Catemaco dogs

3 years ago I stumbled on a starving, chain entangled mutt late at night on a Catemaco side road. She turned out to be a sick, tick and worm infested 95% Siberian Husky (1 blue and 1 brown eye) and I tried for several weeks to find her owner. Noone ever came forward! So she now lives with me and allows me to feed her.

Two months ago, my partner stumbled across a hurt puppy and it was love at first sight and a close relationship with an out of town veterinarian. The SOB chewed up my sofa, my shoes , my Pinche Perra ears (that´s the name of the first dog) and my computer cables. And he was simply adorable, cuddly, loveable, responsive and feisty.

Early mornings, before sunrise, I walked the two of them on Catemaco´s malecon and marveled at the puppy´s love of taking a swim in the laguna. My truck needed repair today and Pinche Perra and I decided to take the puppy for a swim in the afternoon. And the two gamboled along the little bit of beach in front of where I live, chased each other and shorebirds, nibbled on peoples’ leftovers and pissed on every upturned lancha (fishing boat).

And then the puppy chased Pinche Perra onto the Malecon´s street traffic and the puppy left us. So we buried him on my property in a small fenced area overlooking Laguna Catemaco and planted two beautiful flowering plants on his feisty little body. One for him and one for my partner who really loved that mutt.

Catemaco Women

I love the women of Catemaco, Veracruz. There are short ones, tall ones, brown ones, pink ones, skinny and fat ones, etc. The category that I miss is "political women".

Women in Mexico gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1947. In 2007 civil rights for women in Mexico, although included in various federal & state legislations, are still lacking in full legislative application.
Customary women´s rights in the rural areas of Mexico are similar to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Athough laws exist to prohibit the applications, traditionally, women cannot inherit property, and in essence become chattel of their first born sons.

Only a few years ago, Mexican law acknowledged marital rape as a crime. Physical wife abuse is still one of the primary reasons for deployment of police forces. Child sale or trade is still prevalent, especially for female babies. But, fortunately, Mexico´s extreme effort to end the spiraling population curve has produced satisfying results in the decrease of that curve.
Pre-natal and child care is barely above minimal international levels.

Many women in the Catemaco area are heavily impacted by their men´s migration to greener pastures, both within Mexico and the USA, and depend on their husband´s transmission of monies to stay alive.

It is no fun being a woman in beautiful downtown Catemaco, unless you are a saftig Popoluca and catch a rich gringo.

Fat Mexico

It´s projected that Mexico will surpass the USA´s body mass by next year. At present 66% of Americans are fat. That is one hell of a triumph for Mexico, especially on the average daily salary of US 17.40 per day (for officially employed people).

Naturally NAFTA and yankee imperialists like McDonald´s get the blame.

Mexico is the world´s largest consumer of soft drinks and Coca Cola is happy to sell its products at prices that would produce shoppers protest riots in the US. Unlucky for big bad Coke - a little old lady took them to court, and (a first in Mexico) won a multimillion peso judgement against the juggernaut for infringing on competition.

Here in Catemaco the populace lives on junk food, or maybe it just seems that way. Half the merchandise displayed in the hundreds of tienditas (tiny stores) consists of junk food and candy. Even the larger grocery stores seem to stock more junk than food. And boy-o-boy- some of that stuff is delicious.

Catemaco cheese

I like blue cheese and I would die for some real french roquefort cheese. Soriana recently opened in San Andres Tuxtla and stocked queso azul (blue cheese) around 65 pesos a kilo until a few weeks ago.

They now stock a Soriana private brand cheese labeled "Qso Ro Papil" and the price is marked at 599.00 Mexican pesos per kilo. I requested the clerk to check her computer. She says the price is correct. I ask to speak to the department manager - she also says the price is correct.

Obnoxious gringo that I am, I then search for a store manager and drag him to the refrigerator. The price is correct!, he says. I explain to him that obnoxious gringos do not pay 600 pesos a kilo for cheese wrapped in French francs and flown in directly from the caves of Roquefort, France. He graciously responds "Mexicans do".

I can live with poor service and inept management BUT today I return to Soriana, and for the third time in 6 weeks check the cheese again. It is still the same price, except it has been relabeled, indicating it was packaged 28 November 2005.

It´s still the same old Soriana cheese that´s now turning brown around the edges. I am sure Mexico has laws protecting consumers from that sort of cheating. It is item number 286615 071882 in case someone knows someone at the local department of health.

Los Tuxtlas deserves better than that store, and it is getting it. An Aurrera, Walmart subsidiary will open soon in San Andres and hopefully they will eat that Soriana store for lunch.

Conaculo

CONACULO
There´s a saying in Los Tuxtlas which loosely translates and sort of rhymes in Spanish: Santiago has the culture, San Andres has the money and Catemaco has the garbage. It stems from Catemaco´s long ago ownership of a major dumpsite for Los Tuxtlas.

Apparently CONACULTA, Mexico´s major government cultural agency, and its chain of national bookstores “Libros y Arte” still consider Los Tuxtlas on par with garbage.On a recent visit to Veracruz city, the closest place to Los Tuxtlas and Catemaco, the two had absolutely “nada” on either subject.What a shame! Especially after listening to speech after project after proposal to promote Tuxtlas tourism.

In Veracruz CONACULO is not alone, neither the largest bookstore chain in Mexico, “Libreria Cristal”, nor Veracruz´s alleged best book store “The Spynx” (espinge?, I can´t recall how the store spelled it), has anything available on Los Tuxtlas.
If you´re interested in Catemaco books, check the tuxtlas.com Books unfinished web section on that subject.

Catemaco Milagro Tree

I was not that long ago when someone saw the face of the “holy catholic virgin mother” in a tortilla in Caleria, near Catemaco. That tortilla is now enshrined after having been visited by 1000´s of faithful.

Hurricane Stan produced a new miracle.

The storm knocked down a fairly massive mango tree in a real pretty area of Catemaco, in the suburb of Tepetapan, on the shores of the Rio Grande de Catemaco.
So, as is usual, the neighborhood busied itself with the Tuxtlas favorite tool, a chainsaw!, chopping the tree to fire wood size pieces and leaving a 15 foot stump.

Then the tree, which had been lying on its side, allegedly “miraculously” raised itself.

So all the tortilla people started a new pilgrimage. If you want to see the tree, you better hurry. Apparently many visitors want to take a piece of the tree home with them.