A cataclysm in Mexico 20 years ago forced citizens to rethink the status quo — and their role in it
MEXICO City residents have always had a fatalistic view of nature. Built on a zone of intense seismic activity, the city shakes with tiny movements as many as 20,000 times a year. When a gigantic earthquake shattered the city in 1985, many Mexicans’ deepest shock was their betrayal by the government.
On the morning of Sept. 19, 1985, a catastrophic tremor in the capital crushed tens of thousands of buildings and killed between 10,000 and 30,000 people. In the days that followed, Mexican authorities did nothing or worse. In the flattened garment district, thousands of trapped women screamed for help and died while police blocked civilian rescuers so factory owners could unearth machinery instead.
At the same time, ordinary Mexicans mobilized by the millions. Students fled classrooms to help volunteers dig out survivors. One ad hoc search group, Topos Mexico, or Mexico Moles, still functions today. Tens of thousands of other Mexicans ferried food, water and medical help to victims. And it was ordinary Mexicans who did the mammoth task of clearing wreckage and removing bodies.
The horror transformed Mexico. More than 700,000 people moved outside the city center. Even the most apolitical Mexicans were forced to reassess their government, run by the PRI party since 1929. While many Mexicans had resisted PRI dominance, for millions the party represented stability in a country once disfigured by a civil war.
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Mass eviction to Mexico in 1930s spurs apology
Carlos Guerra was only 3 years old when Los Angeles County authorities came to his family's house in Azusa and ordered his mother, a legal United States resident, and her six American-born children to leave the country.
It was 1931. The administration of President Herbert Hoover backed a policy that would repatriate hundreds of thousands of Mexican Americans, more than half of them United States citizens.
Amid the economic desperation of the Depression, Latino families were viewed as taking jobs and government benefits from "real Americans." In Los Angeles County, a Citizens Committee for Coordination
They had right to stay but were sent to Mexico
Carlos Guerra was only 3 years old when Los Angeles County authorities came to his family's house in Azusa and ordered his mother, a legal U.S. resident, and her six American-born children to leave the country.
It was 1931. The administration of President Hoover backed a policy that would repatriate hundreds of thousands of Mexican-Americans, more than half of them U.S. citizens.
Amid the economic desperation of the Depression, Latino families were viewed as taking jobs and government benefits from "real Americans."
In Los Angeles County, a Citizens Committee for Coordination for Unemployment Relief
Mexico's Zapatista rebels to start 6-month campaign tour
Mexico's Zapatista rebels were to launch a six-month nationwide campaign tour on Sunday aimed at attracting more support from citizens.
The Zapatistas, who were emerging from their jungle hideouts, said they would carry out the tour in a peaceful way by rejecting rifles or wars.
The rebels launched a brief uprising on the New Year's Day 12 years ago, calling for more rights for Mexico's Indian minority.
During a visit to Mexico's 31 states, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos promised to
Immigrants in U.S. new swing voters in Mexico election
CHICAGO, – Former Chicago businessman and Mexican immigrant Timoteo Manjarrez recently decided to run for mayor in his hometown of Teloloapan, a poor city in the South of Mexico where he returned to live six years ago.
"I always dreamed of coming back to my roots. Now we are going to get this city out of the backwardness it is submerged in," the 42-year-old Manjarrez said in a telephone interview.
In July, eager to raise support for his election effort, the successful restaurateur turned to an unlikely group of people who could have
Mexico continues to advance under Vicente Fox
Elected five years ago as president of Mexico, Vicente Fox ended a 71-year power grip by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). And in doing so he raised expectations and enthusiasm by promoting ambitious political and economic reforms while eliminating corruption.
Fox soon found that his constituents were yes amenable but too impatient. As such, today many are disappointed and questioning his programs.
Yet Fox has rectified Mexico. This with far reaching reforms, many of which have been implemented without fanfare — whereas others, such as guaranteeing freedom of the press, have opened Pandora’s boxes.
With
Mexico approved as an enhanced enterprise zone
City Manager Tanna Parish said it best. "Whoopee!" was his reaction to the good news that came in the form of a press release from the office of Gov. Matt Blunt stating the Missouri Department of Economic Development has approved Mexico's enhanced enterprise zone status.
Parish said being granted EEZ status is important for Mexico's economic standard and development.
"This gives us a really important tool needed to attract industry to the area," he said and explained while the city was an enterprise zone before and able to offer incentives to industry looking to relocate in
Immigrants unite to keep dreams alive--and in Mexico
Fernando Fernandez was 17 when he learned that, in Mexico, dreams are too often cast aside. His dream was to become a veterinarian, but reality forced him to migrate to the United States to help support his nine siblings.
Two decades later, he and other Chicago-area immigrants from the central Mexican town of Indaparapeo want to help the next generation hold on to its aspirations.
In an unusual initiative, the group has bankrolled 40 college scholarships designed to let youths stay in Mexico, get an education and avoid a lifetime in a strange land.
"We lived
Mexico should enact immigration reform
MEXI-CO President Vicente Fox has spent much of his international political capital fighting the U.S. House bill passed last December that proposes felon status for illegal immigrants in the United States.
Too bad illegal immigrants in his own land - mostly Central American migrants on their way to the United States - are already treated as criminals. Under a 32-year-old Mexican law, people who have crossed into Mexico illegally can be penalized with two to five years in prison, although the punishment is rarely imposed.
Three legislators, all members of Foxs National Action Party, are working
Buying in Mexico
Title insurance can provide peace of mind for those wary of Baja California real-estate investments
The promise of lucrative profits and the allure of stunning ocean views have drawn U.S. citizens in droves to invest in Baja California real estate, but buying property in Mexico is not necessarily without risk.
It wasn't all that long ago that dozens of Americans were evicted from their homes in Punta Banda outside Ensenada after a Mexican court ruled that the land on which they were living be returned to the original, lawful owners.
he potential for harrowing property disputes, though, may well become
Idaho officials heading to Mexico to boost trade with state
Idaho business and political leaders traveling to Mexico next month for a trade mission want to lure more rich foreign tourists to the state, boost exports of products such as software and help put an end to Mexican trade restrictions on fresh potatoes that have dented sales of Idaho's trademark tuber.
The trip is set for Dec. 3 through Dec. 10, and a delegation of 68 people will accompany Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who earlier this year spent two weeks in Asia on a trade mission to that region.
This is the fourth
