J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world”. 
Maybe Mexico’s high regard for food explains it merry character and its unique UNESCO’S recognition as Intangible Cutural Heritage for humanity should also be seen as a lesson to follow. In any case, Mexico is definitely more than “what meets the eye” and therefore the America’s Champion for Cultural Heritage.

When it comes to choices, enjoying and learning might transform into a solo word that would describe the touristic experience in Mexico, maybe a joy-learning thing. Where else could you experience long beautiful beaches by the mountain, by the desert, by the jungle, by archaeological ruins, or by medieval fortresses? All reachable by first class touristic infrastructure, while enjoying a first-world envy type of service and the joy of the Mexican food and its wine.

On November of 2010, UNESCO granted both the Mexican and the French cuisine, its recognition as Intangible Cultural Heritage for Humanity. About the Mexican cuisine, UNESCO asserts that it is a comprehensive cultural model comprising farming, ritual practices, age-old skills, culinary techniques and ancestral community customs and manners. It is made possible by collective participation in the entire traditional food chain: from planting and harvesting to cooking and eating. It involves, unique farming methods such as milpas (rotating swidden fields of corn and other crops) and chinampas (man-made farming islets in lake areas); cooking processes such as nixtamalization (lime-hulling maize, which increases its nutritional value); and singular utensils including grinding stones and stone mortars. Of course, it considers the role of native ingredients such as varieties of tomatoes, squashes, avocados, cocoa and vanilla, which augment the basic staples. Mexican cuisine is elaborate and symbol-laden, and its knowledge and techniques express community identity, reinforce social bonds, and build stronger local, regional and national identities.

The culture of appreciating food and making it a whole nourishment experience goes from street food to famous restaurant filled streets and beyond Mexico’s own cuisine. So, not only you can find places like President Masaryk’s famous Mexico City street where you can choose Mexican food from its various regions, but also see how this country’s love for food has enriched its relationship with other cuisines and has made it possible to find in a single street, a first world class experience of almost all cuisines in the world.

But its street food is world famous. From North to South, all through its 1,969 miles long, you can eat like a god regardless of your budget. You could find yourself at the middle of the CNN Travel recommended Baja’s Ensenada market and you join the masses at the city’s fish market for fish tacos; corn tortillas piled high with battered fried halibut, shredded cabbage, pickled onions, avocado, jalapeños, and sweet-tangy crema-mayonnaise sauce. A trip stop at Guadalajara could give you the opportunity of having a shot of tequila and trying the local fast food; tortas ahogadas, with its homemade salsas and freshly prepared corn tortillas will make you forget the idea you previously had about the fast food concept. Or choose between the world of options that Mexico City offers;  from tubes of fried dough powdered with cinnamon called churros to roasted corn to carnitas and freshly squeezed fruit juices. Maybe making your mind and having some of its ubiquituous tacos al pastor, made of hunks of marinated pork topped with pineapple that are cooked gyro-style on a spit until tender, sliced off and served atop two-bite corn tortillas. Cilantro, chopped onion and a squeeze of lime make a perfect garnish.  Or find yourself at the heart of Cancun, in its fantastic food market, enjoying shrimp, marlin or huachinango’s tostadas with a Mexican beer.

So truth be told, after having a taste of a tostada with guacamole, a “dry noodle with three chilis”, a “fillet au huitlacoche”, and the original, exquisitely organic vanilla icecream, wouldn’t you be merrier?

The 63rd edition of the International Film Festival Cannes was lived in a very Mexican way, demonstrating that Mexico is following close in the film industry. One of the first signs of this is that Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal was elected to preside the jury, which is made up of experts, actors, directors, etc.

The award of the Golden Camera for Best Opera Prima was for the Mexican film Leap Year, directed by the Mexican director, Michael Rowe. As he handed over the award, Gael García Bernal said, “It was difficult to choose among 24 films, but we made an unanimous decision,” he said. He also stated that “It is a very special film that has been done with great love and is noted for his mastery.”

The director Michael Rowe thanked his production house (Machete Productions), his actors, Monica del Carmen and Gustavo Sánchez Parra, as well as the Mexican Institute of Cinematography and dedicated his gift to his daughter. “It’s for my daughter Ximena, who is Mexican.”

Michael Rowe was born in Australia and has been living for 16 years in Mexico, country whose nationality he adopted. Michael Rowe stated that the tape is completely Mexican. “I have something legitimate Mexican and this film was born from my Mexican soul, my love for this country,” said the director. The film tells the story of a couple who maintains a relationship of degrading sexual violence.

The director feels that the film will be successful in Mexico because “In Mexico, the public is mature, and the times when scenes with nudity provoked laughter or frightened people have now been passed.”

Besides the award for Leap Year, Biutiful, a film by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu highlighted in the festival, and actor Javier Bardem, won the Palme d’Or prize for best actor. The Spanish actor took the opportunity to thank Gonzalez Inarritu for the prize. “This award is received on behalf of what the film Biutiful, by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, represents.. After my hard work under the direction of Iñarritu I have changed my attitude towards work. I have now more compassion and love for the art of interpreting. ”

These are some examples that show how Mexican cinema is coming up strong worldwide. Awards such as this, in addition to the awards received in Madrid, in the 7th Documenta Madrid Festival, to the Mexican documentary Presumed Guilty, demonstrate the growth and international recognition of our cinema. Presumed Guilty is a documentary of Mexican directors Layda Negrete and Roberto Hernandez and, who had to beat 22 other international films to win the prize for best documentary in Madrid.

Mexican Health Secretary José Angel Córdova Villalobos was invested as Knight of the Légion d´honneur at the Elysée Palace by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his role in the control of the A(H1N1) flu crisis.

The Légion d’honneur or Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur or National Order of the Legion of Honour” is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the First Republic, on May 19th 1802. The Order is the highest decoration in France and is awarded for excellent civil or military conduct delivered, upon official investigation.

Although harshly criticized at the outbreak of the flu, the Mexican Government´s response and management of the crisis helped prevent and successfully mitigate a pandemic.

The A(H1N1) measures and policies implemented to control the outbreak of the flu, such as schools and business shutdowns, may have cost Mexican people around 4 billion USD.

His outstanding work in the fight against A(H1N1) flu has also been acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO), China, and the French National Institute of Advanced Studies in Security and Justice, among other governments, analysts, and institutions.

Among those that have received this distinction over the years are Jules Verne, Louis Pasteur, Victor Hugo, Alexander Graham Bell, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Salvador Dalí, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, as well as Rufino Tamayo.

Thank you Mexico!

The Metrobus Project, an innovative and first-rate bus system that has considerably reduced traffic congestion and pollution in Mexico City, recently received Harvard University’s Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnerships.

The Metrobus transportation system, which is already being considered a possible model for similar implementations in other countries, was launched in 2005 along a 19 kilometers stretch (12 miles) of one of Mexico City’s busiest avenues. It complements the metropolis’ very busy subway.

More than 30 projects competed for the award. According to Harvard’s statement referring to the announcement of the winner: “Metrobus has reduced carbon dioxide emissions from Mexico City traffic by an estimated 80,000 tons a year. The new buses, which operate on clean-burning ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, make more than 450,000 trips per day.’’

“The Metrobus has proved an efficient and economically viable formula for reducing greenhouse gases and emissions of gases,” said Gloria Grandolini, director of World Bank in Mexico. “Mexico is a forerunner when it comes to implementing projects like this one, and once again has demonstrated its willingness to improve the environment.”

The environmentally friendly buses have managed to permanently remove 839 polluting minibuses, known as “peseros” from the city’s streets, helped reduce traffic accidents by 30% in the area where Metrobus operates and achieved an estimated 6% shift from private vehicles to public transport.

To make this happen, a public-private partnership was set up between Metrobus leaders and the owners of the polluting minibuses, with financial support from the World Bank. Cooperation between the two sectors proved to be a better strategy than competition.

Mexican writer Chloe Aridjis has received the French Mercure Award for her first book titled “Book of Clouds.”

“Book of Clouds” is a portrait of Berlin in the early twenty-first century through the eyes of Tatiana, a young Mexican who comes to the German capital on a scholarship, Aridjis explained.

The writer, daughter of Mexican poet and diplomat Homero Aridjis said she is pleased because the award coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. She vividly recalls how she lived those days, watching from the other side of the Atlantic how Berliners inaugurated a new chapter of modern history.

Aridjis is already preparing a second novel which will be set between London and Paris.

As reported by CONACULTA (Mexico’s National Council for Culture and the Arts), Mexican filmmaker Mariana Chenillo received the Best Director Award for her film “Five days without Nora” at Moscow’s International Film Festival.

Moscow’s International Film Festival has been held every year since 1935, is the second oldest film festival in the world after the Venice Film Festival, and is considered one of the most prestigious in the world.

“Receiving this award has been one of the most significant events of my life,” Chenillo said on having won the award in Russia at one of the oldest film festivals in the world, and on being one of the first Mexican female filmmakers to have a presence in that nation.

She also explained that her main interest is to address themes that explore human relationships, as well as “the complexity of these difficult emotions that one day we must all confront.”

Chenillo said that cinema is a tool that allows her to show society a wide range of situations that somehow contribute to general awareness.

“Mexican films are getting a stronger presence worldwide, with new filmmakers joining the effort year after year,” she added.

The film “Five days without Nora” has won numerous awards such as the Best Film Award at the XII International Film Festival of the Americas, and the Audience Award at the XXV Miami International Film Festival, among many others.

As reported by the Associated Press, the UNAM, which is a nearly 100-year-old Mexican university, was awarded Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in recognition of its role in providing Latin America with outstanding intellectuals and scientists.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico, which has nearly 300,000 students and more than 34,000 professors and researchers, had received more than 1,500 letters of support for the award, including ones from world famous authors Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the award foundation said.

The university, founded in 1910, “has become a point of reference, combining quality and an extensive academic and research offering with its firm commitment to disseminate culture, humanism and new technologies,” the foundation said.

It also praised the school for the role it played as “a reception center for intellectuals and professors exiled (from Spain) after the (1936-39) Spanish Civil War.”

The award includes a euro50,000 ($70,000) cash stipend and a sculpture by artist Joan Miro.

Last year’s Communication and Humanities award went to the Google Internet search engine.

The university is one of the most important public centers for higher education in Mexico and Latin America, with alumni including three Nobel Prize winners — the late Octavio Paz for literature (1990), chemistry scientist Mario Molina (1995), and the late diplomat Alfonso Garcia Robles for the Peace Prize in 1982, the foundation said.

In 2007, the university’s main campus in Mexico City, the University City, was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO, which praised it as a monumental example of the modernism of the 20th century.

The communication and humanities award is one of eight handed out each year by the Prince of Asturias Foundation covering areas ranging from the arts and humanities to scientific research. The awards are named after Spain’s Crown Prince Felipe, whose formal title is prince of Asturias, a region of northern Spain.

LATIN AMERICAN HERALD TRIBUNE – Mexico’s Jose Emilio Pacheco was announced Thursday as the winner of the Queen Sofia Poetry Prize, Spain’s most prestigious literary award in that genre.

The prize, which is accompanied by a 42,100-euro ($56,000) cash award, recognizes a living author’s complete body of work and contribution to the shared cultural heritage of the Ibero-American community.

The 69-year-old Pacheco’s poetry oeuvre is universal in scope and has been included since the 1950s in the main Latin American poetry anthologies.

The president of the jury, Spanish Crown Heritage Chairman Yago Pico de Coaña, said in awarding the prize that “no one is being discovered” by conferring this honor on Pacheco but that it merely affirms the writer’s broad and solid literary trajectory.

The poets considered for this prize are nominated by academic, university and cultural institutions in Spain, Portugal, the United States, Brazil and Latin America.

Pacheco, who also has gained acclaim for his work as a prose writer and translator, has won numerous awards during his career, including the Octavio Paz International Poetry and Essay Prize in 2003 and the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Prize in 2004.

The Mexican poet said that being honored with the Queen Sofia Prize was cause for “great surprise and great joy” because “I wasn’t expecting it,” adding that the rector of the University of Salamanca gave him the news as he was getting out of bed.

Pacheco beat out Nicaragua’s Ernesto Cardenal, Uruguay’s Cristina Petri Rossi and Spain’s Francisco Brines, among others, to win the award.

“There are so many poets worthy of this and other prizes and, without taking away from its merit, there’s always an element of luck and generosity on the part of the jury,” he said.

Pacheco said he hoped the two new volumes of poetry he is readying for publication will be completed by the time he officially receives the prize at a ceremony in Madrid in mid-November.