R E F O R M a Mexico's Main Street
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REFORMA Mexico's Main Street MR THE ENGLISH SPEAKER ’ S GUIDE TO LIVING IN MEXICO JULY 2007 JAPAN IN MEXICO ISSUE www.insidemex.com THE HISTORY OF THE JAPANESE MIGRATION TO MEXICO A CONVERSATION WITH CARLOS KASUGA OSAKA >7 A YOUNG VOLUNTEER TAKES TO THE STREETS>9 LIFE AND ART IN OAXACA>10 SUNTORY: A MEXICAN CULI- NARY INSTITUTION>21 East to the Americas CECI CONNOLLY on Fox's Library // Jimm Budd: The Rise and Fall of The News IMx08Cover.indd 1 6/27/07 11:03:48 PM Rumbo a... SAN LUIS POTOSÍ IN THIS COLONIAL MINING TOWN, Aran Shetterly discovers electric 8 twilight, historic homes and tacos rojos 24 Health Milk got your tummy down? 4 INBOX 6-7 NEWS&NOTES 12-13 ARTS&CULTURE EDITOR’S LETTER TIMESTAMP Javier Marín and Celebrating 110 years of Luz Montero. Frida’s big show Japanese migration to Mexico PERSPECTIVE Carlos Kasuga Osaka 25-26 Real Estat e 5 INVOICES on Mexico and Japan CLOSEUP The housesit- CECI CONNOLLY ter’s home is your home President Fox’s Library 8-11 INSIDEOUT GLIMPSES STEALS & DEALS 30 FAREWELLS Víctor Solís Lacquered chopsticks Shari Rettig: 1941 - 2007 and more CLOSEUP 31 THE BACK PAGE 14-19 El Sensei Putting out The News, Part II COVER A Beautiful Mix EAST TO AMERICA Akemi Tsuru Ocaña, of mixed Japanese- 20 Taste Mexican parentage, was born and raised in DURING WORLD WAR II, THEY WERE ROUNDED Mexico City. She admits that she struggled with “never feeling fully from here or there” Suntory’s Head UP THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY AND SENT as a child. Though she more closely identifi es with her Mexican heritage on her mother’s Chef on classic TO LIVE IN MEXICO CITY AND GUADALAJARA. side, she embraces both cultures. NOW, JAPANESE-MEXICAN NIKKEI DISCUSS sushi and the cream Maquillaje: Rosario González MAKE UP ASSIMILATION, INVISIBILITY AND ANCESTRY. ARTIST de LANCÔME cheese migration NUMBER 8 • JULY 2007 • www.insidemex.com • +52 55 5574 4281 • [email protected] Aran Shetterly Printed by SPI: Servicios Profesionales de THE GUIDE CEO Impresión, S.A. de C.V. [email protected] Distributed by Servicios de Mensajeria al Askari Mateos Alejandro Xolalpa, Detalle Margot Lee Shetterly Derechos reservados © Editorial Manda S.A. PRESIDENT Federico Monsalve Commercial Director Lorraine Orlandi Carlos Xolalpa, Sales de C.V., Cordoba 206A #4, Colonia Roma, Catherine Dunn Vivienne Stanton Griselda Juárez, Sales C.P. 06700, México D.F., México 2007. Se REFORMA: REPORTER/PRODUCER ART AND PR prohíbe la reproducción, total o parcial, del Luz Montero PHOTOGRAPHY [email protected] contenido de esta publicación, así como STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER CONTRIBUTOR John Boit, Melwood Global, también se prohíbe cualquier utilización MEXICO Levi Bridges Victor Solis US pública del contenido, como por ejemplo, INTERN DESIGN EDITOR RESPONSABLE actos de distribución, transformación y co- CITY’S MAIN EDITORIAL Alejandro Zárate Jessica Budd municación pública (incluyendo la transmis- CONTRIBUTORS Daniela Graniel ión pública). Certifi cado de reservas al uso Aline Jáuregui WEB DEVELOPMENT David Agren Alberto Correu exclusivo del título: 04-2006-111512075500- DRAG Emilio Betech R. Publicaciones a Medida SA 102. Certifi cado de licitud de título: 13674. Jimm Budd de CV, 2454 4666 LEGAL COUNSEL Certifi cado de licitud de contenido: 11247 Luis Fernando González Carlo Cibo BUSINESS Los artículos aquí contenidos refl ejan única- Ceci Connolly Nieves for Solorzano, DEVELOPMENT Carvajal, González, Pérez- mente la postura de su respectivo autor, y no Georgina del Ángel Cabrera Maya Harris necesariamente la de Editorial Manda S.A. de Caroline Goldman Correa S.C. Mario González-Román ADVERTISING Distribution: 50,000 C.V., por lo que dicha empresa no se respon- Tara FitzGerald [email protected] (paper and online) sabiliza por lo afi rmado por los respectivos autores aquí publicados. G1 [ 2 ] InsIdeMéxIco July 2007 pag. 2 y 4 .indd 2 6/27/07 12:39:14 AM @ej`[\Do`Zfn`j_\j k_\AXgXe\j\D\o`ZXe Zfddle`kpX ?Xggp(('k_ 8ee`m\ijXip f]k_\Xii`mXcf]pfli XeZ\jkfijkfD\o`Zf% N\X[d`i\pflig\ij\m\iXeZ\# Zi\Xk`m`kpXe[XccpflËm\Yifl^_k kffliX[fgk\[_fd\% 幸せな記念日 ?8GGP8EE@M<IJ8IP =<C@Q8E@M<IJ8I@F K_\K\Xd 08IMX_The Guide.indd 33 6/27/07 9:09:37 PM From Japanese Parts, Made in Mexico HE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Japanese, who seemed so different culturally, ARE PROUD OF THEIR TRADITIONS were warmly received here.” TOF OPENING THEIR DOORS TO IMMI- I had the good fortune to interview Carlos GRANts FROM AROUND THE WORLD: French Kasuga Osaka, the Director General of Yakult, and Africans, Koreans and Turks, Irish and S.A. de C.V. His company makes the ubiquitous Indians, all lending their faces, voices and cus- Yakult probiotic drink, a product designed to toms to a new national identity. As people ac- promote a healthy digestive system, originally customed to thinking of Mexicans as emigrants brought from Japan to Mexico 25 years ago by in search of opportunity, it’s often difficult for Mr. Kasuga. One of Mexico’s most successful estadounidenses and canadienses (despite the entrepreneurs, Mr. Kasuga’s appreciation for fact that we move here!) to see that Mexico the patria of his parents and his passion for is and has been a destination for people from the land of his birth have combined to form a other countries seeking a new life. unique philosophy of life and work, which he Such was my surprise one day when, go- shares in motivational speeches throughout ing through the checkout line in Mikasa, the Mexico and Latin America. Colonia Roma-based Japanese supermarket, I We also spend time with a young Japanese struck up a conversation with a friendly young volunteer who works with street children employee. As Magra scanned my hijiki and in Mexico City, a Japanese artist based in rang up my tempura, she told me with pride Oaxaca, and the chef of the Japanese restau- of her grandparents’ migration to Mexico, and rant Suntory, which after nearly 40 years of also of the difficulties that Japanese Mexicans operation, is a Mexican culinary institution. endured here during World War II. I knew All share their perspectives on the intersec- that there were large Japanese migrations tion of Japanese and Mexican cultures, and to Peru and Brazil but had never heard this how elements of both shape their work and story and was immediately fascinated, eager world view. to know more about this seemingly arcane bit We would like to thank the Japanese Mex- of Mexican history. ican intercultural magazine Zetten (www. And so, in a year in which the Japanese com- coralate.net), the Asociación México Japonesa munity is celebrating the 110th anniversary of (www.kaikan.com.mx), the Cámara Japone- its first migration to Mexico, Inside México sa de Comercio e Industria de México (www. takes a look at the history and culture of this japon.org.mx) the Japanese International Co- small but dynamic group of immigrants. operation Agency (www.jica.go.jp), the Japa- In our cover article, “East to the Ameri- nese Embassy (www.mx.emb-japan.go.jp) and cas”, Lorraine Orlandi takes us to Acacoyagua, the city of Acacoyagua, Chiapas for all of their Chiapas, the site of the original migration, help on this issue. We learned so much through and talks with Mexicans of Japanese heritage the research and writing, and have taken away about their stories and identity. “It was an from it yet another perspective on the richness eye-opener to learn about the immigration of and complexity of the mole that is Mexico. one particular group to Mexico, albeit small,” Enjoy! she says “And according to all accounts, the Margot Lee Shetterly [ ] InsIdeMéxIco July 2007 pag. 2 y 4 .indd 4 6/27/07 12:39:26 AM [email protected] Víctor Solís For the record nishings and photos. BY Ceci Connolly The Truman library in Independence, Missouri contains documents on the deci- Vicente Fox’s presi- sion to drop the atomic bomb, desegrega- dential library con- tion of the Armed Forces and the Nurem- troversy berg war crimes trials. When I went to the Carter museum in Atlanta, I lingered over At a recent dinner party in Mexico City, the transcripts from the 1978 Camp Da- the conversation turned to Vicente Fox’s vid Accords between Egyptian President first-in-the-nation presidential library, Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister under construction in the tiny ranching Menachem Begin. town of San Cristobal. FDR’s Hyde Park library candidly ac- “It’s an embarrassment,” growled one lo- knowledges that the president hid his cal entrepreneur who voted for Fox in 2000. crippling polio from the public and that Don’t even get people started on Marta he wrote love letters to a secretary named Sahagun, Fox’s super-coifed, super-contro- Lucy Mercer. And of course, there are the versial second wife. Now she’s got hubby tapes--Nixon’s library will include Water- dreaming of a Clintonesque post-presiden- gate conversations, while recordings of cy, complete with high-paid speeches and LBJ’s verbal arm-twisting have provided a mammoth shrine in his hometown. me endless hours of listening pleasure. (“Yes,” Senora Fox told me at a luncheon Each library reflects not only the of- for the international press, she did suggest ficial record, but the human side. At the using the Clinton library as a model.) Kennedy library, I felt uplifted by the airy, It seems Mexico’s intelligentsia is sparkling edifice that evokes youthful miffed that Fox is thumbing his nose at energy and optimism. Texan LBJ’s is the the tradition of ex-presidentes quietly fad- biggest.