s New York Times: Larks, Owls and Hummingbirds.

I have always struggled with my “unique” circadian clock, from childhood up until this very morning. After college, I even took a job with hours that are more fitting for me — copy editing a newspaper from 4 p.m. until midnight. The hours were great, the days off were terrible — Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and always working holidays. So I didn’t last long, and switched to a reporter position with day hours and weekends/holidays off. I loved it, except that I no longer got to sleep in until 10 or so, then head off to the beach and enjoy the sunlight before going into work. Instead, I’d race out of the office at 6, and try to soak up any fading rays before sunset. Then, I’d force myself to fall asleep early. Still, no matter what I did — or have done since then — I do not feel awake until about 10 a.m.

Now in my early 30s, I understand that is just how I am. And I wait for the world to understand that, too.

(Meaning: Read the column, and don’t hate me the next time we share a morning together and all I seem to do is yawn, scowl and drop things.)

What So Much of Mexico Really Looks Like

For all its natural beauty and amazing culture, Mexico is still a deeply impoverished country. People do the best they can, scraping together what work they can find. But there is no “American Dream” here — for a variety of complicated reasons, it is quite difficult to become a self-made man or woman in this country. If you’re born rich or poor, you’ll likely die that way — unless you immigrate to countries where people are given more freedoms to fight their way out of poverty.

When you leave Mexico City (or any of Mexico’s major cities) you quickly see a different reality. The countryside — once gorgeous — has been burned to clear land for crops, and many people live in simple cinderblock hovels, some with electricity and water, some without. The infrastructure has not been maintained, the roads are littered with deep potholes. People are standing on the side of the road, selling what they can.

My father-in-law — always an observant photographer — took these photos from our minivan as we left one giant oasis, Mexico City, for the small oasis of Malinalco. The two hour drive between the two locales is less idyllic, but beautiful in its own difficult way.

Churches are always the nicest buildings in the poor towns:

Many people still make their living off the earth:

Yes, There’s Bad News in Mexico. And: Alabama!

So my dear friend Marc read a recent news article coming out of Mexico, and emailed me: You’re being careful, right?

I wrote back what I think many of us Americans in Mexico write back when asked about violence in Mexico: Yep, I’m being careful, but, overall, I feel pretty safe. And: Did you hear Alabama is going down in flames, too?

Not long after I wrote him back, I went to CNN.com and discovered that Germany is no longer safe, either, at least not if you know any German teenagers.

What am I getting at here? I’m not making light of violence. Instead, I’m saying I’m exhausted by journalists who are coming up short when it comes to providing context about the drug war in Mexico.

This context is not hard to provide. I’ll help: Here’s how to do it. Write a paragraph that covers the following points, in your own words:

1. It’s bad. It’s a war. Especially along the U.S. border.

2. It’s bad because AMERICANS want drugs. Mexicans and others are providing an expensive and sought-after commodity that happens to be illegal.

3. But most of Mexico remains downright lovely, and dare we say, relatively safe. Few Americans have been caught up in the violence, despite what the Houston Chronicle says.

4. Now, let’s talk solutions. Wait, there’s only one: Legalize drugs.

5. But Americans don’t want to hear that (*inserting fingers in ears, singing nanny-nanny-boo-boo*), we’d rather let people die from violent acts than legalize a commodity that people will use no matter what, for the end of time, all over the world.

6. Meaning, that, this is a fucked-up mess we’ve got on our hands, Americans share the blame, and that if Mexico somehow manages to expunge the drug cartels from the border, the violence will simply move elsewhere.

More Obama Insensitivity in Mexican Media

From Burro Hall:

“Slave of Wall Street”

No Me Gusta

As I do every morning, I just went to the home page of The New York Times to see what’s new in the world. Holy crap. My high from the inauguration lasted 48 hours, and just ended with the sound of a balloon releasing air and flying across the room, before landing limply and empty on the floor:

Microsoft Plans to Lay Off 5,000 Workers

Home Construction Ends Worst Year Since 1959

Sony Expects $3 Billion Loss for the Year

Dismal Economic News Drags Oil Prices Down

New Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected to 589K

Study Finds New Evidence of Warming in Antarctica

Falling Pound Raises Fears of Stagnation

Shares Fall on Housing Worries and Microsoft Layoffs

Cringe-Alert: Mexican Tabloid’s Coverage of Obama

El Grafico, a tabloid publication put out by newspaper El Universal, is perhaps better known for its photos of barely-clad women and bloody dead people maimed in traffic accidents (whereas El Universal is more of a thinking man’s paper).

Today, however, they have a jaw-dropping message for Pres. Barack Obama (I know that Mexicans will argue this is not racist, it is normal — and as I’ve reported before, it can be weird just to be a light-skinned person in Mexico. As highlighted by the Olympics, racial sensitivity is QUITE different in Latin American than in the U.S. Still, I can’t get used to this):

[Update: ANOTHER Mexican magazine takes the racial insensitivity a step further!)

The caption reads "To work, my black person."

How Hurricane Ike Ended Up REALLY Pissing Me Off

Actually, I can’t totally blame Hurricane Ike for this — we, us humans, are guilty, too. We built too many houses in too many vulnerable areas, and then Ike showed up and blasted it all to hell. What do you get? A big g-darned mess up and down the Texas coast. Including the world’s longest undeveloped barrier island, Padre Island.

I understand the need to live reallllly close to the beach. I aspire to live on the water, too. But it’s not exactly smart or environmentally sound.

Normally, I can ignore these news stories, which just end up pissing me off.

But this happens to be the ONE WEEK I am HOME to experience it:

Hurricane Ike Dumps a Mess on Padre Island Beaches

Damnit.

Recently Discovered: Awesome New Blog Guanabee

So, after I introduced my readers to El Compayito, a Mexican hand puppet who is serving as a sports correspondent for the Olympics (yes, you read that right) I noticed a new blog linking to me: Guanabee.

It’s awesome. Witty, smart, funny, and on-target. (“Jack Weil, the man credited with popularizing the “Western shirt” — favored today by rockabillies, old Mexican men and lesbians — has died at the age of 107″).

It’s awesome also because they think like yo, noticing all the strange racist undertones of the Olympics coverage on Latin television. They even now have a running series: “Latinos Hate Asians.”

Part 1: Oh My: Spain Shows Us How They Feel About The Chinese
Part 2: Not To Be Outdone, The Spanish Olympic Tennis Team Proves They, Too, Are Good At Racism
Part 3: Inés Gómez Mont Makes Chinese People Say “Ferrocarril” And Other Spanish R Words
Part 4: “El Compayito” Is A Handy, Utterly Mortifying Little Reporter

Only in Mexico: A Hard-News Clown Journalist

Yep, you read that right:

Last night I learned about Brozo the Clown during dinner with friends. “He’s good,” my friends said. “He breaks big stories.” I haven’t actually seen this program on TV yet (and I don’t know enough Spanish to understand him anyway), but well, why am I only somewhat surprised that there’s a serious-news clown journalist on Mexican TV?

According to Wikipedia, one of his more notable achievements was when he invited a top Mexico City politician onto his show, then aired secret video of that official taking a bribe. Apparently, Brozo (real name Victor Trujillo) finds it easier to grill politicians and poke fun at them behind the mask of a clown. Whatever it takes, I say, for good journalism.

Joy Interviews Self on Living in Mexico City

Joy Victory is the author of the blog The Blog of Joy as well as Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels. We sat down with her recently to hear how she is enjoying her new life in Mexico City.

Q: So, you’ve been in Mexico City for almost a month now. How’s it going?

A: Very well, thanks for asking. All things considered, it’s been relatively stress-free, except for my painful lack of Spanish skills. Ay, soy novata.

Q: What do you like most about Mexico City, and Mexico in general?

A: In general, what I like most is that it’s not the U.S. (interview interrupted by laughter) No, seriously! Except for the alarming abundance of Starbucks cafes here in Polanco – the neighborhood we’re temporarily living in – it is very un-American. I go to the grocery store, and I stare at all the yogurt flavors that don’t exist in the U.S., or the spiky fruit and freckly veggies, and wonder: What the hell is that?

Q: Actually, we know what you mean.

A: Good, er, I mean, bueno. As for Mexico City, what I like most is what I like about all big cities — the wealth of culture and things to do and food to eat and things to buy.

Q: What else do you like about Mexico?

A: It’s hard to beat the near perfect Weather. Please capitalize Weather because it’s deserving of an honor like that. The Weather is amazing, because it’s so un-Weather like — sunny, high of 71 degrees, no humidity. Practically every day. And the food. I have died and gone to food heaven.

Q: And what do you like least?

Things I haven’t actually experienced yet, but am at high risk of encountering: earthquakes and crime. Mexico City, geographically, sits in a basin that’s like Jell-O. It quivers from earthquakes hundreds of miles away. And crime, well, it’s not so terrible that you constantly have to worry BUT it’s more problematic here than in other big cities. Oh! And I hate the smog and all the traffic, which oddly enough, was my #1 complaint about New York City, too. So my worst nightmare is being mugged in the subway (they call it the Metro here) on a smoggy day, just as an earthquake strikes, and I’m left under a big pile of rubble with no cell phone and I can’t call anyone and whine about my smog-induced asthma.

Q: Uh, OK. On to a happier topic: We’ve heard you found an apartment?

A: Yes! We move in on Nov. 18. It’s in La Condesa, the “Soho” of Mexico City. The apartment has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a maid’s room on the roof (where we’ll put guests who drink too many margaritas) and its own private elevator entrance. We’re right next to the lush and popular Parque Mexico. Our place is on the 5th floor, but in Mexico, it’s the “4th floor” because the first floor is called “Piso Bajo,” or PB for short — just another one of those cultural differences. I’m also happy to report that our building was built in 1960, and the architect’s name even has a prominent plaque on the entryway wall, so it stands a good chance of making it through many more earthquakes before giving up the ghost.

Q: The plaque?

A: No, the building! The plaque is my way of assuring myself that the building is solid and strong – why else would the architect demand a plaque?

Q: I’m sensing that you’re a teensy bit nervous about earthquakes?

A: I love the word teensy. Anyhoo, yes, but it’s also kind of cool. Did you know there are BIG volcanoes here, too? Brendan can see them from his office every day unless there’s smog. So, it’s pretty wild – you have the bad — earthquakes, crime and smog, and the good — ginormous palm trees, mountains that spew, delicious food, artisanal tequilas and tons of things I want to buy for my new guest bedrooms. That’s another thing — Me and the huzzband can afford to rent a place with guest bedroom(s)! This is so not New York City.

Q: One last question: When do you expect to get out of the city and travel some around Mexico?

A: As soon as I possibly can (makes puppy-dog eyes at the huzzband).

Parallel Lives, Except I’m Not Director of Creative Writing at Harvard

My husband alerted me to an article printed in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine (scroll down the page to get to the story) that was a little uncomfortably familiar.

It contains an interview/memoir from Bret Anthony Johnston. Before I read the article, I only knew who Johnston was because he wrote a book of short stories called “Corpus Christi.” I also knew, from reading the press coverage of the book, that he and I had the same creative writing teacher in high school, Mr. Joe Wilson, who is still my favorite teacher, as he is the favorite of many a King High School graduate.

But, apparently since the publication of his short stories, Johnston has moved up the literature ladder quite a bit — he’s now director of creative writing at Harvard University. Wow. (And, while I enjoyed reading the book, mostly because I am from Corpus, I didn’t think “you know what, this guy should be director of a writing program somewhere important sounding and expensive.”)

Yes, I’m a teensy bit seething with jealousy, but I still enjoyed the NYT article, in which Johnston discussed his prolonged adolescence as he tries to find himself while attending Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, a place with a student body that skews middle-aged and blue-collar. I too attended TAMU-CC, and I too took random classes and generally had no idea what to do post-college.

Eventually, after two years at TAMU-CC, I left to attend NMSU — an equally impoverished school, but one that at least has a young student body and student housing. At the time, I thought of New Mexico as some distant, foreign land, which was the main reason I chose to attend there. Ah, the naiveté of youth. (Thankfully, employers don’t really care where you attend college — just that you have a degree and have managed to get newer and better jobs every few years.)

Anyway, as my friends already know, it wasn’t until I moved to New York that I realized Corpus Christi is the perfect setting for a novel, as this paragraph from the NYT hints at:

“This was in Corpus Christi, a small city on the Gulf Coast of Texas, where fishing and quail hunting carry the weight of religion. (Remember when Cheney shot that lawyer in the face? Right outside Corpus.) The heat is glomming; the land is as wide open as the bottle-green bay. There’s a pickup truck in pretty much every driveway. In ours, it was my father’s, a Dodge he had to jump-start on cold mornings.”

To me, that’s far more fascinating than any setting in New York City.

Movie — Who Killed The Electric Car? — Everyone, I Guess

Last night we finally watched the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”

It’s always a bit disheartening to learn that, because of the “big guys” (the rich white old men of the government, the oil companies and the automakers), the American consumer was never really given the chance to own the true electric car, which uses no gasoline.

About a decade ago, GM released the “EV1” model, an electric car that was the first step in the right direction (that is, a vehicle that didn’t run on smog-spewing foreign oil). They let a few thousand people lease the EV1 models in California and Arizona. When demand started to build, but other factors caused GM to stop production, GM took all their EV1 cars back, with force. They literally smashed the poor, innocent cars to bits and pieces, promising to “recycle” the parts. This didn’t go down without a fight, as fervent EV1 drivers staged a round-the-clock vigil to keep the few cars from the junkyard. GM won.

As highlighted in this 2006 article by Bloomberg News, the death of the electric car was caused by a sort of perfect storm of factors (mostly rich guys noticing how consumers drooled over the shiny gigantic-ness of SUVs – the anti-Christ to electric cars.)

As a result, while gas prices continue to escalate, and global warming is irrefutable, current efforts to improve the first versions of the electric car are amazingly sparse. Right now, the push to create “plug-in” cars seems the most hopeful innovation on the horizon – unlike electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars, and hybrid vehicles (which still have a pretty crappy MPG ratio), “plug-ins” allow drivers to go long distances without needing to recharge, one of the biggest drawbacks to older electric models.

However, again, it seems like production efforts of the “plug-ins” are moving at the pace of a demented turtle — have you seen any of these cars on the street?

Neither have I.

(Update: The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that “GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz said yesterday that the company hopes to launch a family of electric vehicles that would share many parts with GM’s mainstream models. GM still needs suppliers to develop the batteries required for electric vehicles, and it isn’t yet certain the suppliers will come through. GM already is mapping out plans to produce a wide range of electric models beyond the Chevrolet Volt, which it has vowed to launch in three years or so.”)

Chupacabra in Texas – Sarcoptic Mange aka El Chupacabra

Of all the many newspaper and online articles I’ve written over the years, my favorite is the one I wrote about el chupacabra, a goat-beast that plagues (the minds of residents of) South Texas:

Texas’ Blood-Sucking Monster, abcnews.com

So, it is with a morbid glee that I discovered this news of a recent chupacabra sighting in Cuero, Texas, complete with gruesome photo. The article debates whether this is a genuine chupacabra (which, would be awfully difficult to confirm, all things considered), a new species, a hyprid coyote-dog species, or simply what it really is — a dog that died with a severe case of sarcoptic mange.

Mange isn’t typically lethal, but it often leads to a dog becoming weak, emaciated, hairless and prone to dying of something else. It’s no wonder that, in the minds of my fellow South Texans, we’ve decided to turn into something far more fantastical, instead of what it is: A terrible but persistent infection, common in any place with lots of feral animals ( aka Texas).