U2′s Bono appeals to US, honors Mexico’s innocent dead

Bono, lead singer of U2, took a moment during a concert the band played in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca on Sunday to send a message north across the border. The singer – famous for his political and social activism – asked the band’s Mexico fans to “send a message of love across the border to [...]

Time: Fans go goo-goo for Lady Gaga at Mexico City concert

I worked with photographer Yvonne Venegas, who created this series of photographic portraits, of the two dates Lady Gaga played in May.

Mexican journalist recognised for work in Ciudad Juarez

Arturo Perez, a freelance cameraman based in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, was recognised for his work last night at the Rory Peck Awards on London’s South Bank.

Mexico’s same sex marriage controversy

Marriage between same-sex couples in Mexico City will become legal in early March. But Adam Thomson explains how the new rules are proving controversial and opponents are planning to take it to the Supreme Court. Produced by Deborah Bonello for the Financial Times.

Human rights hit the big screen in second film festival

Mexico’s second annual human rights film festival, supported by a number of organizations here including the Mexico branch of Amnesty International, the Ambulante documentary film project and Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission, opens at the end of the week.

How Cafe Tacuba sprained my ankle

This is probably the least exciting location from which I have filed a dispatch. My sofa, in my third-floor apartment, my snowball-like foot propped up on a couple of cushions as I look out onto the cloudy Mexico City panorama this morning. What happened? Well, it’s all Cafe Tacuba’s fault really. I interviewed two of [...]

American design duo launches arts and culture mag in Nicaragua

Nicaragua’s culture, arts and music scene is the focus of a new magazine launched by two American designers living in the country’s capital, Managua.

Mexico City restaurant business battered by swine flu

Fonda Garufa, a restaurant in the trendy Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City, is feeling the effects of the swine flu outbreak.

Swine flu doesn’t deter art fans in Mexico City

I at least expected to see fashionable versions of the blue face masks being combined with the latest clothes labels, but it wasn’t so.

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in Iztapalapa, Mexico

It wasn’t hard to imagine what the real crucifixion of Christ might have been like if you were anywhere near the populous, working-class neighborhood of Iztapalapa in Mexico City last Friday.

Jesus as a migrant in pro-immigration street theater

The performance wasn’t part of Mexico’s traditional Semana Santa but had a cross-border purpose.

Eufrosina Cruz: Indigenous women’s rights vs. culture in Mexico

Cruz is a 28-year-old indigenous woman from the state of Oaxaca who is an activist for the rights of indigenous women. Cruz rebelled against the restrictions of her own community to become a college-educated accountant.

Guadalajara Film Festival: ‘Those Who Remain,’ ‘Round Trip’ scoop prizes at Guadalajara film fest

Those Who Remain,’ ‘Round Trip’ scoop prizes at Guadalajara film fest.

Peter Gabriel asks for end impunity over Ciudad Juarez’s dead women

Peter Gabriel implored President Calderon to show “real political will, muscle and budget” in investigating the hundreds of unsolved murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez.

‘Those Who Remain’ focuses on families left behind in Mexico by migrants

The homes that Mexican migrants come from are often a jumping-off point for filmmakers, but Rulfo and Hagerman chose to stay at the point of departure to see how those who remain deal with their reduced numbers.

From the archives: Be an illegal immigrant for a day

In El Alberto, a small village over 1000km from the border between Mexico and the US, tourists can pay to experience what it’s like being an illegal migrant.

Gael Garcia Bernal to be recognized for contributions to film at upcoming Guadalajara festival

Gael Garcia Bernal is to be honored at the upcoming International Film Festival in Guadalajara for his contributions to cinema.

Photojournalism show explains 2008 in Mexico

Mexico City’s Museo de la Ciudad is playing host to a photojournalism exhibition — Expofotoperiodismo — that features nearly 50 photos from 2008.

Legal graffiti hits the walls of Mexico City

In a country with such a rich artistic heritage of mural-ism, graffiti is a popular past-time for many of Mexico´s youth.

El Santo memories on display — but far away

An exhibition honoring lucha libre legend El Santo opened in Mexico City late last month, marking the 25th anniversary of the fighter-turned-film-star’s death.

A Night in the Woods in Mexico City

By day, el Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City’s largest public park, is ruled by the public and tourists. But come late afternoon, the park closes its gates to us commoners. Or at least I thought so.

Mexico’s special prosecutor for crimes against journalists ineffective, reports nonprofit

Freedom of expression advocates in Mexico have issued yet another missive in support of the country’s long-suffering journalistic community.

Video: Photographer takes Mexico City’s portrait

A lion cub, a naked girl and a Mexican pop star were just some of the guests at the Yautepec Gallery in Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood on a night in late January. They and a healthy share of Mexico’s young hipsters were there for the opening of New York-based photographer Noah Sheldon’s portrait studio project.

Violence against journalists continues in Latin America

We keep our eye on the frequent press-freedom reports that come out, given the high levels of violence against journalists in Mexico. Tuesday’s release by the Committee to Protect Journalists, sadly, held no surprises.

Mexico’s missing children inspire artist

Lieberman spent more than three years working on 100 drawings that are intricate copies of often bad-quality newspaper photographs of missing children, taken from the Mexican newspaper Metro.

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna launch 4th Ambulante documentary festival in Mexico

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, two of Mexico’s most bankable movie stars, launched the fourth annual Ambulante documentary film festival Friday morning in a packed cinema screening room on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma.

David LaChapelle makes Mexican debut

David LaChapelle, the surrealist photographer, launched his first-ever show in Mexico City last night in a media scrum that resembled one of his chaotic images.

Lunar New Year in Mexico City

The Year of the Ox, the new Chinese lunar year, begins today, and Mexico City’s Chinese community spent the weekend celebrating.

“Che, the Argentine” premieres in Mexico City

There were no rabble-rousing speeches, but Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the film version, was greeted by an eager audience at the nearly full Julio Bracho cinema, which hosted the premier of the first part of Steven Soderbergh’s long-awaited portrait of the Argentine revolutionary last night.

“Che, the Argentine,” got its first Mexican screening on the sprawling campus of Mexico’s most influential university, the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico). The movie has, like all upcoming major releases here in Mexico, been selling for weeks now on stands that deal in pirated DVDs, but there remain those who want to see the film on the big screen. The audience was a mixture of all ages, from amorous teenage couples to unaccompanied gray-haired men, and they received the portrait of the much-adored revolutionary with gusto.

Guevara is popular among the sprawling student population here in Mexico City, where he and Fidel Castro, then an exiled Cuban lawyer, planned their Cuban Revolution over dinner and cigars on July 3rd, 1955. The myth and heroic image of the Argentine have replaced a real understanding of the complex man that he was. His face is often emblazoned across flags and T-shirts during student protests and commonly evoked as a universal symbol of social struggle.

Lydia Cacho publishes manual for parents on detecting child abuse

Lydia Cacho’s celebrity was apparent from the get-go last Thursday night in the trendy Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City, where the journalist launched her new book “Not With My Child” (Con Mi Hij@ No).

The Virgin of Guadalupe brings Mexicans to their knees

Julio Cesar, a 19-year-old metalworker, crawled on his knees for five hours yesterday to reach the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Mexico City smokers enjoy a bit of nostalgia

For Mexico City’s smokers, who were recently deprived of the pleasure of enjoying their habit in restaurants, bars, offices and other public places, an exhibition celebrating the pleasure and history of tobacco might feel like someone’s blowing smoke in their faces.

Mexico’s method for speedy snowmen

Three-year-old Ismael Arenas Sosa and his father, Edmundo, enjoyed the artificially produced snow in the Zocalo last week. And it appears Mexico’s mayor has devised a rather ingenious way of limiting the wait time for children eager to build their first snowman.

Media advertising campaign targets violence against journalists

A television, radio and print advertising campaign is to launch here in Mexico in an attempt by press freedom groups to raise public awareness about violence against journalists.

Spotlight on dog overpopulation and abuse in Mexico

Still on the doggy theme of last week, a documentary screening in Mexico City over the weekend focused on how Mexico deals with the thousands of stray dogs roaming its streets. And no, it did not paint a pretty picture.

Journalists profile conservative activist

It turned out to be an unusual book launch. Scheduled to begin at 5pm yesterday afternoon in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, the authors were to present their profile of Mexico’s most prominent Catholic fundamentalist and anti-abortion campaigner.

Bajo Juarez campaigns for the dead women of Ciudad Juarez

Lilia Alejandra is one of the 370 women who have disappeared in Mexico’s Chihuahua state since 1993. Her story is the main focus of Bajo Juárez, a documentary film that was five years in the making and opened here in Mexico this weekend.

Mexico memory march turns violent

Thousands of Mexicans took to the streets yesterday to demand justice for the victims of a mass-killing by Government troops on the night of October 2nd forty years ago. But the protests in Mexico City had a bitter end.

Mexico to remember massacre 40 years later

Today, people of all ages will march in memory of a massacre that took place forty years ago in Mexico City – an event that remains one of the darkest in the country’s recent and bloody history.

Mexico’s Military Marches as Citizens React to Bombings

Two explosions during Mexican Independence Day celebrations in the western state of Michoacan killed eight people Monday night and injured dozens more, we reported yesterday.