Topic - Then and Now

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 dictator […]

The Mexican government has been getting a head start on celebrations of the bicentennial anniversary of the Independence from Spain, and the centennial anniversary of the 1910-1917 Revolution. Preparations are already under way for major events next year.
Among them is the construction of the Bicentennial Monument which began this week with the ceremonial laying 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 woman […]

Downtown Mexico City is humming again - the museums and shops are all open, the restaurants are back in full swing, and the streets running off the Zocalo are teeming with the usual weekend crowds.
Some people are still taking the precaution of wearing face masks, but the city center now appears much as it did […]

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 that […]

Arráncame La Vida, a film about the life of a politician’s wife in post-revolution Mexico, is the latest home-made Mexican film to challenge the host of Hollywood productions for the moviegoer’s money.
The film’s debut was an auspicious one, according to local press reports on the amount of people who saw it in its first week. […]

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 Chinese […]

Among the better known of Mexico’s writers are those of the 20th century. Names such as Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, or Elena Poniatowska are probably familiar to the reader. Less well known, but well worth reading, is Manuel Payno (1810-1894), whose works bring post-Independence Mexico vividly to life.
Fans of Charles Dickens are likely to enjoy […]