Art Week stretches well beyond Zona Maco’s official dates, with events before and after the fair. Satellite fairs like Feria Material and Salón ACME have grown alongside the main event. At the same time, exhibitions, talks, and parties animate the neighborhoods of Condesa, Roma, Polanco, and Juárez.

From Monterrey to Mexico City

Founder Zélika García took three years to gather 25 galleries and hold the first edition — originally called “Muestra” — in 2002 in Monterrey. After its success, she brought the fair to Mexico City in 2003, where it was renamed “Maco” (México Arte Contemporáneo) and later became “Zona Maco.” The 2024 edition marked the fair’s 20th anniversary, drawing a record-breaking 81,000 visitors, with similar attendance in 2025 when 200 galleries from 29 countries participated. The fair has a direct economic impact on the city during the event, with hotels, restaurants, and local businesses all benefiting from the influx of international visitors.

A distinctive Latin American voice

The two largest fairs in Latin America, Zona Maco in Mexico City and SP-Arte in São Paulo, are both still independent and, notably, both founded by women. This independence has allowed Zona Maco to maintain its distinctive regional character.

The fair is tightly curated with just 125 galleries compared to the much larger Art Basel Miami Beach’s 286 galleries. Yet while Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 attracted more than 75,000 visitors, Zona Maco’s 81,000+ attendance in the last two years demonstrates its growing appeal for art lovers.

Unlike Basel, over half of the galleries at Zona Maco are from Mexico and Latin America, and offer a cultivated roster of museum-caliber artists and an engagement with traditional materials, modern politics, and Latinx-centric themes. “People come to this fair to see different art from Latin America,” says Luis Maluf of the São Paulo gallery. “There are new collectors from around the world, and we have more space than at other fairs to show our Latin American artists.”

Zona Maco 2026 Schedule:

Wednesday, February 4:

• Exclusive collector and museum preview; 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
• VIP Guests; 12 pm-5 pm
• General Public; 5 p.m.-8 p.m.

Thursday-Friday, February 5-6:

• VIP Guests; 12 p.m.-1 p.m.
• General Public; 1 p.m.-8 p.m.

Saturday, February 7:

• General Public; 12 p.m.-8 p.m. 

Sunday, February 8:

• General Public; 11 p.m.-6 p.m. 

The post Zona Maco 2026 is Mexico City’s biggest Art Week yet appeared first on Mexico News Daily

“My father would take us out into nature, and that’s where I fell in love with animals,” Prieto told Mexico News Daily. As a result, I studied veterinary medicine and zootechnology, but then along came a course in photography in the Colegio de Fotografía del Occidente. And I found my niche.”

Confluences is a hard-backed, large-format book of 208 pages published by Artes de México, 2024. It has 65 color photos, all taken by Alejandro Prieto, with seven chapters of text written by various naturalists.

Photographing jaguars in the wild

Prieto’s extraordinary skill at taking photos both on land and underwater brought him into projects that might have discouraged many another photographer.

One of these is the work he carries out for Alianza Jaguar, an organization that needed quality photos of jaguars in their natural habitats, to promote their projects to protect and ensure them a future in Mexico. To get those pictures, endless hours of effort and patience were the order of the day. Later, when Prieto got involved with photographing certain elusive species of the Mexican axolotl, which live in the remote mountains of Michoacán, the problem was surviving ice-cold temperatures underwater.

The roadrunner and the border wall

One of Prieto’s more recent projects, photographing animals whose habitat has been cut in two by the border fence separating the USA from Mexico, brought a new sort of problem.

“It’s a dangerous place,” the photographer confided. “On one hand, you’ve got border patrols that will grab you and take you out of there, and on the other, you’ve got drug runners who will do something even worse if they catch you… and on top of that, you have to put up with both extreme heat and extreme cold.”

Nevertheless, from that hostile environment came Prieto’s unforgettable photo of a roadrunner eyeballing an insurmountable wall wrapped in great coils of razor wire: winner of the 2020 World Press Photo Award for Nature.

That’s just one of 53 International awards that Alejandro Prieto has received so far, an assurance that Confluences is just the sort of book you’ll want to leave lying on your coffee table accidentally.

Canyons, forests, deserts and swamps

Why is this book entitled Confluences?

University of Wisconsin Professor Eduardo Santana makes this clear in the first chapter. West Mexico, he says, “does not have a monolithic identity… What defines its essence is the confluence of dissimilarities.”

Santana is referring to the astounding variety of natural wonders lying in wait for anyone who wanders about West Mexico.

These include smoldering volcanoes, 500-meter-deep canyons, mangrove swamps, tropical jungles, grasslands, hot springs, oak and coniferous forests, desert scrub lands, and much more.  Each environment has its own flora and fauna, not to mention the long-distance migrants: flying creatures of all sorts from hawks and pelicans to bats and butterflies. Put all these together in a relatively small space, and you have geodiversity and biodiversity in abundance.

And, of course, wherever two or more systems come together, you have confluences.

A jungle on a mountain top

Academic studies are not required to appreciate what happens in the many places where ecosystems merge. An excellent example was given to me by another Santana named Aldo, a member of the Cuzalapa people living in the heart of the picturesque Manantlán Biosphere Reserve, located along the state line dividing Jalisco from Colima:

“The Sierra de Manantlán is unique!” exclaims Aldo Santana. “In it, you will find things that are normally seen only in Chiapas, or you’ll find other things typical of Sonora. So, it is mega-diverse! It is as if you were seeing all the ecosystems together in one place. And if you are here during the rainy season, you will find everything green, a jungle. It’s a tropical jungle on a mountain top!” 

Underwater in the Gulf of California

The photographs in Confluences take us on a tour of West Mexico’s extraordinary geo and biodiversity, whether on land, in the air or, underwater.

We are introduced to marine life in the Sea of Cortés, home to an enormous array of environments, from deep basins to some of the largest tidal zones in the world. Thanks to Prieto’s skills as a diver and underwater photographer, we are introduced to silky sharks, dolphins, sea lions, surgeon fish, needle fish… as well as the marine birds flying overhead.

Among the many delightful creatures we find photographed in this book, three fascinating species stand out: jaguars, axolotls, and “flying white sheep,” otherwise known as American pelicans to those of us with less imagination than the Mexicans living on the shores of Lake Chapala.

Friends of the jaguars

An entire chapter is dedicated to this emblematic feline. Award-winning journalist Agustín del Castillo dives into the story of why and how the Jaguar Alliance came into being, and what they are doing today to transform hostile ranchers into friends of the big cats. We also follow Alex Prieto in his quest to photograph these magnificent animals in their natural surroundings: no easy task!

Flying sheep and walking fish

Del Castillo devotes two additional chapters to axolotls and American pelicans.

Axolotls — incorrectly known as “Mexican walking fish” — are among the strangest creatures on the planet. These photogenic amphibians are famed for their ability to regenerate just about every part of their bodies, including their brains and hearts. Once abundant in Mexico, their numbers are now dwindling due to the ever-increasing pollution of the country’s lakes, ponds, and rivers.

The American pelicans, on the other hand, seem to be doing better than ever. These huge birds live in Canada and along the northern US border. Every year around September, they begin their 4000-kilometer migration to warmer climes, in particular to Lake Chapala.

By chance, there is a successful fish-filleting operation on the tiny island of Petatán, Michoacán, at the southeast end of the lake, and here the pelicans gather by the thousands to enjoy the scraps. Among the many visitors to Petatán — fascinated by the site and sound of ten thousand “flying white sheep”  taking off and landing — was photographer Alejandro Prieto, and thanks to him, owners of Confluences can vicariously enjoy the show. 

To get your own copy of this extraordinary book — whether in English or in Spanish, you are asked to donate to the Jaguar Alliance. For full information, send an email to alianzajaguar@gmail.com.

John Pint has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.

The post The extraordinary wildlife photography of Alejandro Prieto appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Welcome to Mexico Well-Read!

I am delighted to be reviewing books about Mexico, this infinitely fascinating, inspiring, gorgeous, sometimes frustrating country we all love. I hope you’ll join me here each month to discover your next great read. I’ll cover fiction and nonfiction on a wide variety of topics, by Mexican and international authors. Books available in English that came out in the last couple of years as well as brand-new releases and forthcoming titles. 

I’m particularly on the lookout for underappreciated gems that more MND readers should know about, so please feel free to send suggestions in the comments.

A little about me, Ann Marie Jackson, your trusty guide: I am a book editor with a boutique editorial agency based in San Miguel de Allende, grateful for the amazing privilege of leading a literary life in Mexico. I work with traditional publishers, hybrid presses and indie authors. My own award-winning novel, “The Broken Hummingbird,” is set in San Miguel, where I’ve lived since 2012. And, of course, I am a voracious reader, especially of all things Mexico.

‘This Mouth is Mine’ by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil

With great wit and enormous charm, Gil has done the seemingly impossible: She’s made a book about topics as potentially grim as the death of languages and systematic discrimination against speakers of Indigenous languages an extremely enjoyable read. With vivid anecdotes, approachable prose and a sense of humor, she invites us to care about the vibrancy of Indigenous languages and the people who speak them. It is in all our interests to advocate for a future in which a diversity of language and culture is celebrated rather than homogenized.

As The Times Literary Supplement put it, “‘This Mouth is Mine’ is an important reminder that the linguistic is political and that linguistic discrimination tends to intersect with racism. [The essays show that] Indigenous languages are modern languages too, as suitable for writing rock lyrics, tweeting jokes, or explaining quantum physics as Spanish and English.” 

Gil is a leading defender of linguistic rights who develops educational materials in indigenous languages and documents languages at risk of disappearance. She has also co-presented with Gael García Bernal a documentary series about environmental issues in Mexico.

Half of the world’s languages will die

UNESCO predicts that within the next 100 years, an astounding half of the 6,000 languages currently spoken in the world will go extinct. The University of Hawaii’s Catalogue of Endangered Languages reports that every three months, a language dies somewhere in the world, and the rate will only increase.

As Gil points out, “Never before in history has this happened. Never before have so many languages died out. Why are they dying now?” 

The answer, she believes, lies in the fact that 300 years ago, the world was carved up into 200 nation states, and “in order to construct internal homogeneity, a single language was assigned value as the language of the state. [Other] languages were discriminated against and suppressed.”

In Mexico’s case, in 1820, when the Mexican nation was established 300 years after the Spanish conquest, 65% of the population spoke an Indigenous language. Today, Gil notes, “Only 6.5% are speakers of an Indigenous language, while Spanish has become dominant. Two hundred years ago, our languages were majority languages: Nahuatl, Maya, Mayo, Tepehua, Tepehuán, Mixe, and all other indigenous languages.”

“Did we suddenly decide to abandon our languages? That’s not what happened. There was a process, driven by government policy, that devalued our languages in favor of just one, Spanish. For our languages to disappear, our ancestors had to endure beatings, reprimands and discrimination for speaking their mother tongues.”

Today, there are many misunderstandings about Mexico’s Indigenous languages — for example, that they are only oral. As Gil explains, “There is evidence of writing on stone, on codices, and a long colonial tradition in the Latin script that dwindled and almost disappeared with Independence, when the government stopped accepting Indigenous language texts. 

“Now they’re starting to be written again … There are even languages such as Isthmus Zapotec that had important publications throughout the whole of the twentieth century… writing in Zapotec has an almost uninterrupted written tradition dating back to 500 B.C.”

Defending Indigenous languages today

The accelerated, unprecedented loss of world languages should get more attention because language loss is a key indicator in the well-being of Indigenous peoples. Gil sees reasons for hope, however, in the successes of language activists in various parts of the world. 

The Hawaiian language, for example, was at high risk of disappearing, but recently the number of speakers has grown dramatically. Gil credits the fact that “It’s [now] possible to go all the way through from preschool to university studying in Hawaiian.” 

“Similarly, in New Zealand, Maori language nests have created new speakers,” she said. And there are other examples. Gil believes that if new generations are to learn at-risk languages, extensive activist efforts such as these are required.

“I believe the movement [in Mexico] to support literature in languages other than Spanish will be greatly enriched if publishers, festivals, fairs, bookshops and readers were to open up to the great diversity of languages and poetics that currently exists — all on the same level, all complex and equal,” Gil said. “Though that might seem an impossible utopia, the state of things is gradually changing.

“The [National Autonomous University of Mexico], for example, organizes the Carlos Montemayor Languages of America Poetry Festival, where it’s possible to hear creators in Zapotec, Portuguese and Mixtec speak in the same forum. Which should be the norm.”

Being bilingual is not the same as being bilingual

In one anecdote, Gil recalls visiting Mexico City for the first time and being delighted by all the ads for bilingual schools and jobs; with a child’s naivete, she assumed that Nahuatl must be highly valued in the capital. She quickly learned that is not the case — only English carries a premium. 

“If you were a teacher, speaking an Indigenous language implied having a lower salary and less prestige within the education system. To put it simply, I came to understand that being bilingual is not the same as being bilingual.” 

Gil writes passionately about the connections between defending Indigenous territories and Indigenous languages. 

“In the movement to recognize Indigenous rights, we’re proud of the ways we resist but still wish we didn’t have to. Resistance implies the existence of an aggression. Resistance,” she acknowledges, “is exhausting.”

Ann Marie Jackson, author of “The Broken Hummingbird,” welcomes you to Mexico Well-Read. Photo by Jessica Patterson.

Join the conversation about ‘This Mouth is Mine’

Once you’ve read it, feel free to share in the comments below the insights you drew from this thought-provoking book, as well as your suggestions of recent (published within the last two years) and forthcoming titles you’d like to see me review.

Ann Marie Jackson is a book editor and the award-winning author of “The Broken Hummingbird.” She lives in San Miguel de Allende and can be reached through her website: annmariejacksonauthor.com.

The post Mexico Well-Read: ‘This Mouth is Mine’ by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil appeared first on Mexico News Daily

MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials confirmed Thursday that one in five tacos eaten in Mexico last year was made in China, sparking mild concern among local taqueros.​​

Industry figures say roughly 20% of all tacos eaten in 2025 came from China, up from “basically none” just five years ago, when Chinese tacos were considered a meme and not a macroeconomic threat. ​

“Chinese tacos don’t have a single ingredient made in Mexico, and that’s exactly why they’re so cheap and so terrifying,” said Manuel Montoya, director of the Nuevo León Taco Cluster, staring grimly at a suspiciously perfect tortilla. “They arrive frozen, stacked and standardized.”​​

Consumers, however, appear delighted.

“These Chinese taquerías? Incredible,” said Mexico City resident Karla Jiménez, devouring what appeared to be a perfectly symmetrical suadero. “They’re half the price, never run out of salsa, and the robot server bows when it brings your lime.” ​

Despite the surge, authorities moved quickly to “level the playing field,” slapping a 50% tariff on all tacos imported from countries without a free trade agreement, including China, Brazil, South Korea and “any place where they think cilantro is exotic.” ​

Industry leaders argue the measure is not about closing the border to foreign tacos but about “balancing the market” so that local taqueros, their plastic stools and their delicately balanced salsas can continue to compete.​

Check out our Jalapeño archive here.

Got an idea for a Jalapeño article? Email us with your suggestions!

The post El Jalapeño: 1 in 5 tacos sold in Mexico now made in China appeared first on Mexico News Daily

The fashion of football fans wearing their team colors during games (whether in the stadium or a local bar) has turned replica shirts into a US $10 billion industry. Nevertheless, many predict that there is plenty of growth left in the market, with a projection of it reaching $20 billion by the end of the decade. 

Some of the 2026 kits, made by Adidas and Puma, were released just before Christmas; those by Nike, as well as most “away” kits — also an important section of the market — are expected to come out in March and April. “Cool fans” often opt to wear these.

Football fashion in Mexico

When fans got their first look at this Cup’s Mexico shirt, there was a collective sigh of relief. Mexico has a reputation for producing some classic football shirts, both for the national team and for the Liga MX clubs. Although fashion is a matter of personal taste, Mexico did receive two nominations on “The 100 best football kits of all-time” list published by the British magazine FourFourTwo — one of the most accepted of such lists by fans.  Club America’s 1994/95 shirt took No. 20 on this list, and the Mexico World Cup shirt of 1998 was No. 16.

However, fans had a few concerns leading up to the release of the 2026 kit, as recent years had brought some underwhelming designs. The 2024 “peacock” shirt was unpopular, and in 2025, Mexico broke with tradition at the Gold Cup and played in black. Influenced by both Mariachi bands and the Mexica Empire, it was not a bad design, but it did not win the country’s soccer fans’ support, with many disapproving of the move away from the traditional green! 

Then, in April 2025, there was a buzz on the internet when pictures of the 2026 shirt and it appeared we were heading for another break from tradition: The leak revealed a green shirt with three thick vertical bars down the center, a design that appeared to be loosely based on the 1978 World Cup away shirt. 

This had been a reasonable design at the time, but it now looked dated. These early drafts of the 2026 shirt resulted in internet-wide cries of horror, and so Adidas went back to the drawing board.

Kudos on the current design for ‘El Tri’ in the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The design officially released has met with universal praise, being closely based on the classic design of 1998. What made that shirt so unique is that Mexico moved away from the big international sports companies, instead turning to a local firm, ABA Sport, which, since entering the market, had produced some excellent designs for Mexican clubs. 

The 1998 shirt used the standard green with red-and-white trims but drew from the country’s cultural heritage with the Mexica calendar incorporated into the design. This was a brave idea which could have flopped, and had the Mexica image been any more pronounced on the shirt, it would have looked far too cartoonish. Luckily, the image enhanced the design and didn’t dominate it. 

The 2026 shirt, while adapting much of the 1998 design, has used a more subtle motif, to good reviews — a welcome “return to the more daring,” according to the Cult Kit website, while the ESPN reviewer noted that the  “elaborate pattern and eagle crest are sure to elevate this to instant ‘modern classic’ status.” 

A 7-stage guide to the history of Mexican national team soccer shirts

1928-1954

When Mexico made its debut in a major international football tournament at the 1928 Olympics, the team played in dark-burgundy shirts with black or dark-navy shorts. It is uncertain why these colors were chosen above the green, red and white of the national flag. 

One story is that the dark-burgundy color was linked to the Mexica, who created a similar color by crushing the tiny insects that lived on the prickly pear cacti. That is an interesting historical fact, but there is no evidence that this inspired the modern football shirts. Given the snobbish attitude of the day — soccer was still strongly influenced by private sport clubs such as Reforma — the idea that the burgundy shirts were worn in honor of the Spanish National team might have traction. 

For whatever reason, Mexico used burgundy shirts with dark shorts for its first three World Cup tournaments and retained these colors as its second-choice uniform for many years after that. 

1950

Mexico arrived at the Estádio dos Eucaliptos Stadium in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for their last game of the 1950 tournament to find their burgundy kit clashed with the red shirts of their opponents, Switzerland. There was a 20-minute delay while the local side, Cruzeiro de Porto Alegre, rounded up their blue-and-white striped kit and lent it to the Mexicans. Incidentally, this happened again in 1978 when both France and Hungary arrived at the stadium with their second choice, white shirts. On that occasion, France played in the green-and-white stripes of the Argentinian Club Atlético Kimberley. 

1958

The switch to a green shirt with red-and-white trimmings, colors inspired by the Mexican flag, finally came at the 1956 Pan-American Games. The World Cup kit two years later was a plain green shirt with a touch of red on the white shorts. 

1962-1970

Green with various red-and-white touches has remained Mexico’s official colors in every World Cup since 1958. However, on several occasions, the team has reverted to the old burgundy colors for at least one of their games. This has not always been easy to explain. 

While one of the teams is obviously obliged to change colors if there is a clash, what constitutes a clash is more complicated than it might seem. Television audiences have to be considered, and that could be tricky in the days of black-and-white sets, when blue and green shirts might appear on screen as similar shades of grey. In addition, shirts that were fine for an afternoon game might pose problems for an evening match played under floodlights. 

Mexico tended to turn back to the darker shirts later in the tournament, leaving us to wonder if, after two games and two visits to the laundromat, the green shirts were simply feeling a little worn out.

1978

Mexico failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, and when they returned to the tournament in 1978,  burgundy had been dropped as their secondary color. For the opening game against Tunisia, they wore the new second jersey — a white shirt with broad vertical red and green bands — complemented by red shorts. The design was popular, but the tournament was a disaster for Mexico.

1994

The great Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos was famous for designing his own kit, and none were more outlandish than the “hurt your eyes” shirts he wore in the 1994 World Cup. These unforgettable neon-colored designs reportedly took inspiration from the colors of his native Guerrero. But at 1.70 m, Campos was also small for a goalkeeper, and it didn’t hurt that the shirts were designed to make him appear taller.

1998

An all-time classic, and a design that has influenced this year’s kit. Enough said.

2022 

Mexico stole the show in Qatar. Not only was the new green design a big fan favorite, but the second jersey with eye-catching Mexica designs in red was considered one of the best shirts of the tournament.

In a few months, thousands of supporters will be wearing the new shirts in the Azteca Stadium as they watch Mexico kick off their 18th World Cup campaign. It should be a colorful start!

Bob Pateman is a Mexico-based historian, librarian and a life-term hasher. He is editor of On On Magazine, the international history magazine of hashing.

The post The World Cup is 6 months away — but the fashion show has already started appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Didn’t have time to read this week’s top stories? Here’s what you missed.

Security and bilateral cooperation

The week’s most significant development came Tuesday when Mexico transferred 37 alleged cartel members to the United States in the third major prisoner handover since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office. Among those sent north were Ricardo González Sauceda, identified as a regional leader of the Northeast Cartel, and Pedro Inzunza Noriega, father of a senior Beltrán Leyva Organization figure. The transfer brings to 92 the total number of high-level criminals extradited during the current administration.

Mexico sends 37 alleged criminals to US in third major prisoner transfer

Security Minister Omar García Harfuch emphasized that all transferees were wanted by U.S. authorities and that Mexico received assurances the death penalty would not be sought against any of them. The move appeared designed to demonstrate cooperation amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration, which has recently threatened military strikes against cartels operating in Mexico.

President Sheinbaum defended the decision during Wednesday’s morning press conference, calling it a “sovereign” choice made in Mexico’s interests rather than a capitulation to U.S. pressure. Critics in opposition parties questioned whether proper legal procedures were followed, with some lawmakers demanding greater transparency about the terms of the transfers.

The bilateral security relationship also made headlines when Mexican authorities announced the arrest of Alejandro Rosales Castillo, an FBI “10 most-wanted fugitive” sought since 2016 for murdering his former girlfriend in North Carolina. Captured in Pachuca, Hidalgo, the arrest demonstrated ongoing cooperation between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Thursday brought an even more dramatic capture when former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding turned himself in to authorities in Mexico City. Wedding, a Canadian who competed in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, allegedly ran a transnational cocaine network that imported 60 tonnes annually while living a “colorful and flashy” lifestyle in Mexico for over a decade. FBI Director Kash Patel flew to Mexico City to personally escort Wedding and Castillo back to California, calling Wedding “a modern day Pablo Escobar.”

FBI Director Kash Patel announces the capture of Ryan Wedding, a former Olympian and accused drug lord, after years on the run.

“Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times,” Patel said.… pic.twitter.com/GZgAFQqvd5

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 23, 2026

Adding to the week’s security-related news, questions arose about a U.S. military plane that landed at Toluca airport Saturday. During Monday’s press briefing, Sheinbaum clarified that the flight had been authorized in October for training purposes, with Mexican security officials boarding the aircraft to travel north for a month-long program. Security Minister García Harfuch elaborated during Friday’s conference that U.S. Northern Command had invited Mexican personnel to a Mississippi base for tactical training in shooting and investigation. While Sheinbaum acknowledged it would have been preferable to use a Mexican military plane, she stressed no U.S. troops had entered Mexican territory.

Aviation alerts raise concerns

The Federal Aviation Administration issued seven NOTAMs (notices to airmen) Friday urging U.S. pilots to “exercise caution” over Mexico’s Pacific coast and the Gulf of California due to possible military activities and satellite navigation interference. Mexico’s response characterized the warnings as precautionary, with the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport asserting there were no operational implications for Mexican airspace.

The FAA alerts, valid through March 17, sparked speculation about potential U.S. military operations in the region. However, Sheinbaum maintained Sunday that no U.S. military action was occurring in Mexican territory, pointing to coordination between Mexican authorities and the U.S. Embassy to clarify the situation.

International diplomacy and trade tensions

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mexico’s presence addressed both environmental and economic priorities. Environment Minister Alicia Bárcena used the platform to stress urgent climate action, warning that current efforts remain insufficient. She outlined Mexico’s development of three circular economy parks and its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions, while seeking international partnerships to accelerate the country’s green energy transition.

Perhaps more consequential for Mexico’s economic future were remarks by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose speech Sheinbaum publicly endorsed during Wednesday’s press conference. Carney’s assertion that the rules-based international order is undergoing a “rupture, not a transition” — with veiled references to U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies — could signal challenges ahead for the USMCA trade agreement’s upcoming review.

The escalating tensions between Trump and Carney prompted immediate action from Mexico. After Trump called Canada ungrateful in his Davos speech, Sheinbaum promised Mexico would hold the deal together as Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard went to Washington to smooth ruffled feathers. “We are going to work so that it doesn’t break,” Sheinbaum said of the USMCA deal.

Adding to economic developments, the Mexican peso strengthened to below 17.5 per U.S. dollar this week — its strongest level since 2024. Banamex economists predicted the “superpeso” could sustain strength for the next two years, offering a rare bright spot amid economic uncertainties.

Tourism and cultural promotion

Mexico took center stage at Madrid’s International Tourism Fair (FITUR) this week as the event’s partner country. The country’s comprehensive showcase featured all 32 states, with cultural performances including Oaxaca’s Guelaguetza and Michoacán’s Danza de los Viejitos drawing international attention. Mexican artist César Menchaca created a striking Huichol-inspired interpretation of Madrid’s iconic Bear and Strawberry Tree monument, placed prominently at Puerta del Sol.

FITUR was also the site of a significant diplomatic moment when Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited Mexico’s fair pavilion — the first contact between the Spanish monarchs and Mexican officials since former President López Obrador’s 2019 demand for an apology for the Conquest. Sheinbaum characterized the visit as “symbolic,” noting the royals’ interaction with Indigenous representatives could help “heal wounds.”

FITUR also yielded concrete results for Mexican states, with Guanajuato Governor Libia García announcing that Air Europa will establish direct flights from Madrid to the Bajío International Airport starting this year. The new route is expected to strengthen international connectivity and boost European tourism to central Mexico.

The promotional effort aligns with the Sheinbaum administration’s ambitious goal of positioning Mexico among the world’s five most-visited destinations by 2040. However, this aspiration faces headwinds from stagnating domestic tourism, which saw essentially flat growth in 2025 after declining in 2024. Experts attribute the trend to a weakening economy, reduced household purchasing power and security concerns affecting certain destinations.

Domestic health initiatives

On the home front, President Sheinbaum announced plans during Tuesday’s press conference to issue universal health care identification cards to all Mexicans, representing a step toward integrating the country’s fragmented public health system. The cards will link to electronic medical records and allow citizens to identify their health care provider while facilitating future cross-institutional treatment.

The registration process, costing approximately 3.5 billion pesos, will begin March 2 with 14,000 Welfare Ministry workers staffing registration modules nationwide. The initiative comes as measles continues spreading throughout all 32 states, with over 7,100 cases and 24 deaths reported in the past year despite vaccination efforts.

Judicial reform questions persist

Questions about Mexico’s controversial judicial reform resurfaced during Friday’s press conference in Veracruz when a reporter asked Sheinbaum whether the Supreme Court showed bias toward the ruling Morena party. The question followed an El Universal report finding that the newly elected Supreme Court — whose nine justices won their seats in Mexico’s first judicial elections last June — had ruled in favor of government-backed reforms at least six times without a single ruling against them. Sheinbaum deflected, saying the court itself would have to answer such questions, while noting that sessions were now public rather than conducted “in the dark” as before.

Weather and natural conditions

As the week ended, Mexico’s National Meteorological Service issued winter weather alerts for northern states, warning of the third major winter storm of the season. Border states including Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua faced predictions of significant temperature drops, strong winds and heavy rainfall, with possible snow or sleet. The warnings coincided with a potentially historic winter storm system affecting the United States from the Texas Panhandle to the Northeast.

Looking ahead

As the USMCA review approaches, Mexico faces critical decisions about how to navigate an increasingly complex North American relationship. The week’s events — from prisoner transfers demonstrating cooperation to aviation alerts suggesting ongoing tensions, from FITUR’s diplomatic breakthroughs to Davos clashes threatening trade stability — illustrate the delicate balance required. The Sheinbaum administration must maintain sovereignty while strengthening partnerships essential to economic growth, all while addressing domestic challenges from public health to tourism sector weakness and adapting to shifting geopolitical realities where Canada pursues alternatives to U.S. dependence. The coming weeks will test whether Mexico can successfully walk this tightrope.

This story contains summaries of original Mexico News Daily articles. The summaries were generated by Claude, then revised and fact-checked by a Mexico News Daily staff editor.

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Since the COVID pandemic, younger digital nomads have also begun to flock to the country in increasingly greater numbers. Several neighborhoods in Mexico City have become ground zero for digital nomads, bringing with them the good and bad that comes with a sudden large influx of newcomers. But it’s not just Mexico City: Digital nomads have also settled in cities large and small throughout the country.

So the country is now full of foreigners over 55 and under 35 … but what about those in between? The perception for most people has historically been that, as a foreigner, you can’t raise your kids in Mexico. I remember once hearing a foreign visitor expressing shock that the expat woman she was talking to had given birth to her children in Mexico. The expat sarcastically replied, “Believe it or not, Mexicans have babies too!”

So what about that perception? Is it “confidently wrong”? Is Mexico actually a viable place for foreigners to consider raising and schooling their kids? And if so, where? And at what ages? How is it similar or different from schooling in other countries? And how are expat kids schooled here different than their family and friends back home — socially, culturally and even emotionally?

It is with that background that we bring you the second season of “Confidently Wrong: Raising Expat Kids in Mexico.” Each episode of this season will dive into “confidently wrong” assumptions about raising and schooling kids in Mexico. We will bring you interviews with parents, teachers, administrators and kids. We will share their stories with you and you will hear, in their own words, what the experience was like.

We’re not doing vague hot takes or “Mexico is perfect” soundbites. We’re sharing what people wish they’d known, what surprised them, what was harder than expected, and what ended up being better than they imagined. You will hear it in their own words — how they chose schools, how kids adapted (or didn’t), what community looked like, and what they’d do differently if they started over.

This season is not meant to tell you that raising kids in Mexico is better or worse than in your home country. It is meant to inform, educate, entertain and help ensure that you are not making decisions based on “confidently wrong” assumptions. We have worked hard to bring you a very wide range of perspectives on the topic, and if you’ve ever even considered Mexico with kids, you’ll want to hear these conversations before you decide anything. Check out the first episode (available on Spotify here or YouTube here) in which we frame up what is coming in Season 2 — it’s going to be very fun!

Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for nearly 30 years.

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When Gaspar de Portolá, the new California governor, sailed into San José del Cabo on Nov. 30, 1767, “the soldiers, who had come with exaggerated notions about the wealth of the Jesuit missions, hastened to seize the treasures of Mission San José del Cabo; but, with the exception of the church ornaments, nothing of value was discovered,” wrote Zephyrin Engelhardt in his 1908 book on the Spanish missionary period, “The Missions and Missionaries of California: Vol. 1, Lower California.” 

“They then proceeded to Mission Santiago and encountered the same poverty. Like all the Jesuits in the missions, Father (Ignacio) Tirsch of Santiago had not the least suspicion of what was coming, and no reason or opportunity for concealing anything. Portolá next took his men to the silver mines and convinced himself of their poverty, and the penury of those who feebly worked them.”

José de Gálvez and the shift in Franciscan focus

After a little more than 70 years of missionary work on the Baja California peninsula, the Jesuits had accumulated no wealth but had founded 17 missions and “saved many souls.” 

The Franciscans, who replaced them, would remain in Baja California for only five years, establish only one mission — the Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá, about 35 miles southeast of El Rosario — and leave the peninsula’s missions even poorer than they already were.

The Franciscans were chosen as successors to the Jesuits by José de Gálvez, the visitador general, whose newly endowed authority had made him the most powerful man in Mexico (or Nueva España, as it was then known). 

Gálvez arrived in July 1768 to reorganize the peninsula, unveiling his plans for California to the dozen or so Franciscan friars, led by Mallorcan Junípero Serra, who himself had only been in residence since April. 

The most ambitious of these plans was the commitment to establishing missions in Alta California — now the U.S. state of California. How much of this shift in focus northward was influenced by the evident poverty of the missions in Baja California is unknown. However, by early 1769, land and sea expeditions were bound for San Diego. By July of that year, Serra had founded the first Alta California mission there. Serra would later found eight more missions in Alta California, an achievement for which he has since been controversially canonized as a saint by the Catholic church. 

Portolá, also integral to the expedition, saw his role as governor expand to include both Alta and Baja California.  

How Baja California paid for the settlement of Alta California

Not everyone benefited from this northern focus, which by 1777 had seen the capital of Las Californias shift from Loreto in Baja California to Monterey in Alta California. To be blunt, the settlement of Alta California was largely paid for by looting the meager coffers of Baja California’s missions and squeezing money from the peninsula’s lone successful entrepreneur. 

“To lessen the expenses for the proposed missions, Gálvez decided that the old establishments (the missions in Baja California) should aid in founding the new ones by donating vestments, sacred vessels and other church articles,” Engelhardt wrote. “From the inventories, he saw that all could assist a little, which, with what he had obtained from the extinguished missions, would supply at least three new missions. He himself proceeded to Todos Santos to collect what could be spared, and he directed Fr. Serra to do likewise on his trip to the north from all the missions, not excepting Loreto.”

Also contributing was the one rich man the peninsula had so far produced: former soldier Manuel de Ocio. After reaping some timely intel from Cochimí Indians about 400 pounds of pearls thrown onto a beach in Mulegé after a violent storm in 1740, Ocio retired from the Loreto presidio to found a mine at Santa Ana in 1748, a few miles south of the Baja California Sur mining towns that subsequently sprang up in San Antonio and El Triunfo.

Ocio’s mine wasn’t that impressive in terms of the amount of silver it produced, but by 1751, it had reached the limit necessary for him to register it with the Spanish crown and pay taxes. In addition to the workforce of 300 he acquired, many from the Mexican mainland, he also ran thousands of head of cattle and managed to buy 14 homes in Guadalajara as a real estate investment. 

Gálvez, seeing that Ocio had what little wealth there was on the peninsula, established his headquarters at Santa Ana and ruthlessly pumped the mine owner to help fund the expedition to Alta California. Indeed, according to Harry W. Crosby’s definitive book, “Antigua California, Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697-1768”: 

“Manuel de Ocio’s little empire provided the ship that made possible Portolá’s coming; the further use of his ships, his mules, mule drivers and stores made possible the prompt launching of the expedition to the north. Without that which was commandeered from Ocio, Gálvez’s plans would have had long setbacks. But Ocio received no thanks and ultimately no reward nor even the recompense promised by royal officials.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, two of Gálvez’s imported miners murdered Ocio in 1771 after robbing his storehouse.

Indigenous peoples and the disaster of Gálvez’s policies

If Ocio was ill-used by Gálvez, so, too, were the Indigenous peoples of the Baja California peninsula. Gálvez believed the Jesuits had coddled the Indians; he was intent on using them as a free labor source, including in the salt mines at Isla del Carmen, off the coast of Loreto. 

“Gálvez made elaborate plans for the transformation of the California missions using Serra and the Franciscans as the agents for the changes he thought necessary,” author Dave Werschkul pointed out in “Saints and Demons in a Desert Wilderness: A History and Guide to Baja California’s Spanish Missions” (2003):

“Among Gálvez’s decrees were the reduction in the number of missions, elimination of the visitas (sub-missions), and the movement of Indians from one area to another to meet the labor requirements of the more productive agricultural areas. The results were a disaster. In 1769, one ranchería of 44 Indians was moved from San Javier to San José del Cabo. All but three died.”

The native inhabitants of Los Cabos, the Pericú, also saw their numbers continue to dwindle. In 1768, the year the Franciscans took over, there were 178 Indians at the Santiago mission under Fr. José Murguía and 70 at San José del Cabo, which had been raised back to full mission status under Fr. Juan Morán. Three years later, in 1771, those numbers were 70 and 50, respectively, or a total of only 120 throughout Los Cabos. 

Likely, these were mostly still Pericú, although as noted above, Gálvez was not above importing Indigenous people from other parts of the peninsula to help facilitate agricultural production for the missions.

Disease remained the primary culprit for the diminished numbers. Many Indigenous people were killed by the 1769 epidemic that also killed Fr. Morán, as well as the French astronomer Jean-Baptiste Chappe d’Auteroche, who had traveled to San José del Cabo to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus, which he did successfully before his death. 

The exact disease that decimated Indigenous numbers is not known. An outbreak of measles was known to have occurred that year, with typhus and yellow fever also conjectured.

The Franciscan era’s legacy in Los Cabos

The Jesuits had been careful to keep the population of Baja California restricted to missionaries, Indigenous and presidio soldiers. Some soldiers were married. Esteban Rodríguez Lorenzo, for example, one of the original 10 to land at Loreto in 1697, married María de Larrea on the mainland during a hiatus from his duties in 1707. They had seven children, the first true family of settlers on the peninsula. Rodríguez was also the first man permitted by the Jesuits to raise his own cattle. 

But as local historian Pablo L. Martínez was quick to note in his “Guía Familiar de Baja California, 1700-1900” (1965), the first real secular community to arise on the peninsula came about because of the need for workers at Ocio’s mine. Santa Ana thus became a kind of cradle for early settlers, with some of the most esteemed Los Cabos families, such as the Cotas, arriving during this early period. 

Gálvez, for all his faults, was the first to initiate a call for colonists. 

“Besides making strong efforts to improve the conditions of the natives, Gálvez paid special attention to the project of colonizing Lower California with Spaniards,” Engelhardt wrote. “On Aug. 12, 1768, he issued a decree setting forth the privileges offered to colonists and the regulations by which they were to be governed. Government lands were separated from mission lands and offered to Spaniards of good character on easy terms. 

“The chief obligation was that the settlers would make improvements and pay a small annual tax to the king. The first to avail themselves of these advantages were discharged soldiers and sailors from Loreto, but there were few others before 1821.” 

These discharged soldiers, sailors and their families, along with the workforce at Santa Ana, would form the roots of the communities that would eventually arise in San José del Cabo, Cabo San Lucas and elsewhere in the region now known as Los Cabos. 

But, first, there was one more Catholic missionary order to come to the area — that of the Dominicans, who took over the missions in Baja California after 1773, when the Franciscans decided to concentrate their efforts solely on Alta California. 

Chris Sands is the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He’s also a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily.

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I got my wish: New York University accepted me, and I spent several years immersed in the New York City scene, absorbing everything that an expensive American education promises: intellectual rigor, professional networks, the intoxicating energy of a global city. 

It was a wonderful experience, but it broke the bank and sent me through the spiral of New York City extremes: late nights, hustling ambition, ruthless competition — and some intense partying. When I look at my student loan balance today, I can’t say there are no regrets.

Now, decades later, I find myself on the other side of the equation, as a college professor running a business in Mexico City. I’ve started asking questions I never thought to ask as a teenager: What does higher education look like here in Mexico? What is the price range? What programs are Mexican universities strongest in? How are schools here different from universities around the globe? And, perhaps most importantly, how are these schools regarded internationally and in the workplace? 

The landscape of Mexican higher education

Mexico has 1,250 registered universities serving a nation of 128 million. At the apex sit institutions largely unknown to Americans but integral to Mexican society and Latin American academia.

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) is a giant: Founded in 1551, it’s one of the oldest universities in the Americas and enrolls over 350,000 students. Its brutalist architecture main campus, a UNESCO World Heritage site, sprawls across former lava fields in southern Mexico City. This is where Mexico’s presidents, intellectuals and Nobel laureates have been educated for generations.

Then there’s Tecnológico de Monterrey, known as “el Tec.” Founded in 1943 by Monterrey industrialists, it’s Mexico’s premier private university, with 26 campuses nationwide: Think Mexico’s Stanford, focused on innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), founded in 1936, serves as the public counterpart, specializing in engineering and technical fields. The Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico City focuses on social sciences and humanities. Private institutions like Universidad Panamericana and Anáhuac University cater to upper-middle-class families seeking Catholic educational values and smaller class sizes.

Yet by global metrics, Mexican higher education remains invisible. Not a single Mexican university appears in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings or the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2025–2026. UNAM has slipped to No. 136 on QS’s rankings. Tec de Monterrey ranks seventh in Latin America, but No. 187 worldwide. Compare this to MIT’s near-perfect scores or Oxford’s century-long prestige and the gap between Mexico’s universities and these academic titans seems unbridgeable.

The price of prestige

Undergraduate programs in Mexico paint an encouraging picture: UNAM charges a symbolic cuota of approximately 0.25 pesos (practically free) per year, plus minor fees like 490 pesos for the admission exam. For many Mexican students, it’s highly accessible. IPN operates similarly, with semester fees around 400 pesos, making technical education accessible to working-class families historically locked out of professional careers.

The private institutions tell a different story. Tec de Monterrey charges around 350,000 pesos (about US $19,600) annually; expensive by Mexican standards but accessible to the growing middle class via scholarships. Universities like Anáhuac and Panamericana reach around 150,000-200,000 pesos (about US $8,500–$12,000) per year.

Even at the high end, these prices seem quaint. A single semester at NYU now exceeds $60,000. Full cost of attendance pushes $90,000 annually.

This creates a paradox that global rankings can’t measure: accessibility versus prestige. While I was accumulating debt that takes decades to repay, Mexican students were earning degrees for a fraction of the cost. The question becomes: What is that prestige worth?

Why the rankings gap persists

The machinery of global university rankings operates on assumptions that favor wealthy, English-speaking institutions. Statistics such as research volume and the number of academic citations per faculty member carry enormous weight. Many of these metrics require sustained funding, international collaboration networks and publication in high-impact English-language academic journals. Mexican universities, operating with tighter budgets and publishing primarily in Spanish, find themselves automatically disadvantaged.

Internationalization presents another barrier. Elite institutions assemble diverse student bodies and faculty from around the world. Mexican universities serve primarily Mexican students, a model that makes a great deal of sense for a national education system but reads as provincial in global metrics.

Reputation perpetuates existing hierarchies. Academic and employer panels recognize names they already know: Harvard, Oxford, the Sorbonne. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle where prestige begets prestige.

What rankings miss

Yet Mexico’s academic world reveals what rankings cannot capture. UNAM houses world-class researchers in fields from astronomy (it operates major telescopes) to anthropology (its scholars lead excavations of pre-Hispanic sites).

Tec de Monterrey has pioneered educational models focused on entrepreneurship and practical innovation, emphasizing problem-based learning and industry partnerships. IPN has educated generations of Mexican engineers from modest backgrounds who went on to lead the country’s industrial development.

These institutions serve their own societies in deeply impactful ways. They train the doctors, engineers, lawyers and teachers that keep a nation functioning. They conduct research on local problems — water management, earthquake engineering, Indigenous language preservation — that might not generate citations in international academic research but that matter to millions.

The broader question

This raises questions about how we value education globally. The rankings industry has created a monoculture of aspiration, where universities worldwide chase the same metrics, often at the expense of contributions to their local communities. These universities pour resources into attracting international students and faculty, into publishing in English, into research areas favored by citation indices, all to climb a few spots on a list that may or may not correlate with actual educational quality.

Meanwhile, the debt crisis in American higher education continues to worsen. The average U.S. student now graduates owing nearly $30,000, and many owe far more, whereas a Mexican student who graduates from UNAM debt-free, with a solid education and connections to their country’s professional networks, may well have better long-term prospects than their American counterpart drowning in loan payments despite a degree from a “better” institution.

Looking forward

As I advise my own students now, I find myself questioning the assumptions I never thought to question at their age. The global higher education system measures international visibility but not local impact, research citations but not teaching quality, prestige but not accessibility.

Mexican universities may not currently crack the global top 100. But perhaps that says more about the limitations of our ranking systems than about the quality of education these universities provide. In a world increasingly questioning the sustainability of elite higher education’s cost structure, institutions that deliver quality education affordably might represent the future.

Monica Belot is a writer, researcher, strategist and adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she teaches in the Strategic Design & Management Program. Splitting her time between NYC and Mexico City, where she resides with her naughty silver labrador puppy Atlas, Monica writes about topics spanning everything from the human experience to travel and design research. Follow her varied scribbles on Medium at medium.com/@monicabelot.

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Welcome to MND Tutor! This interactive learning tool is designed to help you improve your Spanish by exploring real news articles from Mexico News Daily. Instead of just memorizing vocabulary lists or grammar rules, you’ll dive into authentic stories about Mexican culture, current events, and daily

Mexico was once home to remarkable dinosaurs that roamed the land for over 170 million years. The northern regions, especially Coahuila, are rich with fossil discoveries. From terrifying beats soaring above the ground, to fearsome hunters stalking the forest, Mexico had several incredible species of dinosaur.

These prehistoric giants once dominated what is now Mexican territory before vanishing 66 million years ago. To discover more, why not check out Andrea Fischer’s original article?

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