This is NOT Your Regular Salchicha

I bet you didn’t know how to differentiate a regular sausage from one specifically made to prepare a hot dog.

Well, that is why Mexico’s Cremería y Salchichonería Cuadritos has come up with the one and only Salchicha hotdogkera, prepared and packed exclusively for your hot dog-preparation needs.

The hotdogkeras were last spotted in a Mexico City Wal-Mart, but we wonder if they will soon be welcome as members of the exclusive, Washington, DC-based National Hot Dog & Sausage Council of America

Photo: Begoña Lozano

Hide your Blackberries. The Mexicans are Coming!

I’m sure you don’t know this, but we Mexicans are very fond of fruit. This was evident this week during Felipe Calderón’s NAFTA meeting in New Orleans:

“A Mexican government official who was in Washington DC to advance the meeting in New Orleans between President Bush and Mexican President Calderon was caught stealing Blackberries off of a table that didn’t belong to him,” according to Fox News.

The alleged blackberry thief, Rafael Quintero Curiel, has flatly denied everything and is demanding an investigation.

He just wanted a fruit salad!

Tacos That Will Make your Heart Skip a Beat

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One thing you have to know about Mexicans is that we don’t take ourselves too seriously… Oh, and that we are simply the best when it comes to naming our small businesses.

Here’s La Taqui-Cardia, an aptly named taco joint located next door to -what else?- Mexico City’s Cardiology Hospital.

How else would you market a taquería in such a neighborhood?

Photo: Jimena Bermúdez, Mexico City

Why I Love Mexico (Part V)

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For all the money, work and marketing efforts involved in the promotion of small businesses, Mexican mom-and-pop shops have lots to teach the average world-wide entrepreneur.

Don’t have a lot of money to put up a sign outside your shop? No problem! just have your 6-year-old niece do it for you… Is it too long? Why worry? just split it in half… What about a hyphen? Who the hell cares? 

Who wouldn’t want to patronize such a creative tailor?

Photo: Laura Martínez, Morelia (2008) 

Why I Love Mexico (Part IV)

Who needs sophisticated marketing tools and job classifieds when you can advertise a job in a very simple, straight-forward way?

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The picture above, taken somewhere in my beloved Mexico City, was sent to me by a reader of my blog, though I believe he is not the rightful owner of the image. So if you are, please step in, so I can take my (mariachi) hat off.

Mi Casa es tu Casa


My grandmother used to say that la ociosidad es la madre de todos los vicios (Idleness is the mother of all vices.) While no one can ever dispute that, I would like to add a modern twist to her very wise insight: “Unemployment is the mother of all blogs.” (Of course, there’s also my friend Diego who says: “Idleness is the vice of all mothers,” but that’s a whole other story.)

Now that you’ve read this far, I might as well let you know who I am: I am a bilingual, not-yet-acculturated Mexican journalist and editor specialized in media, marketing and advertising. I’ve lived in a bunch of places, including Singapore, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Paris, Santiago de Chile and New York City.

In my most recent position, I was the founding editor of Marketing y Medios, an English-language trade publication devoted to explaining the Hispanic market to a non-Spanish speaking audience of executives and marketers. I left that company in December of 2006, following its sale to a new owner.

Prior to my wonderful two and a half years there, I was responsible for creating and launching the Spanish-language edition of The Wall Street Journal, as well as coordinating and editing their Spanish-language Web edition at americas.wjs.com. Before joining the Wall Street Journal, I had worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers and magazines in Mexico, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile and Los Angeles.

And last but not least, I’d like to add that before graduating with a BA in Journalism at the Escuela de Periodismo Carlos Septien Garcia, in Mexico City, I completed my high-school education at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore.

Throughout my career, I have developed extensive experience and industry contacts in journalism, marketing, and advertising. I am fluent in English, Spanish and French and have promised myself to take up Mandarin some time soon. You never know.

So bienvenido a mi blog. Welcome to my blog. Mi casa es tu casa or, as my friend Carlitos suggests I’d say, Mi Blog es tu Blog.