Bookworm Room

Dafydd, at the inestimable Big Lizards, weighs in — intelligently, of course — on Mexico’s problems with narcoterrorism and its own military.  I think this is a perfect companion piece to my own post about Mexico.

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Up until two weeks ago, my contacts with Mexico had been very limited.  When I was four, my parents spent a day in Tijuana, at which time I allegedly stood in the middle of the mercado and cried out “I want to go back to my own civilization.” Fast forward 20 years, and I went [...]

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When I was five years old (so this would have been in the mid-1960s), as part of a trip to Southern California, my parents dipped us into Tijuana.  I still remember that trip.  We went to a large, crowded market place that smelled bad.  That’s all I remember.  But what my parents remember is me [...]

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Questions swirl (a little bit) about whether the fatal swine flu plaguing Mexico is a “man-caused disaster” or just the run-of-the-mill Nature triumphs kind of thing.  There can be no doubt, however that the earthquake  that just struck is Nature’s little reminder that she is now, and always will be, in charge. From Twitter’s breaking [...]

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Back in 1989, Bay Area locals were stunned to learn of a horrific massacre up in Sonoma County: [Ramon] Salcido, now 47, used a gun and knife to murder his wife, Angela Richards Salcido, 24; their daughters, 4-year-old Sofia and 22-month-old Teresa; his mother-in-law, Marion Richards, 47; her daughters, 12-year-old Ruth and 8-year-old Maria; and [...]

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I get emails from Kayak.com, a travel site. The most recent email offers this cutting edge travel opportunity: Immigration and border patrol seems to be at the top of every political conversation. At Parque Eco Alberto, you can go on a pretend ‘Night Border Crossing Experience.’ The parque is owned by the Hnahnu Indians in [...]

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No comment (’cause you can guess what I’m thinking): The Mexican government reported the results of recent studies on Tuesday showing that 68 percent of Mexicans who migrate or try to migrate to the United States do so without documents and 55 percent of them hire immigrant smugglers. The report, timed to coincide with the [...]

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San Francisco’s Mission District is, demographically, a primarily Hispanic district (about 50%), with the remainder of the population being White and Asian. Traditionally, it’s been a mixture of immigrants (legal and illegal), poor, working-class, and artsy-funky. It’s in the news today because the District used a $34,000 City-funded grant to paint a mural that shows [...]

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I enjoyed this observation from Jay Nordlinger, so pass it on to you: You know that Elvira Arellano, the famous deported Mexican lady, has become a hero in her home country. I have to ask: What kind of country makes a hero out of a person whose highest ambition is to live in another country? [...]

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Mexico’s Leftists took a page out of the post-election Democratic guidebook — protest, deny, accuse and whine — and ended with the same result: the candidate who was declared the victor will, in fact, win: Mexico’s electoral court will name ruling party conservative Felipe Calderon president-elect on Tuesday, rejecting claims the fiercely disputed July 2 [...]

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I didn’t blog about the Mexican elections, preferring to wait and see what happened.  I’m happy that I didn’t get my knickers in a twist, and I’m pleased that the Mexican voters, having looked into socialism’s abyss, opted for the Conservative candidate: Mexico’s conservative presidential candidate Felipe Calderon declared victory on Monday in a bitterly [...]

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