Mexicans

Every morning during television coverage of the World Cup, on the Mexican equivalent of the "Today" show, co-hosts chat, trade barbs and yuck it up. Behind them, actors in blackface makeup, dressed in fake animal skins and wild "Afro" wigs, gyrate, wave spears and pretend to represent a cartoonish version of South Africa. Yes, in the 21st century, blackface characters on a major television network. But this is Mexico, and definitions of racism are complicated and influenced by the country's own tortured relationship with invading powers and indigenous cultures.

SAN DIEGO —Two members of a Mexican organized crime group that terrorized border communities were found guilty Wednesday of taking part in the strangling deaths of two men whose bodies were later dissolved in lye and dumped at a ranch outside San Diego. The mens' ruthless tactics were the trademark of a gang that broke off from the drug cartel waging war in Tijuana nearly a decade ago, according to prosecutors. The Palillos, or Toothpicks, came to the San Diego area in 2003 after splitting from the notorious Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Lupita Jones of Mexicali, Mexico, was crowned the new Miss Universe on Friday night as hundreds of her countrymen cheered wildly at the televised pageant held on the glitzy Las Vegas Strip. The 23-year-old beat out 20-year-old Paulien Huizinga of the Netherlands and 18-year-old Yulia Lemigova of the Soviet Union, a crowd favorite, who was the second runner-up.

If Carlos Fuentes could have invented the perfect character to star in one of his novels, he might have come up with a protagonist named Carlos Fuentes. That character would be a glamorous global citizen who was born in Panama as a diplomat's son, then hopscotched to Washington, D.C., London, Paris and other glittering power centers. A dapper ladies' man who married an actress and claimed to have had affairs with screen sirens Jeanne Moreau and Jean Seberg. A lifelong adventurer, like the tragedy-haunted journalist hero of Fuentes' novel "The Old Gringo," played by Gregory Peck in the 1989 film version . A man who, like many of Fuentes' characters, overcomes personal tragedy of near-mythic proportions partly through the sheer power of his own relentless drive and productivity.

Re "Independence, spoiled," editorial, Sept. 18 It is clear The Times would prefer that all Mexicans quietly accept the continuation of the same regime that has kept them in poverty. Indeed, intellectual Cuauhtemoc Cardenas won the election in 1988 but did not have the courage to do what the most recent presidential challenger, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is doing. Cardenas failed the Mexican people then, and he fails again by not supporting Lopez Obrador. Mexicans want progress, but not the kind of progress that will keep them poor.

The commentary by Jorge Castaneda of May 8 and your editorial of the same day lament Mexico's apparently insurmountable economic problems, which are highlighted by a 50% inflation rate, 2 million people unemployed, an ever-rising crime rate and uncontrollable illegal immigration to the United States. But, neither article nor editorial identifies the cause of the problems or suggests a remedy. Mexicans are victims of Catholic dogma, which forbids them from practicing birth control. As a consequence, their population increased from 17 million in 1930 to 91 million in 1995; it doubled in the last 28 years, and at this rate it is expected to double again in the next 40 years.

The oldest gathering place in the city now has the city's newest cultural attraction. LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes is across from the old plaza downtown. It's a museum and cultural center dedicated to Mexican Americans and Mexicans. I don't belong to either of those groups. But I decided I really needed to visit LA Plaza anyway because I'm a native Angeleno and lover of L.A. culture, and I know that Mexicans and Mexican Americans are at the center of my city's history. The people who run LA Plaza have decided to take this inescapable truth and slap me with it. "This is our culture.

The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that the United States violated its order last year when Texas proceeded with the execution of a Mexican national convicted of murder and rape. The court, based in The Hague, said the United States remains bound by a 2004 ruling to review the cases of 51 Mexican citizens on death row despite its failure to do so in the past.

Facing widespread dismay over the assassination of a leading gubernatorial candidate, President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday urged fellow Mexicans to join hands against the forces of organized crime that he said were to blame. The killing of Rodolfo Torre on Monday in northern Mexico has added to Calderon's political headaches as voters are to head to the polls Sunday in 14 states to pick a dozen governors and hundreds of mayors and lawmakers. "United, Mexicans can and will overcome a common enemy that today threatens to destroy not only our tranquillity but our democratic institutions," Calderon said in a broadcast message.

Lomas de Chapultepec, a neighborhood of huge homes behind high stone and brick walls, wakes up each morning to the sound of sweeping. As the dawn's dark fades to light, servants emerge from behind gates and, with witches' brooms, brush away the leaves and twigs and lavender jacaranda petals that have fallen overnight. Maids in pastel uniforms, security guards, gardeners and chauffeurs — these are the public denizens of this super-rich enclave. The actual homeowners and permanent residents are rarely seen.

While revelers shuffle into every Mexican restaurant and bar in town to shoot Patron and shovel in enchiladas this Saturday, the following alternatives - all happening May 5 - promise to be just as festive and maybe even more feliz ! Beastie Boy Mike D's Transmission LA: AV exhibition and festival at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary has been getting tons of buzz both for its vibrant art and for its music offerings (opening night with Santigold, last week's DJ set by Thom Yorke)

The number of immigrants coming illegally to the United States has been declining for several years. Demographers have repeatedly said as much, and now a report by the Pew Hispanic Center confirms it - illegal migration from Mexico is virtually at a standstill. Last year, about 6.1 million Mexicans were illegally in the country, down from a high of 7 million in 2007. What accounts for the change after decades of steady increases? A declining birth rate and solid economic growth in Mexico have led fewer people to leave home.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in legal expenses and penalties to resolve allegations of widespread bribery by officials with its Mexican subsidiary, experts in foreign corruption law said. The world's largest retailer said it was in the midst of a "worldwide review of our anti-corruption program" and had increased efforts to prevent corruption in Mexico. The Bentonville, Ark., company is looking into allegations that it engaged in a multiyear bribery campaign to build its business.

Net migration from Mexico to the United States has come to a statistical standstill, stalling one of the most significant demographic trends of the last four decades. Amid an economic downturn and increased enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of Mexicans coming to the United States dropped significantly, while the number of those returning home increased sharply over the last several years, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center. "The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill," the report says.

1903: "The Landmarks Club Cook Book. " A collection of recipes edited by the sage of the Southwest, Charles Fletcher Lummis, that included more than 40 Mexican recipes, this first-of-its-kind effort was sold to help repair Southern California's crumbling missions. 1923: "Mexican Cookery for American Homes. " This uncredited pamphlet published by theGebhardt'sChili Powder Co. would be published in new editions for decades afterward and was the first widely released manual for American households.

Long before Rick Bayless, the Too Hot Tamales and even Diana Kennedy, there was another teacher and cookbook writer who introduced authentic Mexican food to a wider American audience. Though she is all but unknown today, at the turn of the 20th century a remarkable woman named Bertha Haffner-Ginger not only learned how to cook Mexican favorites but also packed lecture halls nationwide and published a cookbook sharing her knowledge, whetting the country's appetite for a cuisine that wouldn't travel outside of the borderlands in earnest until the 1950s.

After reading "When the Trek North Becomes a Slow March Toward Death" (June 10), I have reached the conclusion that Mexicans who die while trying to escape their homeland are not heroes as President Vicente Fox says. Instead, perhaps they are cowards for not loving their country enough to stay and fight for reforms to change Mexico. While I am indeed sympathetic to their plight, it wasn't that long ago that the 13 colonies were faced with similar oppression and corruption from the English who ruled over them.

Citigroup Inc., the No. 1 U.S. financial services firm, said Monday that it will ease the way for Mexican immigrants to open bank accounts, a step that could help them send billions of dollars back to Mexico every year. The move comes as the U.S. government increases efforts to monitor cross-border financial activity after the Sept. 11 attacks. The plans will help Citibank, Citigroup's consumer finance unit, gain access to the almost $8.

WASHINGTON — Police and federal agents pulled the car over in a suburb north of Denver. An FBI agent showed his badge. The driver appeared not startled at all. "My friend," he said, "I have been waiting for you. " And with that, Jesus Audel Miramontes-Varela stepped out of his white 2002 BMW X5 and into the arms of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over the next several days at his ranch in Colorado and an FBI safe house in Albuquerque, the Mexican cartel chieftain — who had reputedly fed one of his victims to lions in Mexico — was transformed into one of the FBI's top informants on the Southwest border.

It was a humble Cal-Mex combo plate that first brought enlightenment to Gustavo Arellano. At the time, Arellano, now editor of the OC Weekly, author of the syndicated ¡Ask a Mexican! column and five-star cultural provocateur, was an Anaheim high school student. His Irish American girlfriend craved Mexican food and steered the couple to a landmark Orange County restaurant. But when the meal arrived, Arellano was taken aback. Instead of the beloved cactus leaves, goat stew and "stinky cheese" he'd been served since childhood by his Zacatecas-immigrant parents, he was confronted with a plate of dry rice and a glop of refried beans, laced with toxic-yellow queso and smothered in a sour-cream avalanche.