New visa requirement for Mexicans in Canada: write to your MP!

You’ve probably heard about the new visa requirement for Mexicans (and Czechs) that want to visit Canada. According to the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, Mexicans now require a visa due to the abuse of the refugee claims system by some of us.

For a while I’ve heard stories about these supposed refugees and the immigration advisers that help them, and I have no sympathy for them. But imposing a visa on all Mexicans to address this issue is absurd (it will reduce the number of false refugee claims simply by greatly reducing the number of visitors to the country). There are other, simpler, solutions to the problem that do not involve this sort of imposition. Michelle Collins, at the Embassy magazine, has a good analysis on why this is a bad decision for all the parties involved.

I’m upset about this, not just because this is a significant hurdle for the families and friends of the Mexican community here in Canada, myself included, but because of the way it was executed: the requirement came on an extremely short notice, with a ridiculous grace period of 48 hours, catching the Canadian Embassy in Mexico unprepared to deal with the huge number of visa applications that fell upon it from all the people that had already made plans to visit Canada and causing many families and business people to cancel their travel plans. The new visa is more expensive, and its required paperwork more intrusive, than any other nations’ visa processes I’ve ever needed to go through, including the United States.

So what can we do about this? Val and I redacted a letter that you can send to your MP. If you don’t know who is your MP you can find out here. If you’re a Mexican living in Canada, a Mexican-Canadian, or a Canadian that is at all bothered by this decision, please help us out —all you need to do is print the letter with your MP’s name (editing anything you wish to, of course), and mail it in. Or at least send the letter and our request to your friends. It’s just a few minutes of your time, but it might make a difference for us.

Thanks!

Krauze on Mexico’s drug war

Enrique Krauze, possibly the best Mexican historian and the editor of the excellent Letras Libres magazine, has an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times discussing the current wave of drug violence in Mexico and the way it is perceived north of the border:

(…) While we bear responsibility for our problems, the caricature of Mexico being propagated in the United States only increases the despair on both sides of the Rio Grande. It is also profoundly hypocritical. (…)

I tend to paint a caricature of Mexico in this blog, but in recent times too many people have asked me if my country is as bad as the news here make it seem. It is certainly not, and Krauze’s piece is a good summary of the reasons.

You may kiss after all

According to El Universal, after being nationally ridiculed, the mayor of Guanajuato backpedalled today and removed the new bylaws that would ban, among other things, “olympic-style” kisses (their term, not mine). Hours later he went further and announced a new international tourism campaign to present Guanajuato as the “capital of the kiss” and a “city of romance”. “No kiss is forbidden”, he said. So if you’re in Guanajuato, go nuts.

I love my country.

No kissing

In Guanajuato, Mexico, there is a place called “Callejón del Beso”, or “Alley of the Kiss”. It is an extremely narrow street that earned the name due to a legend: two secret lovers lived across the street, they once kissed from balcony to balcony, and they were discovered and promptly murdered. It is now a popular touristic spot in the city; you go with your partner up through opposite stairs, and meet at the balconies, where you kiss while someone takes your picture. El Universal reports that, according to a local tour guide named Mario N., people kiss all sorts of ways in that spot:

“…de monaguillo, hasta entrar y tocar la campanilla, de torero agarrando la oreja y el rabo. Los novios más penosos se lo dan de piquito.”

Which is beautiful Spanish that I can’t translate properly, but loosely means “…like a belfry boy, all the way in until they swing the bell, like a bullfighter grabbing the ear and the tail (of the slain bull, awarded for a masterful fight). The shyest just touch their little beaks.”

This week, the conservative mayor of Guanajuato passed a new bylaw banning, among other things, kissing in public. Other public displays of affection and offenses such as panhandling are also banned. Penalties go up to jail or 30 days of minimum wage. Apparently some people do miss the times of the Inquisition. Among the reasons offered in support of the new bylaw were the high pregnancy rate of teenagers (the Catholic church forbids contraception, so implementing a population control program that would actually work is unthinkable). Deservedly, the mayor was ridiculed last night on national television, even by the leader of his own party, and the bylaw was not published (which means it is not effective), pending revisions.

In other retrograde news, Latin American Archbishops and nuns blame rape victims for dressing too provocatively, and in my hometown’s City Hall a conservative Councillor asked journalists not to report violent events or anything that affects the morale of the citizens. Because, you know, if you don’t pay no mind it’ll all just go away.

Update on Mexico’s Energy Reform

Just a brief update: The energy reform I talked about recently passed the vote on the Chamber of Representatives too. No smuggling of legislators this time. Some Representatives did take the podium by force to try to block the proceedings, but the rest simply called for a vote from the floor.

It’s hard to oppose the new laws, no matter one’s political affiliation. Any attempts of privatization were eventually stricken out; the reform gives Pemex a slightly greater flexibility and autonomy from the government. It’s a very small step, but it was probably the only step that could be taken.

Political reform, the Mexico Way

A few excerpts from El Universal’s account of yesterday’s passage of the Energy Reform in the Mexican Senate (original in Spanish; my translation omits some details but makes up no facts):

• Senators Yeidckol Polevnsky and Rosario Ibarra headed the sabotage attempt, hiding PRD Representatives that pretended to take the podium. PRD Senators smuggled their fellow Representatives into the building in their car trunks. The plan was to use metallic garbage bins to break down the talks.
• The saboteurs were stopped by the Federal Police inside the improvised Senate room (the session couldn’t take place in the Senate building due to protests). Heading the police force was the Secretary of Public Security himself, Genaro Garcia Luna, pushing back against the mob.
• A logistical error left the Convergencia Senators, Dante Delgado and Luis Maldonado, out of the building. This heated things up and caused a clash with PAN Senators Felipe Gonzalez and Gonzalez Alcocer. Dante and Gonzalez Alcocer called each other motherfuckers, but they cooled down afterwards.
• The most violent character was Representative Aleida Alvarez, who insulted her fellow party members accusing them of treason and inexplicably kept on throwing herself against the glass doors of the room.
• In the end someone asked Gonzalez Alcocer: “And your new enemy?” “The bitch left already”, he replied.

The Energy Reform still needs to pass a vote in the less refined Chamber of Representatives.

TIFF: Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies

Yesterday we went to see “Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo”, a very personal Mexican documentary by Yulene Olaizola, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s a fantastic film, a beautifully constructed exposition of a delicate, twisting story. (Nothing to do with Shakespeare or Victor Hugo though, the title refers to an intersection in Mexico City.) There will be another screening tomorrow, Friday Sept 12, at 2:45pm, so check it out if you can.

Torture in Guanajuato

The Human Rights Commission of Mexico recently declared that the police of my home state of Guanajuato, Mexico, systematically torture people to obtain information and confessions (link in Spanish). Of course I’m not surprised –I don’t think anyone is–, and I’m pretty sure the problem is fully widespread in Mexico, but it’s good that at least the Commission has concrete evidence of abuse in this case, and that it’s making noise about it.

The Commission’s website is a bit hard to navigate, but if you’re interested, its recommendations to the Governor of Guanajuato are here (in Spanish, again).

More Cinco de Mayo

The New York Times’ editorial page states that the popularity of Cinco de Mayo north of the Mexican border is the work of Corona’s marketing department. Perhaps; I still think that the fact that it celebrates a (minor) victory over the French has a lot to do with it.

Also, it looks like we need to thank Wonderella and her guest sidekick, the penguin Pajarro Pete, for saving the day!

Javier Aviles, rest in peace

Javier Aviles, a theatre director and actor from Leon, Mexico, passed away prematurely yesterday morning. I had the luxury of working with him for several years. He was a great man with a fantastic talent and an intense personality, and he pushed theatre in Leon, and in Mexico, far beyond the expectations of the audience and his peers.

He used to say that in a theatre troupe no single person is essential —the group as a whole can overcome the absence of any member. I hope he’s right; we will miss him deeply.