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August 31, 2006
Jack Acquires a Taste for Tequila
Brown-Forman Corporation, the company that owns the Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort brands, announced Monday that it is buying tequila brands Herradura and El Jimador by acquiring Mexico's Grupo Industrial Herradura SA for $876 million USD.
These two brands of tequila are some of the best-selling in Mexico, yet they are performing slugishly in the United States, where the market for tequila is growing rapidly. Herradura's exports currently account for only 20% of their sales. Brown-Forman thinks they can correct this problem with better distribution.
I for one look forward to the day when I visit friends and family in the US and Herradura tequila will be as omnipresent as Jack Daniels. WOO HOO!
Posted by crispy at 02:23 PM | Comments (4)
August 30, 2006
Franz Ferdinand at the Teatro Diana 10 September
I just saw that Franz Ferdinand will be playing at the Teatro Diana on 10 September. Tickets range from $250-$800 MXN ($23.00-$73.50).
This is pretty exciting as Guadalajara doesn't tend to get big musical acts, or at least not ones that are still relatively popular. We usually get people like James Taylor - good but hardly hip. We did recently have Shakira, so maybe things are looking up for us.
(In the not-so-hip-but-still-cool category, The Alan Parsons Project will also be playing the Teatro Diana, in December.)
Posted by crispy at 01:27 PM | Comments (2)
August 29, 2006
XIII Encuentro Internacional del Mariachi
The XIII Encuentro Internacional del Mariachi, or as we refer to it, the Mariachi Festival, starts this weekend. Mariachi groups come from all over the world (including Japan) to participate, and it is regarded as the biggest and best mariachi festival in the world.
Although there are some events on Friday, it really gets going on Saturday with a parade that runs along 16 de Septiembre, from Niños Heroes to Jesús García and Alcalde, through the Plaza de Armas, and then past the Cathedral. They expect about 30,000 people along the parade route.
We will be attending the gala on Monday the 4th with Joseph, Larry and a group of other people. It will be in the beautiful Teatro Degollado, and the featured singer will be Eugenia León.
I'll file a report on that event and hopefully others from the festival. As you all probably know, I'm crazy about mariachi.
Posted by crispy at 12:08 PM | Comments (2)
August 28, 2006
Mexican Hot Dogs
Alberto stopped by one afternoon while we were preparing tofu hot dogs. That we would eat hot dogs made out of tofu amused him, but we scored further chortles because the American style of eating a hot dog is very different from how Mexicans eat them.
I don't know if the particular style Alberto spoke of is limited to Guadalajara, as some culinary items are, or if it's common throughout all of Mexico. The longer I live here, the more it seems like there is nothing that is common throughout all of Mexico. Like every burg in Germany having it's own style of sausage, or every cow town in India having its own recipe for dal, I suspect there are regional variations on hot dogs all over Mexico.
Many readers in California have seen the typical late-night Mexican hot dog stand on their local streets, where they're frying up dozens of dogs, each wrapped in a slice of bacon. Those are typical of the Baja Californias, although you'll find them all throughout Mexico. For example, there's a popular cart that fixes those at the corner of Prisciliano Sánchez and Colón in front of the 7-11, but that's not what he was talking about.
Of course there are several variations on hot dogs throughout the United States, and on occasion, I'll top the tofu dogs in chili, serve them with tomatoes, onions and chiles. Yet that day, we were doing the casual mustard and ketchup thing.
Here, the hot dog is a very elaborate affair. They start with the buns, which are called medias noches here. Then they smear some crema on the bun (crema is not the same as sour cream but that is worth an entry of its own), put the hot dog on it, then add mustard, ketchup, onions (sometimes fried), tomatoes, chiles, diced pineapple and then slices of panela cheese. Some people like to add canned, sliced mushrooms.
If this sounds too daunting to try at home on your own, you can try an approximation at Pink's of Hollywood (709 N. La Brea Blvd., Su-Th 9:30 am to 2:30 am, F-Sa 9:30 am to 3:00 am), the famous hot dog stand. Their Guadalajara Dog consists of a hot dog with relish, onions, tomatoes, and sour cream. They added it to their official menu when they found their cooks (of Mexican origin, of course) eating this particular combination during their breaks. I suspect that many Mexicans on this side of the border would shudder about their using sour cream and relish, but hey, when you're far from home, you have to adapt to local ingredients.
Posted by crispy at 05:41 AM | Comments (1)
August 17, 2006
Jaliscan Restaurants Online
I started to do a piece on the fact that many businesses here give URLs to websites in their print advertisements that do not work. I still might do that piece, which would continue on to talk about how many major bus lines have phone numbers listed in the Guadalajara yellow pages that do not work and have not for years. The lack of follow-through when good money has been paid for advertising here really surprises me sometimes.
However, after taking a deep breath, I reasoned that it would probably be more helpful to list a few websites for local businesses that I've found to actually work, instead of linking to a bunch of sites that don't (even though they should) work.
It has been my experience that it's awfully difficult to find a web site in Mexico using search engines, even if you enter the name properly, the location, the phone number...for some reason they just don't come up on search engines like Google unless they're really popular. Sometimes you'll get pages that list a business, its address and phone number, but you'll not get the actual web site for the place in the search results. Often, the only way you can find out where the web site is for a place is to ask them at the restaurant, or find it printed in a print advertisement. Then you just have to cross your fingers and hope it works.
Or, you can check out the following list of places that are all listed in the Guía Gastronómica del Estado de Jalisco a new publication put out by the office of the Secretary of Tourism, which seems to be basically a little information booklet paid for by advertisers. While it's far from exhaustive in what Guadalajara has to offer (let alone the entire state of Jalisco), a number of popular places have paid to put their name in, and it's worth checking out a few.
La Fonda de San Miguel
Karne Garibaldi
Carnes Asadas Rubens
La Gorda
Nude
Polibio
Rojo Café
Tinto y Blanco
The Men's Club
Mariscos Progreso
Casa Tequila
Casa Fuerte
Los Compadres
Hacienda Coyotes
Posted by crispy at 08:35 PM | Comments (4)
August 09, 2006
Respeta nuestras leyes.
This past Saturday, the Instituto Federal Electoral, the electoral panel deciding whether or not to issue a full recount of the Mexican presidential election ballots, announced that only around 9% of the votes will be recounted. This is a serious setback for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate for the Partido de la Revolución Democrática, who hoped a full recount would show him to be the winner of the elections held 2 July.
Mexico has a long history of unfair elections under the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or PRI, which ruled the country for 71 straight years, but the elections of 2000 were almost universally considered to be clean. However, members of the PRD are calling the Partido Acción Nacional, the party whose candidate, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, was declared the victor, the PRI of the new millenium.
Of course, this is to imply that the PAN, now having gained a foothold in ruling La Republica will disregard the electoral process and the will of the people just as the PRI did for seven decades. Signs already indicate that even if they stole the election, they are much wiser in how they go about it.
Also on Saturday, we began to see public service announcements on Mexican television channels that showed relatively high-budget footage of various electoral accoutrement - ballot boxes, paper envelopes, election volunteers - with a voiceover talking about how all the election watchdogs declared the recent election to be fair and that none reported any evidence of tampering. At the end, text comes up on the screen while the words are spoken aloud: Respeta nuestras leyes. Respetamos nuestro voto. ("Respect our laws. We respect our vote.")
I have seen this spot three times in three days. I am unsure if Mexican law requires that the sponsor of a broadcast message be identified, and while in the back of my mind I think the spot is associated with the Instituto Federal Electoral, in all honesty, I cannot say that I am certain about this.
It could be argued that if it is sponsored on television by the IFE, it is really being brought to you by the PAN, since they are the current ruling party (since the IFE is a federal government office). That would mean that the PAN is putting out televised propaganda telling people to relax and not be troublesome, which is handy since they are the ones that were declared the winners in the presidential election.
Perhaps it's not surprisingly subtle if it is true. Perhaps the PAN did manage to steal the election as the PRD is claiming, but if they did, they managed to do it while getting the certification of various international observers as clean and fair. Some sources claim the United States could learn a thing or two from how well Mexico handles its elections nowadays.
If the PAN stole the election, they did it with much more subtlety and style than the PRI ever did. I am currently reading a book that shows a photograph of armed yet unmasked men working for the PRI, stealing a ballot box from a polling place. This was routine practice for the PRI, and they were hardly careful to do it without anyone noticing. They would drive in busloads of people to vote for their candidate at various polling locations, then they'd drive them to another one to vote again. They'd arrest competing candidates and hold them in jail indefinitely. During the 1988 election, the PRI announced the electoral computers had "gone silent," just as opposition leader Cuauhtémoc Cardenas of the Frente Democrático Nacional was leading the count. When they got the system working again, surprise! The PRI candidate Carlos Salinas de Gotari was declared the winner.
At this point, I believe that the vote was fair, and that the complaints from the PRD are unfounded paranoia. I admit, some notable celebrities have expressed their doubts about the fairness of the election, but without presenting some proof, I don't think they have much of an argument. If the slick, high-budget PSAs being run right now telling people to accept the decision of IFE are any indication of the manipulative skill the PAN has at its disposal, they'll have a hard time finding anything.
Posted by crispy at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2006
The Road to Bogotá: Part Four
We had only five of our original seven planned days in Bogotá, thanks to our flight being cancelled two days in a row. Instead of giving a day-by-day account of the rest of the trip, let me just comment on some of the more notable things we encountered.
Bogotá is delightfully cool, especially after the end of the pre-rainy season month of May here in Guadalajara. We had endured a long stretch of considerably hot weather, taunted by the promise of those refreshing and reviving rains, but as of the end of May, we'd not seen much of them. However, upon our arrival in Bogotá, we were welcomed by a slight drizzle on a nice cool night. Delicious!
The forecast said that we were to get serious rain the whole time we were there, but that didn't turn out to be the case. While it did rain now and again during our stay, we had a lot of relatively dry weather. It was pretty overcast the whole time, but we were told that the week before, it had been sunny and hot the whole week. The point of all this being, Bogotá has weather changes. That and the fact that it's beautiful to look up from the city streets and see the lush green mountains about the city, shrouded in clouds.
Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá
The fact that the city was not drenched in rain the entire time we were there allowed us to check out some of the city, which is exactly what we went for. On our second night in town, we went to a bar that charged a fairly hefty cover. When we got inside, we found out why: the cover bought you unlimited drinks from the bar for the entire evening. When this concept completely bewildered us, the bartender explaining it to us in Spanish thought we did not understand what he was saying. He sent over another bartender that spoke English, so that he could explain it to us. This bartender turned out to be one of the friendliest people we've ever met, a young Bogotano named Alvaro who is so proud of his city that whenever he has vacation time, he spends it in town going to the different attractions and excellent offerings that the city provides for entertainment.
He hung out with us for the rest of our trip as our friend and tour guide, and this absolutely made the trip an excellent experience for us. Without him, we would not have enjoyed our time in Bogotá at all like we did, and his being such an excellent human being helped to make up for my bad shoe cleaning experience and our discovery that Bogotanos are generally not as friendly as we'd expected them to be, after living in Guadalajara and having heard that Colombians are some of the nicest people on the planet. Alvaro certainly fit that description, making it so that we could say that at least some Colombians are the nicest people on the planet.
Alvaro playing before a statue of Giordano Bruno
Alvaro at the Museo de Oro
I believe I should say a word or two about the Museo de Oro. I will not say much because you can read all about it all over the place. It's a museum that showcases artifacts found in various regions of Colombia made and used by various cultures. The presentation is excellent, the artifacts themselves impressive, and the experience one that is called a "must-see" in every reference on Colombia that exists.
Exhibit, Museo de Oro
I think that is probably true, but my interest in museums tends toward those displaying fine arts, and usually even then, only more modern works. I do occasionally like to look at Indian (from Asia) artifacts, but for the most part, artifacts are not my cup of tea. Were I someone else, I might rave about the Museo de Oro, but it wasn't my favorite part of the trip, and it certainly didn't compare to the works we saw at either the Donación Botero nor the Museo de Arte Moderno (known as the MAMBO, tee hee!).
I recommend both of these places wholeheartedly. If you don't like modern art, you might not like the Museo de Arte Moderno, but I can't imagine anyone not enjoying the works at the Donación Botero, which include an overwhelming number of works by Botero, as well as spectacular pieces by Renoir, Dalí, Chagall, Picasso, Miró, and Bacon. You can't use a flash, but you can take pictures in the Donación Botero. Here are some of our photos, but without the flash, most turned out blurry.
Casa de Moneda, Bogotá
Casa de Moneda, Bogotá
Casa de Moneda, Bogotá
Donación Botero, Bogotá
Donación Botero, Bogotá
Donación Botero, Bogotá
Donación Botero, Bogotá
Moonlight II, 1997
Alex Katz, New York, 1927
Oil on Canvas
Moonlight II, 1997
Alex Katz, New York, 1927
Oil on Canvas
Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá
There were many more attractions to see around Bogotá, like the salt cathedral and the view from Monserrate, but due to a combination of time limitations, motivation and rainy weather, we didn't see any of these. I know this may disappoint some readers, but for us, there were more basic cultural things we wanted to discover, like the food of Bogotá. That is what we'll talk about in the next installment.
Posted by crispy at 01:38 PM | Comments (4)
August 07, 2006
Mexicanos, al grito de guerra
I have not discussed the national anthem of Mexico, or as it's called here, El Himno Nacional Mexicano. It's got a perky melody and there is an interesting story behind it, but the words are ridiculously militaristic for modern-day Mexico.
It makes sense at first, considering the words were written in 1853, shortly after the war with the United States (1846–1848). Mexico lost over 500,000 square miles of their territory in this war (Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, and sections of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming), which was nearly half of the country.
At the time, Antonio López de Santa Anna was president of Mexico. Beyond his famous victory at the Alamo
He was a hero on numerous occasions, but his popularity was always short-lived. Every time he did something that made people like him, he did something that made people hate him. After the the Alamo, at the Battle of San Jacinto, his troops were ambushed by Sam Houston's troops and thoroughly trounced. Six hundred of the surprised soldiers were killed and over seven hundred taken prisoner in just twenty minutes. Santa Ana was not even present at the battle, but was captured the following day, and shortly thereafter signed the Treaties of Velasco which gave the Texas territory away but spared his life. Mexicans were not happy about this, declaring that Santa Anna was no longer president and therefore the treaties he signed were not valid.
He regained popularity through his bravery in the Pastry War, and was asked to again take the reigns of the country after President Anastasio Bustamante was deposed. The country was bankrupt at this point, having endured two wars and facing internal rebellion. He raised taxes, declared publication of materials critical of his regime to be illegal and threw dissenters in jail. In what was considered his ultimate betrayal of his country, he sold nearly half the territory of the country off to the United States. This is the notorious act for which he is remembered in Mexico today.
He delighted in his status as a great Mexican hero, and was always doing whatever it took to maintain his perception as the modest defender of the nation. In one of his efforts to gain favor with the Mexican public, he announced a contest in November of 1853 for a patriotic composition that would become the Mexican national anthem.
Francisco González Bocanegra didn't have any interest in entering, but penned an entry after his fiancée locked him in a bedroom and refused to let him out until he completed one. It won by unanimous vote and was set to a composition by Spanish-born composer Jaime Nunó entitled "Díos y libertad."
The entire song, accepted as official on 16 September (Mexico's Independence Day) of 1854, consists of 10 stanzas, all overwrought with nationalistic sentimentality, and at times, violence and gore. In 1943, President Manuel Ávila Camacho signed an order making the official version consist of only the chorus, first stanza, fifth stanza, sixth stanza and tenth stanza. Most often when you hear it, it has been reduced even further to be the chorus, first stanza, the chorus, tenth stanza and the chorus (or, at sporting events, only the chorus, first stanza and the chorus).
The last war in which Mexico was involved was World War II. Because corrupt, violent and authoritarian governments (as well as several corrupt, violent and authoritarian rebel movements) have plagued Latin American countries, the general sentiment of the people is that the shedding of blood for patriotic ideals is ultimately a pointless waste of life. Movements are afoot in several countries to hold governments and politicians accountable for their "disappearing" thousands of political dissidents, so the idea that "heaven has given [the state] a soldier in every son" is a bit out of date.
There are some unusual laws surrounding the Himno Nacional also. Like you can be fined for singing it incorrectly.
The law dealing with the proper use of the Mexican national anthem is Chapter 5 of the Ley sobre el Escudo, la Bandera y el Himno Nacionales. It sets forth that the anthem must be played at the beginning and end of any broadcast day for radio and television, and when played on television, the flag must also be shown at the same time. Yet there are more interesting provisions, such as those that state that the anthem cannot be sung for commercial or promotional use, that it can only be used at acts of an official, civic, cultural, scholastic or sporting nature, that it can only be played once within the same ceremony, and that if the anthem is played outside of Mexico, the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores must grant permission for its use and ensure that it's not being played for commercial purposes.
It took the government until 2005 to officially permit the anthem to be translated into some of the indigenous languages of Mexico, such as Mixteco, Maya and Nahuatl.
Below follows the entire set of lyrics in Spanish, and then the translation into English of the current official version.
Pick a version in MP3 format and sing along! Just don't do it in public where it could be considered a performance.
Coro
Mexicanos al grito de guerra
el acero aprestad y el bridón.
Y retiemble en su centro la tierra,
al sonoro rugir del cañón.Estrofa I
Ciña ¡oh Patria! tus sienes de oliva
de la paz el arcángel divino,
que en el cielo tu eterno destino
por el dedo de Dios se escribió.
Mas si osare un extraño enemigo
profanar con sus plantas tu suelo,
piensa ¡oh Patria querida! que el cielo
un soldado en cada hijo te dio.Estrofa II
En sangrientos combates los viste
por tu amor palpitando sus senos,
arrostrar la metralla serenos,
y la muerte o la gloria buscar.
Si el recuerdo de antiguas hazañas
de tus hijos inflama la mente,
los recuerdos del triunfo tu frente,
volverán inmortales a ornar.Estrofa III
Como al golpe del rayo la encina,
se derrumba hasta el hondo torrente,
la discordia vencida, impotente,
a los pies del arcángel cayó.
Ya no más, de tus hijos la sangre,
se derrame en contienda de hermanos;
sólo encuentre el acero en sus manos
quien tu nombre sagrado insultó.Estrofa IV
Del guerrero inmortal de Zempoala
te defiende la espada terrible,
y sostiene su brazo invencible,
tu sagrado pendón tricolor.
Él será del feliz mexicano
en la paz y en la guerra el caudillo,
porque él supo sus armas de brillo
circundar en los campos de honor.Estrofa V
Guerra, guerra sin tregua al que intente
de la Patria manchar los blasones,
Guerra, guerra, los patrios pendones
en las olas de sangre empapad.
Guerra, guerra. En el monte, en el valle,
los cañones horrísonos truenen,
y los ecos sonoros resuenen
con las voces de ¡Unión! ¡Libertad!Estrofa VI
Antes, Patria, que inermes tus hijos,
bajo el yugo su cuello dobleguen,
tus campiñas con sangre se rieguen,
sobre sangre se estampe su pie.
Y los templos, palacios y torres
se derrumben con hórrido estruendo,
y sus ruinas existan diciendo:
De mil héroes la Patria aquí fue.Estrofa VII
Si a la lid contra hueste enemiga,
nos convoca la trompa guerrera,
de Iturbide la sacra bandera,
mexicanos, valientes seguid.
Y a los fieles bridones les sirvan
las vencidas enseñas de alfombra;
los laureles del triunfo den sombra
a la frente del Bravo Adalid.Estrofa VIII
Vuelva altivo a los patrios hogares,
el guerrero a cantar su victoria,
ostentando las palmas de gloria
que supiera en la lid conquistar.
Tornaránse sus lauros sangrientos
en guirnaldas de mirtos y rosas,
que el amor de las hijas y esposas,
también sabe a los bravos premiar.Estrofa IX
Y el que al golpe de ardiente metralla,
de la Patria en las aras sucumba,
obtendrá en recompensa una tumba
donde brille, de gloria, la luz.
Y, de Iguala, la enseña querida
a su espada sangrienta enlazada,
de laurel inmortal coronada,
formará de su fosa una cruz.Estrofa X
¡Patria, Patria! tus hijos te juran
exhalar en tus aras su aliento,
si el clarín, con su bélico acento,
los convoca a lidiar con valor.
¡Para ti las guirnaldas de oliva!
¡Un recuerdo para ellos de gloria!
¡Un laurel para ti de victoria!
¡Un sepulcro para ellos de honor!==
Chorus
Mexicans, at the cry of war,
prepare the steel and the steed,
and may the earth shake at its core
to the resounding roar of the cannon.Stanza I
Gird, oh country, your brow with olive
the divine archangel of peace,
for your eternal destiny was written
in the heavens by the hand of God.
But if some strange enemy should dare
to profane your ground with his step,
think, oh beloved country, that heaven
has given you a soldier in every son.Stanza V
War, war without truce to any who dare
to tarnish the country's coat-of-arms!
War, war! Take the national pennants
and soak them in waves of blood.
War, war! In the mountain, in the valley,
the cannons thunder in horrid unison
and the resonant echoes
cry out union, liberty!Stanza VI
Oh country, ere your children
defenseless bend their neck to the yoke,
may your fields be watered with blood,
may they trod upon blood.
And may your temples, palaces and towers
collapse with horrid clamor,
and their ruins live on to say:
This land belonged to a thousand heroes.Stanza X
Oh, country, country, your children swear
to breathe their last in your honor,
if the trumpet with warlike accent
should call them to fight with courage.
For you the olive branches!
A memory for them of glory!
A laurel of victory for you!
For them a tomb with honor!
Posted by crispy at 12:02 AM | Comments (2)