What I'm reading...
...about a gringo luchador, surfers saving waves and a photographer with a "rebel conscience"
Welcome to The Mexpatriate.
In today’s letter, I share links to good reads in English and Spanish (and one video).
What have you been reading, watching or listening to about Mexico lately? Please share your own finds in the comments. Tomorrow I’ll be back with more news coverage.
Why are scientists dressing pigs in clothes and burying them in Mexico? (Los Angeles Times)
“This isn’t pure science…It is science and action.” This report profiles a multinational research team that is using buried pig carcasses, laser mapping, thermal drones and on-the-ground knowledge from searching relatives (who have tragically become experts) to help locate clandestine grave sites in Mexico. While the cutting-edge forensic techniques are promising, one anthropologist quoted in the article says most searches are still resolved by “a good witness and digging.”
Homicides are down in Mexico (Latin America Risk Report)
Homicides in Mexico have shown a notable downward trend so far this year (at least according to federal security data). Analyst James Bosworth ponders the potential reasons here—good, bad and ugly—behind what seems too good to be true. If these numbers hold at the national level, 2025 will be Mexico’s least murderous year since 2016. The national statistics agency (INEGI) just released its preliminary data on homicides in 2024, which showed an annual uptick, breaking a three-year consecutive decline. Guanajuato, México state and Baja California led with the highest murder counts last year.
A former American soldier finds a home in Lucha Libre wrestling (The New York Times)
This profile of Flip Gordon, a former U.S. soldier turned luchador—a técnico no less!—tells the story of how this gringo immigrant has made an unusual life in Mexico City, where he moved full-time in 2023. While Gordon says he was worried at first about acceptance by fans, if there’s one thing lucha libre thrives on of course, it’s drama. “You don’t have to necessarily like the United States to like Captain America,” says his Mexican wife, Barby Villela. Gordon became the first American to win a CMLL middleweight championship in 2024.
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A story about how surfers, fishermen and others joined forces in Puerto Escondido to save the waves on Zicatela beach after Hurricane Erick partially destroyed a breakwater in the bay in June. The locals decided to “finish what Hurricane Erick started” and remove the structure, which was built in the 1990s and has long been criticized, particularly by surfers. Puerto Escondido will be inaugurated as a new World Surfing Reserve by the California-based Save the Waves Coalition in 2026.
Great Art Explained: José María Velasco (Aeon)
This 15-minute video introduces the work of the Mexican artist José María Velasco, whose landscape paintings brought him international acclaim in the late 19th century. Be forgiving of curator James Payne’s pronunciation (particularly “the Virgin of Guadaloop”) and enjoy getting to know one of Velasco’s most famous works, the Valley of Mexico from the Hill of Santa Isabel (1875).
Muere Rodrigo Moya, el lente revolucionario de la fotografía mexicana (El País)
Mexican photo-journalist Rodrigo Moya died at age 91 in Cuernavaca last month. “Moya was a witness to history” with a self-described “rebel conscience” who is best known for his iconic portrait of Che Guevara, as well as documenting the Cuban revolution and other conflicts and social movements of the 1950s and 60s. He was also behind the lens of the famous photograph of Gabriel García Márquez with a black eye, courtesy of Mario Vargas Llosa (read more about this encounter here).
Now it’s your turn! Please share what you’ve been reading about Mexico lately in the comments. And feel free to email me at hola@themexpatriate.com with any questions or suggestions.