Posts from ‘August, 2009’

Studio 360, Kurt Andersen’s radio show on NPR about art, runs a sporadic “American Icons Series.” As I was listening to an installment about Andy Warhol on Saturday, it occurred to me that Warhol’s fame says just as much about the United States as it does about him. Despite having only marginal artistic skills, Warhol [...]

Mexicans seeking to live in the U.S.–either legally or illegally–has been a big news story for some time now. But what about U.S. citizens who want to immigrate to Mexico? About 1,200 native-born Americans have become citizens of Mexico since 2000, the Arizona Republic reported in 2006. Some of the benefits of gaining Mexican citizenship, [...]

The brief summit between Mexico, Canada, and the United States that concluded in Guadalajara yesterday marks the second time that Barack Obama has visited our southern neighbor since he began his presidency. Both times he came to Mexico to address urgent issues such as the H1N1 influenza strain, the drug cartel crisis, immigration, and trade. [...]

Nicaragua is emerging as a popular tourist destination, offering stunning landscapes and colorful colonial cities, writes Caitlin Fitzsimmons of Roaming Tales. If you mention Nicaragua, people often think of a country torn apart by civil war rather than a thriving tourist destination. The truth is that Nicaragua has been at peace for quite some time [...]

I vaguely expected to see mariachis during our trip to Mexico in June. But when a trio approached our table at a restaurant in Guadalajara, I was unprepared. “What song would you like us to sing?” they asked. The best I could come up with was the all-time classic “Besame mucho.” Frustrated at being caught [...]

Wondering whether to take out a health insurance policy for your next trip to Mexico? You should probably skip it, if you’ll be visiting Mexico City. Mexico City recently announced that its offering free medical care and assistance to its national and international tourists. The program, which is subsidized by the Mexico City Ministry of [...]

Mexicans favor climate change policies more than the citizens of any other country in the world, according to the results of a poll recently released by World Public Opinion.org. Americans were the least receptive to having their government focus more on climate change. The organization asked nearly 20,000 people in the 19 most populous countries [...]

In honor of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Attack Week, it’s time to revisit some of the grisly events in Mexico last summer. Last year, sharks off of Mexico’s Pacific coast killed two people and maimed one. It had been the first shark fatalities in the area in 30 years. (An earlier post on this is [...]