Letters to the Editor: A “short brown’ Oaxacan was Mexico’s greatest president. What say you, Nury Martinez?
Oaxaca, Mexico — Nury Martinez is a freelance journalist based in Mexico City.
He was on a panel with the late journalist Carlos Monsiváis this past September at the World Affairs Council of New York about the future of journalism. Oaxaca is probably not the first place to think of a journalist running away from a challenge, but it was probably his most surprising and surprising answer.
He had only been to Mexico City on a single day and decided not to participate in the panel discussion, but he did bring a notebook and pen. His notes will be published in the book “Boom and Bust: A History of Oaxaca” (John Wiley and Sons, forthcoming) by the author which will be a story about the country’s second-largest city (after Guadalajara) in both political terms and at the personal level. It is the author’s first book.
His first impression of Mexico City was as though he had been in a movie, where the director had not expected “somebody like me” to make the trip. It was like looking at the world through the wrong end of a telescope (yes, we are living in a global village) when the other person in the room doesn’t really look like you do.
I think he would agree with me when I say that Mexico City is just like many of the other cities he has been to where he didn’t see the “bigger picture.” The world is a short walk with some steps. The picture he sees from the window of his hotel is one in which there is no space for the country to change – only for it to change to something else at the next election.
We were in a bar having coffee when the waiter came up with a large round white pot and poured us a big dark brown tequila-like drink with a small white foam. He also brought out a bottle of white wine and a small bottle of brandy. I was not surprised. I knew it was only a matter of time before something like that would come out.
We were served two big dishes of tortillas and were told that that was the “most popular