So, as Pride month wraps up, here are five under-the-radar, queer owned businesses around Mexico. Each is highly rated and offers a creative twist on its particular business niche. Check them out whenever you get the chance.

Revuelta Queer House, an art gallery and rooftop bar in Mexico City

Revuelta Queer House is a community space in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighborhood that offers cultural activities, a queer art gallery and a casual rooftop bar serving food and drink. “We want everyone to feel welcome, to express their identity and connect in community,” the group says.

Revuelta is located in Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood, in two old homes that the group’s five co-founders restored. They host a range of events including guest DJ performances, poetry readings and drag lotería, to name a few.

Location: Puebla 92-94, Roma Norte, Cuauhtémoc, CDMX

Queer Spanish Classes, online

 

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Queer Spanish Classes offers online small-group classes designed specifically for queer women and trans and nonbinary people. “I created Queer Spanish because I know first hand how intimidating it is to learn a new language and how vulnerable we feel when we are part of the LGBTQ+ community,” founder Sandra Romero writes on the Queer Spanish Instagram account. Sandra, who is based in Mérida, moved to Mexico from her native country of Spain in 2018 and has taught Spanish since 2014. 

Sandra teaches all levels of Spanish in sessions focused on speaking skills and tying in grammar, reading and film. She describes her classes as “a safe, welcoming environment where you are allowed to make mistakes.”

Sandra told Mexico News Daily. “I teach aspects of the language that they won’t learn in a traditional class, like for example how to use inclusive language in Spanish, [which is] so important today in the queer community.”

She asks that interested students follow and send her a message on her professional Instagram page, @queerspanishclasses, to schedule an introductory call.

La Celestina in Celestino Gazca, Sinaloa

La Celestina is a seafood restaurant in Celestino Gazca, Sinaloa, a small beach town known for its yearly oyster festival. Oysters feature prominently on the menu, along with other Sinaloan seafood classics like pescado zarandeado.

The owners, Vicky Ibarra and Paola Cázares, married in 2020, just months after the Sinaloa state congress rejected a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage (in defiance of a Supreme Court mandate). In an act of protest, the couple married on the beach on neighboring Nayarit, one meter from the Sinaloa state border. Today, La Celestina is a sponsor of Pride parades in the cities of Mazatlán and Culiacán.

La Celestina is most active on the weekends, when day trippers from the Sinaloan cities of Mazatlán and Culiacán come to sip beers and chow down on aguachile in the shade of its beachside palapas, away from city crowds. On Sunday afternoons, it’s common to find a local female-fronted band playing in the main bar area.

Location: Playa Rosal, Celestino Gazca, Sinaloa

Mercadita Diversa in Monterrey, Nuevo León

Mercadita Diversa is an initiative from nonprofit Queer XP to highlight queer art and entrepreneurs as part of their mission to further the economic well-being of the queer community. The roughly monthly markets feature art, accessories, food, jewelry and more from dozens of LGBTQ businesses, and often take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Monterrey.

“Our goal for the future is to become a network of resources for the economic development of entrepreneurs of all socioeconomic backgrounds and emerging businesses that can benefit from our services,” said Rogelio González of Queer XP’s communications team.

Rogelio invited Mexico News Daily readers to support these queer owned businesses and entrepreneurs by following the social media accounts (Instagram @queerxp.ac y Tiktok @queerxp).

Casa Jacaranda in Mexico City

Founded by the husband-and-husband team of chefs Beto Estúa and Jorge Fitz, Casa Jacaranda offers traditional Mexican cooking experiences. The classes pick out fresh ingredients at the market then back at the house, chefs (including Beto and Jorge) teach recipes and techniques. The event finishes with a delicious, seasonal meal prepared together by the class.

The project began ten years ago, when the couple was living in a Roma neighborhood home “with one of the loveliest jacaranda trees in the city in front,” Jorge told Mexico News Daily. The house became a social hub for friends who shared a love of cooking. “We were always in the kitchen or hosting.” That experience and their proximity to markets inspired them to develop an experience “representing those childhood days we both spent in the houses of our grandmothers or aunts, cooking as a family to create a feast together,” Jorge said.

Casa Jacaranda offers private and group cooking classes as well as more intense multi-day bootcamps.

Any more queer owned businesses in Mexico that you think are worth visiting? Let us know in the comments.

Rose Egelhoff is an associate editor at Mexico News Daily and a freelance writer. She’s on Twitter and the internet. 

The post 5 queer-owned businesses in Mexico to check out before the end of June appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Now, scientists say the Earth is in a sixth mass extinction — but this time, it’s because of humanity. The very term “sixth mass extinction” used to be controversial among experts. It isn’t anymore, thanks in part to the work of two internationally renowned Mexican scientists. Dr. Gerardo Ceballos, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and Stanford University professor Dr. Rodolfo Dirzo have worked together for decades to understand why the Earth is losing so many species and spread the word about the threats that nature and humanity face.

That’s why Ceballos and Dirzo won the BBVA Foundation’s 2024 Frontiers of Knowledge award, a recognition of pioneering work addressing the most pressing issues of our century. Since the award was established in 2008, more than 10% of recipients have gone on to win Nobel Prizes. This year marks the first time that anyone from Mexico or Latin America has received the Frontiers of Knowledge award.

Just as Mexico had a front-row seat to the biotic crisis 66 million years ago, it is once again center-stage on matters of extinction and biodiversity loss. In addition to the ground-breaking science coming from Mexican scientists like Dirzo and Ceballos, Mexico is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world. It is also an example of how human activity can lead to the loss of those irreplaceable natural resources.

I sat down to talk to Dr. Ceballos and Dr. Dirzo about the award, their work and what the world can learn from Mexico.

How has Mexico changed over the years with respect to its scientific institutions? You’re the first Mexican winners of this award. Is it surprising that it’s taken until now?

Ceballos: No, not really. There is a lot of high-quality science being done in Mexico, Latin America and Iberoamerica. But we’re at a disadvantage compared to other countries because they have many, many more people and resources dedicated to working on these topics. That’s why this award is so important.

What is the sixth mass extinction?

Dirzo: In 550 million years, there have been five documented episodes of catastrophic extinction where a large proportion of species disappear from the face of the planet. These are called mass extinctions. It’s a very rare phenomenon in the history of life. The last one was only 66 million years ago: the extinction of the dinosaurs. Now, much earlier than would normally happen, we’re seeing another extinction, the sixth, generated by the human species.

Jaguars used to exist from the south of the United States to the south of Argentina. The species still exists, but it’s gone now in many places. When you add populations disappearing in one place, then another, then another, eventually you get to total extinction. Populations are going extinct in massive numbers right now.

The other research that Gerardo and others have done is on the extinction of species. Say 370 species in the last 500 years. If you see it in the context of the normal speed of species extinctions, depending on the group of animals, it can be 100 to 1000 times faster than normal. From the perspective of geological history, it’s very fast.

With time, what kind of effects can these extinctions have on the planet?

Dirzo: For the local ecosystem in, say, the forest of Veracruz, where there are no more jaguars, tapirs, wild boar or deer, the ecological processes that happened with the interactions of those animals and their environment — the dispersal of seeds, the hunting of prey and the rest — no longer exist.

So ecological interactions are going extinct as well, and many of those losses mean problems for humanity. The simplest is that if animals that pollinate flowers go extinct at the local level, those flowers can’t reproduce. If you have a crop — alfalfa or apples for example — the loss is enormous for you. Your whole business and all that food production — it’s an economic problem and a truly serious food supply problem.

This almost always leads to problems for human well-being. A world without pollinators? A world without seed dispersal? A world without pest regulation? It would be impossible to survive.

Your work has also focused on how the loss of biodiversity affects human diseases. That’s another way it directly affects us, right?

Dirzo: Yes. We just endured a pandemic — the strongest hypothesis at present is that it came from a wild animal, probably kept in a market. That pathogen was able to jump from an animal species to the human species. In changing the structure of animal populations with illegal animal trafficking, we put ourselves in contact with those animals and that’s a serious risk for us.

Ceballos: All of these environmental interactions that are lost when populations are lost are what we as scientists call “environmental services.” Environmental services are all the benefits that we get for free when nature is functioning well, like the fertilization of all the soils and pollination. 70% of all the active compounds in the medicines we use today come from wild plants and animals. There are enormous benefits.

The wall behind me is made of bricks. If you take away one brick, the wall keeps working but it won’t work as well. There’s more noise, dust, etcetera. If you take away more bricks, it will weaken and eventually collapse. That’s an analogy for what’s happening with populations in nature. The collapse we’re talking about is a collapse of the biological systems that make life on Earth possible — life in general and human life in particular.

So we’re facing losing everything that sustains us, food, air. I don’t want readers to think I’m exaggerating, making up an apocalypse…

Ceballos: But it is a question of apocalypse. We should stop being afraid to call it what it is. The collapse has already started. If you look at all the predictions that there have been about climate change and the extinction of species, they have been surpassed by a lot. What was expected to happen in 2100 is happening this year. There’s still hope but if we don’t frame the questions in terms of their real magnitude, it’s not ethical.

And what signs of hope are left? Not hope that everything will be fine and exactly the same as in the past, but hope in the sense of finding conservation strategies that work?

Dirzo: There is much that can still be done. We need to inform the public about the challenges that we must face so that we can attack the problem collectively. To the degree that we have a more informed society, it’s possible to elect leaders and decision-makers, demanding that they have a clear agenda for addressing environmental problems.

Ceballos: This year, 50% of the global population will change their president or leader. If Trump wins, or in Mexico if the successor of the current president wins, they are people who don’t have the slightest idea of the seriousness of the current problem. It would be a huge setback to this effort.

The work required to save the planet and save humanity doesn’t require changing the existing economic systems. Conservation can become a huge business for companies that invest in undoing all the harm we have done. There’s no time to change them. The window of opportunity is closing quickly but it’s still open, which should give us hope.

There are many successes, cases of rural or Indigenous communities, of private enterprise, of government, and all of those success stories should be told, to understand that there is a solution. In Mexico, for example, we began to work on jaguar conservation in 2010. In the first census there were 4,000 jaguars. In 2018, we had increased to 4,800 jaguars, despite the enormous problems the country has.

We have to double down on our efforts. Everything we are able to save — natural ecosystems, species — will probably be what survives into the future. It’s a great responsibility.

It seems like many people know that nature is at risk, but it can be difficult to accept what is happening. You both deal with this reality every day without turning a blind eye. What gives you the strength to do so?

Ceballos: Achievements like this kind of award give me a lot of hope. We should keep working as much as we can, as long as we can still save species and areas. In Mexico, we’re going to make 3 million hectares of new reserves despite having a government less interested in the environment than any in the past 40 years. We have to work hard today, take good care of each other today, enjoy ourselves today. The better we make the present, the better the future will be.

Is there anything else that MND readers need to know?

Dirzo: They need to know that the system that keeps life on Earth going, as we know it today, is at serious risk due to unprecedented human activity. There’s tradition, culture and an important foundation of knowledge in Mexico. We have Indigenous communities that continue to contribute new genetic materials, strains and varieties that are a real global treasure. We hope readers’ curiosity will be piqued to know more and even reach out to us. Whatever Gerardo and I can do, we are always available to contribute.

Ceballos: I’d add that we’re very proud of the Mexicans outside of Mexico and they should be incredibly proud of Mexico. Despite all the bad news that comes out of the country, it’s much bigger than that in terms of biological diversity. They should be enormously proud of the biological and cultural heritage we have in this country. I hope many readers can take an interest and participate, however they can, in the conservation of nature, wherever they are in the world.

Rose Egelhoff is an associate editor at Mexico News Daily and a freelance writer. She’s on Twitter and the internet. 

The post What is the sixth mass extinction? 2 trailblazing Mexican scientists explain appeared first on Mexico News Daily

“What’s the use — like some song says — that I have my Mercedes Benz, a Mercedes Benz truck? As if material objects were the most important thing,” AMLO said before recommending that young people listen instead to music like the song “Ya Supérame” (“Get Over Me Already”) by Grupo Firme.

Observers quickly realized that the song mentioned by the president was the international hit “AMG” by Gabito Ballesteros, Peso Pluma and Natanael Cano. The song is an ode to the singer’s dream car, a Mercedes-AMG G-class SUV, and the work it took to get it, namely “moving ice” (meth) and being good with numbers.

“AMG” is what’s known as a corrido tumbado, a genre that combines traditional Mexican storytelling corridos with elements of trap, reggaeton and more. Many are narcocorridos — ballads that tell stories of drug traffickers and their lifestyles.

In “AMG,” the celebration of conspicuous consumption, along with its drug references, earned the president’s ire and inspired him to share his own playlist of youth-friendly songs as a more positive alternative to corridos tumbados.

His decidedly wholesome playlist showcases a variety of Latin American music, mostly contemporary Mexican artists. For a deeper understanding of the songs, search online for transcripts of the Spanish lyrics — called letras — or for translations.

“Ya Supérame” — Grupo Firme

Musical genres: norteña, banda sinaloense

AMLO kicked off his playlist with a corrido he has previously dedicated to his enemies. “Ya Supérame” (“Get Over Me Already”) starts with a booming tuba and the question “What part do you not understand when I tell you no? The ‘N’ or the ‘O’?”

The singer tells his toxic ex to take a hint while celebrating his own emotional liberation.

“No Se Va” — Grupo Frontera

Musical genre: norteña (cover of Columbian pop song)

If you live in Mexico, chances are you’ve heard “No Se Va” (“Don’t Leave”). Grupo Frontera started recording covers like this one, of a track by Colombian folk-pop band Morat, in 2019.

Released last April, it wasn’t until late 2022 that this song really took off, driven mostly by viewers on YouTube and TikTok.

“Te Mereces Un Amor” — Vivir Quintana

Genre: ranchera, Mexican folk

“Te Mereces Un Amor” (“You Deserve a Love”) is an earnest tribute to healthy love, woven from a mix of poetic metaphor and plainspoken affirmations. Singer and composer Vivir Quintana is also the composer of the feminist anthem “Canción Sin Miedo.”

She describes her sound as ranchero azul, a combination of ranchera music and the blues.

“Frágil” — Yahritza y Su Esencia and Grupo Frontera

Genres: sierreña, norteña

Yahritza y Su Esencia is a Washington state-based group of three siblings. Last year, Yahritza became the youngest Latin artist ever to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Despite being separated this year while oldest brother Mando regularized his immigration status, the trio released “Frágil” in collaboration with Grupo Frontera in April, and it quickly went viral on TikTok.

“Latinoamérica” —  Calle 13, featuring Lila Downs

Genres: Hip hop, various

Puerto Rican alternative rap group Calle 13 once called this song “the most important track of our career.” The song is almost a hymn, celebrating the beauty, pain, history and culture that ties Latin America together.

“América” — Los Tigres Del Norte

Genre: norteña

Another celebration of Latin American identity, “América” reclaims the word “American” as a way to refer to anyone born in the Americas. This popular version from “MTV Unplugged” also includes an extended break, with Calle 13 rapping part of “Latinoamérica.”

“Tenías Que Ser Tú” — Silvana Estrada ft. Daniel, Me Estás Matando

Genres: pop, jazz, son jarocho

In this whimsical love song, Veracruz singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada slips between major and minor keys, accompanied by the Mexico City duo Daniel, Me Estás Matando. 

“Oye Mujer” — Raymix

Genres: Electrocumbia, trance

Raymix, the “king of electrocumbia,” hails from México state. Before “Oye Mujer” blew up in Mexico City’s cumbia sonidero scene in 2015, Raymix studied aerospace engineering and interned for NASA, where he worked on satellite design.

“unx100to” — Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny

Genres: norteña, reggaeton

“un x100to” (“One Percent”) doesn’t really count as reggaeton. What it does have is a reggaeton-like beat with norteña instrumentation and Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, an artist credited with bringing reggaeton into the global mainstream. The song tells the tale of a breakup that the singer initiated but now regrets.

“Monedita” — La Santa Cecilia

Genres: pop, cumbia and various regional Mexican styles

“Your life looks grim without the coin’s shine,” La Santa Cecilia sings in this anti-materialist manifesto. The song is obviously included on the playlist as a rebuke to the consumerism on display in many corridos tumbados, but don’t worry: the preachy premise goes over much better coming from the talented La Santa Cecilia than it does from AMLO or any other politician.

“El Poder De Tus Manos” — Intocable

Genres: pop, norteña, tejana

“Amor y Control” by Rubén Blades 

Genres: salsa, Latin jazz

AMLO’s last recommendation comes from iconic Panamanian singer Rubén Blades, the oldest artist on the list. Did AMLO get tired and toss out the name of one of his favorite songs to finish the playlist? Maybe, but it’s still worth listening to this song about the meaning of family.

Bonus songs:

“AMG” — Gabito Ballesteros, Peso Pluma and Natanael Cano

Genre: corrido tumbado

https://youtu.be/DWRj2BB8YHs

When was the last time you heard a trombone solo in a mainstream hit? “AMG,” the song that inspired AMLO’s playlist, has that and more, blending the horns of banda sinaloense with all kinds of other regional Mexican sounds into a hedonistic celebration of cars, girls, champagne and cash to spare.

There are corridos that don’t promote narco culture, but this isn’t one of them.

“La Bebe” —  Yng Lvcas and Peso Pluma

Genre: corrido tumbado

Last but not least, this song comes to you not from AMLO’s list but another recent presidential playlist: Peso Pluma’s hit song “La Bebe” made it onto former U.S. president Barack Obama’s 2023 summer playlist.

As you might expect, this club-ready corrido tumbado stays away from the drug dealing and keeps things romantic-ish with a thumping reggaeton beat.

Rose Egelhoff is a freelance writer based in Mazatlán, Sinaloa. Follow her work at RoseEgelhoff.com

The post AMLO’s ‘Well-being Playlist’ is actually pretty good appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Foodies and restaurateurs love its sweet, mild meat — easily available and firm enough for a wide range of recipes. The sought-after fish is often present year-round in the Mexican Pacific. It matures quickly and spawns prolifically, producing millions of eggs a year.

For those and other reasons, dorado is an “excellent candidate” for commercial fishing, according to fishery biologist Dr. Fernando Márquez-Farías of the Sinaloa Autonomous University (UAS).

In fact, the United States and half a dozen Central and South American countries already have commercial dorado fisheries, mostly on the Pacific coast, where dorado are more common.

But for the time being, most dorado fishing in Mexico exists in legal gray areas, making it a prime example of what is known as IUU fishing — an acronym that stands for illegal, unreported and unregulated. 

IUU fishing is “one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems due to its potent ability to undermine national and regional efforts to manage fisheries sustainably” and “can lead to the collapse of local fisheries, with small-scale fisheries in developing countries proving particularly vulnerable,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Under Mexican law, dorado is technically reserved for sport fishing. But it can also be caught as bycatch in fishing operations that aim for other species. This opens a loophole the size of Baja California itself. A patchwork of laws establishes the percentage of bycatch allowed for different locations and for different species.

Industrial fleets targeting fish like tuna and sardines are expected to report the number and weight of dorado bycatch to Conapesca, the Mexican government agency that regulates fishing. But there’s little oversight, and experts interviewed for this article agreed that industrial bycatch is likely massively underreported.

For small fishers, dorado can offer economic stability when other species are out of season. One Mazatlán fisher said that dorado fishing was allowed under his general commercial fishing permit. 

But he and another fisher in Escuinapa, Sinaloa, both said that when fishing dorado, they avoided government patrol boats or threw the fish overboard as a last resort. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

So how much dorado is fished in Mexico? Industrial bycatch reports may not be reliable, and small fishers certainly aren’t telling the government how much fish they catch illegally. Without reliable numbers, it’s difficult for scientists and regulatory authorities to know if dorado populations are thriving or struggling.

Gllen Bercovich is a sport fishing captain in Baja California Sur, the president of the Los Cabos Union of Sport Fishing Vessel Owners. He’s advocated for keeping dorado fishing limited to sport fishers. He said that he has seen a noticeable decline in dorado in his area.

“It’s been months without dorado,” he said. “In the past, it was [available] all year round. … It’s a little less in some months because the water gets a little colder, but we are realizing how the flow of dorado in this area is decreasing,” 

Another of Sinaloa’s dorado fishers agreed there had been less dorado in recent years, though he felt they are still abundant.

“When we go to fish, we see a lot in the sea, ”he said. “… You can see [them] all over the place, jumping and eating.”

If the population is down, even a bit, it could be the standard ebb and flow of nature. Or it could be a sign that dorado, despite being a productive and fast-growing species, are starting to feel the pressure of illegal fishing, changing climate or other factors. 

Figuring out what’s really going on is crucial to balancing the needs of small independent fishers, the bottom line of industrial fishing companies and the reality that there aren’t infinite fish in the sea.

Getting that information is the job of the National Fisheries Institute (Inapesca), the government institute responsible for fishery research, said Esteban García-Peña, fisheries campaign director for the ocean conservation organization Oceana.

“We need the scientific authority, which is Inapesca, to investigate or update the information on dorado to know how things are now,” he said. 

Climatological events like hurricanes, El Niño and La Niña have “surely changed the dorado population and stocks” since the last major update in 2004.

Márquez-Farías had a different take. As a former Inapesca researcher, he acknowledged that the agency hasn’t produced the data on fish stocks that is normally required before commercial fishing is allowed, despite having been awarded funding in the past for that specific purpose.

“In theory, you couldn’t open a fishery if the National Fisheries Institute hasn’t recommended it,” Márquez-Farías said.

But Conapesca calls the shots and could give out provisional monitoring permits, he said, allowing some small-scale fisheries to start benefiting from dorado fishing while scientists use the permitted boats’ fishing reports to start planning better species management.

But what if opening up a dorado fishery leads to even more out-of-control fishing? That’s what worries Enrique Fernández, president of the Mexican Foundation for Billfish Conservation, a group that advocates against commercial dorado fishing at the national level.

Fernández said legalizing commercial dorado fishing could reduce population numbers and hurt Mexicans in the sport fishing industry. What is actually needed, he said, is better enforcement of existing rules. 

In Baja California Sur, for example, he said there are only eight fishing inspectors for 2,500 kilometers of coastline, far too few to be effective even before taking into account corruption and inefficiency.

There’s one thing the experts interviewed for this article all agreed on: the system meant to protect and manage dorado isn’t working as it should. Black- and gray-market dorado is sold in markets and restaurants and even, according to Fernández, is exported as “white fish.”

Current law makes tracing seafood back to its origin difficult, but consumers can still ask questions about where their seafood comes from, said García-Peña.

Also, sport fishers can ask a charter to see their fishing permits and registration to operate in Mexico, and anglers should thoroughly research the species they hope to fish, García-Peña said. Information on catch limits is available online, and the National Fisheries Chart (Carta Nacional Pesquera) has more detailed information (in Spanish).

As small fishers hide from patrol boats and industrial fishers undercount their bycatch, Mexico’s dorado are soldiering on. Are they thriving? Struggling? Somewhere in the middle? 

As long as commercial dorado fishing remains in the shadows, it’s anyone’s guess.

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Several paths diverged near the entrance, all seemingly heading toward the imposing concrete walls of the aquarium. The first of many helpful guides pointed me on my way, explaining that the signage and maps weren’t quite ready yet and encouraging visitors to enter with a spirit of exploration. 

It did take some exploring to find the entrance, but it was worth the effort: inside was a magnificent celebration of northwest Mexico’s unique wildlife and marine ecosystems.

The Gran Acuario Mar de Cortés (Sea of Cortez Aquarium) is Mazatlán’s newest attraction — so new that some areas were still under construction when I visited on May 10, a few days after its grand opening. 

From the outside, the monolithic building looms ominously over the newly planted gardens and still-under-construction paths, but once inside, my appreciation began to grow. Flowing water and plants cascading down from skylights gave the building a cavernous, almost cathedral-like feeling. I wandered through the different areas of the aquarium, which highlight the land, sea and coastal ecosystems of the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez).

The first room showcases technical aspects of maintaining an aquarium, with a series of piano-sized machines filtering, monitoring and adjusting parameters to keep the chemical balance and temperature of the water just right. 

Next came terrariums full of snakes, lizards and toads, followed by the first coastal exhibits, including mangroves and a tide pool filled with urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers. In one exhibit, an Instagram-ready artificial wave cascaded down from the ceiling like a waterfall, pummeling a rocky shoal. The signage explained the physics of waves and how some species have adapted to live with constant motion.

A replica coral reef was followed by an enormous shark tank. There is a play area for children and two touch tanks for interacting with rays and starfish (after careful hand washing). At one point during my visit, injured sea turtles in a large tank labeled “Sea Turtle Refuge and Rehabilitation” bobbed up to look at passers-by, apparently curious about the new visitors. 

There are also a number of charming smaller exhibits, like a school of shimmering, mirage-like fish – the awkwardly-named Hairfin Lookdown – that showed how marine animals manipulate light to blend in with their surroundings. The fish’s Spanish name, pez espejo (mirror fish), ( seems much more apt. 

A visit to the aquarium wraps up on the building’s roof, where visitors can explore a garden of native and ornamental plants that has a view of the city’s Laguna del Camarón (a real, live coastal ecosystem) and the ocean behind it.

While the exhibits were mesmerizing, the real stars of the show were the knowledgeable and enthusiastic guides. During my visit, there was almost always an expert on hand to speak about the exhibits, answer questions and help lost guests find their way. 

Most guides I spoke with turned out to be locally trained biologists from the University of Sinaloa’s School of Marine Science or the National Autonomous University (UNAM)’s Limnology and Marine Science Institute, both based in Mazatlán. As the day’s visitors wandered between tanks, guides stationed in each area spoke in depth with groups and individuals about the fish and other species they were seeing and made a valiant effort to keep little hands from tapping on the glass and disturbing the animals.

Getting the aquarium to the point it’s at today has been a long process. After four years of construction, more than 2 billion pesos spent and numerous delays to the opening date, the aquarium celebrated its “grand opening” on May 6. 

The formal inauguration, however — originally scheduled for May 15 — was postponed to an unspecified date this month, according to the newspaper Noroeste. When I visited shortly after the grand opening, some key details were still missing: guides told me there will be more signage, printed maps and information modules for non-Spanish speakers (though many guides also speak some English, and at least one guide I spoke to was fluent). Behind temporary fencing, a couple sections of the grounds also appeared to be incomplete.

It’s also quite a change from the old aquarium. Some mazatlecos are unhappy that the ticket price is substantially higher than the old aquarium, even with a locals’ discount. Most international tourists, however, won’t have an issue with the adult price of $380 pesos (US $22). Those familiar with the former aquarium might miss its penguin house and sea lion show, but their closure appears to be temporary: Mayor Édgar Augusto González Zatarain has said both spectacles will be part of the new aquarium in the future.

But until more English-language signage or the planned information modules are installed, the experience will be more rewarding for tourists with at least intermediate Spanish — or who are handy with translation apps. But the architectural beauty and the exhibits will speak to any visitor.

The new aquarium is the result of a public-private partnership, with a third of its initial funding coming from the federal government and the rest from Mazatlán businessman and hotelier Ernesto Coppel Kelly. 

If the funding keeps flowing, it’s poised to be an important draw for tourists, a valuable resource for the area’s many marine science researchers and an educational tool for locals and tourists alike.

While Mazatlán might be better known for cheap beer and beaches, the new Gran Acuario offers a window into the region’s rich natural beauty. After all, Baja California Sur isn’t the only state that borders what Jacques Cousteau famously called “the world’s aquarium.” 

And though there’s still much work to be done, Mazatlán’s new aquarium is off to a promising start.

• The aquarium is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Tickets are available online at the Gran Acuario website and prospective visitors can keep tabs on updates and changes via the aquarium’s Facebook page.

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By points, Mexico tied with Poland for second place in the group; each team had a win (3 points), a draw (1 point) and a loss (0 points), for a total of 4 points. But Poland beat Mexico on goal differential, the number of goals scored by the team minus the goals scored against them during the group stage of the tournament. Poland’s goal differential was 0, while Mexico let in one more goal than they scored, for a final goal differential of -1.

Thanks to this year’s performance, Mexico is now the team with the most games lost in a World Cup (28) followed by Argentina with 23 losses and Germany with 24. Mexico has also joined the exclusive club of teams that have had more than 100 goals scored against them in World Cups: Mexican goalkeepers have failed to block 103 points since the World Cup began in 1930. The only other members of this club are Germany, which has been scored on 128 times, and Brazil, with 105 goals scored against them.

These records are actually perverse reminder of the Mexican team’s many brushes with greatness: El Tri ranks with the likes of soccer superpowers like Argentina, Brazil and Germany in losses partly because all four teams routinely qualify for the the soccer’s top competition. But unlike those teams, Mexico has yet to be a World Cup champion. (For hardcore El Tri fans, the 2014 documentary “Ilusión Nacional,” or “National Hope” in English, documents the Mexican selection’s ups and downs over the years.)

The farthest Mexico has made it was to the quarter-finals in 1970 and 1986, also the only two years in which Mexico has hosted the World Cup. This year, Mexico ranked 22 out of the 32 teams to qualify for the World Cup, in the middle of the pack of group stage participants who failed to qualify for the round of 16. But they’ll have another chance in 2026: as a co-host of the next World Cup (along with the US and Canada), Mexico automatically qualifies.

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To preserve some of this natural bounty, Mexico has 185 designated natural protected areas (ANPs) covering 90,958,494 hectares, an area almost as big as the state of Oaxaca. About three-quarters of that area is made of marine protected zones and the rest is land.

The budget for the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (Conanp) manages the national parks, biosphere reserves, natural monuments and every other ANP. Conanp’s budget ticked steadily up until peaking in 2016, during the administration of former president Enrique Peña Nieto. Over the next three years, as Peña Nieto left office and President López Obrador entered, the budget would be slashed by more than a third, in large part due to López Obrador’s drive for government austerity.

The current funding leaves Conanp with just 9.76 pesos for every hectare they are tasked with conserving.

Meanwhile, impunity for environmental crimes is almost total: out of more than 4,000 reported to Conanp between 2006 and 2020, only 50 were resolved. The lack of enforcement makes ANPs vulnerable to illegal logging and other forms of unregulated resource extraction, often by organized crime. Within the legal framework, the management of ANPs has shifted over the years from being purely conservation-focused to including local economic development as part of its goals, in some cases resulting in a reduction of the areas that are effectively being preserved.

But some ANPs have found a way to balance the goals of conservation and economic development through ecotourism. The mountainous Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, which occupies a large portion of Querétaro and parts of neighboring states, is one notable success story.  The reserve was named one of the world’s top 100 sustainable tourism destinations in 2020, thanks to coordinated efforts between nonprofits, local and state government that have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors a year (and a billion pesos in economic spillover) while supporting local residents’ capacity to participate in both ecotourism and environmental protection.

Mexico News Daily

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The vividly orange blossom is a staple of the upcoming Day of the Dead festivities in November. Their pungent fragrance is said to guide the spirits of the deceased to the altars built by family and friends in their honor. Since pre-Hispanic times, the flowers have been used in food, as a source of dye and for their medicinal properties.

The name comes from the náhuatl word cempōhualxōchitl, meaning “20 flowers.” It’s an appropriate name; though a single marigold looks like one large flower, it is actually many small flowers on a single base. Thirty of the 55 known species of cempasúchil are native to Mexico. The rest are from other areas of the Americas.

Thousands of farmers count cempasúchil among the crops that they cultivate. Puebla leads the pack, producing more than 3/4 of the national harvest by weight in 2021 according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Together, Mexican farmers produced nearly half a million flower bunches in 2021, worth 93.5 million pesos (US $4.7 million).

According to Agriculture Minister Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, the flower has made an impression far beyond Mexico.

“Our cempasúchil has become the protagonist of various festivities in India, North Korea, Japan and other countries,” he said. “In the Hindu lights festival, the floral adornments are mainly composed of cempasúchil; in Bali, Indonesia, the religious adornments made of cempasúchil are so important that the flower has become a true icon of the region.”

Within Mexico, the cempasúchil harvest has generally declined over the years since the government began keeping records in 1980 (though the reported harvest has varied wildly over the years). This could be related to many factors: the small farmers who grew cempasúchil in that decade may have been highly vulnerable to climate variations, causing the harvest to drop in drier years, for example. It is also possible that variation had to do with the challenges the government faced in quantifying a small-scale, artisanal crop that was often grown in remote rural areas.

The biggest spike in production came the same year as Mexico's most deadly earthquake, which occurred on Sept. 19, 1985 and killed thousands. The following year, as the country faced political instability and recovered from the devastating quake, the cempasúchil harvest fell by more than 80%.

But since hitting a low point in 2010 (just over 5800 tonnes were produced that year), the harvest has been trending larger, with a projected haul of 20,245 tonnes for 2022.

Another factor affecting Mexico's cempasúchil harvest is the use of Marvel African Marigold seeds, National Geographic en Español has reported. Despite their name, the seeds are not African but a genetically modified version of a species native to Mexico.

The Marvel African Marigold's small, uniform plant size and the large number of flowers they produce make them convenient for farmers, but they variety is also modified so that its seeds are not fertile. As a result, farmers have to buy relatively expensive imported seeds every year rather than collecting or breeding their own varieties, according Dr. Miguel Ángel Serrato Cruz, a horticultural specialist at the Autonomous University of Chapingo who researches cempasúchil.

The increasing popularity of Marvel African Marigold seeds among Mexican farmers threatens the preservation of the dozens of cempasúchil species native to Mexico, as well as deeply-rooted cultural tradtions, Serrato Cruz said.

He and other Mexican scientists hope to engineer fertile, home-grown alternatives to the imported seeds to preserve the diversity of Mexico's many cempasúchil species while also staying competitive with imported ornamental varieties.

Rose Egelhoff is an associate editor at Mexico News Daily and a freelance writer. You can follow her work on Twitter and the internet.

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Less than an hour after a nationwide earthquake drill, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook the center of the country.

The epicenter was 63 kilometers south of Coalcomán, Michoacán, and the quake was felt at least as far away as Mexico City, according to early reports. The timing of the tremors – midday on September 19 – evoked painful memories of the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes, which both occurred on September 19 as well. The 1985 earthquake killed more than 10,000 people, and hundreds died in 2017.

Early reports indicate that today’s earthquake has caused no significant physical damage in the capital, though power went out in some areas. At least one person has died in Manzanillo, Colima, and many buildings in that area have sustained structural damage. Structural damage was also reported in Michoacán, Jalisco y Guerrero.

The National Seismological Service reported a 6.8 magnitude tremor at 1:05 p.m. Central Time followed by a 7.7 magnitude quake seconds later (initially estimated at magnitude 7.4). It was followed by several smaller aftershocks at 2:30 p.m., ranging in size from magnitude 5.1 to 5.3.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami threat alert for the area near the epicenter, including any coastal area within 300 kilometers of the epicenter in Coalcomán, Michoacán. The alert applies to a number of urban areas, including Manzanillo, Colima; Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán; and Zihuatanejo, Guerrero. Colima Civil Protection later advised that a tsunami was unlikely as of 5:30 p.m. Central Time, but advised coastal residents to stay away from the beach, as there are may be unusual currents or wave activity.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) reported such a variation: their monitoring station in Manzanillo registered a 1.24-meter rise in sea level after the earthquake.

With reports from Animal Político

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After a high-speed chase at sea, the marines forced the alleged traffickers back toward land near the beach-side community of Barras de Nexpa, 60 kilometers west of Lázaro Cárdenas. The navy seized 1.6 tonnes of cocaine and 432 liters of fuel and arrested three people, it said in a press release.

After navy intelligence identified that a drug shipment was likely to pass through the area, a maritime patrol plane spotted a suspicious speedboat with three outboard motors. Two marine units were then dispatched to intercept the shipment, navy officials said.

“The crew of the suspicious vessel, caught unawares, increased their speed and upon arriving at the beach they fled …”

Navy personnel seized the vessel’s cargo and later the same day captured another vessel.

A similarly sized shipment of cocaine was seized in Mexico City in late July, the largest bust in the city’s history. The 1.68-tonne shipment had an estimated worth of 400 million pesos (US $19.6 million) but could have been sold for double that price if it had reached the United States.

With reports from Reforma

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