Faces Challengesico MAP by GENE THORP — the WASHINGTON POST

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Volume 8, Issue 9

MEXFaces ChallengesICO MAP BY GENE THORP — THE WASHINGTON POST

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

A Word About Mexico Faces Challenges Lessons: Mexico, a country with a rich Three times the size of Texas, Mexico is a country of cultural heritage and history, remains contrasts. From towering mountains to coastal lowlands, closely tied to the U.S. Lessons in tropics to deserts. A country of World Heritage sites economics, global health provisions and preserving a rich history and culture, and leaders in Mexico international policy are abundant as Mexico confronts the epidemics of drug City moving it into the 21st century. Ranked by the World trafficking, violence and the A/H1N1 virus. Bank as the twelfth largest economy in the world, it is For journalism teachers, the coverage of experiencing deep recession. these issues by The Post provides lessons in depth reporting and breaking news Mexico is a country of large cities of millions and dusty coverage. villages. It is a country of cathedrals, wayside shrines and devout respect for life facing drug cartels and violence. It Level: Mid to High is the latter that was the original focus of the May guide. Subjects: U.S. History, Journalism Following the meeting of presidents Obama and Calderón Related Activity: Economics, World in Mexico, Post photographers, writers and Foreign Service History, Health correspondents were covering the violence that has resulted from the flow of U.S.-made firearms south and drugs north of the shared border in a series called Mexico at War: On the Front Lines.

As the epidemic of violence was joined by a flu epidemic, our guide expanded. The articles, commentary and informational graphics follow ten days of Post coverage. Read the well- researched articles and watch how the same team handles breaking news. These story strands will continue. We urge teachers to encourage students to continue reading the articles and commentary on the health, economic, policy, cultural and personal impact of these events.

A reminder to Post INSIDE program teachers: If you plan to use articles in this guide in the e-Replica format more than three months after their publication date, remember to bookmark them. “Listen to e-Replica” in this guide e- gives e-students instruction e- in using the audio feature Replica of theReplica e-Replica Post.Replica

NIE Online Guide Editor: Carol Lange Art Editor: Carol Porter

Contributing to This Guide: Jeannine Cotner, Herndon (Va.) Middle School, provided the “Stock Performance” worksheet.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

Mexico Faces Challenges On the Web

How closely the stories of Mexico and the U.S. are intertwined was www.explorandomexico.com/about- evident in Post coverage of drug trafficking across the U.S.-Mexican mexico/5/89/ border and the emergence of the H1N1 strain of the influenza virus. Mexico’s World Cultural Heritage Sites The following suggested activities may be used with the Washington UNESCO preserves cultural identity “of a Post articles found in this guide as well as today’s Post. country rich in natural resources and owners of an architectural, religious and artistic Locate Mexico Mexico after NAFTA. Discuss the tradition” Use a world map or globe to pro and con of its impact on the locate Mexico. Ask students culture, economy and lifestyle. www.ecultura.gob.mx/patrimonio/index. to indicate its location using php?lan=2 such terms as “hemisphere,” Do Research Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes “continent,” and geographic To acquaint students with the Links to heritage sites, includes UNESCO relationship to other countries. rich cultural heritage of Mexico Heritage of Humanity, Historical Monuments, A map of Mexico is provided in and its history, students may Archaeological Zones, museums and cultural this guide. Use it to locate places be asked to prepare reports on tourism (virtual tours). mentioned in news, commentary different topics. “Research From A and other articles. to Z” provides some of the people, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mxtoc.html events and organizations that may Country Study: Mexico Do a Crossword Puzzle be researched. Library of Congress study includes history, The crossword puzzle, “Shades To introduce the project, teachers profile and economy of Mexico,” includes names and may play a Jeopardy-inspired words associated with current and game to test students’ knowledge www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/ historic Mexico. After students of Mexico. Areas covered would mexico/mexico.html have completed the puzzle, include: Portals to the World teachers could ask students to • Formal name of Mexico (Estados Library of Congress resources range from select four to six words to include Unidos Mexicanos, United business to culture to history and religion and in a paragraph about Mexico. Mexican States) philosophy The answers to the puzzle are • Official language (Spanish) found at the end of these suggested • Geographically largest nation www.history.com/content/mexico activities. in Latin America (Brazil; 2nd, The History of Mexico Argentina; 3rd, Mexico) History Channel highlights, photographs and Get Acquainted • Divides Mexico into temperate videos, maps Ask students who have lived and tropical zones (Tropic of in Mexico or visited Mexico Cancer) www.kidsculturecenter.com/mexico/mexico. to share their memories of the • Celebrates defeat of French by htm people, architecture, food and General Zaragoza at the Battle of Mexico daily life. Were they only in resorts Puebla (Cinco de Mayo) Culture (ancient culture, holidays, recipes), or did they stay in the city or The research reports could be resources, events, and Kids Page (images to countryside? Did they eat Mexican collected to form a background download). foods? Did they see American file on Mexico. As students read products? articles about Mexico note where http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/ Read “The Southern Colony,” a facts about history, culture, cis_970.html book review written by a former economics, events and people Mexico Washington Post Mexico City have been included to provide U.S. Dept. of State country information bureau chief. The author of In the Shadow of the Giant presents his www.museohistoriamexicana.org.mx view on the Americanization of continued on page 4 Museo de Historia Mexicana In Spanish. Mesoamerican to contemporary Mexico

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued from page 3 Outbreak.” They reported: “An Research From A to Z unusual strain of swine flu has been perspective on the contemporary detected among victims of a large Explore the history, economy and culture story. outbreak of a severe respiratory of our neighbor to the south. Select a topic illness in Mexico, prompting global to research. What’s the News? health officials, fearful of a potential What characteristics make a story flu pandemic, to scramble yesterday Alamo “news”? What factors play into to try to contain the virus.” Authentic Labor Front (FAT) editors’ judgment of what makes an On the same day, an A8 story Aztec empire A1 story? The 5 Ws and H — Who, reported that the Pentagon and Benito Juarez What, Where, When, Why and Homeland Security Department Cinco de Mayo How — are essential to presenting were developing plans to send Cortés’s expedition the details of news. Concepts such National Guard troops to the U.S.- Laura Esquivel as Firsts, Life, Hate, Greed and War Mexican border “to expand the U.S. Foreign investment since 1900 may be news. Timeliness, proximity, military’s role in the drug war.” French occupation magnitude, impact on readers and The stories, commentary, maps Frida Kahlo beyond, uniqueness and human and graphics in this guide reflect Carlos Fuentes interest are factors in defining and the priority that flu coverage took Gadsden Purchase determining news and deciding its as numbers of confirmed cases Maximilian I placement in coverage. and deaths took place in Mexico Mayans Take a closer look at the changing and expanded to other countries, Mexican-American War news coverage of Mexico during ten including the U.S. Moctezuma II (Montezuma) days in April 2009. The Washington The articles that were selected for NAFTA Post maintains 15 bureaus for inclusion in this guide are presented Olmec international coverage. Before in order of publication. In addition Narcotics trafficking William Booth became bureau chief to discussing the information in Pancho Vila in Mexico City, he wrote for science them, students could be asked to Religion and Style desks of The Post. South • Identify the news judgment Diego Rivera American correspondent Joshua indicated in the articles; Santa Anna Partlow is stationed in Rio de • Consider the importance of Spanish colonization Janeiro. Note their bylines. having experienced reporters in Sugar, silver, oil and other products Reporters in late April covered international bureaus; Tourism since 1970 the impact of drug trafficking. On • Debate the importance of having Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo April 21, “An Army Takeover Quells reporters trained in science Guadelupe Victoria Violence in Mexico,” was an A1 and health; for example, Post Women in Mexican revolutions story. Written by Steve Fainaru and science reporter David Brown is a Zapatista William Booth, it was datelined physician; Ciudad Juarez. On April 22, a World • Discuss the unfolding of details Digest brief reported “Mexican about the flu and other parts of the Army to Stay on Streets for Years” story; in order to stop drug cartel killings. • Consider diction in stories, tone of On April 23, Booth reported from the articles and use of data; Mexico City: “Mexican Drug Cartel • Examine the use of maps and Leaves Dire Calling Card.” other graphics to relate the story; On April 25, an A1 story written • Reflect on Mexico’s prominence in by Post science reporters Rob Stein the larger story of H1N1 virus. and David Brown was headlined “Swine Flu Found in Mexican continued on page 5

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued from page 4 time to re-read the article looking for Mexico in The Post positions and reasons for the different Explore Drug Enforcement stands taken. Have students on both http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ Before reading “An Army Takeover sides meet to post what they have world/interactives/mexico-at-war/index. Quells Violence in Mexico,” discuss found. html the reasons for maintaining a civilian Mexico at War police force and for using military Stage a Public Affairs Show Washington Post correspondents report police in civilian roles. Locate El After doing the above activity, hold from the frontlines as the Mexican Paso and Ciudad Juarez on a map a public affairs program. This could government has launched a war against and provide some demographic be for your class alone or with other powerful drug traffickers. A series of information. history, government and journalism articles, graphics and multimedia. Links • Why has Juarez received the classes as a current events project. to previous articles on Mexico’s drug distinction of being the “most Broadcast students could get practice war include “An Army Takeover Quells violent city in Mexico”? taping the show. Violence in Mexico: Drug Killings in Juarez • Give reasons why the activation Question: We do/do not need Plummet, but Rights Complaints Surge,” of the army to take responsibility U.S. National Guard troops on the “A Conversation with Terry Goddard, for civil law has been/not been U.S.-Mexican border. Give some Attorney General of Arizona,” and successful. For example, is a of the students placards (include “Mexican Leader Vows to Press Fight “cockroach effect” an example of Joy Olson, Gov. Richardson, Adm. Against Cartels.” success? Mullen, Ricardo Alday, Sec. of State • What evidence of civil rights Clinton, a National Guard trooper, INTERACTIVE MAP infringement is included in the resident of El Paso, President Shows federal troop presence, main drug- article? Calderón, President Obama, several entry states, the flow of cocaine and drug- • Explain why you do/do not agree reporters). They are to be ready to related deaths since 2007 with the decision of President voice the position and concerns of Calderón. their assigned individuals. The first MULTIMEDIA Not control of illegal immigration, five could form a panel to present Mexico Drug War but drug-related violence is the the issues and their positions. The Life and Death in Ciudad Juarez reason given to begin a $350 million reporters could interview the others initiative. Read “Plan Would Deploy listed. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ Guard Near Mexico.” This article After hearing the above, open content/linkset/2005/04/13/ reports what is being planned. How mics for the “studio audience” to ask LI2005041301527.html does this fulfill one of the missions of questions and to state their views. Mexico Travel Stories a free press? Archives of Washington Post Travel Discuss the first five paragraphs: Take a Stand section articles. Topics include a search • Who are developing the plans? Why Review the following words before for the ultimate quesadilla, a dance for the would these two departments work reading Eugene Robinson’s column: ages, learning Spanish by immersion and together? “cartel,” “extort,” “indictment,” finding a muse. • Who announced this project? Why “insatiable,” “insurgency,” “narco- is this source interesting? (See state,” “pulverize,” and “Sisyphean.” www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ paragraph 15) Distinguish the purposes of news content/custom/2006/03/31/ • Who proposed the initiative? stories, editorials and columns. CU2006033101407.html • What does the proposal wording Give students “Drugs, Guns and The Immigration Debate ask for? a Reality Check” to read. Eugene Post coverage of the immigration issue are • What happens if the proposal Robinson won the 2009 Pulitzer archived under the main headings of The monies are not spent by September Prize for Commentary. He stated in Washington Region, The Political Debate, 2010? his remarks after winning that “the and The Border and Beyond. In addition to Divide the class into those who articles find photos, graphics and maps. support and those who do not agree with the proposal. Give students continued on page 6

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued from page 5 threat? What other questions do Flu Resources in The Post these two articles answer? What great thing about a column is that questions remain to be answered? washingtonpost.com/swineflu you have a license to feel.” Swine Flu As students discuss the column, Debate a Case Study Articles, updates, timeline, multimedia and they may consider: “Little Boy at the Center of a interactive map to track the spread of swine • What is the news peg of the Viral Storm” humanizes the story. flu cases locally and worldwide. Resources column? It also presents some questions of link to other main sources following the • What is Robinson’s point of view ethics in reporting. A/H1N1 virus. on the topic? • Why was Édgar Enrique • In what ways does he balance the Hernández from La Gloria on the Endemic, Epidemic or Pandemic? past with the present? front page of The Washington www.washpost.com/nie, Lesson Plans, • How does he organize facts and Post on April 29? June 1, 2006, Post INSIDE program guide his opinions? • Describe the village that is Concerns about a virulent spread of avian Ask students to be columnists Édgar’s home. flu provide opportunity to explore public for a day. Take a stand on one of • Note the verb tense in the lede health, privacy rights, economic decisions the ideas presented in this column. sentence: “may have helped and the Spanish Flu of 1918 that killed These would include American launch.” Is this a red flag to more than 50 million people around the responsibility, the application of the readers? Does this indicate world. Stories, commentary and graphics economic principle of supply and speculation rather than fact? that give perspective, worksheets (“Too demand, legalization of some or all • The mother of the five-year-old Much, Too Little or Just Right?”) that still drugs, drug cartels, and violence states “the people are thinking apply and resources. associated with trafficking. that this was all my son’s fault.” What does this communicate Government’s Role in Health and Economic Understand Discovery about the impact on the family? Decisions of the H1N1 Virus • When we read further into the www.washpost.com/nie, Manual, Business Unlike what happens on TV, it article what do we learn about the section takes more than an hour to get villagers’ concerns? Scroll to page 43 of this section of the test results. Miguel Ángel Lezana, • What information in the article online INSIDE program manual for teach- director of the National Center for questions Édgar being singled out ers. Three lessons on SARS to focus on Epidemiology and Disease Control for this distinction? Note the fifth public health from the business side: “When in Mexico, sent saliva swabs and paragraph (“the link is far from Health Concern Interrupts Supply and lung samples to Winnipeg when the certain”) to begin discussion. Demand,” “When Market Economy vs. laboratory in Mexico City could not • Did Joshua Partlow report a Traditional Economy vs. Public Safety,” identify the new strain found in La story that is circulating? Does he and “When Government and Public Health Gloria. He waited seven days until provide factual perspective on the Face Disease.” Articles (“Bird Flu Upends May 23 when a conference call from story? Industry, Livelihoods in Thailand,” “Fearing the U.S. and Canada confirmed the • What understanding of the flu SARS, China Begins Mass Killing of Civet previously unknown swine flu virus. do Post readers gain from this Cats”) and study questions. Read the articles in this guide, article? beginning with the April 25 article, • Also reported that day on pages “Swine Flu Found in Mexican 6 and 7: tools to fight disease, Outbreak.” See “What’s News?” differences in the flu’s severity, (page 4) for some questions to educating D.C. area residents to apply to the articles. In what ways avoid contracting the virus and does “In Mexico, Young Adults a Q and A. If you were editor of Appear Most at Risk” answer The Post, which story about the questions about how a city of 20 flu would you have put on page 1? million and surrounding valley at the epicenter are living with the continued on page 7

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued from page 6 have been ghosted so the time period and it contains descriptions of the will reflect teachers’ assignments. “hot spot in Mexico’s drug war” south Get Graphic Teachers may wish to discuss what of Tijuana that must be crossed before Maps and informational graphics are portion of a company’s market is in getting to the wines of Baja California, importants part of telling the story. Mexico and how the total financial teachers may not wish to use this Two infographs are included in this picture may be impacted. article. guide. They were published on April 29 Companies respond in order not to Teachers of older students will find and May 3, respectively, after enough lose business or public relations. For in Booth’s travel article reporting on information could be verified with example, The Post reported in the the economic flatline and insight into reliable sources to produce them. “ComingandGoing” column on May developing a new tourist attraction Discuss the information and design 3 that “Carnival cruises departing and economic base in Mexico. of both. “A Virus With Pandemic out of Miami substitute Nasssau, Journalism teachers have an example Potential” provides information Belize, Honduras or Key West, Fla., of balancing the downside and dangers about the flu virus and the H1N1 for Cozumel.” The company was also of travel with the benefits. virus. “Unraveling the Swine Flu offering a generous cancellation policy. Mystery” uses a circle graph to follow Reflect on a Journalist’s Job the chronology of U.S. cases and Contrast Travel Articles At this point, teachers are aware of CDC work. Is the circle graph more Two Travel section articles are the diverse topics and types of articles efficient than a timeline to convey the included. Both focus on travel in that a reporter, especially one in a information? Mexico and on food and beverage. foreign bureau will be called upon to Use information in the articles in this The writers are eyewitnesses who write. They may also be asked to take guide and articles in more recent Post live(d) in Mexico as Washington Post photographs and tape interviews for coverage to create an informational bureau chiefs. They use description, print and Web coverage. graphic about the H1N1 virus in interviews and facts. The tone in each Select one of The Post’s Foreign Mexico and/or other countries. is very different. Service reporters to follow. Discuss Discuss the details in Roig-Franzia’s the topics, sources, travel and depth of Explain Economic Impact article that make one want to join him research needed to write the articles With a country already in recession, in the market. Why is Nick Gilman included in this guide. Follow that the Mexican government faces many an excellent choice to join the quest reporter’s work in print and online challenges. The Post articles on for the “consummate quesadilla”? (www.washingtonpost.com) for a the violence associated with drug Annotate the three paragraphs that month. Some of the writers will also trafficking and the April 26 Travel describe the culinary experience at appear on television to give reports section article on travel in Mexico’s Antojitos Doña Celia. Roig-Franzia from the field. wine area highlight existing challenges might have concluded his article here. to tourism. What do the remaining paragraphs add Listen to Articles Read “Swine Flu Outbreak Could to the reader’s experience and purpose The Post e-Replica edition has an Deepen Mexico’s Recession.” What of a travel article? option that allows readers to listen additional demands on the economy Students might be asked to write a to articles. Use “Listen to e-Replica” come with the discovery of the H1N1 description of their favorite restaurant instructions to set up audio. This virus? and item(s) on the menu. If these feature is especially helpful for students Complete “Health Affects the are near the school, they might be whose first language is not English, Economy” activity to explore the combined into a guide to good eating those who need remedial reading work impact of health and illness on a in your area. and sight-impaired students. country’s economy. Teachers may The April 26 article by William wish to review previous bird flu Booth was written before the H1N1 Follow Up Stories concerns and SARS impact to provide virus was discovered, the Travel This guide includes news articles, perspective. section printed before the April 25 commentary, travel articles, a book “Stock Performance” worksheet is public reporting of it, and related to provided to collect data for the Take Post coverage of the impact of drug Stock part of the activity. Dates trafficking. Since its focus is on wine continued on page 8

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

continued from page 7

review, maps and graphics. We focused on the ten days from April 21-30. The stories continue. On May 1, the A1 headline read: “Swine Flu Spreads Across D.C. Region,” and on page 8 reporters covered the readiness of states and communities to respond to viral outbreaks, and Booth and Partlow reported how residents in Mexico City are responding. In The World coverage on the same day, Booth and Steve Fainaru (“Mexican Drug Fight Nets 60,000 Suspects”) reported the “first public accounting of the government’s offensive against Mexico’s drug cartels.” The photograph accompanying this article showed handcuffed suspects and police all wearing masks — blue surgical masks. Read The Washington Post daily, check online or create an e-Replica alert to follow up on drug enforcement, the H1N1 virus and cultural events taking place in Mexico. ■

Puzzle Answers 1 A 2 G 3 R 4 A 5 N D 6 E 7 J 8 A 9 R 10 B E L I Z E 11 L A U R A L 12 I O T A P 13 A R T

14 15 16 E N D E M A D R E A 17 E 18 T C H 19 S M E A R 20 21 22 23 S O I D O Z R BY MARCO UGARTE — ASSOCIATED PRESS The attorney general’s office says it is unable to disclose how many 24 Y U 25 C A T 26 A N 27 E 28 S 29M drug-trafficking suspects remain in custody or whether they have been 30 31 32 charged. N A N U E V O A 33 34 35 36 C I U D A D M E X N 37 N C I E 38 U N 3 39 A G 40 D A M A S K 41 T A C O

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Shades of Mexico

Many of the terms in this 10 11 crossword puzzle are related to Estados Unidos Mexicanos. 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32

33 34 35 36

37 38 39

40 41

ACROSS DOWN 1. First letter of the alphabet 1. Has skill to accomplish something 2. Rio ___ 2. Move smoothly 7. Water kept in a clay ___ stays cooler. 3. ___ Grande 10. One of two countries on Mexico’s southern border 4. The capital city of the ___ empire was 11. Author ___ Esquivel Tenochitilan-Tlatlelco, today’s Mexico City 12. Small amount 5. National Endowment for the Arts (acronym) 13. Wood-carved folk ___ 6. American city on the Rio Grande 14. Opposite of begin 7. City across the border from El Paso 15. Sierra ___, Mexico’s principle mountain system 8. Behind in making a mortgage payment 17. To wear away the surface with an acid, art form 9. Long-tailed rodent 19. They ___ on suntan lotion in Cancun. 16. Deutsche Mark (abbr.) 20. She has never been ___ happy. 18. Aunt in Tiaxiaco 22. To take action 20. Moving in ___ 23. Zirconium (abbr.) 21. AEI ___ 24. Peninsula in southeastern Mexico 22. Do Not Understand (acronym) 28. Small (abbr.) 25. River in western Columbia 30. New in Spanish 26. Longest mountain chain 33. City in Chihuahua 27. A happening 36. Mexico, briefly 29. Tropical fruit or Spanish fashion label 37. National Cancer Institute (acronym) 31. Large flightless bird of Australia 38. United Nations (acronym) 32. Often found in teams 39. Attorney General, briefly 34. Instituto Nacional de Deportes (acronym) 40. Woven fabric with a pattern 35. Not bright 41. Traditional Mexican dish 39. Alternating Current (acronym) Name ______Date ______

Listen to the e-Replica Post You can do the dishes, polish your shoes, or brush the dog — and read The Washington Post at the same time. This is made possible through the e-Replica feature allowing you to have articles read to you. Listening to articles requires Windows Media player to be installed with the most recent upgrades (i.e., all Microsoft patches) as this feature utilizes the software already present in Windows to work. Mac users will need Windows e- Media e-Player for Mac e- OS X or Flip4Mac. Please note that for the audio feature to work, the e-Replica issue must Replica have Replicathe “smart” navigationReplica features enabled. After you have opened today’s e-Replica, select an article. Move the cursor over the article or headline to activate this audio feature. The icon for sound will appear. Click and a bar with four choices appears — Share, Print, Listen and Comment. Select Listen. The image below is the window that will be activated when Listen is selected. The article read is highlighted both in the thumbnail view as well as within the list of articles on the right. To pause an article, simply click on the pause button — circled in the image below:

The pause button will become a play arrow when clicked so you can resume listening to the article. The reader is computer-generated so you do not get to change voices. Not all content is read. You will have to read your own horoscope, sports scores, comics and classified ads. Name ______Date ______

Map of Mexico and Southern U.S. Border States

BY GENE THORP — THE WASHINGTON POST Location of La Gloria Location of Ciudad Juarez Name ______Date ______

Health Affects Economy

On May 3, The Post Business section looked at seven stocks. The introduction stated:

Worries about swine flu swept through a variety of sectors after the outbreak became public a week ago. Food companies were hit by concerns — later called unwarranted — that the virus could be contracted by eating pork. Hotels and airlines suffered as business travelers and tourists were told to stay home. Some drug companies got a boost because they sell, or are developing, products that counter flu strains.

Take Stock Select seven stocks to see how they reflect the market’s response to swine flu from April 25 to yesterday. On a separate sheet graph the data. 1. Carnival (cruise line) 2. Generex Biotechnology 3. Smithfield Foods (North Carolina company whose swine farms are located in Mexico) 4. Airline that services Mexico (you choose) 5. Company that exports fresh fruit and vegetables from Mexico (you choose) 6. Company with hotels in Mexico (you choose) 7. Pharmaceutical company (you choose)

Mexico as a Case Study The personal health of citizens and a country’s economic health are inter-related. Mexico has no unemployment insurance program; most Mexicans are employed in the service sector. Mexico was already experiencing a recession when news of the discovery of the A/H1N1 virus went public.

1. Agree or disagree with this statement: Even if Mexico’s economy were healthy, widespread illness would have an impact.

2. Underlined are four areas that have been influenced within ten days of the reporting of the new virus. Under each, a list of examples has been started. Add two more specific examples to each of the areas.

Exports/Demand for Products Made in Mexico • Cancellation of pork shipments from Mexico • •

Tourism • Travel advisories • Cancellation of cruise ship stops — Name at least two ports: • •

Medical • Cost of providing medicine to citizens • Investment in more advanced medical technology • •

Cancellations and Closings Add specific examples of each: • Arts • Cinco de Mayo celebration • Place of employment • Schools • Sports • • Name ______Date ______

% % % (you determine range) determine (you

Gain/Loss Gain or Loss Percentage? Gain/Loss Gain/Loss

Share Price Price Share Price Share Price Share Gain/Loss % Gain/Loss % Gain/Loss %

Gain/Loss %

Symbol: Symbol: Symbol: Symbol:

4/25/09 4/29/09 5/4/09 Symbol: Symbol: Symbol: Symbol: Symbol: CCl Symbol: Symbol: Symbol:

STOCK PERFORMANCE STOCK Company/Symbol Carnival Cruise Lines Airline Export Fruit/Vegetables Mexico from Co. in Mexico with hotels Company Co. Pharmaceutical Carnival Cruise Lines CCL Stock: 4/25 4/26 4/27 4/28 4/29 4/30 5/1 5/2 5/3 Value 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22.00 Smithﬁ eld Foods Smithﬁ Generex Biotechnology Name ______Date ______

Value

Value (you determine range) determine (you (you determine range) determine (you 5/3 5/3 5/2 5/2 5/1 5/1 4/30 4/30 4/29 4/29 4/26 4/27 4/28 4/26 4/27 4/28

Stock: 4/25

Stock: 4/25 Volume 8, Issue 9

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

EUGENE ROBINSON Drugs, Guns and a Reality Check It’s an indictment of our fact-averse racking helicopter ride to visit a U.S.- methamphetamine, cocaine and other political culture that a statement of funded military base in the Upper drugs to the American market. Violence the blindingly obvious could sound so Huallaga Valley of Peru. It was the place among drug gangs, not just along the revolutionary. “Our insatiable demand where most of the country’s coca — the border but throughout the country, has for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” plant from which cocaine is processed reached crisis levels. The government’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told — was being grown, and the valley was strategy is to break up the big cartels, as reporters on her plane Wednesday as she crawling with Maoist guerrillas who the Colombians did. But even if authorities flew to Mexico for an official visit. “Our funded their insurgency with money succeed, the industry will live on. inability to prevent weapons from being they extorted from the coca growers and In the case of Mexico, there’s a illegally smuggled across the border … traffickers. Eventually, the coca business complicating factor: This is a two-way causes the deaths of police, of soldiers was eliminated in the Upper Huallaga. problem. While drugs are being moved and civilians.” But now it’s flourishing in other parts north across the border, powerful assault Amazingly, U.S. officials have avoided of Peru, and last year authorities there weapons — purchased in the United facing these facts for decades. This is seized a record 30 tons of cocaine — States — are being moved south to not just an intellectual blind spot but a meaning, by rule of thumb, that at least arm the cartels’ foot soldiers. Clinton’s moral failure, one that has had horrific 10 times that much was statement about “shared consequences for Mexico, Colombia, Peru, probably produced and responsibility” recognizes Bolivia and other Latin American and shipped. that if we expect Mexico Caribbean nations. Clinton deserves high In Colombia, I saw how to do something about the praise for acknowledging that the United the huge, brutally violent flow of drugs, we’re obliged States bears “shared responsibility” for the Medellin and Cali cocaine to do something about the drug-fueled violence sweeping Mexico, cartels threatened to turn counterflow of guns. which has claimed more than 7,000 lives the country into the world’s First, though, let’s be since the beginning of 2008. But that first “narco-state.” The honest with ourselves. means we will also share responsibility Colombian government, This whole disruptive, for the next 7,000 killings as well. again with U.S. assistance, Secretary of State destabilizing enterprise has Our long-running “war on drugs,” managed to pulverize Hillary Clinton at one purpose, which is to focusing on the supply side of the these sprawling criminal TecMilenio University supply the U.S. market with equation, has been an utter disaster. organizations into smaller in Monterrey, Mexico, illegal drugs. As long as the Domestically, we’ve locked up hundreds units, but the business yesterday. demand exists, entrepreneurs of thousands of street-level dealers, some continues to thrive — and will find a way to meet it. of whom genuinely deserve to be in prison to provide most of the cocaine that finds The obvious demand-side solution — and some of whom don’t. It made no its way to the American market. Last legalization — would do more harm difference. According to a 2007 University year, Colombian authorities seized 119 than good with some drugs, but maybe of Michigan study, 84 percent of high tons of cocaine. Money from the drug not with others. We need to examine all school seniors nationwide said they could trade sustains the longest-running leftist options. It’s time to put everything on the obtain marijuana “fairly easily” or “very insurgency in the hemisphere. Ever table, because all we’ve accomplished so easily.” The figure for amphetamines was inventive, the Colombian traffickers have far is to bring the terrible violence of the 50 percent; for cocaine, 47 percent; for gone so far as to build their own miniature drug trade ever closer to home. heroin, 30 percent. submarines to smuggle illicit cargo into At the same time, we’ve persisted in the United States. — March 27, 2009 a Sisyphean attempt to cut off the drug And now Mexico has become the supply at or near the source. When I was focal point of the drug trade, with its The Washington Post’s correspondent cartels blasting their way to dominance The author my be reached at in South America, I once took a nerve- in the business of bringing marijuana, [email protected].

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program An Army Takeover Quells Violence in Mexico Drug Killings in Juarez Plummet, but Rights Complaints Surge

By Steve Fainaru and William Booth Violence has plummeted here since dropped to 51 last month. Twenty-two Washington Post Foreign Service President Felipe Calderón dispatched people have died in drug violence so far • Originally Published April 21, 2009 thousands of soldiers to take over public in April. security, a strategy designed to crush The military occupation of Juarez, an CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A few the drug gangs that turned Juarez into a industrial city of 1.3 million across the months ago, the mayor of the most symbol of lawlessness. Rio Grande from El Paso, is the most violent city in Mexico would sometimes In the first two months of this year, extreme example of Calderón’s high-risk sleep across the border in El Paso for 434 people were killed in drug violence strategy of using the army to confront safety. Now, with the military firmly in in the city, accounting for nearly half of Mexico’s powerful drug cartels. Besieged control of Ciudad Juarez, an entire day all homicides nationwide. After 5,000 city officials signed an agreement can pass without a single drug-related additional troops were sent to Juarez killing. in early March, the number of deaths continued on page 17

BY SARAH VOISIN — THE WASHINGTON POST Military police stand outside a Ciudad Juarez bar after a killing thought to be drug-related. President Felipe Calderón sent thousands of soldiers to crush drug gangs in the city.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued from page 16 masked assassins executed prosecutors in broad daylight. The four refrigerated surrendering responsibility for civilian vaults in the city morgue overflowed law enforcement to the military. with unclaimed bodies, some of which The Juarez police department is now were being buried in common graves last under the command of a retired three- week. star general and a dozen top military In 2008, 863 people died in drug- officers handpicked by Mexico’s defense related violence in Juarez, according to secretary. Soldiers are the cops — they Milenio, a media network that keeps a write traffic tickets, investigate domestic running total of drug-related violence disputes, arrest drunks and run every throughout the country. Chihuahua, the department, including the jail, the arid northern state where the city is training academy and the emergency call located, had 2,052 killings, or 36 percent center. After 5,000 more troops arrived, the death of all drug-related homicides in Mexico toll fell to 51 in March from aa total of 434 in More than 10,000 soldiers and January and February. last year. federal agents patrol Juarez’s gritty “The stakes are very high. We know streets. Dressed in green camouflage the facade, young men played basketball this,” Mayor José Reyes Ferriz said during and carrying automatic weapons, they on a lighted court while families walked an interview in his office overlooking the stage raids, detain suspects, and search the streets. U.S. border. “This is something that has travelers at the airport and border “The cartels are basically wiped out never been tried before in Mexico: to crossings, assuming unprecedented law here now,” Berecochea said. “They’re have the army take over the police so enforcement duties. not operating, at least not in Juarez.” completely.” The steep decline in killings here has The lull in violence may be temporary. Reyes said Calderón and his drug war been accompanied by a spike in human On Thursday, a 32-year-old man was cabinet, including Defense Secretary rights complaints. A Juarez government killed — shot 10 times in front of his Guillermo Galván Galván, are involved in office created last month to monitor the family’s house a few hundred yards from every major decision regarding security army’s conduct received 170 complaints the U.S.-Mexico border. Later that night, in the city. “They selected the officers. in its first three weeks, including in a commando-style raid at a popular They designed the strategy,” Reyes said. allegations of illegal detentions and nightclub, hooded assassins ordered He described Juarez as a “national model” beatings. Last week, the attorney general patrons to the floor, then took the for other Mexican cities whose weak and opened separate investigations into the manager to the pantry and executed him. corrupt police forces are useless against cases of two men who were killed while On Friday, four more men were slain. the cartels. allegedly in the army’s custody. “The surge by the military has made Many Juarez residents have greeted “Ciudad Juarez, right now I’d say it’s a profound difference. They do serve as the army — and the sudden, surprising the safest city in Mexico,” said Jorge a deterrent. Crime is a fraction of what calm — as if they have been liberated Alberto Berecochea, a former lieutenant it was. That is the good news,” said from a siege. colonel in the air force who was called Tony Payan, an expert on Mexico’s drug Julio Salazar, who runs a youth sports out of retirement last month to run one trade at the University of Texas at El program in Casas Grandes, said: “You of the city’s six district police stations. Paso. “The bad news is: What is going can’t really imagine how it was here Berecochea and other officials to happen when the army returns to the before: the violence, people selling drugs described a “cockroach effect” in which barracks? I think the situation remains out in the open. There isn’t so much drug traffickers have scattered under very precarious.” chaos anymore.” the glare of the military. One night last Centrally located, with access to U.S. “The violence is pretty much gone,” week, he led a patrol through Casas interstates, Ciudad Juarez is the most said Agustín Vargas, a thin, 24-year-old Grandes, a slum where smeared blood coveted “plaza” of the Mexican drug soccer player who described himself as a and splintered glass still cover the floor trade, which funnels 90 percent of all reformed ex-gang member. “There used of a guard station where a police officer cocaine entering the United States. Last to be murders all over the place, people was killed in December by assailants year, the Mexican news media dubbed it shooting. It’s changed.” firing AK-47 assault rifles. the “city of terror.” Headless torsos hung Next to the abandoned kiosk, where from highway overpasses, severed heads someone had scrawled “Ha Ha Ha” on were dumped in the central plaza, and continued on page 18

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued from page 17 “Keep your noses clean, boys,” said while a soldier stood by with a match Berecochea, smiling as he walked away. and that they were finally left on a hill Calderón sent in the army after the Calderón’s deployment of the military to about midnight the following day. rule of law appeared to break down fight the cartels has dramatically changed Rosales’s mother, Margarita Rosales, entirely in Juarez. Local traffickers had the way law enforcement works in said Fernández told her that her son succeeded in forcing out the police chief Mexico. The army is authorized to make was beaten more savagely because he by threatening to kill one of his officers arrests only when a suspect is believed to had serpent tattoos that led the army every 48 hours until he resigned. be in the process of committing a crime. to believe he was a member of Los At the time, Berecochea, 42, had been However, the government has erected Aztecas, a local gang whose members retired from the Air Force for three a largely secret legal apparatus that serve as enforcers for the Juarez cartel. years, following a 20-year career. He allows commanders to conduct raids, She denied that her son was a member. was living in Pachuca, the capital of the arrest suspects and initiate wiretaps after Fernández was in an El Paso hospital south-central state of Hidalgo, running presenting evidence to local prosecutors. under protection. a company that makes steel blades for The prosecutors, in turn, submit petitions “They are doling out their own brand cutlery and farm equipment, when he for arrest and search warrants over a of justice,” said Rosales’s aunt, Ana received a phone call summoning him to secure Web site to a panel of anonymous Maria, “and it’s the same kind of justice the army’s headquarters in Mexico City. judges in Mexico City. as the people they are supposed to be The army’s chief of operations “We know [the judges] exist, but they protecting us against.” addressed a meeting of about 100 inactive work in a place that is unknown to the The army has denied responsibility for and retired officers. “He told us that it public,” said Héctor García Rodríguez, the slaying. A military spokesman said was a very critical situation in Juarez,” a representative of the federal attorney organized criminals have been donning Berecochea said. “He said it had reached general’s office in Juarez. “I don’t even army uniforms and impersonating the point where the security of the nation know who they are.” soldiers to sow mistrust and anger was at stake.” According to the attorney general’s against the armed forces. Berecochea had a 2-year-old son. His office, the army detained 1,465 people in The military operation will be wife was five months pregnant with their Juarez over the past year. evaluated in September, said Reyes, the second child. “I could have refused, but The army is required to immediately mayor. He said he hopes a civilian police what would I tell my kids when they turn over detainees to local authorities. department will be ready to replace the asked me what I had done for Mexico?” But Javier Pérez Chávez, a public army and federal police by the end of he said. defender whose office represents four the year. Berecochea, a burly man with thick out of every five suspects arrested by the The new department is being formed brown hair, was given a blue police military, said at least half have reported from the graduating classes of cadets uniform with three gold clover leaves that they were held for periods of a day moving through the police academy, across the shoulder and assigned to run or two to more than a week. He said where all the instructors have been the Aldama district police station in nearly all have reported being beaten replaced by active or retired military Juarez. Camouflaged soldiers patrol the while in the army’s custody. officers. roof of the building, which was strafed by “The army has turned Juarez into an On a recent afternoon, the cadets were automatic weapons fire last year. As blue- occupied city in which all citizens are lined up with AR-15 rifles, while a drill and-white squad cars and Ford pickups presumed to be drug traffickers,” said instructor shouted at them about the file out of the parking lot, they pass a Gustavo de la Rosa, the state human importance of using the safety. When sign reading: “Be careful. Your family is rights commissioner. the classes were over, the cadets — 280 waiting for you.” Last week, Javier Eduardo Rosales, young recruits, including 93 women — While on patrol, Berecochea’s men 21, a former X-ray technician, was found marched single file into the cafeteria for — nine soldiers, some wearing masks, beaten to death on a motorcycle trail lunch. and three uniformed officers — slowly outside the city. Another man, Sergio “Without military discipline, none of weaved their vehicles through the dark Fernández, told Rosales’s family that this will work,” said Fernando Oropeza, neighborhoods, shining lights into while buying beer, he and Rosales were a retired army captain. windows and alleys and watching for detained by soldiers, blindfolded and Asked about the prospects of keeping suspicious activity. At one point, the taken to an unknown location, where the recruits free of corruption, Oropeza squad searched a parked car as its owner they were beaten. Fernández said that he said, “We’re working very hard on that stood by with several friends. and Rosales were doused with gasoline challenge.” ■

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

MANUEL ROIG-FRANZIA The Southern Colony When I traveled to Mexico City in By 2006, when he moved back to Mexico strategies that have kept the infection 2005 to check out my new digs as City, Walmart was Mexico’s largest rate among the lowest in the region. The Washington Post’s bureau chief private employer. Citigroup owned one He is less impressed with Mexicans’ there, Mexican friends recommended of the country’s largest banks. About eating habits, blaming American-style that I shop for groceries at Walmart. 400,000 Americans had bought second fast food and junk snacks for the fact Never mind that there was a beautiful, homes in Mexico. And Mexicans, he that more than half of Mexican women traditional open market offering notes, were slurping Coca-Cola at a between the ages of 18 and 49 are luscious, tree-ripened mangoes and higher per capita rate than consumers now overweight. At the same time, other delights within walking distance in any other country, including the America’s “insatiable demand” for of our house in Coyoacan, one of the United States. “Invaded,” he writes. illegal drugs has given rise to cartels city’s oldest neighborhoods. Also within “That single word best captures what responsible for thousands of killings walking distance were two Starbucks, is happening to Mexico in the twenty- in Mexico each year. Inevitably, some as I found out when Mexican sources first century. In varying degrees of the drugs headed for the United frequently suggested meeting there. I American fashion, food, phrases, status States stay in Mexico, leading to huge wanted authentic Mexican experiences; symbols, social diseases, department increases in addiction rates and making they wanted Frappuccinos. stores, tourists, pensioners, religious drug trafficking one of “the nation’s top Joseph Contreras, author of the denominations, and belief in the gospel growth industries.” “That grim outlook provocative and highly informative In of free trade have all established firm won’t improve,” he writes, “until the Shadow of the Giant, discovered footholds inside today’s Mexico.” Washington either legalizes narcotics much the same. A longtime foreign The son of Mexican immigrants, such as cocaine and marijuana or correspondent who is now a U.N. who grew up in a Los Angeles suburb, undertakes a concerted effort to reduce public information officer in Sudan, Contreras despairs when Mexican illegal drug use.” Contreras served two tours of duty as friends order frozen margaritas, “an Overall, however, Contreras believes Newsweek’s Mexico City bureau chief. Americanized travesty of a national that Americanization has done Mexico During his first, in the mid-1980s, treasure.” He laments the destruction more good than harm. He credits U.S. there was precisely one McDonald’s of the elegant Casino de la Selva hotel in influence with promoting rights for in all of Mexico, he notes. When he Cuernavaca, which figured prominently Mexican women and gays, advancing returned on a reporting trip in 2000, in the classic novel Under the Volcano, judicial reforms and strengthening the there were 292. to make room for a Costco. nation’s democracy after decades of A seismic event, of course, had occurred But he is most troubled that one-party rule. Still, he worries that the in the interim: The North American Americanization “has infected” Mexico U.S. political establishment will always Free Trade Agreement had taken effect with “three quintessentially American view Mexico as “a problematic neighbor” in 1994 and vastly increased commerce social diseases”: HIV, illegal drug use and “the international equivalent of an between Mexico and its richer northern and obesity. He asserts that Mexican appendage.” neighbor. Contreras, perhaps reaching airline workers brought HIV to Mexico — March 29, 2009 just a bit, asserts that the pact has from the United States, although he Manuel Roig-Franzia was The Post’s transformed Mexico into “a de facto rightly praises Mexican health officials Mexico bureau chief from 2005 to 2008 economic colony of the United States.” for fostering progressive prevention and now writes for the Style section.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Plan Would Deploy Guard Near Mexico $350 Million Effort Aimed at Drug War

By Mary Beth Sheridan, Spencer Hsu and Steve Fainaru Washington Post Staff Writers

• Originally Published April 25, 2009

The Pentagon and Homeland Security Department are developing contingency plans to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border under a $350 million initiative that would expand the U.S. military’s role in the drug war, according to Obama administration officials. The circumstances under which the troops could be deployed have not been determined, the officials said. They said the proposal was designed to give President Obama additional flexibility to respond to drug-related violence that has threatened to spill into the United States BY SARAH VOISIN — THE WASHINGTON POST from Mexico and to curb southbound Mexican troops check for guns or drugs coming from the United States. A contingency plan is being prepared to give President Obama flexibility to address drug violence and smuggling near smuggling of cash and weapons. the border, officials say. The initiative, which was tucked into the supplemental budget request sent to Congress this month, has raised concerns The proposal is being closely monitored receiving briefings from White House over what some U.S. officials perceive as by the State Department, which budget staff this past week. Some an effort by the Pentagon to increase its administers the $1.4 billion Merida lawmakers and aides said they were counternarcotics profile through a large Initiative, a three-year aid package to unaware that the funds would be pot of money that comes with few visible fight drug trafficking in Mexico and allocated to deploy troops. requirements. Central America. The new funding would “Frankly, I’m baffled that an additional The broadly worded proposal does not be nearly as much as the 2009 budget for $350 million has been requested under mention troop deployments, stipulating Merida, and some observers said they the defense appropriation,” Rep. Nita M. only that the military is to receive up to fear that the military could use the money Lowey (D-N.Y.), a senior member of the $350 million “for counter-narcotics and to set up a parallel counternarcotics House Appropriations Committee, said other activities … on the United States’ program with little oversight. Thursday. border with Mexico.” “The real question is what happens if Joy Olson, executive director of the If the contingency plans go unused, this morphs into something else,” said a Washington Office on Latin America, the money would be retained for military U.S. official who spoke on the condition which promotes democracy and human operations and maintenance after of anonymity because of the sensitivity September 2010, an administration of the issue. official said. House and Senate committees began continued ON page 21

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued from page 20 taking office in December 2006. Amid transnational organized crime operating indications that the violence could spill on both sides of our common border.” rights in the region, said the request into the United States, some officials The Bush administration spent more lacks the accountability provisions have intensified calls for Washington to than $1 billion to deploy as many as included in the Merida Initiative, which beef up security along the border. 6,000 Guard troops on the border in was passed after more than a year of In early March, the president brushed Operation Jump Start, which began in debate in both countries. off calls to deploy troops, saying: 2006 and ended two years later. The “They may say that this is for the “I’m not interested in militarizing the focus was stemming the tide of illegal National Guard, but the way it’s written, border.” His comments were echoed by immigration. it is really a blank check for the Defense Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the This time, the roles of Guard troops Department to do whatever it wants Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said last week probably would be similar, administration on counter-drug issues at the border while visiting the border region: “There officials said. — and it doesn’t say which side of the are [no plans] that I am aware of or that As before, no U.S. troops will operate border,” Olson said. I would talk about” to increase military in Mexico, the officials said, and The administration did not seek activity. any National Guard forces assigned additional funding under Merida On Wednesday, California Gov. would not engage in domestic U.S. because the new assistance is targeted Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Arizona law enforcement, a role that is broadly only on the U.S. side of the border, said Gov. Jan Brewer (R), New Mexico constrained under a federal law known an administration official who spoke on Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and Texas as the Posse Comitatus Act, Obama the condition of anonymity because the Gov. Rick Perry (R) sent a joint letter aides said. plan is still being formulated. A second to the Senate and House leadership Guard troops would operate administration official said $250 million requesting additional troops for the four border detection systems, provide is for the deployment of National Guard southwestern border states under the communications, analyze intelligence, troops if they are needed, and the National Guard Counterdrug Program. build roads, and provide air and ground remaining $100 million would go to Expanding the program “provides transport, freeing up law enforcement protect unaccompanied minors found a good opportunity to minimize agents to perform other duties, they crossing the border. perceptions that anyone is militarizing said. The funds are to be available until the the border by enabling National Guard “It would be mobility. It would be the end of September 2010. The proposal personnel already familiar with drug counternarcotics surveillance work they also authorizes the secretary of defense trafficking to use their expertise and already do, consistent with existing to transfer up to $100 million to other skills to support the direct services missions,” one official said. “They . federal agencies. underway by law enforcement,” the . . would not be opening trunks and “We wanted to make sure he [Obama] governors wrote. arresting people.” was in a position that, if the facts on The issue is especially sensitive in The official stressed that circumstances the ground warranted it, that he had Mexico, where any perceived threat that would trigger deployments are still resources at his disposal to be able to of military intervention is greeted to be determined, that the funding enhance the capacity on the ground warily. Mexican officials said they have request was intended to preserve the through the use of National Guard received assurances that Obama has no president’s flexibility and that it should troops,” another administration official immediate plans to send troops to the “by no means be seen as presupposing said. border. the use of Department of Defense The contingency plan to deploy A spokesman for the Mexican assets.” National Guard troops appears to mark Embassy in Washington, Ricardo Alday, The U.S. military and Guard conduct a shift for Obama. said the Mexican government believes ground and air surveillance along the More than 10,000 Mexicans have died that other U.S. law enforcement border, relay data to law enforcement in drug-related violence since President agencies “are a more effective tool than agencies and aid long-standing Felipe Calderón took on the cartels after National Guardsmen in shutting down counternarcotics efforts. ■

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Swine Flu Found in Mexican Outbreak Illness Raises Alarm Among U.S. Officials Illness Raises Alarm Among U.S. Officials

By Rob Stein and David Brown Mexico City, triggering officials to close and an 8-year-old boy, said in a telephone Washington Post Staff Writers all schools and universities, museums interview from Mexico City. “This is and libraries and to begin screening air bad.” • Originally Published April 25, 2009 travelers for symptoms before they leave The outbreak heightened alarm among the country. health officials in the United States, An unusual strain of swine flu has Officials warned millions of residents where at least eight cases of swine been detected among victims of a large to stay home, avoid public places and flu have been detected along the U.S.- outbreak of a severe respiratory illness in take other protective measures, such as Mexican border, and elsewhere. Mexico, prompting global health officials, resisting greeting people with handshakes “It’s alarming and very concerning,” fearful of a potential flu pandemic, to or kisses. Drugstores reported being said Sari Setiogi, a spokeswoman for the scramble yesterday to try to contain the inundated with customers seeking face World Health Organization in Geneva, virus. masks, and some subway riders were which began an investigation of the At least 1,004 people have been spotted wearing rubber gloves. cause and scope of the outbreak. sickened and at least 68 have died, “We are very worried,” Angelica President Obama has been briefed primarily in the sprawling capital of Padilla, 38, a mother of a 5-year-old girl about the illness, spokesman Reid Cherlin said, adding: “The White House is taking the situation seriously and monitoring for any new developments.” The illness appeared to be primarily striking young, healthy adults, a highly unusual pattern that conjured images of the devastating 1918 flu pandemic. Officials stressed that there were no signs that anything of that scale had begun, but Setiogi said, “This is another reason we are highly concerned,” noting that it is the very old and the very young who are usually most vulnerable to common seasonal flu. The Spanish flu, which circled the world in 1918 and 1919 and killed at least 50 million people, was of the same general subtype, H1N1, as the virus in California and Mexico. In 1976, a strain of swine flu caused illness in 13 soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey, killing one. Fearing a pandemic, BY DAVID LOPEZ-MILLS — ASSOCIATED PRESS the federal government began a mass People wearing surgical masks enter the general hospital in Mexico City, where the majority of immunization campaign, but it was cases of an unusual strain of swine flu have been found among victims of a large respiratory illness outbreak in the country. continued ON page 23

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

continued from page 22 to Texas to help officials identify cases Besser noted that other respiratory and trace their contacts. Officials urged viruses are circulating in Mexico and that halted when the virus did not spread and doctors to be on alert for more cases. it remains unclear how many cases and some vaccine recipients developed a rare The CDC had also taken preliminary deaths were caused by the swine flu. neurological disorder. steps to create a vaccine for the virus. “Sorting out what is caused potentially The WHO dispatched a team yesterday “We do not know whether this swine by the swine flu virus and what could from its Washington office to Mexico flu virus or some other influenza virus be caused by co-infection — those are City to assist authorities, ratcheted up will lead to the next pandemic. However, important public health questions,” he efforts to detect the virus elsewhere and scientists around the world continue to said. was mobilizing to take other steps if monitor the virus and take its threat The virus is resistant to two older necessary. seriously,” Richard E. Besser, acting drugs designed to fight flu, but two more “We are preparing for rapid containment director of the CDC, said in a telephone recent medications, including Tamiflu, to prevent this outbreak from spreading briefing. He also confirmed the eighth seem to be effective. further,” Setiogi said. U.S. case — a child in San Diego County Most of the cases and 59 of the deaths Canadian officials confirmed that 18 who recovered. were in Mexico City, but at least three of 51 specimens it received from Mexico The CDC issued an “outbreak notice” deaths occurred in the central Mexican were swine flu, and the U.S. Centers for alerting U.S. citizens traveling to Mexico town of San Luis Potosi and at least Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and recommending that they take steps four cases were reported on the Baja confirmed that seven of 14 samples it to protect themselves, such as washing peninsula, Setiogi said. received were also the unusual swine flu. their hands frequently. The government There was no indication that the A preliminary genetic analysis indicated has not warned people against going victims had contact with pigs. In the that the Mexican samples matched those there, but officials said the public should United States, a father and daughter taken this week from people in Southern be vigilant. and two boys who attended the same California and Texas. “I think it’s very important people school were infected, leading officials to An earlier analysis from the first pay attention to what’s going on. The conclude that the virus was spreading seven U.S. cases found that the virus situation has been developing quickly,” from person to person. was a never-before-seen hybrid of North Besser said. “This is something we are In Mexico City, news of the outbreak American and Eurasian swine flu, a North worried about and we are treating very and steps to contain it prompted American bird flu and a North American seriously.” widespread concern, even though human flu. In both countries, the virus has tended officials reassured residents that they Flu viruses mutate easily. Small genetic initially to cause typical flu symptoms, had adequate medical supplies. Movie changes can “tune” a strain to its new host including runny nose, cough, fever and theaters voluntarily closed. if a virus jumps species. The result can be sore throat. But in Mexico, the infection “We are very angry because of this,” said a strain that is more easily transmitted — is frequently progressing to severe Elessia Galindo, 44, whose 10-year-old and in some cases, more virulent — than pneumonia, requiring hospitalization. daughter’s school classes were canceled. when it first arrived. The mutations, Experts are puzzled about why the disease “I could not go to work because my kids however, can occur only if the virus is has caused relatively mild sickness in the didn’t have school today, and who is going spreading and replicating, which is why United States, where only one patient has to stay with them? I will have a problem stopping chains of transmission early is been hospitalized and none have died, for this at my job. Now the government so important. and severe illness in Mexico. will use the vaccines for the doctors and The CDC had dispatched investigators “That is part of the unanswered what about us? This just shows the bad to California and planned to send a team questions,” the WHO’s Setiogi said. planning of our bad government.” ■

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Swine Flu Outbreak Could Deepen Mexico’s Recession

By Anthony Faiola Speaking at the close of the World funds that may provide an important Washington Post Staff Writer Bank and International Monetary cushion if its financial situation sharply Fund biannual meetings in Washington deteriorates. • Originally Published April 27, 2009 yesterday, Mexican Finance Minister The World Bank yesterday said it Agustin Carstens warned that the would roll out $25 million to Mexico Amid serious concerns that the swine outbreak could have an “important” in emergency funds for medicine and flu outbreak could worsen an already- economic impact. equipment, including for devices to detect deep recession in Mexico, the World “This issue can have an important the new strain of swine flu that has killed Bank yesterday moved to provide that impact on the economy, although the up to 86 people there. In addition, it said nation with millions in emergency aid most important impact is the one on it was prepared to draw on an additional and set up a special fund for longer-term human life and human well-being,” $180 million to help finance other needs assistance. Carstens told reporters. He added that related to the outbreak. Stung by the credit crunch and weaker the outbreak was a “very serious matter” The Mexican assistance came just as demand for its products in the United with “a high potential for [economic] the World Bank warned yesterday that States and beyond, Mexico is set to disruption.” health programs in poor and middle- suffer a worse downturn than the one Earlier this decade, the outbreak income nations were being severely hit in the United States this year, with the of severe acute respiratory syndrome by the financial crisis that started in International Monetary Fund predicting (SARS) and bird flu strains in Asia dealt the United States. A new report from this week that its economy would economic blows to more than a dozen the bank, for instance, indicated that in contract by 3.7 percent. nations, forcing airlines to cancel flights, March eight countries were reporting Adding to those troubles, Russia, the hotels to slash rates and depressing shortages of HIV- and AIDS-related world’s second-largest pork importer, consumer demand. In the case of bird drugs and treatments, and an additional yesterday suspended all pork shipments flu, Asian farmers additionally had to 14 said they expected to see disruptions from Mexico, as well as from three cull tens of millions of poultry from their in the coming weeks and months. U.S. states, despite assurances from flocks. Robert B. Zoellick, the World Bank’s international health officials that the Mexico — and perhaps even the United president, yesterday said the institution flu could not be transmitted through States if a full-blown outbreak were to was offering Mexico advice about how exposure to pork. Other countries have spread north of the border — could face other nations have dealt with similar intensified screening of pork imports. similar problems just as it is struggling health crises. He noted that there would And several nations have issued travel with the global financial crisis. Earlier be a time to account for the economic advisories to Mexico just as resorts there this month, Mexico established a new toll, “but for now, the focus is on people’s are gearing up for summer bookings. $47 billion credit line with the IMF, lives.” ■

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program In Mexico, Young Adults Appear Most at Risk Capital Grinds to a Halt as Suspected Deaths Rise to 103

By Josh Partlow common cold, something normal,” said “He just kept getting worse and worse Washington Post Foreign Service his younger brother, Gabriel Herrera. and worse,” Gabriel Herrera said. “His It was 12 days ago that Luis Herrera condition now is really very grave.” • Monday, April 27, 2009 walked into this city’s National Institute The anxiety over the virus has vastly for Respiratory Illnesses with a fever of altered the rhythm of Mexico City, with MEXICO CITY, April 26 — Six days more than 102 degrees, aching bones millions of people staying home and a week, Luis Enrique Herrera rode his and breathing problems. Now he is many of those who venture out doing bicycle to work, a round-trip journey isolated, uncommunicative, bedridden so wearing masks. On Sunday, Catholic of nearly 20 miles. He worked with his and breathing through a tube. His Masses across the city were canceled. hands as an auto mechanic and seemed doctors have not confirmed which strain One of the most popular Mexican to his relatives a healthy 35-year-old of flu he has contracted, but his family professional soccer teams played a game man, which is why they did not feel fears it is the deadly new swine virus in an empty stadium that can seat more overly worried when he had to go to that has virtually shut down this city of the hospital. “We thought he had a 20 million people. continued ON page 26

BY RODRIGO ABD — ASSOCIATED PRESS Commuters wear face masks as a precaution in the subway in Mexico City.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued FROM page 25 to prescribe mechanical breathing a televised address Sunday. Calderón assistance. Exactly what caused the lung gave a national lesson on public health, than 100,000 people. Mayor Marcelo damage is not known. instructing people to wash their hands Ebrard said he might have to shut down Justino Regalado Pineda, an regularly, wear surgical masks, cover all public transportation if the crisis epidemiologist with the Health Ministry, their mouths when they cough and worsens. said adults would be more likely to avoid sharing food. Officials in Mexico The question of who contracts and contract the flu simply because they City have handed out 6 million masks. ultimately dies from this virus has tend to congregate more in public places, “Everyone, absolutely every Mexican, become a matter of central concern such as at their workplaces. needs to make a special effort to avoid in Mexico. And the answers that are He speculated that one reason people contacting other people who could beginning to emerge as the death toll have died in Mexico as opposed to the potentially be infected with the virus,” rises have been ominous. Relatively United States is that the life span of the the president said. young adults, presumably among the virus could have been longer in Mexico. Jorge Francisco Guzmán Suárez, a population’s most healthy, have been After flu infections, people can develop 24-year-old who died Saturday at the the first to succumb. Sunday afternoon, an additional bacterial “superinfection” National Institute for Respiratory Mexico placed the death toll at 86, and that could be lethal, said Brian Currie, an Illnesses, was initially treated by a a Health Ministry official, speaking on infectious-diseases doctor and director of private doctor for a stomachache, rather the condition of anonymity, said all the clinical research at Montefiore Medical than the flu, his aunt, Herminia Guzmán, dead were ages 25 to 50. The ministry Center in New York City. Currie said told the Reforma newspaper. later raised the toll to 103. it remained a mystery why people in “We are devastated,” the aunt told the Fifteen people in Mexico City who are Mexico were dying while the cases paper. “The miracle did not arrive.” suspected to have died from the virus reported in the United States have been An outdoor market in the colonial were 25 to 37 years old, Ebrard said in a relatively benign. neighborhood of Coyoacan on Sunday radio interview Sunday. “You’ve got to remember, this is a was a shadow of its usual self. Candelaria The high proportion of young adults strain of flu nobody has seen before,” Villanueva, 72, a vendor of jewelry and among the fatalities is one of several Currie said. blouses, said sales have plummeted. mysteries about this virus. The same Even though there is no known vaccine She was worried, she said, because her pattern emerged during the 1918-1919 for humans for this strain of swine flu — 20-year-old granddaughter recently got Spanish influenza epidemic, which killed which combines genetic material from sick and was told by a doctor that it was at least 50 million people, and it remains more common types of pig, bird and “just the flu.” unexplained in that case as well. human flus — Mexican officials have “I think you have to have faith in God,” One theory is that the virus triggers an stressed that it is curable. President she said. excessively aggressive immune response Felipe Calderón said Sunday that of the A double-decker tour bus was nearly that destroys the throat and lung tissue. 1,324 patients with flulike symptoms as empty. Bus worker Karla Yañez said Young adults, with the most robust of Saturday, 929 have been treated and people are scared to ride. immune systems, may be especially at released from the hospital. “Everybody’s inside, places are closed, risk. Mexican officials said there is no the parks are closed, people don’t go The greatest concentration of cases and shortage of antiviral medication. The out,” she said. “Mexico is a social place deaths have been in Mexico City, the difference between who lives and dies — people like to go out and be together. surrounding state of Mexico, and the seems largely linked to how quickly The sickness has taken that away.” ■ state of San Luis Potosi to the north. patients receive treatment, officials Health Secretary José Ángel Córdova said. said 30 suspected swine flu cases are “With a sickness like this, if you don’t spread across 17 other states. take it seriously, if you don’t go to the Staff writer David Brown in Washington and special correspondent Jonathan Most of the fatal cases involved doctor right away, it can have very Roeder in Mexico City contributed to this extensive lung damage, requiring doctors grave consequences,” Calderón said in report.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Little Boy at the Center of a Viral Storm 5-Year-Old Identified as Earliest Swine Flu Case in Mexico Says, ‘I Feel Good’

By Josh Partlow prevalence of pig farms in the area, and Epidemiology and Disease Control, said Washington Post Foreign Service because of Édgar. But the link is far from there was an outbreak of respiratory certain, and infectious-disease specialists illness compatible with influenza in La • Originally Published April 29, 2009 stressed that no one has located a pig Gloria between March 9 and April 10 — infected with this particular virus, so and that Édgar was a late case. Lezana LA GLORIA, Mexico, April 28 — One proximity between people and pigs may said the boy showed symptoms on April person who may have helped launch not be all that’s required to contract the 1, which was several days after two a rapidly spreading flu outbreak likes disease. The strain appears, in fact, to be patients in California showed symptoms. to draw hearts and flowers in the dirt Eurasian in origin, further adding to the Édgar was found to have been infected outside his home. He likes to climb trees mystery of where it began. with swine flu after Canadian researchers and give hugs and play with his soccer Miguel Ángel Lezana, the head ball. And despite a persistent cough, he of Mexico’s National Center for continued on page 29 does not, he insists, feel sick. “Not anymore,” said Édgar Enrique Hernández, a smiling 5-year-old Mexican boy who tested positive for the deadly new strain of swine flu in this windswept valley surrounded by pig-breeding farms. “I feel good.” Although authorities have not determined that swine flu started in La Gloria, a village of about 2,500 people in the state of Veracruz, Édgar, who got sick in late March, is the earliest confirmed case of the virus in Mexico. He was just one of several hundred people from La Gloria and surrounding areas that fell ill around that time in an unexplained outbreak that left two children dead and prompted authorities to fumigate the entire village. “I don’t have words, I don’t have answers,” said Édgar’s mother, María del Carmen Hernández, as she cried under a portrait of Jesus in her living room. “I feel terrible about all of this, because the people are thinking that this was all my son’s fault. I don’t think this is anyone’s fault.” This dust-strewn hamlet of dirt streets surrounded by desert cactus and scrub BY MELINA MARA — THE WASHINGTON POST brush has become a focus of attention Édgar Enrique Hernández, at home in the village of La Gloria, Mexico, still has a cough but has for the spread of the virus because of the regained some of his energy after falling ill in late March.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued FROM page 28 the mayor of nearby Perote, Guillermo after four bedridden days, his illness Franco Vázquez. Lines formed outside the disappeared as quickly as it had started, confirmed the results April 23. “We don’t La Gloria health clinic with children she said. know where it started, California or and parents suffering from fevers and After he had recovered, Hernández Mexico,” Lezana said. body aches. said, other doctors continued to come Lezana said that none of Édgar’s “It happened in one week. It was home to test Édgar. But they always relatives worked near or at the area’s worse than normal,” said Valentino said the boy was fine, she recalled. industrial hog farms, and that tests of Fernández, 32, who was at the clinic Édgar’s 3-year-old brother, Jonathan, pigs so far have not shown any signs of with his sick daughter Tuesday. “It was was briefly sick but not as seriously, the virus. the contamination from the farms, from and his mother thought the worst was Some residents of La Gloria blame the pigs. It comes in the air.” over. Because she does not have a car, the farms for their illnesses, saying Vianney Guerra, a doctor at the clinic, a computer, a phone or a radio, and the open-air waste pits dry out and the said she was not authorized to talk dislikes the television news because it hot winds blow dust through nearby about the flu outbreak. “We are taking broadcasts only tragedies, she heard villages. preventive measures, we are informing very little about the disease that began Scientists, however, say it is more the population, we are going house to killing people by mid-April in Mexico likely that people who worked with house giving vaccines,” she said. “Édgar City and spreading around the globe. pigs became infected and passed it on is fine. He’s in his house.” On Monday, all that changed. The to other people. “Influenza in pigs is a Mexican Health Secretary José Ángel governor of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera respiratory disease, so there is much Córdova said Monday that officials Beltrán, arrived at her one-bedroom less risk associated with pig waste,” said were not aware of swine flu during the concrete house at the intersection of Andrew Pekosz, an associate professor of outbreak in the La Gloria area. Once two dirt streets and informed her that microbiology and immunology at Johns the new strain became known, he said, tests in the United States showed that Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School they retested some people and just one Édgar had swine flu. The mayor of of Public Health. “The primary risk is of them, a 5-year-old boy, tested positive Perote has also visited, as well as an from swine [flu]-infected people, and for swine flu. But residents said two official from Granjas Carroll de Mexico, not swine or any swine products.” young children died of their illnesses she said. She said one doctor continues The farms around La Gloria are run last month and were buried in a flower- to tell her that Édgar never had swine by Granjas Carroll de Mexico, which is strewn cemetery in the village. flu. “I feel powerless,” she said. “Why partly owned by Smithfield Foods, the After the outbreak, authorities here did the other children not have it and largest producer of hogs in the United fumigated the streets and houses, gave my child did? He was one of the last to States. Smithfield said in a statement checkups to the patients and distributed get sick.” released Monday that it did not believe vaccines, though officials have not Édgar still has a cough, but he has its operations were in any way connected identified a vaccine for swine flu. Health regained his energy and on Tuesday he to the outbreak because it had found officials said 35 of the people who fell ran around happily. “no clinical signs or symptoms of the ill were tested for swine flu, so others “My children have always been healthy,” presence of swine influenza in the might be infected. she said. “My children are a blessing, they company’s swine herd or its employees Hernández, like Lezana, said her son are a blessing from God.” ■ at its joint ventures in Mexico.” Édgar was one of the last children in Residents said the children of La Gloria the village to fall ill. When he did, the often come down with colds and flus, but disease moved quickly. Staff writer William Booth and special this year was different. The outbreak, She walked him to the village health correspondent Gabriela Martinez in Mexico City and staff writers Shankar Vedantam which began in mid-March, led more than center, she said. Édgar was treated with and Ceci Connolly in Washington 800 people to seek medical attention, said amoxicillin and other medications, and contributed to this report.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Diseases Travel Fast, But So Do Tools to Fight Them

BY ENRIQUE MARCARIAN — REUTERS Quick dissemination of health information around the world allows workers like these at a restaurant in Buenos Aires airport to take proper precautions.

By Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan ever more quickly in an increasingly who carry them have never been able Washington Post Foreign Service globalized world. But so, too, are the to move so far, so fast. The number of tools necessary to combat outbreaks of international air travelers grew fivefold, • Originally Published April 29, 2009 disease: expertise, medicine, money and to 824 million passengers per year, from information. 1980 to 2007. LONDON, April 28 — Teenagers “Things move incredibly fast; there has Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés in New Zealand, honeymooners in been an exponential rise in the numbers transported smallpox and measles to Scotland, high-schoolers in New York of people who move around the world,” Mexico on long sea voyages in the 16th and tourists in Israel all are sick from said Scott Dowell, a physician and head century. The current strain of swine flu the same bug caught just days ago on of global disease detection and response leapt from Mexico to the far corners of trips to Mexico. for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control the world on jumbo jets in a matter of Their illnesses are the latest example and Prevention in Atlanta. hours. of how diseases, from influenza to Although global pandemics are as old tuberculosis to cholera, are spreading as history itself, diseases and the people continued on page 31

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

continued FROM page 30 from the Guatemala office, are in Mexico, to previously unknown illnesses, the and that six more are likely to head there report said. “That makes it incredibly harder to soon. Such contact with animals, particularly manage these outbreaks,” said Dowell, The CDC also works with the World primates, has often been documented in who is overseeing the CDC’s assistance Health Organization’s Global Outbreak African outbreaks of Ebola, the acute to Mexico on the swine flu case. In Alert and Response Network, which hemorrhagic fever. New Zealand, for example, officials coordinates efforts among health officials Climate change is creating droughts were trying to track down all 350-plus around the globe. and floods where they were not common passengers who were on the same flight “There is no such thing as a local before, and that is also altering patterns as the infected high-schoolers (Air New outbreak,” Michael Ryan, a physician and flows of disease. In warming Zealand Flight 1 from Los Angeles to who runs the WHO’s global outbreak temperatures, mosquitoes are migrating Auckland on April 25). program, said in an interview before the to new areas, carrying diseases once Although the world is more vulnerable epidemic in Mexico. confined to the tropics. to the rapid spread of disease, many A report issued by a committee in the Chikungunya, a tropical disease from experts say, it has never been more British House of Lords last year concluded Africa and Asia that causes severe joint prepared. that dramatic global population growth pain, showed up in Italy in 2006 and has Advances in the understanding was a key factor in spreading infectious infected several hundred people there. of disease, stockpiling of vaccines disease. A tourist who visited Kerala, India, and global networks of medical It said the world’s population has is suspected to have carried the virus surveillance have better equipped health risen from 2.5 billion in 1950 to more home. Then the Asian tiger mosquito, professionals to deal with outbreaks. than 6 billion now and is projected which is working its way north as Instant communications have allowed to rise to 9 billion by 2050. And the temperatures rise, carried it from one information on diseases to move faster population is growing fastest in many of infected person to the next. than the bugs themselves. The swine flu the poorest countries with the biggest Robin Weiss, a British virologist who page on the CDC’s Web site lets users health problems. has written about the globalization sign up for e-mail alerts, podcasts and Mass migrations have turned such of disease, said instant global news feeds; more than 36,000 people places as Lagos, Nigeria, and Rio communication can rapidly spread have signed up for CDC Twitter alerts. de Janeiro into megacities where helpful information, but it can also have “It’s a very different world than it overcrowding and poverty create ideal downsides, such as needlessly alarming was even 10 years ago,” said Robert F. conditions for the spread of diseases people with a flood of texts, e-mails and Breiman, a physician and coordinator such as dengue fever. An outbreak in news bulletins. of the CDC’s Global Disease Detection Brazil killed at least 100 people last “There are good and bad effects of Division center in Nairobi. year. globalization” on infectious disease, said The Nairobi center is one of six Several thousand Bolivians have Mario Raviglione, a top tuberculosis maintained by the CDC around the immigrated to Switzerland in recent official at the WHO in Geneva. world; the others are in Egypt, Thailand, years, and with them has come Chagas Raviglione said the globalized Kazakhstan, China and Guatemala. In disease, a parasitic illness that can cause economy means that money flows to each, CDC medical professionals work heart problems. Chagas, once confined poorer countries to help them improve with local officials to detect disease to rural Latin America, also has spread health systems and fight high-profile outbreaks in the region and coordinate with migrants to the United States and diseases such as HIV/AIDS. But their responses. Asia. when the banking system falters in The centers were established in the The British report noted that rising one country and drags down financial wake of the 2003 outbreak of severe populations are forcing people to push systems around the globe, that has a acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, deeper into previously uninhabited land direct effect on how much families and which caused hundreds of deaths around to live and grow crops. Going deeper governments can spend on fighting the world. into jungles and forests has led to disease. Dowell said that five CDC staffers, closer contact with wild animals, which “We all live in a global village,” including infectious-disease specialists can carry new pathogens that lead Raviglione said. ■

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program The Dish on Mexico City’s Markets Two Champion Eaters Pursue the Ultimate Quesadilla and Other Delights

By Manuel Roig-Franzia he has lived most of the past 20 years pork fat. I am feeling adventurous, Washington Post Foreign Service in Mexico and knows this city’s hidden but not that adventurous. I opt for a nooks like no one I’ve ever met. Last squash-flower quesadilla, and it doesn’t • Originally Published September 7, 2008 year, Nick self-published a book about disappoint. Nick chooses a quesadilla his obsession, Good Food in Mexico made with huitlacoche, an inky black A cartload of bagged white corn kernels City: A Guide to Food Stalls, Fondas corn fungus that smells of truffles and blocked the narrow aisle. A woman and Fine Dining, that has developed earth, and I’m grateful he lets me have in an apron danced to salsa rhythms, a kind of cult following in the foodie a big bite. shimmying her hips seductively. Half a world. He’s always up for the game. Folded over, my quesadilla is 10 inches dozen guys with shopping bags stood I set a fast pace in La Merced, weaving long, seared on a comal (a flat, cast- stalled and frowning. past fragrant stalls piled with garlic and iron cooking surface) and blue, made I’d hit gridlock in the diffuse light of epazote, the pungent Mexican herb that from blue corn. Inside, the chewy white El Mercado de la Merced, Mexico City’s is said to have taken its name from the Oaxacan cheese — think string cheese, super-size, bigger-than-life, positively Aztec words for “stinky animal.” But but not as dense or as salty — oozes to steroidal central market. Nick is loitering. the edge of the tortilla. The squash flower “Just push,” my friend Nick urged “Look at these!” he calls out, cupping has been toasted lightly on the comal, behind me. to his nose a strange mushroom that but not so much that it loses its clean, Timidly, I jammed my hip into the looks a bit like a chanterelle but denser. refreshing glint, a nice complement to small of a man’s back, and presto, we “French people would go crazy! So the hint of salt in the cheese. I top it all popped through the bottleneck like inexpensive.” with Gerardo’s salsa, a silky puree of red a cork launched from a magnum of A few more steps and we are running chilies, onions and garlic. champagne. Far from being angry, the our fingers through mounds of chipped “The secret is the cheese: There are man seemed grateful. wood that the proprietor promises will only one or two places in the whole I’d come to La Merced in search of make a tea that cures ulcers, kidney city where you can get the real stuff, the perfect traditional-market quesadilla. problems, nerves, insomnia, high blood the real Oaxacan stuff,” Gerardo tells I’ve been eating in Mexican markets pressure and … low blood pressure. me. But I can barely focus. I was in for years, swooning over piles of “What kind of wood?” I ask. quesadilla nirvana, far from the under- cilantro-flecked shrimp at the archetypal “Secret,” the man says, retreating to grilled tortillas of my past, from the Tostadas Coyoacan in the market near the back of his stall. barely melted cheese, from the watery The Post’s bureau in southern Mexico I might have stuck around to press him salsa. City and gorging on all manner of grilled (I am a reporter, after all), but I catch a Nick snaps me out of my dreamlike pork tacos. There may be no better whiff of grilling meat. We must be close state. He wants more, and I am happy to way to get to know this city, and my to the hidden quesadilla stand Nick has be pulled along. visitors and I have never had even a been telling me about. I press on. We pick our way through the thicket of hint of stomach upset. But I’d never That’s when I meet Gerardo Ramirez. stalls, winding around stacks of banana nailed the consummate quesadilla, a He nods approvingly as I plant myself leaves being sliced up for tamales and ubiquitous dish, a foundational Mexican on a plastic stool next to the counter battalions of young women shaving the treat made all the more complex by its at “Antojitos Doña Celia” (Doña Celia’s spines off the paddle leaves of nopal utter simplicity. Snacks), a five-stool stand at the western cactus, which Mexicans saute until they I needed help. And that’s why I called edge of the market’s main building. The are soft and have the gooey texture of Nick Gilman. handwritten menu offers quesadillas with okra. We stop under an orange tarp for I call Nick the “professional urban brains, quesadillas with stewed pork dweller.” A transplanted New Yorker, stomach and quesadillas with pickled continued on page 34

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program continued FROM page 33 parents last Christmas with his endless shark-meat quesadilla. It arrives in samples of fine imported cheese. Juárez a deep-fried shell. The mild meat is rib-meat tacos with a plank of grilled is always surrounded by regulars who chopped, sauteed simply in a fish broth nopal sticking out the ends, but we don’t know they can practically make a meal with grilled onions and garnished with linger long. out of the hunks of bread and cheese chopped tomatoes and white onion We loop down the stairs of the subway he doles out at no cost, and the oaky chunks. One other thing: It has no station that pops up in the center of Spanish wine he pours. cheese. Go figure. We throw in shrimp the market. Three stops later, we are Juárez, who is developing a new seviche for good measure. tracking toward the San Juan Market, generation of artisanal Mexican I’m tucking into my second quesadilla Mexico City’s swankiest, a place where cheesemakers by giving classes at a local when something whizzes just past my French diplomats contemplate the giant creamery, cuts me a hunk of Mexican ear. I look up and see a man with “chocolate” clams and housekeepers goat cheese. My tongue lingers on a a 100-pound side of beef slung over loaded down with bags trail after finely creamy, salty morsel that tastes more his shoulders. I realize that the thing coiffed Mexican society matrons. like a first-class brie than the goat cheese whizzing past me was a cow’s hoof. We beeline for the market’s southwest I’m used to. “Well, we are in a market,” Nick says, corner, Stall No. 283. There, behind “The French, the Swiss — this is just shrugging. a basin-size ceramic bowl, Manuela as good,” he crows, and he’s not far off. We’re both champion eaters, but Serrano swirls a long spoon through Warmed by Juárez’s charm and by finally it appears we’ve reached our a smoky, simmering pot of something the heat of the pozole, you would have limit. We rise and head for the door, but mysterious and wonderful. thought we’d had enough. But there was an ice cream man catches my eye. He Serrano, a restaurant-trained chef, is more eating to do. stuffs a scoop of rum-raisin ice cream, here every Saturday morning. The smart We head for the chic Roma creamier than anything I’ve ever had in crowd knows to show up early or they’ll neighborhood and its Medellin market, an Mexico, and sweet, made in the style miss her pozole, a rich, chili-infused airy, light-filled space so named because of his native Cuba. I am transported to broth with strands of stewed chicken it specializes in Colombian and other Havana, one of my favorite cities. meat and marble-size kernels of white regional fare, along with the Mexican I down it in minutes and think corn that resemble hominy. classics. We race past the Peruvian Inca back on our day. We’ve eaten grilled There are all kinds of pozole: green Cola and the Colombian empanadas, quesadillas and fried quesadillas, pozole, white pozole, Jalisco-style red then settle in at La Morenita Ostionera, tacos, pozole, seviche and ice cream, pozole. But Serrano’s is the deepest red a favorite that has grown in the past five not to mention all Juárez’s cheese I’ve ever seen. years from a mere stand to a full-fledged samples. And it cost a grand total “It’s like paint,” Nick coos as he scoops restaurant with waiter service and more of $22 for both of us. I once paid another spoonful. than a dozen tables. that much for a single vodka tonic We might have lingered, but not La Morenita has its own version of in Miami. I consider our culinary this afternoon. We are rolling and still a quesadilla, but it’s nothing like the marathon, and I feel, suddenly, like a ravenous. In the market center, we stop one at La Merced or like any quesadilla professional urban dweller … and very, to see José Juárez, who charmed my we’d get in the States. We select a very full. ■

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Violence Keeps Visitors From Mexico Wine Country

By William Booth war, which last year claimed the lives of on the outskirts of Tijuana. The body Washington Post Foreign Service more than 725 people in Baja California was on fire. alone. While the wine country has been The drug war has had many casualties. • Originally Published April 26, 2009 relatively calm, Americans heading down Tourism has flatlined in Tijuana. Oscar for a visit must pass through Tijuana and Jesús Escobedo, Baja California’s tourism These are not happy hours for the Rosarito, scenes of daylight firefights, secretary, estimates that 800,000 potential world’s winemakers. The real estate headless torsos and a spider web of visitors decided not to come to the state slump has slapped the smug out of military checkpoints. At the nearby beach last year because of the violence. Fancy California’s Napa Valley. Global sales of town of La Mision, Mexican authorities beach resorts, started during the real French champagne are flat; the Italians in January arrested Santiago Meza López, estate boom, stand as half-built skeletons are drowning in unsold Chianti Classico. a.k.a. El Pozolero (the Stewmaker), who along the Pacific Coast highway, There is a grape glut in Chile, a fire sale confessed to using caustic soda to dissolve including the luxury hotel-condo Trump in South Africa. Even the Australians are the bodies of 300 enemies executed by a Baja, which went bust. In addition to the drinking less chardonnay. local drug-smuggling cartel. Last week, a drug violence, a February travel advisory Now try selling Mexican wine. In a Rosarito Beach police officer was found by the U.S. State Department noted that war zone. with his head cut off. Late Monday, For many imbibers, the words “Mexico” authorities discovered a corpse dumped continued on page 36 and “wine” go together like cheddar and flounder: They don’t. According to surveys done for producers here, even connoisseurs admit they are surprised to learn that Mexico makes wine — let alone drinkable wine — but it does. “The climate, the soil, the place is perfect for wine,” said vintner Hugo D’Acosta, whose family farm bottles a crisp $20 table white at its Casa de Piedra winery, an hour’s drive south of the border. “Unfortunately, there are the other challenges.” Those challenges include the fact that Mexico’s wine country is located just south of BY STEVE DRYDEN Tijuana, a hot spot in Baja California’s soil, warm days and cool nights are ideal for making red and white wines. Production peaked two Mexico’s vicious drug decades ago at 4 million cases. Now the region sells about 1.5 million cases, but the quality is generally higher.

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

continued FROM page 35 In recent years, American and Mexican Mexico,” a dynamic country that is part tourists discovered the region, and wine of the larger world. That is the market the “robberies, homicides, petty thefts, and writers, perhaps after a few too many region’s 35 wineries are seeking. In fact, carjackings have all increased over the glasses of Backhoff’s cabernet franc, very little Mexican wine is exported, and last year across Mexico generally, with began comparing it to Napa Valley in with walk-in sales dropping in the valley, notable spikes in Tijuana and northern the old days. The Mexican government most of the high-end wine is sold to the Baja California.” promoted the area, with its pretty beach resorts in Cancun and Cabo San Yet there is a small, growing and, wineries set amid postcard-perfect rows Lucas and to the pricey restaurants in until now, flourishing wine-producing of grapevines, posting “Ruta del Vino” Monterrey, Acapulco and Mexico City. region in Baja California, which cradles a signs and supporting a seasonal wine “When I started, no wines from Mexico bucolic valley of deep granite soils, with festival that drew 30,000 visitors last were on the wine lists. They were, like, warm, sunny days and nights cooled by year. Alongside the RV parks and taco ‘Lock the door, forget it, go away,’ “ the nearby Pacific — ideal conditions for vendors, there are now a couple of premier D’Acosta said. “Now, if you open a high- making reds and whites. The vintners bed-and-breakfast resorts and at least one level restaurant in Mexico City, you here were hoping their little valley could destination restaurant. Yet there is also must serve Mexican wine.” He takes a be the next magnet for wine nuts. plenty of rural squalor. Washboard dirt long view of the current violence and its “Many Americans have told me this roads lead to the vineyards, and visitors impact on his business. “If you’re going was the best-kept secret in the wine are warned not to drive after dark. to be in wine, it’s a decision for the life. world,” said Hans Backhoff, a co-founder “The violence has been bad for business, To have five, six, seven bad years? That of Monte Xanic and one of the area’s at our store in town and for the tours at is normal. If we make good wine, they’ll leading vintners. the winery,” said Mayra Sanchez, public keep drinking it.” But the Americans are staying away. relations coordinator for Casa Pedro Steve Dryden, an American wine writer “In all my life, security has never been so Domecq, which cranks out 400,000 cases who leads tasting tours through the bad,” Backhoff said. “Not here, but to the of wine a year. “It has been bad because region and is opening his own wine bar north. The guy from San Diego? He’s not the Americans don’t want to come to in Ensenada, said he is as busy as ever. coming anymore. We haven’t seen that Mexico, to cross through Tijuana. In “Some people don’t pay attention to many American tourists recently.” the rest of Mexico, with our distribution all the bad news,” he said. “Once you Soon after the Spanish conquest, the networks, business is good. But here in get past the Tijuana-Rosarita corridor, missionaries planted vines and casked the valley, not good.” you’re quite safe. If you read the papers, wine in Baja California. Later, pacifist The challenges to the industry are you’d think they’re killing hundreds of Russians fleeing service in the czarist not limited to the drug war and the Americans a day.” army immigrated here and also made global economic crisis. “Mexico is a The challenge, according to Dryden, is wine. Then came Mexicans like Backhoff, beer-and-tequila country,” D’Acosta said. not cartel violence, but ignorance. “Most who grew up in nearby Ensenada and “Mexico is not a wine country. Even in people don’t even know Mexico makes began growing grapes in the 1980s. the beginning, the Spanish drank some, wine,” he said. “But the word is getting Wine production peaked here two but not much. They used wine in the out.” He describes a delicious grenache decades ago at 4 million cases. The churches, wine for the sacrament, but made by the Vinedos Malagon winery, region sells about 1.5 million cases a year never really much. My generation never which a reviewer from Wine Spectator now, almost all of it for consumption in drank wine. Not at all. But then, very magazine loved. Mexico. Although there is less wine slowly, things started to change.” “You’d think you were drinking Napa than there used to be, the quality is As D’Acosta sees it, the wine business or Sonoma,” Dryden said. “Yes. The generally higher. in Baja California represents “the new future looks bright.” ■

For more information on Mexico’s wine country, visit http://www.discoverbajacalifornia.com/wine_country/index.html. Specific information on wineries mentioned in this story can be found at the following Web sites: Casa de Piedra (http://www.vinoscasadepiedra.com), Monte Xanic (http://www.montexanic.com.mx), Vinedos Malagon (http://www.vinedosmalagon.com). 36 May 5, 2009 © 2009 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY Volume 8, Issue 9

An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

Academic Content Standards

This lesson addresses academic content standards of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Maryland Virginia Washington, D.C. History: Examine the emergence, growth World History: The student will demon- U.S. History and Geography: 8. Relate and decline of empires in the Americas strate knowledge of major civilizations of how and when California, Texas, Oregon, (Indicator 2). a. Describe and trace the the Western Hemisphere, including the and other western lands became part of development of political and social struc- Mayan, Aztec, and Incan, by the U.S., including the significance of tures of the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs a) describing geographic relationships, the Texas War for Independence and the (Grade 6, Standard 5) with emphasis on patterns of Mexican-American War (5.1, Grade 5, The development in terms of climate and Nation’s Westward Expansion, 1790-1860) History: Analyze the growth and the physical features; development of the United States (Indica- b) describing cultural patterns and political U.S. History and Geography: Students tor 1). b. Evaluate Manifest Destiny and and economic structures. (WHI.11) explain important domestic trends of the its impact on territorial expansion of the 1950’s and 60’s; 4. Describe the Mexican nation (Grade 8, Standard 5) World History: The student will demon- Bracero program and the unprecedented strate knowledge of cultural, economic, and migration of Puerto Ricans to take part in History: Analyze the emerging foreign social conditions in developed and develop- the invigorated industrial economy (5.13, policy of the United States (Indicator ing nations of the contemporary world by Grade 5) 2). d. Explain causes and effects of the b) assessing the impact of economic Mexican-American War (Grade 8, Stan- development and global population U.S. History and Geography I: 9. Describe dard 5) growth on the environment and society, the Texas War for Independence and the including an understanding of the links Mexican-American War, including territo- English: Read critically to evaluate between economic and political freedom; rial settlements, the aftermath of the wars, informational text (Indicator 6). c. Veri- c) describing economic interdependence, and the effects the wars had on the lives of fication of information across multiple including the rise of multinational Americans, including Mexican-Americans sources (Grade 8, Standard 2) corporations, international organizations, today (8.9, Grade 8) and trade agreements; d) analyzing the increasing impact of U.S. History and Geography II: 8. Describe terrorism. (WHII.16) the impact of drug trafficking on and movements of people to the U.S., their U.S. History: The student will demonstrate monetary and affective connections to knowledge of westward expansion and their homelands, and return migration to reform in America from 1801 to 1861 by Latin America (10.13, Grade 10) describing territorial expansion and how it affected the political map of the United U.S. History and Geography II: 7. Trace the States, with emphasis on the Louisiana Pur- importance of trade and regional treaties chase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and (e.g., NAFTA, MERCOSUR and CAFTA, the acquisitions of Florida, Texas, Oregon, CARICOM (10.13, Grade 10) and California. (USI.8, Expansion and Reform: 1801-1861) U.S. History and Geography II: 7. Describe relations between the U.S. and Mexico in the 20th century, including key economic, political, immigration and environmental issues (e.g., North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA (11.14, Grade 11)

The Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum Standards of Learning currently in effect for Content Standards can be found online at Virginia Public Schools can be found online at Learning Standards for DCPS are found http://mdk12.org/assessments/vsc/index. www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Superintendent/ online at www.k12.dc.us/dcps/Standards/ html. Sols/home.shtml. standardsHome.htm.