Comida Rica Mexicana

Today I have a Mexican induced stomach bug. It's nothing major and the truth is that it has a lot less to do with any scary bacteria I may have consumed in the calle and much more to do with my own failure to control what I eat here. It should come as no surprise to anyone, that the food in Mexico is out of control yummy. Last week, when I went to the city of Puebla, I experienced the most diverse, exciting concoctions: sweets made of sugar and pumkin seeds, coconut candy flavored with anise, rice pudding, foamy chocolate water, fried dough (churros) dipped in homemade strawberry jam, and - of course- the outstanding chocolate "Mole Poblano," which is native to Puebla.

When you go to a fast food spot in the U.S., your condiments are ketchup, mustard, mayo, salt, pepper - and maybe if you are lucky some barbecue sauce. Here, I am constantly amazed by the diverse salsas - red with Japanese chiles, green with jalapeno, green with avocado, green with cilantro, limes, chipotle salsa, and pinto gallo (tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and cilantro.) At $1 per quesadilla, which can be stuffed with pork, beef, chicken, yellow cheese, white cheese, string cheese, spinach, cactus, huitlacoche (the corn fungus), mushrooms, beans, tomatoes...well, as you can see, it is hard to control yourself. And for those of us fruit lovers in the mix, there is no end to the tropical options: mango, papaya, cantaloupe, mamey, banana, watermelon, guayaba, oranges, guayabanana, and strawberry.

This week, I plan to control my appetite and avoid some of those inevitable traps of overindulging in the comida rica mexicana.

Mexico Out of World Cup: Back to Politics Mexican Style

Mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por Diablo: The Devil That You Know is Better Than the Evil That You Don’t Know

After Mexico's loss to Portugal in the World Cup Wednesday morning - which sets them up for a disqualifying loss to Argentina in the second round this Saturday - Mexicans are beginning to turn their attention back to the Presidential Elections on July 2. Less than two weeks away from an election that will determine the next six years of political rule, Mexico is being ripped open and its political, social, and economic anatomy is being examined by journalists, politicians, and Mexican voters.

In the course of this poking and prodding, Mexico´s “guts” of democratic instability, corruption, and extreme poverty are spilling out for all to see, reminding everyone that Mexico has a long way to go to achieve the kind of social justice and efficiency required of a developed country competing in today’s global economy. Mexico’s most recent internal rumblings – violent clashes between teachers and the Priista Oaxacan state government and strikes and corruption in the mining industry – highlight the failure of all of Mexico’s federal and state governments to protect the basic rights of its people.

Since all political parties are implicated in corruption of the state, a majority of the population that has lost hope in the government will not exercise their right to vote after years of lies and broken political promises (6 million of them live in the U.S.) However, for those Mexicans who will vote on July 2, there is a growing division between those who believe that economic privatization and the ascension of the current ruling PAN party will continue to lead Mexico out of stagnancy, and those who believe that it is time for another revolution in leadership that will focus on the poor and reevaluate the economic and social benefits of NAFTA.

Although the polls change slightly day-to-day, left-leaning populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrádor (AMLO) is in the lead, right-centrist Felipe Calderón, who hails from current President Vicente Fox’s PAN party, trails by four points, and the candidate from the conservative PRI party, Roberto Madrazo, is close behind in third place. Most believe that Madrazo, whose notoriously corrupt PRI party ran the country since the Mexican Revolution of 1910 until Vicente Fox won in 2000, is out of the race. Despite AMLO’s four point lead, polls show that more than 15% of potential voters are still undecided, and as U.S. history can attest, you never really know until all votes are (or are not) counted on election day.

As a result, Mexico is inundated with outrageous TV and radio campaign ads, political posters, balloons and T-shirts with campaign slogans, and more outrageous campaign giveaways – such as bicycles, milk, and beans. The candidates are racing through the states and running their mouths – “dreaming of a stronger Mexico that will provide education, health care, and decent jobs for its people (from a Calderon campaign rally).” The question that so many Mexicans have already answered in the negative is “Does it matter who wins?”

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) PRD Party
Left-leaning AMLO´s platform offers an alternative – perhaps revolutionary – approach to the current business-focused and anti-corruption platform of Calderon’s PAN party. AMLO promises to make adjustments to NAFTA so that there are more protections and opportunities for the small farmers who have been pushed off their land (and unlike in the U.S.) denied subsidies over the last 15 years. These small farmers make up the vast majority of people that are migrating north to the U.S. or to Mexico City’s streets to peddle gum, cigarettes, and whatever other crap they can get their hands on. AMLO’s platform includes overhauling federal social services by increasing health insurance available to the elderly, improving educational opportunities, and drastically cutting the salaries of politicians and their appointees.

As a populist who plays on the heartstrings of the people who are most desperate, AMLO inspires renewed hope in the masses, and many in the middle class. On the other hand, some Mexicans fear his populist style might turn into another Hugo Chavez – who creates his own sense of justice without respecting laws or the interests of the wealthy. Given Mexico’s past of financial devaluations and great abuses of power, their fears may be legitimate.

Felipe Calderon – PAN Party
The right/center candidate Felipe Calderon has basically proposed to stay the course of Vicente Fox’s efforts to curtail corruption and increase large-scale investment and international trade. Yet ironically, the “anti-corruption candidate” has had some political scandal to contend with in the last two weeks. During the final presidential debate, AMLO accused Calderon of giving federal contracts to his brother-in-law (cuñado incómodo) while he was Secretary of Energy in 2001-2, contracts for which his brother in law supposedly did not fully pay taxes on.

In addition, Calderon inherits the anger that many of Mexico's poor feel towards Fox and his PAN political party. The poor feel - and the numbers also support their assertions - that the Fox government has not improved their lives, and that in some instances, it has become more difficult to find low-skilled jobs, access social services, and improve infrastructure in rural towns. As a result of the liberalization of the Mexican economy and the cutting of government spending, which has been occurring since the early 90's but has sped up under NAFTA and Fox, there are less social services available for the poor, and few new jobs have been created to replace those lost to big agriculture companies, machine-driven factories, or to offshoring to Asia. To put it clearly, one Mexican writer wrote, "Fox created 10,000,000 sources of work…unfortunately, all of them in the United States."

On the other hand, the Spanish proverb, Mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por Diablo (the devil that you know is better than the evil that you don’t know) characterizes the voting choice of many Mexicans, who fear the instability that AMLO might create. On the other hand, these Mexicans hope that Calderon will improve upon the stability created under Fox.

For Those Who Believe It Matters
The Mexicans who plan to exercise their right to vote on July 2 are voting on two issues: corruption and economic opportunity and stability. Most big business people that believe in the benefits of globalization and fear the caprices of AMLO will vote for Calderon. Most of the working poor and deeply impoverished will vote for the hope that AMLO will bring them out of generations of poverty.

As a result, the middle class will likely decide the vote on July 2. Some in the middle class will vote for Calderon out of fear that the more left wing AMLO will upset the stability that Fox's PAN party has created over the last 6 years. For these middle class Mexicans, while their lives may not have improved in the past 6 years, they have not gotten worse. They appreciate the stability, lack of inflation, and slight growth in the economy. They will vote for stability out of a fear for the evil that they do not know.

Others in the middle class are frustrated by the lack of improvement in their own lives under Fox, and they are concerned over the apparent decrease in the standard of living of many of Mexico's poor. These Mexicans are also the ones that are beginning to grow doubtful that NAFTA has been a good thing for Mexico; they have a tendency to view the U.S. as the big brother taking advantage of little brother's blind admiration and desperation. As a result, they will vote for AMLO with the hope that he might present new solutions. They are the idealists who have nothing to lose and are willing to take the risk in the “evil” they don’t know.

As the U.S. knows well from its own Presidential campaigns, from now until July 2, it is a fight for the 15% of undecided voters and the others who traditionally do not exercise their rights to vote. Political platforms aside, those undecided, decisive Mexican voters will likely vote from their “gut.” Are they hopeful and willing to take new risks or are they tired and fearful of instability? Mexico has a long history of extreme instability and great human suffering at the hands of lawless leaders. But, it also has a history of great hopefulness, which is the engine that sustains the tireless striving of its poor and middle classes. Whether the vote for stability reigns or the vote of hopefulness reigns on July 2, the actual direction that Mexico will take in the next 6 years is still anybody’s guess.

Mexicans Choose Soccer Games Over Political Games

If you think that Americans are cynical about politics, wait until you meet Mexicans from Mexico City, where the World Cup is a welcomed distraction from the presidential elections that will take place on July 2. Last Wednesday, the presidential candidates had their final debate, during which one of the front-runners, Andres Manuel López Obrador, the former centrist governor of the state of Mexico (el Distrito Federal) accused his more conservative opponent, Felipe Calderón, of illegally giving his brother-in-law federal contracts while he served as the Minister of Energy in 2003. López Obrador, whose popularity in the polls vacillates between a couple points ahead and a couple points behind Calderón, further alleged that Calderón’s cuñado incómodo (inconvenient brother in law) failed to pay taxes on more than $60 million in earnings from the contracts. Hmmm…sound familiar to U.S. politics? Well, guess what Mexicans are talking about around the kitchen table? The political scandal between the two Presidential candidates, one of whom will most likely run the country for the next six years? Or Oswaldo Sanchez - the sexy Mexican goalkeeper, who risked missing the first game of the World Cup because of the unexpected death of his father?

Just Another Political Scandal
For Americans, such a display of dirty laundry so close to an election should sound familiar. John Kerry may have lost in 2004 because he was a “flip flopper” who did not talk enough about Jesus or "family values," but it is just as likely that Kerry lost because of his alleged lies around that stupid purple heart that he may or may not have earned for his service in Vietnam, and that he may or may not have thrown in the trash out of disdain for the war. That is to say, that whether or not Mexico’s Calderón illegally gave contracts to his brother-in-law, the damage has already been done, the seeds of doubt planted. Many undecided Mexican voters will now vote for López Obrador because they have been given a simple message and a simple reason not to vote for Calderón – a reason that has nothing to do, of course, with either candidates´ actual plan for how to create jobs, control migration al otro lado (to the U.S.), improve the lives of the more than one in five Mexicans who live in poverty, or grow the economy at a fast enough rate to compete in an ever-expanding global market.

But unlike in the U.S., the Mexican reaction to such an overt attempt to distract voters from the real issues at play is so passive that it is virtually non-existent. Despite the preponderance of articles in the Mexican press investigating the validity of López Obrador´s allegations against Calderón´s bother-in-law, Mexicans dismiss the political game and replace it with the exciting, less complicated, and always rewarding game of fútbol. In fact, during the week leading up to the first game of the World Cup, which took place on Sunday, discussions of the game took center stage in every conversation that I found myself in.

The vast majority of Mexicans are much more concerned over which countries´ soccer teams are the best, how many people fit in Germany´s new soccer stadium, and where they are going to watch the games than they are concerned over the valor of the two leading Presidential candidates.

Learned Passivity
From what I can see, the choice not to fret over the politicians’ lies, missteps, and corruption is a conscious choice by Mexicans – even for those who study politics and work in the governmental machine. It is not that Mexicans fail to realize the importance of who wins on July 2 or the differences between their plans to improve (or exacerbate) the country´s stagnant economic and social situations; rather, it is that after years of political betrayal, corruption, and economic waste, Mexicans do not believe that their participation in politics will make one bit of difference towards the future direction of their country. They have simply lost all that earnest optimism that continues to drive DC’s political machine, and they have replaced it with self-effacing humor: no one can laugh at themselves and their chaotic, unruly government better than Mexicans can. They live with it and laugh at it, but few people have any hope that the political corruption will stop or that a political candidate will actually improve Mexicans´ daily realities. On the other hand, a victory in the World Cup might significantly change their lives.

It will be fascinating to observe over the next three weeks how and if the country shifts it’s focus from the World Cup to the Presidential Election. From what I have gathered so far, the Mexican focus is on the field and not on the Palacio Presidencial. In the words of one young Mexican, “La política es una vieja prostituta que quiere pero no puedo ser una virgin” (Politics are like an old whore who wants to but will never become a virgin again.)

Mexicans have decided that they have a much better chance of winning the World Cup - no matter how dubious - than they have of electing a president who they can believe in. Perhaps more significantly, Mexicans may also believe that winning the World Cup would have a more significant and positive impact on their lives than the 6 year rule of whichever candidate wins on July 2.

Two Weeks Before Mexico’s Presidential Election, “Democracy” is Questioned in Oaxaca

Mexico is 14 days away from the July 2 presidential election, a near dead-heat race between three candidates: the leftist leaning populist, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the center/right Vicente Fox predecessor, Felipe Calderon, and the old guard conservative candidate, Roberto Madrazo. The winner of the 6-year term will have significant control over purging corruption, the direction of Mexico’s economy under NAFTA, the U.S./Mexico immigration debate, and the creation of the jobs and social services necessary to keep the more than one in five Mexicans living in extreme poverty from either migrating north or – perhaps more troubling for Mexican democracy – from rioting in the streets. While the world, and the U.S. in particular, is confident in the secure democracy that Mexico has been creating during the past 12 years – especially during the past 6 years under the anti-corruption efforts of current President Vicente Fox – Mexicans are much less confident in their own system of governance. The violence that erupted between teachers and state police in Oaxaca on Wednesday, June 14, suggests that their fears may be warranted. Or maybe the violence is a prerequisite for the real “democracy” yet to come?

SNTE and PRI Were Once Bedfellows
Since May 22, the Syndicate of National Education Workers (SNTE by its Spanish acronym) of the state of Oaxaca has been on strike to demand a $17 weekly increase in their minimum wage. At the end of May, the Oaxacan State Governor, Ulises Ruiz - who is a member of the notoriously corrupt and entrenched PRI party - attempted to negotiate with the teachers by offering to provide 15% of the demanded salary increase, but the teachers refused. Ever since, the teachers have been camped out in tents and other temporary living quarters in the center of the historic downtown of Oaxaca’s state capital awaiting renewed negotiations. While the violence that erupted last Wednesday between Oaxacan state police and the teachers represents a new phase in the political decay of the PRI party, the tensions are not new to Oaxaca or to the country as a whole.

Ironically, the politicized SNTE and the conservative Oaxacan Governor Ruiz both hail from the conservative PRI party, which until the late 90´s single-handedly ruled Mexican politics through a system of patronage and corruption that has characterized Mexican politics since Cortez divided and conquered the Aztec empire in 1519. Since PRI was the only “legitimate” ruling party, the SNTE was established as an ally to the PRI in the early 1940´s with the hope that in return for voting patronage, the PRI government would augment salaries and protect teachers’ rights.

Despite this alliance with the ruling party, over the past 60 years, the SNTE has been a staging ground for battles and division between various camps within the PRI party. Most recently, as other legitimate political parties such as the PAN and PRD have begun to offset the power of the Priistas, SNTE´s relationship with the PRI party has become increasing adversarial. In fact, under the current leadership of Elba Esther “Gordillo” Morales, the SNTE has taken an anti-Priista position and threatened to vote for its competitors in the coming 2006 election.


Violence
After three weeks of the SNTE’s protests and strike in Oaxaca’s Zócola (main square), last Wednesday at 4:00 a.m., the Oaxacan state police, camouflaged in regular city busses and armed with assault rifles, metal bars, and patrol dogs, stormed in to remove peaceful protestors from the SNTE. The forceful removal was aided by state helicopters that circled the historical downtown dropping tear gas on a ten by ten block radius. About two hours after the police tore down the protestors' tents, ravaged their food, and managed to force the teachers out of the main square, the teachers re-grouped and launched a counter-attack against the police. Using rocks, sticks, and moving cars to return the blows and humiliate the state police, the teachers were able to regain control of the Zócalo by 9:00a.m.

The PRI-led police intervention was bloody, unexpected, and politically untimely. Eyewitnesses recount seeing remnants of broken radios, leftover food and clothing, dried blood, and beat-up cars. The violence shut down Oaxaca for the entire day, leaving many of the tourists (the engine of Oaxaca’s economy) without a place to sleep or to eat.

Although more than a week later there is still no official count of injured or dead, the reports suggest that at least 70 teachers and 30 policemen were injured from impact wounds, asphyxiation from tear gas, and concussions, and that somewhere between 0-9 civilians died (the teachers are saying that between 3-9 died but the state government continues to declare that there is no known proof of any deaths.) As described recently by a local Oaxacan, the entire scenario seemed like it was out of Iraq – or another country without a democratically elected government or its accompanying protections for the people against the state. In his words, “How could it be possible that in this century, at this point in the “democratization” of Mexico, there could be such a violent attack by the police against a peaceful civilian protest?” Perhaps more troubling for state Governor Ulises Ruiz, this Oaxacan continued, “While I was not particularly interested in the teachers´ movement beforehand, I am 100% in favor of their politics now.”

Is This “Democratic” Progress or a Setback?
A week since the attack, the teachers strike continues and negotiations remain at an impasse, and the movement’s popularity grows to include more mainstream groups. The SNTE held another mega protest in Oaxaca and another in Mexico City last Friday to demand nothing short of Governor Ruiz’ head on a stick. From now on, the teachers refuse to recognize the local governor and will only associate with Federal authorities. Despite the growing anger of the protestors who continue to chant, “Ulises will fall, Ulises will fall!” and the loss of more than $13 million in the tourism industry over the last month (not to mention the continued loss of class time for the state’s public school children), it is unlikely that much will change before the July 2 presidential elections. Vicente Fox’s PAN administration knows that such civil unrest will hurt the Presidential PRI candidate, Roberto Madraza, and in turn, may help the current ruling party’s candidate, Felipe Calderon, to win on July 2.

The political game aside, however, the SNTE’s complete dismissal of the local PRI government and the growing popular support for their movement throughout the country may be a sign of growing democracy – and yes – even stability. The civil unrest in Oaxaca is really an outcome of the gradual dismantling of the corrupt “papa PRI government,” and the patronage relationships that entrenched unions like the SNTE had with the all powerful PRI. In other words, what appears like a failure of democracy today, may actually be a necessary step towards the gradual removal of the authoritarian rule of the PRI and the growth of a Mexican political system characterized by more legitimate political parties.

Affect on the 2006 Presidential Election
The events in Oaxaca take the PRI Presidential candidate, Madrzao, out of the running for good, but rather than helping the original anti-corruption PAN candidate, Calderon, it appears to be helping left leaning PRD candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). AMLO’s platform, “for the well being of all,” plays off of the democratic failures of the PRI and current ruling PAN parties, and Mexico is still a country wherein people vote on the defensive.

Many Mexicans shared a great hope that Vicente Fox, who won the 2000 presidential election ousting the corrupt PRI party for the first time in history, would end political corruption, create authentic democracy in Mexico, and address the many social needs of its people. Not surprisingly, six years of PAN rule has not ended the corruption and patronage that is entrenched in all levels of Mexican government. In addition, rates of poverty have continued to grow for the majority of Mexicans. As a result, the flicker of hope that had reigned during the 2000 election has burnt out for many Mexicans, who feel hopeless that any popularly elected government will clear corruption and address the glaring poverty and resulting violence that affect all levels of Mexican society.

Resigned over the failures of Fox’s PAN party to overhaul the political machine or to address the country’s social and economic problems, Mexicans are turning to the alternative. AMLO’s platform offers to revamp all federal social services, including health care, education, and elderly care. And, most importantly, he has managed to become the new “anti-corruption” candidate by promising to cut bureaucrat salaries and by attacking the original anti-corruption PAN party for various frauds committed in the last six years – including the now infamous cuñano incómodo (inconvenient brother in law) of PAN’s current Presidential candidate Calderon.

While the slow progress away from one-party rule in Mexico may be creating more divisions and unrest, isn’t this what democracy looks like? A multiple party state upsets the previous status quo, but it also creates political options for the Mexican people. The competition between the alternative parties will force them to become more accountable to the Mexican voters, but such competition will also create new political divisions and a divided senate that will find it difficult reach consensus. The slow process away from its politically troubled past will discourage many Mexicans from political participation out of hopelessness that they can make any difference in the future progress of their nation. Candidates, like the current front-running AMLO, will succeed by acting like political outsiders whose revolutionary views might once and for all overcome the “stank” of politics and the bureaucrats who serve them. Indeed, Mexico is moving – although slowly – towards that “stable” democracy that is celebrated in the United States. The real question, therefore, is will this new Mexican democracy provide for its SNTE, its rural poor, or those currently in Tijuana awaiting to cross to the other side?

Other than the fact that my feet are covered in a layer of sticky black grime after walking in the streets for a few minutes, I would say that Mexico City has surprised me so far with its pleasantries. People smile rather than whistle at you when you pass. Despite the overwhelming number of cars, you can cross the street without running. The 75 degree weather with sunny skies (no rain yet!) if perfect. And perhaps the ultimate highlight for me so far, is that instead of hearing that frightening white noise that you hear in the DC metro, their subway stations have music blasting from speakers carefully placed along the walls, out of the reach of vandals (the colorful, lively Mexican culture brought into universally the darkest, dirtiest, and often scariest city infrastructure.)

Much of my luck of finding the more peaceful side of D.F., a city with a population of 18 million, probably has something to do with the barrio where I have landed. Condesa, which has historically attracted writers and artists, lies between the downtown area and the wealthier neighborhoods of Polanco and La Colonia San Miguel Chapultepec (hill of grasshoppers in the Aztec language) which flank Mexico City´s version of central park. The university where I am taking Spanish classes is at the edge of this funky part of town, where there are more cafes, fusion restaurants, and high-end retail clothing stores than in San Francisco or Greenwich Village. Condesa is also where the international journalists hang out – which I just found out from an old friend of the family who after not seeing for more than 10 years, I randomly spotted on my plane from DC to D.F. It turns out that Eliza – who is my age exactly – is now a freelance journalist who has been living in Mexico City for the past two years. Again, another boon for me as I start my journey down here.

But perhaps the greatest fortune of all since I arrived has been the company and hospitality of my friend Teresa´s sister, Vivi, and her husband and daughter and FIVE rambunctious perros (one tranquil yellow lab who seems a little out of place among the other four hyperactive boxers.) I already have scratches all over my legs from the beasts, but I cannot help but love their attention and company, and you cannot beat a comfy free place to stay as you get settled in such a strange land. Last night, Vivi and her husband, Jorge, and I gathered around the dining room table for some "tequila terapia," during which time we proceeded to sip at least 5 shots of tequila each while discussing the current failings of both our countries political leaders and other more refreshing themes like ones idea of perfection (like a dog sprawled out, sleeping peacefully while languishing in a pool of sunshine.) I was rewarded with a hangover today, but nothing compared to the hangovers that I get from the pinche High Life!

Anyway, the truth is that I have little to share so far…I am still just learning how to open myself up and take in this enormous city and its diverse people. For now, the peacefulness that I have found may not make for interesting, exciting, or funny stories, but it is the exact state of being that I was looking for, from which I can set sail.