A case study in authorship attribution: The Mondrigo1

In this paper, we present authorship attribution methods applied to ¡El Mondrigo! (1968), a controversial text supposedly created by order of the Mexican Government to defame a student strike. Up to now, although the authorship of the book has been attributed to several journalists and writers, it could not be demonstrated and remains an open problem. The work aims at establishing which one of the most commonly attributed writers is the real author. To do that, we implement methods based on stylometric features using textual distance, supervised, and unsupervised learning. The distance-based methods implemented in this work are Kilgarriff and Delta of Burrows, an SVM algorithm is used as the supervised method, and the k-means algorithm as the unsupervised algorithm. The applied methods were consistent by pointing out a single author as the most likely one.

Resource Nationalism and the Violation of Indigenous Rights in Mexico’s Oil Industry: The Case of a Chontal Community in Tabasco

For decades, Indigenous communities living in Mexico’s oil-producing state of Tabasco suffered violence, environmental contamination, and the destruction of their traditional livelihood. The administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) taking office in 2018 promised to govern for the poorest people in Mexico, emphasizing the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. However, as part of his nationalist agenda AMLO is pursuing aggressive exploitation of hydrocarbons upon the lead of state-owned company Pemex. This article argues that the Mexican government still denies Indigenous peoples living nearby oil reserves the right to self-determination. We examine this phenomenon through the Chontal community of Oxiacaque in the state of Tabasco suffering environmental contamination and health problems caused by the oil industry. We emphasize the government’s use of resource nationalism to legitimize violence against Indigenous communities and their natural environments. Further, the expansion of social programs and infrastructure building serves to obtain Indigenous compliance with the unsustainable fossil fuel industry.

Study and work in times of pandemic, how do university students solve technological-digital situations?

After the declaration of a health contingency by the WHO and the Mexican government, the university community took refuge in their homes, waiting to return to face-to-face classes. As the confinement dates lengthen, online educational interactions are hampered because students’ manifest problems related to the internet and technological-digital resources, since now they must be shared with relatives who are also in confinement; In addition, some students work online, which complicates the situation in which they live, study and work. Although learning is involved in these situations, it is not addressed in the present study; The results provide elements that lead to lines of research where, from the student perspective, the role of the teaching-learning process, academic performance and learning are reviewed, as well as the relationship between education and online work. In this context, the proposal of the study is exploratory, quantitative, and longitudinal; The sample is for convenience and 31 (August 2020) and subsequently 28 students (March 2021) voluntarily participated. The objective is to explore the conditions in which undergraduate students solve socio-educational-labor situations with the use of technological-digital resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Second Interrupted Revolution. Juan Guzmán and the case of foot-and-mouth disease. A German photographer in the middle of the war in the Mexican countryside.

Through the photographs of foot-and-mouth disease in Mexico, taken by the photojournalist Hans Gütman/ Juan Guzmán in 1947, this terrible pandemic and the inhumane handling it was given are analyzed. The study of this series of images, from the perspective of visual anthropology, reveals interesting contradictions in the development version of the Mexican government, which for the same reason published them in the magazine Mañana up to 5 years after the photographs were taken. Said “official” version defined foot-and-mouth disease as “an evil ghost” that took over the national cattle, “reason why it had to be exterminated” in order to lead Mexico “into economic and social progress”, a version that is tendentious and contrary to reality of the process revealed by these images.

Another vision of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico during 2020

The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths registered in Mexico during 2020 could be underestimated, due to the sentinel surveillance adopted in this country. Some consequences of following this type of epidemiological surveillance were the high case fatality rate and the high positivity rate for COVID-19 shown in Mexico in 2020. During this year, the Mexican Ministry of Health only considered cases from the public health system, which followed this sentinel surveillance, but did not consider those cases from the private health system. To better understand this pandemic, it is important to include all the results obtained by all the institutions capable of testing for COVID-19, thus the Mexican Government could make good decisions to protect the population from this disease.

“Witch doctors” or professionals? The graduates of Mexico´s first intercultural university and the struggle for legitimacy

Since 2003, the Mexican government has opened 11 intercultural universities serving a total of 15,000 students, a majority of whom are members of Mexico´s Indigenous minority. While there is a growing body of work analyzing the intercultural model from public policy and theoretical perspectives, few studies focus on the experiences of the students and graduates of these institutions. In this article, I share the findings of one such study of the Intercultural University of Mexico State, the pioneer of the intercultural universities. Through interviews with graduates, students, and deans of three undergraduate intercultural programs, I seek to answer a central question, which is rooted in critical and decolonial theory: To what degree does the intercultural model achieve its stated mission of empowering Indigenous students and to what degree does it contribute to the reproduction of inequality? In general, the findings are mixed. While many students share experiences of discrimination in the workplace, and even being derided as “witch-doctors,” they argue that attending an institution with a critical mass of Indigenous students has empowered them personally and professionally, transformed their cultural identities, and given them a new appreciation for their Indigenous roots.

The Emergence and Persistence of Payments for Watershed Services Programs in Mexico

Payments for watershed services programs (PWS) have become a prominent tool to protect ecosystems and hydrological services but little is known about where these innovative financing tools and governance systems emerge and persist. In 2008, the Mexican government started a program where they match funding from local partners to establish user-financed PWS programs, leading to the creation of 145 programs between 2008 and 2019. We study the factors that led to the emergence and persistence of these local PWS programs across Mexico. We assemble a unique database on these programs, as well as biophysical, economic and socio-cultural, and institutional variables, at the municipality level. We use logistic regression to analyze the variables that led to the emergence and persistence of PWS. We find that PWS programs are more likely to emerge in municipalities with lower opportunity costs; that are wealthier and more populated; that have complementary conservation programs; and that have more collective land tenure and protected areas. PWS programs are more likely to persist in municipalities with poorer water quality and more floods; that have more protected areas; and that have a non-governmental organization or water utility involved as the local counterpart. These results suggest that the emergence and persistence of local, user-financed PWS could be facilitated through better information on the condition of watershed services to signal need for hydrological protection; capacity building and institutional strengthening efforts that provide the social capital needed for collective action; and involvement of decentralized non-state actors that are politically neutral and can provide more sustainable financing.

Involvement of a Fishing Community in the Eradication of the Introduced Cactus Mouse (Peromyscus eremicus cedrosensis) from San Benito Oeste Island, Mexico

San Benito Archipelago is internationally important for the conservation of 13 species of seabirds. San Benito Oeste, the largest and only inhabited island, was declared mammal-free in 2000 after a series of eradications conducted in collaboration between the fishing cooperative Pescadores Nacionales de Abulón, the Mexican conservation organization, Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, A.C., and the Mexican Government. The archipelago remained mammal-free until 2006, when an unusual invader, the Cedros island cactus mouse (Peromyscus eremicus cedrosensis), was accidentally introduced to San Benito Oeste island. The same collaboration scheme involving locals, conservationists, and authorities was once again put in motion, delivering tangible results. Research informed the mouse eradication strategy, the local community supported the operation, and the mouse eradication was successfully implemented in December 2013. To date (8 years later), no mammals have been recorded in the archipelago, which suggests community-led island biosecurity is working. In addition, this collaborative restoration work contributed to the creation of the Baja California Pacific Islands Biosphere Reserve, protecting 21 islands, including the San Benito Archipelago, and 97 islets in the Mexican Pacific.