Topic - Then and Now

Convenience stores have come a long way in Mexico, expanding over the years so that now there are thousands of them all over the cities. To a certain extent, they have taken away custom from the traditional “tienditas,” the neighborhood shops that had already been losing ground to the big supermarket chains. Urban people do [...]

November 20th this year marks the start of the centennial anniversary of the Mexican 1910-1917 Revolution. It coincides with the bicentenary of the Mexican Independence, with both expected to culminate next year with major celebrations. The actual date marks the call to arms by Francisco I. Madero in 1910, as he sought the removal of [...]

Malinchista is a term some Mexicans use to describe other Mexicans who show a preference for foreign things, speak gushingly of the order and tidiness to be found abroad, or are critical of Mexico and Mexican ways vis-a-vis their foreign counterparts. The expression malinchista (or the practice, malinchismo) harks back five centuries to the native [...]

One of the things that went out the window with the modernization of Mexico was stifling censorship of the airwaves, particularly television. For things like news, this is no doubt a good thing (although one would be hard-pressed to show that people are any better informed now than they were, say, 30 years ago). One genre [...]

An important part of Mexico’s past and present are its bread shops, which are found on many busy corners of its towns and cities. When you’re hungry, there’s nothing quite as enticing as the smell of fresh baked bread wafting out from the local panadería. It’s not unusual in the evenings to see people hanging [...]

It had been mentioned that Mexico’s May 5 holiday – Cinco de Mayo – is more celebrated among Mexicans in the U.S. than it is in Mexico, and that nobody really seems to know why. It appears that many people in the U.S. think Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day, the equivalent of the [...]

Coffee is among Mexico’s important crops, with the country producing 240,000 metric tons a year of the beans, of which it exports about three quarters and consumes the rest. Along with its wide variety of coffees, Mexico has an ample choice of places to drink them in. In years past, the coffee shop/restaurants run by [...]

People who spend time worrying about the large number of monopolies in Mexico should perhaps check out the cutthroat competition for listeners on the morning radio news shows, which take to the airwaves around 5:30 am or 6 am and don’t let go of them until 9 or 10 am. Then they start up again [...]

A common opinion heard in Mexico is that something ought to be done about the hordes of street vendors who line the sidewalks of the capital, cluttering the entrances to Metro stations, and blocking access to stores, offices and other buildings. Veritable armies of vendedores ambulantes make up a fairly large part of what is [...]

It occasionally happens that just as you’re getting into a good book and building up an imaginary rapport with its long-departed author, someone makes a disparaging comment about the writer which you can’t then get out of your head, tainting the entire read. One way to avoid this popular ad hominem tactic for spoiling other people’s [...]