January 18, 2008, Cont. from front page, Inauguration of Parque Las Cachinches, Events for the body and soul to support Breast Cancer Awareness Week, Instituto Allende making history, Mexico Round-up, Compiled by Gabriela Blanco

For some, this becomes a “year-round price hike,” because of unpaid debts carried over from the previous year.

For others with more resources and who budget wisely, January’s hike does not affect their pocketbooks so adversely. Rodolfo Jurado, San Miguel’s assistant mayor, noted that last year was a difficult one for San Miguel, and this is causing residents to be extra careful with their money in 2008. The situation is exacerbated by the very low increase in the daily minimum wage in the state of Guanajuato: 1.9 pesos (an increase from 47.60 pesos to 49.50 pesos per day).

Loans increase during the cuesta

Nestor Corona, who runs the lending and pawnbroking firm Presto Lana on calle Insurgentes, said that during January the number of items pawned normally increases around 10 percent relative to the rest of the year. This year, that number has increased to around 30 percent.

Doña Refugio, a client at the pawnshop, said that she had to pawn her watch in order to buy toys for her grandchildren on Three Kings Day. “The money my husband received as aguinaldo was really a small amount. We spent it on chicken to have food for Christmas dinner. Our grandchildren live with us since my son, their father, is working in the US, and their mother is working as a maid in a house in Mexico City,” she said.

Montserrat Morales Arellano, manager of Caja Popular Libertad, said that during December and January up to 400 percent more loans are taken out than during most other times of the year, with the exception of July and August, when people borrow money for summer vacations and students return to school. During January, Caja Popular Libertad grants loans of about two million pesos a day; during its low season, typically about 50,000 pesos a day are lent.

Some prices rise in 2008

According to Christian Gutiérrez, who works in business administration, January’s price hike has become a “year-long price hike.”

“There are people who carry debts from the previous year, due to low salaries and increases in the cost of basic products,” said Gutiérrez, who added that the rise in the cost of gasoline causes all other costs to increase. Compared to prices of gas last September, Magna (regular) rose from 7.01 pesos per liter to 7.03, and Premium increased from 8.61 to 8.77 pesos per liter.

The federal government has announced that through NAFTA importation of products such as corn will increase this year. “Mexico is one of the main producers of corn for all of Central America, and this will affect Mexican producers. The tortilla, a basic food for Mexicans, reached a cost of 8 pesos per kilogram in the middle of last year. It is possible that this year a kilo of tortillas will cost 10 pesos,” said Gutiérrez.

According to Antonio Yáñez, a fruit vendor in Ignacio Ramírez market, the prices of vegetables have not yet increased. He said that sales decrease slightly during January due mainly to the pilgrimage to San Juan de los Lagos. “A lot of people go to San Juan, and sales decrease,” he said. Francisco Ruiz Flores, who sells meat at the same market, says he starting noticing a decline in sales last September, but that the cost of meat so far has not increased.

Alfredo Neme Martínez, president of CONACA (a national confederation of wholesale merchants), said that although in wholesale markets there have been increases between 0.2 and 10 percent, mainly in the cost of grains, other costs have decreased. He said that these increases are comparable to those seen last year and that they are not due to NAFTA or to the rise in gas prices.

Decline in foreign tourism

Guillermo González Engelbretch, head of the Tourism Council in San Miguel, said that tourism in San Miguel will also be affected by January’s price hike, noting that foreign tourism has been decreasing. “This is an election year in the US, and we have already seen that some people who used to come every year at this time have decided not to come this year. The mortgage crisis and passport laws in the US have also affected tourism. The numbers of Mexican tourists have remained about the same.”

González said that if gasoline prices increase only slightly, hotel and restaurant owners should likewise only raise their charges a minimal amount, or not at all.

Assistant Mayor Jurado said that 2007 was a very difficult year for San Miguel in terms of the economy. “The year improved during the final months, but a lot of businessmen are being cautious with their money. I personally do not think it was more difficult than in other years, but it also wasn’t easier. I think that the difficulties of last year are making us be more careful. We are also conscious that we must be more efficient and offer more quality in our businesses.”

Jurado explained that some of these economic difficulties may be due to the decrease in tourism. “And it was not precisely the cancellation of the Sanmiguelada that caused the decrease in tourism,” he said. “Speaking as a traveler, I would say that San Miguel is an expensive place for tourists. But currently most businesses that cater to tourists are working to improve their services.”

Inauguration of Parque Las Cachinches

In support of San Miguel de Allende’s Green and Sustainable program, Rincón de Santa Maria is proud to host the inauguration of San Miguel’s newest park, Parque Las Cachinches, Saturday, January 19 from 11am to 1pm.

The event will kick-off with a short presentation by Don Patterson from the city of San Miguel de Allende’s Ecology Department. Following the presentation, school children from Jose Vasconsuelos will plant 20 trees in the new park. The event will culminate with the planting of a 20-foot tall Jacaranda tree in the central plaza of Rincon de Santa Maria.

The first phase of the park will begin in front of the Jose Casconsuelos School and continue to the bridge in front of Fabrica la Aurora.

Events for the body and soul to support Breast Cancer Awareness Week

Concert
Tania Libertad
Benefit for Municipal Women’s Institute
Sat, Jan 19, 8pm
El Colorado (formerly El Álamo)
Km. 2.5, Salida a Celaya
500/300/200 pesos
Workshop

Healing Workshop w/ Lindsay Wagner
Fri, Jan 18, 3–5pm, & Sat, Jan 19, 1–5pm (English)

Sun, Jan 20, 11am–2pm (Spanish)

Breast cancer is a health risk for most women, and especially for women of low-incomes. The State of Guanajuato ranks fifth in breast cancer deaths in Mexico and has only four mammogram machines in the entire region for six million people.

In the municipality of Allende there is no preventative screening, with most local women ignoring their risk. Yet once cancer is detected, government cancer services are available. To close this lethal loophole San Miguel’s Instituto Municipal de la Mujer (Institute for Women) seeks to raise money to underwrite mammography screening for local women with the program, Una Mamografía para cada Mujer (A Mammogram for Every Woman).

To support the program, there are a variety of events focusing on body and soul.

Tania Libertad, a woman who brings a message of peace and liberty to the world with her extraordinary singing voice, offers a concert in San Miguel de Allende to benefit Instituto de la Mujer (Women’s Institue) and its program “A Mammogram for Every Woman.” Born in Peru, she has lived in Mexico for more than 20 years. With 38 albums totaling sales of more than 4 million copies, she has been lauded around the world and named a UNESCO Singer for Peace.

The concert encapsulates the spirit of the 38 albums Tania Libertad has recorded during her career. She will sing boleros, a little ranchero, black music, trova, and songs representative of her repertory.

This weekend, ex-Hollywood actress and founder of the nonprofit PeaceMakers Community Lindsay Wagner hosts a healing workshop. An advocate for peaceful healing to break the cycle of domestic violence, her workshops explore practices to allow the spirit to grow and the ego to diminish. Her goal is to help people make an internal shift to accept new possibilities and be open to the divine.

During the workshop, she will conduct a hands-on blessing called “Diksha” which means” initiation” in Sanskrit. This blessing is passed from teacher to student and is thought of as a “descent of grace” or an energetic transmission. It can help us to transcend our limited perceptions of who we think we are and open our hearts to our true nature and divine intelligence. For more information call Patricia 152 6336.

Other weekend festivities

The weekend’s fundraising events continue on Sunday, January 20 with a bridge tournament held at The Bridge Studio in Hotel Real de Minas. Closing the weekend with a gasp on Sunday, January 20, will be a runner’s race up the Picachos. The fittest eight women and men will receive prizes from Lindsay Wagner at the closing ceremony in the Jardín.

For information, call the Instituto de la Mujer at 120-4634 (Spanish) or Patricia Gonzalez at 152-6336 (English).

Since its opening in 1951, the Instituto Allende has been a noted center for the arts in San Miguel de Allende. Continuing in this tradition, the Instituto now incorporates a select group of galleries, restaurants and services in the midst of beautiful gardens, architecture and incomparable vistas. Classrooms and workshops moved next door.

opening this landmark building as a unique shopping, entertainment and cultural venue. A reception and preview of the stores and galleries of Instituto Allende will be held Thursday, January 24 from 6pm until 9pm.

Mexico Round-up
Compiled by Gabriela Blanco

To keep our readers in San Miguel informed of recent developments across Mexico, we’ve compiled an overview of lead stories from national newspapers.

Three hired guns slain in shootout with federal troops in Tamaulipas

La Jornada: Twenty assailants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and bazookas clashed three times with elements of the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI), La Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP) and the Mexican Army in the border town of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. Three attackers died, while five PFP members and five military personnel were injured, authorities reported. Two other attackers were killed, but their bodies were recovered by other alleged assassins, unofficial sources informed.

The Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) and the secretariats of National Defense and Public Security (SSP) confirmed the deaths and injuries that night, and jointly announced the arrests of 10 people. The thugs who died belonged to the Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, according to government sources.

Tortillas now sold at 12 pesos per kilogram

La Jornada: Entrepreneurs Industry Mass and tortilla of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, rose to 12 pesos a kilogram of the foodstuff, while their counterparts in Guanajuato announced a 30-percent hike “in the tortilla around the state,” which will be from seven to 10 pesos per kilo as of next week. “Prices may go up to 15 pesos, or I do not know; tortilla costs what it costs, and that’s it,” Ramírez Santos said last Thursday.

Central de Abastos denies a price-hike crisis

La Jornada last week reviewed the escalation in recent weeks of basic meal prices to ensure that Central de Abastos is firmly committed to keeping prices frozen.

Speculation is attributable to final traders and retailers, including one million self-service stores in the country which are difficult to monitor and control, asserted Alfredo Martinez Neme, chairman of the National Confederation Cluster Merchants Central Supply (Conacca—Confederación Nacional de Agrupaciones de Comerciantes de Centrales de Abasto). “There is no reason for an overall increase in prices,” said the leader, but acknowledged that Central Supply has seen increases between 0.2 and 10 percent, mainly on grain. He noted that the hikes are not comparable with those recorded last year and described them as “normal movements” attributable to supply and demand.

For merchants who transport perishables from the interior, rising prices are due to increased gasoline costs. Enrique Huerta has worked 22 years as a trader in Central Supply. He focuses on lemons and avocados from Michoacan and transports them to Mexico City at 3,000- to 5,000-peso freight-rates for a given tonnage. With the hike in fuel, freight costs rose 15 percent, which is reflected in rising commodity prices, he said.

Mexico will change its strategy to curb abuses against migrants in the US

Measures include increasing the numbers of consulates and raising diplomatic budgets, noted Karina Aviles, in relaunching her candidacy as a nonpermanent member of the UN council.

Faced with the fact that immigration reform “failed” and the main culprit is the US Congress, the government of Mexico will promote a “new strategy” of “zero tolerance” for violations of the rights of compatriots in the US. The number of consulates will be increased to 50 and the budget proportionately. Other, more direct actions could be pursuing the “cost in court” of abusing the undocumented, Mexican diplomats reported.

Convinced that attempts to change the legal framework in the United States have foundered and that another wave of laws can come “is not very pretty,” diplomats agreed. Mexico will continue to submit “forceful” arguments that are in no way guaranteed to “break, bend or persuade, because there are sectors in Congress and in American society who have a rigid position against reform in this area.”