Mexican Workers Pulverized in the 21st century
A new study reconfirms what many people know from first-hand experience: Mexican workers' purchasing power has plummeted since the turn of the century.
In a just-released report, the economics department of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) documented the number of hours the lowest-paid workers need to labor in order purchase a basic basket of goods made up of rice, cooking More »
Fishy Border Contamination
In the latest chapter of a long-running border environmental mystery, U.S. federal and state officials plan a visit to south Texas this coming week.
Representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) are expected to be in the area around South Alamo, Texas, from February 6 to 12. The purpose of their trip is to inform re More »
The Struggle for the Heart and Soul of a Mexican City
It might be called Puerto Vallarta's "Stairway to Heaven." Climbing up a double row of steps and fronting white homes with red-tiled roofs, the cobble-stone heights of Iturbide Street offer a magnificent view of blue Banderas Bay and its population of wintering humpback whales and playful dolphins. From the high ground, the eyes can see the far-off flutter of sail boats, the medium-shot profile of More »
Mexico Democrats Mobilize for 2012 Elections
Mexican chapters of Democrats Abroad are mobilizing their forces for the 2012 U.S. elections. With hundreds of thousands of U.S. expatriates residing in Mexico, absentee votes from south of the border could play a significant role in this year's political contests, especially in close races. In Puerto Vallarta, dozens of expatriates and visitors kicked off the political season by turning out to a More »
Aid Alone Won’t Solve Environmental Disaster
In many cities, Mexicans are responding to the environmental and hunger crisis in Chihuahua's Sierra Tarahumara with an outpouring of material aid donations and declarations of solidarity. Indigenous Raramuri leaders from the drought-stricken mountains were among rural activists who staged a demonstration this week in Mexico City claiming lack of government support for alleviating the worst effect More »
Old Faces and Ghosts Endure in Mexican Elections
New fires are steadily igniting in different corners of the Mexican political system. As the country plunges head-long toward the July 1 elections, clashes over candidacies, bouts of negative campaigning and a new spying scandal are lighting up the political scene.
A bizarre video game with a barely concealed subliminal message, “Super Ernesto,” stars National Action Party (PAN) p More »
Fewer but Deadlier Border Crossings
Migrant crossings and Border Patrol apprehensions of undocumented immigrants might be sharply down, but attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border without the proper papers could be a much deadlier proposition than in the past.
Mexican consular reports reveal that while 369 Mexican nationals died during presumed border crossings in 2004- a year when much greater numbers of people were crossing More »
Super Embassy on Order
The U.S. government is moving ahead with plans to construct a large new embassy in Mexico City. Slated for the upscale Polanco section of the Mexican capital, the planned complex is envisioned to cover about 13 acres on a plot of land that was purchased from the Colgate-Palmolive company. Estimated to cost between $350 and $450 million, the new quarters for U.S. government agencies operating in Me More »
Blues Across Borders
Roberto Fernandez concedes that it's sometimes lonely being a bluesman in Culiacan. The capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, Culiacan is best known for the banda or grupera sounds that also provide the drum beat to the narco-culture and violence that's enveloped the region.
"There's no blues scene," Fernandez chuckles. "We are the only ones." The frontman for the Malverde Blues Ex More »
Elections for End Times
Editor's note: With its very modest resources, Frontera NorteSur hopes to cover both the US and Mexican elections in the crucial year of 2012. To the best of our ability, we will send readers occasional pieces on the progress of the political contests and related issues. Today's piece lays out the social and political context in which elections in both nations will be held.
Special Report
It More »
Third World-Style Economies Proliferate
Pirate profiteers and street merchants are central players in the economies of Mexico and other nations of the developing world. Although informal businesses are far from new in the United States, recent reports indicate they are growing in scope and diversity. In the pinnacle of advanced capitalism, commercial transactions based on hard cash and record-free trails exist alongside high-tech ga More »
The Land of the Chile Pilgrims
Editor’s Note: As the official celebration of the New Mexico Centennial of Statehood kicks off in earnest, Frontera NorteSur marks almost three years of special stories examining the history of the southern New Mexico borderland during the last one hundred years. Today’s piece continues the series into the 2012 centennial year with a look at the economy and culture of chile peppers tha More »
Will Migrants Matter in the Mexican Election?
The clock is ticking as the registration deadline fast approaches for Mexican expatriates to vote in their country of origin’s presidential election this year. Although Mexican election officials are confident a late rush of applications will mean greater absentee participation than in the 2006 election, preliminary reports of the number of applications received indicate few expatriates will v More »
The Year of Smoke, Ashes and Rebellion
Editor‘s Note:
Frontera NorteSur is generally loathe to join the annual media ritual of regurgitating the year’s stories and classifying them in order of importance. The editor will make no such arbitrary judgments, but by any measure 2011 was an extraordinary year and some reflection seems called for at this time. So in the spirit of 2011, here are a few of the editor’s picks. The li More »
Border Bank Funds Projects
The Board of Directors of the North American Development Bank (NADB) has approved more than $136 million in new financing for environmentally-related initiatives on both sides of the US-Mexico borderline. In an announcement this month, the San Antonio-based bank listed four new projects that will receive NADB loans and grants.
More than half of the new money, or a $88.5 million loan, is set More »
100 Years of No Workers’ Comp
For the nearly one hundred years New Mexico has been a US state, farm and ranch workers have been excluded from the state workers’ compensation system. The labor force was systematically left out of legislation passed in 1917, 1937, 1973 and 1990. Despite the exclusion, contributions to the state administrative system are deducted from workers’ paychecks. Most recently, a 2009 bill mandating More »
Legal Challenges to State Immigration Laws Mount
Mexico has joined with 13 other Latin American nations in supporting Washington’s legal fight over the Utah immigration law. The countries have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case against HB 497, the state law passed earlier this year that empowers local police to investigate the immigration status of persons detained by officers. But Mexico and allied countries contend that the measur More »
Contesting and Reclaiming the Holidays
The El Paso-Ciudad Juarez borderland was hopping with activity in recent days. In downtown El Paso, lumbering city buses navigated between crowds of shoppers searching for a cheap, potential present made by Chinese or Vietnamese or Pakistani hands. Not far away, the piñata and candy shops on gritty Alameda Avenue were festooned in green, blue, red and white, as a man stood in a median with a sign More »
Groups Protest Citizen Detentions
Pro-immigrant and civil liberties groups are stepping up the pressure against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Secure Communities program. Designed to remove immigrant lawbreakers from the United States, Secure Communitiesenlists local law enforcement agencies in a cooperative relationship with ICE in order to identify, hold and deport foreign nationals.
But a coalition of non-g More »
Border Crossers Encounter New Delays
In an e-mail to constituents this month, El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes lauded the November opening of a new, high-tech pedestrian crossing system at the Paso del Norte (Santa Fe) Bridge between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. With assistance from the Unisys Corporation, the maze-like system uses a combination of revolving doors, hand-held mobile devices and radio frequency identification (RFID) t More »
Hanging Tough in Juarez
Under the circumstances, even the most stubborn personalities steeled in adversity would probably call it quits. Inside the corridors of the big marketplace, an odd tranquility reigns as the vendors wait for customers. Outside, the day is broken by the occasional sound of ambulances rushing off probably to attend the latest shooting victim.
“Absolutely nothing,” is how Ruben describes the p More »