Objects closer than they appear. Camino a Key West, La Florida.
martes, diciembre 19, 2006
da delano - south beach
Hace doce meses estaba en el Delano en miami --- bueno despues del anyo nuevo...como 36 horas despues...pero todavia estabamos en momento de celebrar! y ahora me voy para brasil...venga sudamerica!
dizque es nice en van nuys
una reunion de ex-chilangos....very nice in van nuys. and yes, i did see them open for aterciopelados at the henry fonda teatro. obvio. hasta la pregunta es necia. osea, claro. yes.
Teneis Soul?
Y tambien llego Jude....osea, hey jude...no hey u! Jude, I am still hoping to hear you on KCRW-Sta Monica on my way to work in Downtown! I want to hear "NPR correspondent in Mexico City...Jude in Coyoacan...and now in Xochimilco...and now in Ixtapalapa! Chanfles!" And of course, the micro in the background!
Donde Estan Las Regias?
There's nothing better than running into some old college friends from study abroad...here is Luis and Nancy...very cool peeps from my days at the Tec de Monterrey - en Nuevo Leon. I used to live in the Edificio #9 dormitory, and it was crazy! Osea, eramos unos chicos locos -- fraternity style partying -- and we had an olympic size pool separating us from all the ladies! Oh yeah, and a very obvious chain link fence...damn...dode estan las regias!
Una Tazita de Azucar
It's always great running into old neighbors in Mexico City. Vero is on my left (your right) and we met in Guanajuato during the Festival Internacional del Cervantino, basically a very bohemian art-inspired Octoberfest in one of Mexico's famed colonial cities. Osea, lo basico. Minimo. I met Vero at a bar, and poco a poquito nos dimos cuenta que viviamos en el mismo edificio en el Pedregal del Lago. Aqui estamos en Condesa en el famoso Soul Lounge. Octubre 2006 - Mexico City. La chava a mi derecha resulto ser prima de un amigo de Penn - los ivy leagues andan en dondesquiera! Chanfle! Portense bien todos. Chiz!
lunes, diciembre 18, 2006
Two Too Many San Diegans in the Valley
Now I have a problem with this picture because if there are two San Diegans in the Valley, that's two too many! Asi que se me van llendo por la autopista 5 sur, y no se les ocurra dejar ninguna de sus playeras de los Padres o de los Chargers!! El Jefe, Claudia (SD native, via San Luis Potosi and Columbia U) y yo.
Navidannukah
Celebramos Navidannukah en Van Nuys este fin de semana pasado. Aunque faltaron unos tamales y el champurrado, pues de todos modos parecia que estabamos en el Distrito Federal...una reunion apropriada para aquellos tiempos de la capital mexicana.
Van Nuys es Very Nice
Este fin de semana estuvo el jefe en Van Nuys. Asi que aunque es muy rraro encontrarme en el Valle de San Fernando...tuve que hacer una excepcion para ir al equivalente al Satelite del D.F. en LA. Pero aun 24 meses despues, seguimos siendo un halfbright y un fulbrite(!)!
Danzantes en Coyoacan
Esta foto fue tomada en Coyoacan durante el mes de Octubre del 2006. En esta plaza estaban tocando musica indigena con muchos tambores, mientras ciertas personas se ponian a bailar al ritmo de los tambores.
lunes, diciembre 11, 2006
Un Ciruelo Lleno de Vida
Esta es una fotografia de mi abuelita Cuca partiendo un pastel para el dia de las madres. Todos estamos debajo de un arbol de ciruelas que yo plante. Estos son los momentos de la vida mas dulces. Un arbol da vida.
Mariachi en tu Casa
Esta foto fue tomada en el Cinco de Mayo del 2006 en la calle Oakland en Pasadena. La fiesta fue titulada "Ay Mama Carlota," y fue celebrada con el proposito de recaudar fondos para estos jovenes musicos de Huntington Park.
Mexico's Thirst for Cola - Coming to an End?
Mexico hopes tax on soda will refill lost oil revenue
But soft drink makers are fighting Calderon's proposed levy, saying it could kill jobs.
By Marla Dickerson and Carlos Martinez, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
December 12, 2006
Big gulpers
MEXICO CITY — Mexico is trying to make up for a projected shortfall in oil revenue by raising taxes on other quick-fix liquids: colas and carbonated drinks.
A proposal by the nation's new President Felipe Calderon would impose a 5% levy on soft drinks — and an additional 15% on cigarettes — to raise $1 billion next year. With Mexico's oil production falling and its economy slowing, Calderon's administration is scrambling to find additional sources of revenue. Calderon said last week that he would seek to impose the new taxes as part of his 2007 budget.
The proposal has raised the ire of Mexico's $10-billion soft drink industry. The sector has taken out full-page ads in national newspapers blasting the proposal as a job killer and a potential blow to Mexican consumers, who trail only Americans in their consumption of carbonated drinks.
"Taxes on beer, cigarettes and soft drinks are the easiest to collect," said Alfredo Paredes, chief executive of Ajegroup, the maker of a popular soda called Big Cola. "That is why they are targeting us."
Although the tax would be levied on bottlers, companies said they would have to pass the cost on to the public, which already pays a 15% value-added tax on soda. They said the new tax could cost Mexico 36,500 jobs, including sugar-cane harvesters and mom-and-pop vendors.
Manufacturers said the hike would be particularly hard on low-income Mexicans, who spend more of their incomes on soft drinks than on beans. The average Mexican drinks an eye-popping 152 liters of soda a year, according to the industry statistics.
Sugary cola is a dietary staple for Mexico's poor. Cash-strapped laborers guzzle it on the job. Two-liter beverage bottles are more common than lunch boxes on construction sites.
"Poor people drink it for energy to keep from falling down in the street," said Paredes, whose Big Cola has captured nearly one-tenth of the Mexican market by selling cheaper than market leaders Coke and Pepsi.
At a convenience store in the capital's Polanco neighborhood, a 3.3-liter bottle of Big Cola was selling for $1.11 on Monday compared with $1.57 for a 2-liter bottle of Coke.
Paredes and other business leaders want Calderon to boost tax receipts by getting more cheats to pay up, rather than tapping industries that are already contributing.
The nation's underground economy is enormous and growing by the day. Millions of workers toil in off-the-books jobs as day laborers and street vendors. There's a popular saying among wealthy Mexicans: "If you're paying taxes, you have the wrong accountant."
Calderon has talked of simplifying the tax code and toughening enforcement to get more people to pony up. His move to hike taxes on soft drinks is an acknowledgment that Mexico's fiscal position is quickly deteriorating, thanks to heavy dependence on another prized liquid: petroleum.
Mexico, the world's No. 5 producer of oil, depends on it to fund 40% of its federal budget. Officials last year siphoned $54 billion from the state petroleum monopoly Pemex to finance public spending. High oil prices have resulted in tax windfalls over the last couple years but economists warn of a pending shortfall.
The nation's major oil field, Cantarell, is declining rapidly because of age. Production is down nearly 15% through the first 10 months of the year — more than twice the rate of decline predicted by Pemex officials last year. The company's worst-case projections show production plummeting to about 520,000 barrels a day by the end of 2008 — a nearly 70% freefall from October's average output of 1.65 million barrels a day.
Calderon's predecessor Vicente Fox tried to lessen Mexico's dependence on oil revenue by expanding Mexico's value-added tax, which functions like a national sales tax, to food and medicine. That proposal was rejected by Congress and got Fox branded an enemy of the poor.
Some analysts say Calderon's narrower tax on cigarettes and soft drinks stands a better chance of passage. Congress will probably decide on the measure before officials break for Christmas vacation.
Paredes said the industry was lobbying legislators, but he said he feared that they would rally around the new president to show support.
Mexicans are experiencing skyrocketing levels of obesity, heart disease, high-blood pressure and diabetes, largely because of unhealthful diets and lack of exercise. Increased taxes on Cokes and smokes could be used to offset soaring medical costs to treat these maladies.
Still, some aren't comfortable with the government using tax policy to influence fitness. Mexico City-based political analyst Sergio Sarmiento said consumers, not politicians, should decide what is healthful for them.
But at least one soda drinker agrees with Calderon. Lugging a 2-liter bottle of Sprite to his job site in the capital, construction worker Daniel Garcia said the tax hike would motivate him to spend his money on other things.
"It makes you fat and it messes up your blood," Garcia said of sugary drinks. "At first people will whine. We always do, especially with [anything to do with] money. But down the road it will be good for us."
marla.dickerson@latimes.com
carlos.sanchez@latimes.com
'Taxes on beer, cigarettes and soft drinks are the easiest to collect. That is why they are targeting us.'
Alfredo Paredes,
chief executive of Ajegroup, maker of Big Cola
But soft drink makers are fighting Calderon's proposed levy, saying it could kill jobs.
By Marla Dickerson and Carlos Martinez, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
December 12, 2006
Big gulpers
MEXICO CITY — Mexico is trying to make up for a projected shortfall in oil revenue by raising taxes on other quick-fix liquids: colas and carbonated drinks.
A proposal by the nation's new President Felipe Calderon would impose a 5% levy on soft drinks — and an additional 15% on cigarettes — to raise $1 billion next year. With Mexico's oil production falling and its economy slowing, Calderon's administration is scrambling to find additional sources of revenue. Calderon said last week that he would seek to impose the new taxes as part of his 2007 budget.
The proposal has raised the ire of Mexico's $10-billion soft drink industry. The sector has taken out full-page ads in national newspapers blasting the proposal as a job killer and a potential blow to Mexican consumers, who trail only Americans in their consumption of carbonated drinks.
"Taxes on beer, cigarettes and soft drinks are the easiest to collect," said Alfredo Paredes, chief executive of Ajegroup, the maker of a popular soda called Big Cola. "That is why they are targeting us."
Although the tax would be levied on bottlers, companies said they would have to pass the cost on to the public, which already pays a 15% value-added tax on soda. They said the new tax could cost Mexico 36,500 jobs, including sugar-cane harvesters and mom-and-pop vendors.
Manufacturers said the hike would be particularly hard on low-income Mexicans, who spend more of their incomes on soft drinks than on beans. The average Mexican drinks an eye-popping 152 liters of soda a year, according to the industry statistics.
Sugary cola is a dietary staple for Mexico's poor. Cash-strapped laborers guzzle it on the job. Two-liter beverage bottles are more common than lunch boxes on construction sites.
"Poor people drink it for energy to keep from falling down in the street," said Paredes, whose Big Cola has captured nearly one-tenth of the Mexican market by selling cheaper than market leaders Coke and Pepsi.
At a convenience store in the capital's Polanco neighborhood, a 3.3-liter bottle of Big Cola was selling for $1.11 on Monday compared with $1.57 for a 2-liter bottle of Coke.
Paredes and other business leaders want Calderon to boost tax receipts by getting more cheats to pay up, rather than tapping industries that are already contributing.
The nation's underground economy is enormous and growing by the day. Millions of workers toil in off-the-books jobs as day laborers and street vendors. There's a popular saying among wealthy Mexicans: "If you're paying taxes, you have the wrong accountant."
Calderon has talked of simplifying the tax code and toughening enforcement to get more people to pony up. His move to hike taxes on soft drinks is an acknowledgment that Mexico's fiscal position is quickly deteriorating, thanks to heavy dependence on another prized liquid: petroleum.
Mexico, the world's No. 5 producer of oil, depends on it to fund 40% of its federal budget. Officials last year siphoned $54 billion from the state petroleum monopoly Pemex to finance public spending. High oil prices have resulted in tax windfalls over the last couple years but economists warn of a pending shortfall.
The nation's major oil field, Cantarell, is declining rapidly because of age. Production is down nearly 15% through the first 10 months of the year — more than twice the rate of decline predicted by Pemex officials last year. The company's worst-case projections show production plummeting to about 520,000 barrels a day by the end of 2008 — a nearly 70% freefall from October's average output of 1.65 million barrels a day.
Calderon's predecessor Vicente Fox tried to lessen Mexico's dependence on oil revenue by expanding Mexico's value-added tax, which functions like a national sales tax, to food and medicine. That proposal was rejected by Congress and got Fox branded an enemy of the poor.
Some analysts say Calderon's narrower tax on cigarettes and soft drinks stands a better chance of passage. Congress will probably decide on the measure before officials break for Christmas vacation.
Paredes said the industry was lobbying legislators, but he said he feared that they would rally around the new president to show support.
Mexicans are experiencing skyrocketing levels of obesity, heart disease, high-blood pressure and diabetes, largely because of unhealthful diets and lack of exercise. Increased taxes on Cokes and smokes could be used to offset soaring medical costs to treat these maladies.
Still, some aren't comfortable with the government using tax policy to influence fitness. Mexico City-based political analyst Sergio Sarmiento said consumers, not politicians, should decide what is healthful for them.
But at least one soda drinker agrees with Calderon. Lugging a 2-liter bottle of Sprite to his job site in the capital, construction worker Daniel Garcia said the tax hike would motivate him to spend his money on other things.
"It makes you fat and it messes up your blood," Garcia said of sugary drinks. "At first people will whine. We always do, especially with [anything to do with] money. But down the road it will be good for us."
marla.dickerson@latimes.com
carlos.sanchez@latimes.com
'Taxes on beer, cigarettes and soft drinks are the easiest to collect. That is why they are targeting us.'
Alfredo Paredes,
chief executive of Ajegroup, maker of Big Cola
miércoles, diciembre 06, 2006
The Cig Egret
We also visited a museum of old environmental posters. I really like the play on words and images evoked by this Cleanup Day poster.
On the Bay
Part of the Fulbright conference in San Francisco included a tour of the Bay on this rugged research boat. Here, the staff of the boat gave a presentation on the various environmental challenges and projects happening around the Bay.
Red Geometry Deseo
I wish Mr. Kambe, my geometry teacher at Belvedere Middle School, would have had this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in class. I feel like we could have really understood the whole slope issue as a group a lot better.
La Jaula de Rojo, No de Oro
En este momento exacto me senti como un ave en una jaula de rojo...no de oro, pero de rojo.
Fulbrighters in SF
Estos becarios Fulbright estan haciendo una presentacion a los estudiantes de esta escuela en San Francisco. Parte de las becas Fulbright es una responsabilidad social de compartir el mensaje de la ciudadania global - un mundo en donde todos estamos relacionados y conectados. El desarrollo empieza con la comunicacion, cara a cara.
Cancion del Maizal - SF style
Cancion del Maizal. Esta foto fue tomada durante mi viaje a la conferencia Fulbright en San Francisco (Marzo 2006). Este mural esta situado en una escuela al norte de San Francisco.
lunes, octubre 23, 2006
In Mexico, Young and Thin Are Often Job Requirements
In Mexico, young and thin are often job requirements
Ads, even for U.S. firms, ignore anti-bias laws and seek a youthful ideal.
By Marla Dickerson and Meredith Mandell, Special to The Times
October 23, 2006
MEXICO CITY — When Michigan-based automotive supplier Lear Corp. needed a secretary for its office in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, it placed a classified ad seeking a "female … aged 20 to 28 … preferably single … with excellent presentation."
And to ensure that it got the right candidate, Lear asked applicants to include a recent photo with their resumes.
In the United States, that ad might draw howls of protest and trigger lawsuits and hefty fines. But in Mexico, where jobs are scarce and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws is all but nonexistent, employers routinely select staff on criteria more appropriate to a beauty contest.
Job seekers who are considered too old, too chunky or too dark are screened out by companies that sometimes specify the ideal candidate's marital status, height, weight, tone of voice, even the part of town in which the person should reside.
What is less known is that many American corporations — including Coca-Cola, Pepsi Bottling and Shell Oil — are engaging in hiring practices that appear to violate their fair-employment policies in the U.S.
They include companies that trumpet their diversity initiatives north of the border, including top-drawer U.S. law firm Baker & McKenzie, and should be familiar with Mexican laws prohibiting discrimination.
"Why are so many of them not complying with the same standards they have to comply with in the United States? Because they can get away with it," said Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred, known for battling discrimination.
When contacted by The Times, U.S. companies said they did not know about the ads or blamed them on local managers or third parties.
Lear executives in the U.S. said they weren't aware of the Mexican job posting. Provided a copy, spokeswoman Andrea Puchalsky later issued a statement declaring that the ad was not in keeping with Lear's equal-employment policies and that references to gender, age and similar criteria would be removed.
"Unfortunately, it is very difficult for a global organization … to closely monitor the activities of our representatives in all regions of the world," Puchalsky said.
Mexico's constitution and federal labor code prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, ethnicity, religion, marital status, health and other factors. But legal experts say Mexicans rarely complain to authorities or file employment discrimination lawsuits, partly because seeking redress is a lengthy and expensive process.
Wilma Ramirez Santiago, deputy director of the complaints unit of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, said the Mexican public had grown so used to discriminatory hiring practices that most people were resigned to them.
Her federal agency was set up in 2003 to investigate discrimination complaints and raise awareness, but it has no power to prosecute scofflaws, and the government is cutting its 2007 budget 4%.
"We're a clearly discriminatory society, but no one wants to accept it," said Ramirez, who added that her organization would like to see a crackdown on employment classifieds.
That would make Mexico a pioneer in Latin America, where such ads are ubiquitous.
Some companies equate youth with higher productivity and lower costs in terms of salaries and healthcare.
Many male employers view single, attractive females as desirable — until they get married and have children. Then they mean costly pregnancy leave, children-related absences and turnover.
Married men often are seen as stable and less likely to be homosexual, still a major taboo. Good looks and fair skin are prized.
"They don't contract you if you don't have a pretty face or a pretty body," said Patricia Tellez, a plump lawyer who was among hundreds of anxious hopefuls packing a recent job fair in Tlajomulco, not far from Guadalajara.
Tellez said a recruiter at one table told her they preferred a man to a fill a debt-collector position for which she had applied. The 29-year-old lives with her parents and supports herself selling secondhand clothing in a flea market.
Thousands of underemployed Mexicans like Tellez represent a waste of human capital that is hurting the nation's competitiveness.
"You have very intelligent people forced to clean windshields and park cars," said Florencia Peña, a professor at Mexico City's National School of Anthropology and History who has studied employment discrimination. "That is very costly for the culture and for the country."
Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon has cited "equal opportunity" as one of the main platforms of his development plan.
Some employment classifieds cite bodily measurements with the breezy specificity of a dating service. An ad on one of Mexico's largest online job sites sought a man aged 25 to 30 to work in Mexico City.
The candidate must stand at least 5 feet 9 inches tall, weigh 154 to 176 pounds and be possessed of a "good presentation."
These exacting standards were for a route driver for Coca-Cola Femsa, Mexico's largest bottler, partly owned by Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co.
Officials in Atlanta referred questions to Coca-Cola's Mexican affiliate. A spokesman for Monterrey-based Coca-Cola Femsa e-mailed a statement saying the company did not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, religion, disability or other factors.
American firms are shortchanging themselves and helping to perpetuate inequality when they fail to tap into the widest pool of talent in foreign countries, said Aron Cramer, president and chief executive of Business for Social Responsibility, an ethics consulting firm in San Francisco.
"It's bad economic policy and it's bad social policy," he said.
Baker & McKenzie, a Chicago-based law firm, recently advertised for a real estate attorney — a male one — for its Monterrey office in northern Mexico. Celene Caballero, a company recruiter in Mexico, said Mexican clients feel more comfortable being represented by men.
The firm, which a California jury in 1994 ordered to pay millions to a former female secretary to settle a landmark sexual harassment case, said the online Mexican ad was "an aberration" that would be revised.
All applicants would be considered regardless of gender, and those responsible for the posting "have been reminded of the proper approach for this, and all future recruitment initiatives," read a statement e-mailed by spokesman Douglas MacDonald.
Other employers, though, don't view their Mexican recruitment practices as exclusionary.
Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., based in Somers, N.Y., recently advertised in Mexico for a human resources assistant who is male, unmarried and between the ages of 21 and 25. The company's website boasts that in 2005, it ranked 14th among DiversityInc magazine's Top 50 companies.
Pepsi spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said the company did not believe that the posting violated Mexican law or the company's equal employment policy.
"This is not discrimination," she said. "The solicitation of candidates with these particular reference points [is] not the basis for any hiring decisions."
Many Mexicans say they have simply come to accept that being too old, too dark, too fat or having too many children trumps education and experience for many employers.
At the Tlajomulco job fair, Paulina Duran, 25, an unemployed mother of two, said the first question recruiters asked her was: "Who is going to watch the kids?"
Ismael Briseno was also having a tough day. Laid off early this year, the dapper, college-educated 50-year-old former airline worker said he had contacted 52 employment agencies and 27 Internet sites without receiving a nibble.
"They want young people so they can pay them less," Briseno said.
*
*
Staff writer Dickerson reported from Mexico City. Mandell is a special correspondent. Carlos Martinez in The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
*
Down to specifics
These ads appeared in OCC Mundial (www.occ.com.mx), one of Mexico's largest online employment sites.
Quaker State
Position: sales manager
Education: bachelor's in business administration, marketing or commercial relations
Sex: male
Age: 30 to 45
Civil status: preferably married
Experience: minimum 5 years
Live: in the southeast zone of Mexico City
Other: don't apply if you don't meet this profile 100%
Company response
Houston-based Shell Oil Co., which owns the Quaker State brand, said the ad was taken out by an independent Mexican licensee/distributor, Comercial Importadora. A Shell spokeswoman said the ad would be pulled because it was "not acceptable" to the U.S. company, which would work with the Mexican firm to make sure that future ads "better align" with Shell's diversity policies.
*
Coca-Cola Femsa
Position: route driver
Education: high school diploma or technical school
Sex: male
Age: 25 to 30
Height: minimum 5 feet, 9 inches
Weight: 154 to 176 pounds
Documents: proof of military service; truck license
Experience: driving a 3 1/2 -ton truck; knowledge of the metro area
Appearance: good presentation
Live: in or near the southwest side of Mexico City
Other: don't apply if you don't meet this profile 100%
Company response
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, which owns a minority stake in the Mexican bottler, referred inquiries to Monterrey, Mexico-based Coca-Cola Femsa. The Mexican firm issued an e-mail statement saying it did not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, religion or other factors.
Lear Corp.
Position: bilingual secretary
Education: bachelor's degree or some college
Sex: female
Age: 20 to 28
Civil status: preferably single
Experience: English knowledge 70%; Microsoft Office software knowledge 80%
Appearance: excellent presentation
Live: preferably near the city of Silao
Other: please send resume with a recent photo
Company response
A spokeswoman for Michigan-based Lear said that the ad was not in keeping with the company's fair-employment policies and that it would be revised.
*
Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
Position: process-control technician
Education: bachelor's in chemical engineering
Age: 22 to 28
Sex: preferably male
Civil status: preferably married
Experience: operation of evaporation systems; English knowledge 80%
Company response
A Kimberly-Clark spokesman in Texas said the company considered the ad to be in violation of the nondiscrimination policy of its Mexican affiliate. It said the ad and all future postings would be revised.
*
Sources: OCC Mundial; companies
Ads, even for U.S. firms, ignore anti-bias laws and seek a youthful ideal.
By Marla Dickerson and Meredith Mandell, Special to The Times
October 23, 2006
MEXICO CITY — When Michigan-based automotive supplier Lear Corp. needed a secretary for its office in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, it placed a classified ad seeking a "female … aged 20 to 28 … preferably single … with excellent presentation."
And to ensure that it got the right candidate, Lear asked applicants to include a recent photo with their resumes.
In the United States, that ad might draw howls of protest and trigger lawsuits and hefty fines. But in Mexico, where jobs are scarce and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws is all but nonexistent, employers routinely select staff on criteria more appropriate to a beauty contest.
Job seekers who are considered too old, too chunky or too dark are screened out by companies that sometimes specify the ideal candidate's marital status, height, weight, tone of voice, even the part of town in which the person should reside.
What is less known is that many American corporations — including Coca-Cola, Pepsi Bottling and Shell Oil — are engaging in hiring practices that appear to violate their fair-employment policies in the U.S.
They include companies that trumpet their diversity initiatives north of the border, including top-drawer U.S. law firm Baker & McKenzie, and should be familiar with Mexican laws prohibiting discrimination.
"Why are so many of them not complying with the same standards they have to comply with in the United States? Because they can get away with it," said Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred, known for battling discrimination.
When contacted by The Times, U.S. companies said they did not know about the ads or blamed them on local managers or third parties.
Lear executives in the U.S. said they weren't aware of the Mexican job posting. Provided a copy, spokeswoman Andrea Puchalsky later issued a statement declaring that the ad was not in keeping with Lear's equal-employment policies and that references to gender, age and similar criteria would be removed.
"Unfortunately, it is very difficult for a global organization … to closely monitor the activities of our representatives in all regions of the world," Puchalsky said.
Mexico's constitution and federal labor code prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, ethnicity, religion, marital status, health and other factors. But legal experts say Mexicans rarely complain to authorities or file employment discrimination lawsuits, partly because seeking redress is a lengthy and expensive process.
Wilma Ramirez Santiago, deputy director of the complaints unit of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, said the Mexican public had grown so used to discriminatory hiring practices that most people were resigned to them.
Her federal agency was set up in 2003 to investigate discrimination complaints and raise awareness, but it has no power to prosecute scofflaws, and the government is cutting its 2007 budget 4%.
"We're a clearly discriminatory society, but no one wants to accept it," said Ramirez, who added that her organization would like to see a crackdown on employment classifieds.
That would make Mexico a pioneer in Latin America, where such ads are ubiquitous.
Some companies equate youth with higher productivity and lower costs in terms of salaries and healthcare.
Many male employers view single, attractive females as desirable — until they get married and have children. Then they mean costly pregnancy leave, children-related absences and turnover.
Married men often are seen as stable and less likely to be homosexual, still a major taboo. Good looks and fair skin are prized.
"They don't contract you if you don't have a pretty face or a pretty body," said Patricia Tellez, a plump lawyer who was among hundreds of anxious hopefuls packing a recent job fair in Tlajomulco, not far from Guadalajara.
Tellez said a recruiter at one table told her they preferred a man to a fill a debt-collector position for which she had applied. The 29-year-old lives with her parents and supports herself selling secondhand clothing in a flea market.
Thousands of underemployed Mexicans like Tellez represent a waste of human capital that is hurting the nation's competitiveness.
"You have very intelligent people forced to clean windshields and park cars," said Florencia Peña, a professor at Mexico City's National School of Anthropology and History who has studied employment discrimination. "That is very costly for the culture and for the country."
Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon has cited "equal opportunity" as one of the main platforms of his development plan.
Some employment classifieds cite bodily measurements with the breezy specificity of a dating service. An ad on one of Mexico's largest online job sites sought a man aged 25 to 30 to work in Mexico City.
The candidate must stand at least 5 feet 9 inches tall, weigh 154 to 176 pounds and be possessed of a "good presentation."
These exacting standards were for a route driver for Coca-Cola Femsa, Mexico's largest bottler, partly owned by Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co.
Officials in Atlanta referred questions to Coca-Cola's Mexican affiliate. A spokesman for Monterrey-based Coca-Cola Femsa e-mailed a statement saying the company did not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, religion, disability or other factors.
American firms are shortchanging themselves and helping to perpetuate inequality when they fail to tap into the widest pool of talent in foreign countries, said Aron Cramer, president and chief executive of Business for Social Responsibility, an ethics consulting firm in San Francisco.
"It's bad economic policy and it's bad social policy," he said.
Baker & McKenzie, a Chicago-based law firm, recently advertised for a real estate attorney — a male one — for its Monterrey office in northern Mexico. Celene Caballero, a company recruiter in Mexico, said Mexican clients feel more comfortable being represented by men.
The firm, which a California jury in 1994 ordered to pay millions to a former female secretary to settle a landmark sexual harassment case, said the online Mexican ad was "an aberration" that would be revised.
All applicants would be considered regardless of gender, and those responsible for the posting "have been reminded of the proper approach for this, and all future recruitment initiatives," read a statement e-mailed by spokesman Douglas MacDonald.
Other employers, though, don't view their Mexican recruitment practices as exclusionary.
Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., based in Somers, N.Y., recently advertised in Mexico for a human resources assistant who is male, unmarried and between the ages of 21 and 25. The company's website boasts that in 2005, it ranked 14th among DiversityInc magazine's Top 50 companies.
Pepsi spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said the company did not believe that the posting violated Mexican law or the company's equal employment policy.
"This is not discrimination," she said. "The solicitation of candidates with these particular reference points [is] not the basis for any hiring decisions."
Many Mexicans say they have simply come to accept that being too old, too dark, too fat or having too many children trumps education and experience for many employers.
At the Tlajomulco job fair, Paulina Duran, 25, an unemployed mother of two, said the first question recruiters asked her was: "Who is going to watch the kids?"
Ismael Briseno was also having a tough day. Laid off early this year, the dapper, college-educated 50-year-old former airline worker said he had contacted 52 employment agencies and 27 Internet sites without receiving a nibble.
"They want young people so they can pay them less," Briseno said.
*
*
Staff writer Dickerson reported from Mexico City. Mandell is a special correspondent. Carlos Martinez in The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
*
Down to specifics
These ads appeared in OCC Mundial (www.occ.com.mx), one of Mexico's largest online employment sites.
Quaker State
Position: sales manager
Education: bachelor's in business administration, marketing or commercial relations
Sex: male
Age: 30 to 45
Civil status: preferably married
Experience: minimum 5 years
Live: in the southeast zone of Mexico City
Other: don't apply if you don't meet this profile 100%
Company response
Houston-based Shell Oil Co., which owns the Quaker State brand, said the ad was taken out by an independent Mexican licensee/distributor, Comercial Importadora. A Shell spokeswoman said the ad would be pulled because it was "not acceptable" to the U.S. company, which would work with the Mexican firm to make sure that future ads "better align" with Shell's diversity policies.
*
Coca-Cola Femsa
Position: route driver
Education: high school diploma or technical school
Sex: male
Age: 25 to 30
Height: minimum 5 feet, 9 inches
Weight: 154 to 176 pounds
Documents: proof of military service; truck license
Experience: driving a 3 1/2 -ton truck; knowledge of the metro area
Appearance: good presentation
Live: in or near the southwest side of Mexico City
Other: don't apply if you don't meet this profile 100%
Company response
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, which owns a minority stake in the Mexican bottler, referred inquiries to Monterrey, Mexico-based Coca-Cola Femsa. The Mexican firm issued an e-mail statement saying it did not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, religion or other factors.
Lear Corp.
Position: bilingual secretary
Education: bachelor's degree or some college
Sex: female
Age: 20 to 28
Civil status: preferably single
Experience: English knowledge 70%; Microsoft Office software knowledge 80%
Appearance: excellent presentation
Live: preferably near the city of Silao
Other: please send resume with a recent photo
Company response
A spokeswoman for Michigan-based Lear said that the ad was not in keeping with the company's fair-employment policies and that it would be revised.
*
Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
Position: process-control technician
Education: bachelor's in chemical engineering
Age: 22 to 28
Sex: preferably male
Civil status: preferably married
Experience: operation of evaporation systems; English knowledge 80%
Company response
A Kimberly-Clark spokesman in Texas said the company considered the ad to be in violation of the nondiscrimination policy of its Mexican affiliate. It said the ad and all future postings would be revised.
*
Sources: OCC Mundial; companies
miércoles, octubre 11, 2006
hidesign in va beach and beyond
Virginia Beach, VA. When walking on the boardwalk in VA Beach, I was listening to my iPod and checking out the various sculptures.
hidesign
Sta Teresa del ITAM
Some parties in Mexico City take place in cramped areas, where you end up with locals, foreigners, and people who don't even want to be there! This is a picture of a party that took place at a house near the ITAM Business School in Sta Teresa, in the south of Mexico City. This is what happens when you put a bunch of MBA students in a kitchen in the middle of winter - all looking for beer, etc. (Circa 2005).
itam
martes, octubre 10, 2006
El Corazon Azul de Mar Tibio
En estos dias de Octubre, se antoja muchisimo las playas de Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. Esperemos que pronto esta region de Mexico regrese a su estabilidad, ya que es un hermoso lugar habitada por gente con un corazon azul de mar tibio.
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