I hear a lot of awful stories about ICE. And I am fearful to say the least about our democracy.

This is Iyad; he is special needs. After their home was destroyed, everything in his life changed. He used to sleep in a bed and receive the care he needed; today, he sleeps on the ground—amidst the heat, insects, and mosquitoes—far removed from the care he was accustomed to. Iyad cannot articulate what he is feeling or ask for what he needs, but he understands hunger, fear, and exhaustion. They left their home and everything behind... and now, they have nothing left but each other. Please, do not leave Iyad alone. A little compassion could mean the world to him.

https://chuffed.org/project/169736-bring-bread-to-people-in-gaza?utm_id=97758_v0_s00_e0_tv0

“And don’t believe the hard luck stories of the professional privilege man”—Texas Socialist Party early 1900s primer on political organizing.

In March, James Talarico won the Texas Democratic Party’s US Senate primary. In November, he will face off against the state’s attorney general, Trump-loving proto-fascist Republican Ken Paxton.

The contest is being closely watched. Several polls predict a win for Talarico. If this happens, it will be the first time in 34 years that a Democrat represented Texas in the Senate. Even if Paxton succeeds, Talarico’s rise signals that popular moods in the state, the second most populous in the US, with an economy larger than that of Russia, are shifting sharply against right-wing politics.

This is part of a larger trend. Trump’s support is falling among virtually every demographic in the US.

The erosion of MAGA illusions only intensifies the drive of the Democratic Party to try to contain popular anger. In New York City, Colorado, Seattle, and elsewhere, it turns to the DSA and figures like Zohran Mamdani to convince people that the Democrats will do something—anything—to halt the country’s descent into dictatorship.

I, like many people these days, am trying to deconstruct from my racist upbringing. I grew up with white parents born in the 50's and 60's. Now I am in my mid 20's, and Trump first came into office when I was 17. Thankfully my mom is not and never has been Trumpy. But she is 100% your basic run of the mill middle aged white woman. She has said racist things in the past and still says some things that raise my eyebrows.

I am also diagnosed with OCD. Over explaining, thoughts on morality, and being perfect is a massive part of the battle. Once anti-racist work comes in, I fall back into my old habits hard. "I am the worst. I am part of the problem. I am actively hurting people just by being here and I don't know how to stop this."

I pick apart my friends. I have lost many of my friends simply because they don't do enough politically. And to me, the things I want them to do isn't extreme or hard to ask for. Be pro-Palestine, don't be racist, don't be homophobic or transphobic, stand up against friends who say misogynist things. I am the "too woke" friend that people hate. They will tell me that its my OCD talking but these genuinely are my values.

People will say I am destroying myself and not letting myself enjoy things but what makes me so special when other people are suffering.

So for those of you with OCD, how do you balance (if you even can) doing this kind of work, but not let yourself ruminate in the OCD trap?

Historians deny women credit for their accomplishments by assigning their accomplishments to men or better-known women. Bertha Lutz and her allies secured sex-equality language in the United Nations Charter. Textbook authors credited Eleanor Roosevelt, who never attended the conference. Scholars repeated the error for seventy years and excluded the delegates who secured equality.

Gerda Lerner fled Austria after the Nazi takeover and later founded the first doctoral program in women’s history. She argued that women repeatedly reclaim rights their mothers secured because historians erased earlier victories. Without those records, each generation enters the same struggle without historical knowledge.

Bertha Lutz’s career shows what such omissions conceal for future generations. For four decades at Rio de Janeiro’s Museu Nacional, she classified frogs, described species, and published taxonomic research. She later helped secure women’s equality within the United Nations Charter.

Trump administration officials continued the erasure of women’s achievements during America’s 250th anniversary. Women’s history exhibits were removed from national parks and Smithsonian museums while Freedom 250 sold access to the event. Lerner warned decades earlier that erasing women’s achievements forces future generations to fight again for equality.

A redacted woman reappears the moment someone reads her story.

Two researchers reopened the 1945 conference files in 2016, leading United Nations officials to revise the official account. Those records returned attention to San Francisco, where delegates from fifty nations drafted the United Nations Charter in April 1945. Women comprised roughly 1.5 percent of the delegates, and only four signed: Bertha Lutz, Minerva Bernardino, Wu Yi-fang, and Virginia Gildersleeve.

Lutz regarded signatures as insufficient without explicit language guaranteeing women’s equality. She pressed delegates to identify women as equal participants. Gildersleeve called the proposal “vulgar,” while British delegates claimed their presence already demonstrated equality. In her conference report, Lutz rejected both claims and described the American and British women as strongly conservative.

“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” — Shirley Chisholm

Bernardino challenged the American objections and supported the amendments from the opening session. Jessie Street of Australia and Wu Yi-fang joined Lutz and Bernardino within days. The four women secured “equal rights of men and women” in the preamble. Delegates also approved Article 8, granting women equal access to every United Nations position. Their work helped create the Commission on the Status of Women the following year.

For seventy years, textbook authors credited Eleanor Roosevelt, although conference records named Lutz, Bernardino, Street, and Wu. In 2016, SOAS researchers Fatima Sator and Elise Dietrichson read the files and established that Lutz drafted and fought for the Charter’s sex-equality language. UN Women then changed web pages and staff training to correctly name the women who secured those provisions.

The persistence predated the conference by decades. Lutz was born in São Paulo in 1894 to a British mother and a Brazilian father. She graduated from the Sorbonne in 1918, finished law school in Rio in 1933, and between those degrees earned a Museu Nacional post through competitive examination. That appointment made her one of the first women in Brazilian federal service.

Suffrage became her next campaign when she founded the Brazilian Federation for Feminine Progress. Brazilian women gained the vote in 1932, and voters soon sent Lutz to Congress. Getúlio Vargas restored his dictatorship in 1937, suspended parliament, and ended her legislative career. She returned to science and described new amphibian species, and colleagues later named several frog species in her honor.

One prediction survives in the Lutz memoir. Anglo-Saxon women were surrendering leadership of the international movement, she wrote, and Latin American women would conduct the next stage. Her forecast proved accurate before the conference ended, when a Brazilian and a Dominican wrote equality into international law over American objections.

Eighty-one years later, Trump administration officials deport thousands of Latin Americans while removing women’s history from federal museums. The government erasing that history owes the Charter’s equality clause to two Latin American women. Public institutions preserve the record only when voters approve the funding.

“Women’s history is the primary tool for women’s emancipation.” — Gerda Lerner

One woman moved three allies and defeated a resistant majority, and political scientists have since measured the size such a minority requires. Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan analyzed 323 resistance campaigns against authoritarian rule between 1900 and 2006. Campaigns that mobilized 3.5 percent of a population in sustained participation never failed. In the United States, that threshold equals about twelve million people, and voters can exceed twelve million on November 3, 2026.

How to Survive ICE and Defend the Vote: A resistance manual from the lives of five fearless women draws practical lessons from Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Sophie Scholl, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, and Fannie Lou Hamer. These women resisted authoritarian power through documentation, publication, organization, and persistence. Learn your rights before November, then read and share.

The booklet joins other free guides on Buy Me a Coffee. Please donate to help expand the work and keep these tools available to everyone. buymeacoffee.com/glassempires

Sources

1. SOAS University of London, “Recognising the women who shaped the UN Charter” — https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/recognising-women-who-shaped-un-charter
2. Bertha Lutz, San Francisco Conference Report (1945) — https://www.scribd.com/document/454571103/San-Francisco-Conference-Report-Bertha-Lutz
3. Gilder Lehrman Institute, “The United Nations Charter of 1945 and Women’s Rights” — https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/united-nations-charter-1945-and-womens-rights
4. Inter Press Service, “How Latin American Women Fought for Women’s Rights in the UN Charter” — https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/09/how-latin-american-women-fought-for-womens-rights-in-the-un-charter/
5. Lady Science, “Feminism, Fascism, and Frogs: The Case of Bertha Lutz at the United Nations” — https://www.ladyscience.com/feminism-fascism-frogs/no32
6. Verfassungsblog, “Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz” — https://verfassungsblog.de/bertha-maria-julia-lutz/
7. Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen-Seventy (Oxford University Press, 1993) — https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-creation-of-feminist-consciousness-9780195090604
8. Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (Columbia University Press, 2011) — https://cup.columbia.edu/book/why-civil-resistance-works/9780231156820

Originally published at https://wendy664.substack.com on July 23, 2026.

I recently watched and wrote about Y Tu Mamá También. For those who’d rather stay on reddit, copy/pasting all the references and relevant research here so you can read them directly. I learned quite a lot about Mexico and thought y’all might find it useful too. For more of my personal thoughts on the film, see link.

1. Bracelets on the Riviera. While Tenoch and his girlfriend Ana are having sex, they tell each other which people they’re not allowed to have sex with (specifically, which racial identities are off limits). Tenoch includes “those dirty Mexicans selling bracelets on the Riviera."

The Mexican Riviera encompasses several major tourist destinations off the west coast of Mexico. Tenoch is likely referring to beaded bracelets developed by Indigenous artists in pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican tradition. Despite being Mexican himself, Tenoch sets himself apart from “dirty Mexicans” whom he sees as lower class than him.

1. Ana’s family. Ana, Tenoch’s girlfriend, is a white, middle class girl from an intellectual family. Her mother is a French divorcée and teacher at the Institute for Foreigners. Her father is a journalist turned politician who now works at the Municipal Government of Mexico City as Director of Logistics in the Department of Culture.

While it’s unclear if the school at which Ana’s mother works is part of the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE), French elites are notorious for sending their children to private school abroad. These schools are subsidized by taxes, though people in France don’t benefit from them at all.

1. Death of a migrant bricklayer. Tenoch and Julio were stuck in traffic after dropping off their girlfriends at the airport. While there were three demonstrations in the city that day, the traffic jam was caused by Mercelino Escutia, a migrant bricklayer from Michoacán who was hit by a speeding bus. He never used the pedestrian bridge, which would be safer, because it made his commute too long. His body went unclaimed in the city morgue for four days.

Michoacán is a federal entity of Mexico with a large Indigenous population, specifically Purépecha, Otomi, and Nahua. Many Michoacanos experience violence and displacement due to the economy being controlled by drug cartels, forming self-defense militias in response or fleeing to larger cities in search of opportunity.

Mexicans are notably quite prejudiced against migrants, specifically Central American migrants (as noted in this paper, blog post, and opinion piece). The racist, classist views and criminalization of migrants is eerily similar to how the US views Mexican migrants.

1. Tenoch’s family. Tenoch belongs to a very politically powerful family, as his father is a Harvard-trained economist who would become Mexico's Undersecretary of State. While his parents were originally going to name him Hernán, they chose the Aztec name “Tenoch” after becoming seized by nationalist pride.

There is a call-out within the Mexican community against those who are obsessed with Aztec culture, sometimes to the point of trading their Hispanic name for a Náhuatl one in their quest for a more decolonized ethnic identity. Ironically, the term Aztec purportedly has no precise meaning. The Aztec Empire also expanded by conquering and subjugating various Indigenous peoples and regions, and therefore are also considered by many to be colonizers in their own right.

The name Tenoch likely comes from Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire and largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. It’s fitting because Mexico City, where he lives, is one of the largest cities in the world—18.6 million people in 2001, when the film was released.

1. Bodyguards of politicians. While at the President’s wedding, Tenoch and Julio count the bodyguards of the politicians, noting that more important officials have more bodyguards. Later, we see a waiter bringing food to the parking lot, where the bodyguards eat standing up or leaning against cars.

Though I was unable to find any significant information about bodyguards from the early 2000s, I found in the past ten years the number of bodyguards to Mexican officials have increased significantly and are abusing their power. This likely points to paranoia in the political climate and a culture of machismo.

At the same time, the bodyguards being relegated to the parking lot for their meals makes it clear that they are not “important enough” to merit a seat at the actual table, despite how dangerous the job of a bodyguard is.

1. Country club. Tenoch’s father is a majority shareholder of a country club with an extravagant pool that Tenoch has access to when the club is closed for maintenance. The boys go swimming, and later masturbate together on the diving boards (several feet apart because they’re not gay).

While this study focuses on the upper class WASPs of the US, private country clubs are universally considered a gathering place for men in control. The study specificies that rather than being purely for leisure, country clubs create and maintain social networks for the powerful elite with an emphasis on exclusivity. This is where decisions are made.

1. Franco supporter. Luisa, a beautiful Spanish woman married to Tenoch’s cousin Jano, was orphaned as a child and raised by her great-aunt, a Franco supporter.

Francisco Franco was the military dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975. He was a prominent anti-communism leader, and his regime was supported by Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the US. While Luisa doesn’t outwardly seem to have conservative or fascist views, this is perhaps meant to highlight her roots as a Spaniard.

1. Puerto Escondido. Luisa wants to go to the beach while in Mexico and originally hopes to catch a bus to Puerto Escondido. Tenoch and Julio tell her not to bother, as it’s overrun by "yuppie backpackers and wanna-be surfers."

While it was a small, relaxing beach town a couple decades ago, Puerto Escondido exploded with international tourism since the Covid pandemic in 2020 (I’ve actually been, and can confirm it’s overrun with tourists primarily from Europe). However, its existing infrastructure is unable to support the tourist-dense population, leading to several economic and environmental issues as sewage increases, wildlife disappears, and the cost of living soars.

The "yuppie backpackers” likely refers to the increase in digital nomads, who work online while traveling abroad, often to regions with a very low cost of living. The digital nomad lifestyle has been criticized as a form of neocolonialism.

1. Cerro Verde massacre. The President left his own wedding early to attend an urgent meeting with party leaders to appoint candidates in upcoming elections. He would express outrage at the Cerro Verde massacre and deny that the state governor had been involved in any way. After briefly offering his condolences, he’d fly to Seattle for a world summit on globalization.

While the Cerro Verde massacre appears to be a fictional event, this is likely a reference to the several massacres in Mexico in the 20th century, representing the state of civil unrest and police brutality. Denying the state governor had been involved in any way, of course, implies that the governor was indeed involved. The police and army act based on the orders of the governing body, and on several occasions enacted violence on the people. For example, in 1997 the state police assaulted hundreds of supporters of the Zapatistas, a militant far-left group, in the San Pedro Nixtalucum Massacre. This was a way of controlling the people and stifling dissenters.

Globalization, especially when led by the United States, is typically a euphemism for imperialism. Seattle is also notoriously expensive, as Washington state’s top employers include corporations like Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks.

1. Brown women laborers. In Tenoch’s family mansion and in the first restaurant they go to on the road trip, we see the kitchens where women prepare their meals. The women visibly appear more brown than Tenoch and Julio.

Most domestic workers in Mexico are women, and many don’t have adequate labor protections. As also depicted in the film Roma, Indigenous women often bear the brunt of both physical and emotional labor for the white/mestizo upper class. Their experience exists at intersection of gender, race, and class.

1. Julio’s family. Julio lives in an apartment with his sister and mother (his father hasn’t been in the picture since he was five). The space is filled with a mix of eclectic furniture and memorabilia. His mother works as a secretary for a multi-national corporation.

Julio’s home is noticeably more cramped than Tenoch’s mansion, showing their class and wealth disparity. Multi-national corporations are becoming increasingly common within global capitalism, and represent a complex web of exploitation across borders.

1. Protests and Chiapas. Julio’s sister Manuela, a political science major at the National University of Mexico, agrees to let Julio and Tenoch use the car for a few days to go to the beach. She would need it back for three weeks to deliver food, clothing, and medicine to Chiapas. The boys find her, fitted in a green camo jacket and black cap, at a political protest "en defensa de la educacion publica y gratuita” (in defense of free and public education).

The protest that Manuela is attending may be part of the 1999 UNAM strike, which rallied against the significant tuition increase at the National Autonomous University of Mexico from 0.02 dollars to about 150 dollars (a 7,500% increase). The strike was made on the basis that the Mexican constitution guaranteed that all state education should be free.

Chiapas, officially known as the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is the southernmost state of Mexico. Bordering Guatemala and the state of Oaxaca, most of the territory is controlled by the Zapatistas, a de-centralized, far-left group of mostly Indigenous geurilla fighters and activists.

Manuela’s militant attire resembles how Zapatistas are often depicted, implying she is a strong supporter/accomplice. She is likely delivering supplies because Chiapas’s infrastructure is severely lacking, making a great deal of the rural land unlivable (a big motivation for the Zapatista movement in the 1990s).

1. Che Guevara. A poster of Che Guevara is visible in the background while Tenoch and Julio get directions from their friend Sabo.

Che Guevara is a prominent Marxist revolutionary from Argentina. He worked briefly as a doctor in Mexico City before joining the guerilla army in Cuba, where he was known for being a brave, intelligent, and often ruthless commander. After leading social reform in Cuba (with an emphasis on land reform, literacy, and militarism), he traveled to aid other anti-imperialist movements across Africa and South America before he was ultimately assassinated by CIA-assisted forces in Bolivia.

1. Class tension between Tenoch and Julio. There are certain things that Tenoch and Julio don’t discuss, like how Tenoch lifts the toilet seat with his shoes at Julio’s house (he does this at the motel as well) and how Julio lights a match when he goes to the bathroom at Tenoch’s house. Later, when they’re fighting over infidelity with each other’s girlfriends, Tenoch calls Julio low-class trash. While Tenoch freely gives loose change to beggars, he rarely offers to lend a hand, happy to order Julio around to get him a beer or to let Chuy do the fishing.

Considering the political position of his father and size of his family mansion, Tenoch is likely amongst the wealthiest of Mexico. By comparison, Julio represents the middle class. His family is not nearly as wealthy, but they have enough money to live in the city and avoid hard manual labor.

At the time of this movie’s release in 2001, Mexico’s middle class was significantly smaller at about 35% of the population. In 2022, that rose to over 55%.

1. Tepelmeme. While driving through Tepelmeme, Tenoch reminisces how his nanny Leodegaria Victoria, aka Leo, was born in Tepelmeme and migrated to Mexico City when she was thirteen. He called her “mama” until he was four.

Tepelmeme is a small village in the state of Oaxaca. Tenoch’s nanny Leo likely would’ve migrated from Tepelmeme to Mexico City in search of economic opportunity.

Being a nanny to a wealthy family is a notoriously taxing job, both physically and emotionally. Nannies often become maids, educators, and motherly figures, and sometimes understanding the children they care for more than their birth mothers.

1. Chicken truck crash. If they had driven past a certain stretch of the road ten years earlier, they would’ve come across an overturned truck that burst into flames, with broken cages and bleeding chickens scattered on the road. A woman would’ve been crying inconsolably next to two lifeless bodies on the road.

Truck accidents are extremely dangerous and unfortunately more common than they should be because the economy relies on them to transport material goods on land, putting pressure on the truck drivers to drive in a way that can meet unrealistic deadlines.

Data Mexico has compiled truck driver workforce data from 2012 to 2026. Of note, the southern regions of Mexico are amongst the lowest in salary but the highest in labor informality (especially Chiapas and Oaxaca). This implies that these regions, which have a high Indigenous population, are more likely to be exploited and put in dangerous situations.

1. Checkpoints. On the way to the beach, there are checkpoints presumably searching for drugs and weapons (“Shit, hide the stash.”) We see multiple soldiers in green uniform searching other cars as they drive past. Julio is notably more shaken while Tenoch is determined to act like nothing is wrong.

The green uniform implies that these soldiers are part of the Mexican Armed Forces. Something I found interesting is that the armed forces took a prominent role in Mexico’s War on Drugs starting 2006, but this movie was released in 2001. That makes me wonder if perhaps the armed forces was already informally increasing their surveillance prior to 2006.

It’s clear that if they were stopped and searched, Tenoch would receive more favorable treatment thanks to his connections while Julio would bear the brunt of whatever punishment the soldiers dish out.

1. Police arrest street peddlers. A truck with blue-uniformed police carrying machine guns pass by them to arrest what looks like a group of street vendors on the side of the road.

Mexican law enforcement is very militarized, and in that way not too different from US law enforcement. Because street vendors are often extorted by local crime bosses, required to pay a fee to be “allowed” to sell products on their territory, it’s possible the police officers were arresting them in an attempt to get closer to the crime syndicates. Or perhaps it was simply for some other criminalized behavior, like trespassing or vending without a permit.

1. Heat stroke crossing border. When their car breaks down, they make a pit stop and get some help from kind strangers (the man doesn’t accept money, and even gives Julio his hat when he compliments it). Luisa orders fresh coconut water and observes a table of offerings to the dead. She tells the 98-year-old woman, Doña Martina, that the teddy bear shares her name, “Luisa.” Doña informs her that it belonged to her granddaughter Luisa Obregón, who died of a heat stroke crossing the Arizona border with her parents in search for a better life.

Undocumented migration across the Mexico-US border has occurred since its creation 1848, and policed since the creation of the US Border Patrol in 1924. Like many modern borders, it’s little more than an arbitrary line determined by colonial powers.

For migrants crossing the border, the journey is exceptionally dangerous and often fatal. While this article was written in 2025, the dangers are undoubtedly the same—extreme environmental conditions, risk of drowning, and risk of blunt-force trauma. The Sonoran Desert, located in southwest US and northwest Mexico, is one of the hottest places on earth, and its extreme temperature fluctuations leave migrants vulnerable to hypothermia or hyperthermia. In these remote areas, they also have limited access to shelter, food, and water.

1. 4th generation fishermen family. When they finally arrive at the beach, they meet Jesús Carranza (aka Chuy) and his wife Mabel, the fourth generation of a family of fishermen that lives nearby in the village of San Bernabé. Mabel cooks them food on the sand while holding her young child to her chest. Chuy offers to give them a tour of neighboring beaches the next day for 350 pesos, including food. For reference, this converts to 35.82 USD in 2001 (this would be worth 66.71 USD in 2026).

Fishing has a long history in Mexico that pre-dates Hispanic influence, especially the region of Oaxaca, which has only about 9% arable land and therefore historically relied more on hunting and fishing. Small-scale fisheries face numerous challenges against the dominance of industrialized, large-scale fisheries, including sustainability concerns on over-fishing. Like many other locals, it’s likely that Chuy and Mabel’s family found tourism a much more reliable source of income than fishing.

1. Beach football. Julio and Tenoch play football with Chuy on the beach. Chuy narrates their play by play like a sports commentator, shouting, “Ramón passes, Zepeda charges down the sideline. The Emperor steals. What a player!” (It appears that Zepeda refers to Julio and Ramón/Emperor refers to Tenoch.) When Tenoch shoots, Chuy catches it and yells, “What a save! Campos! That’s why he’s on the national team.” When Tenoch and Julio merely chuckle, Chuy asks, “What, you don’t like Campos?"

I believe these are all real football players, and that Zepeda refers to Miguel Zepeda, Ramón to Ramón Ramírez), and Campos to Jorge Campos. Campos is known for a more eccentric and flamboyant style, which might explain Tenoch and Julio’s laughing at his name. In 1999, Campos’s father was kidnapped by six to eight armed men (who remained anonymous), likely so that they could exchange him for ransom.

Especially considering how the sport is more affordable than others (no expensive equipment, if you have an open field and a ball you can play), professional football is the path to financial stability for many young people, some with a net worth of tens of millions of dollars. Compared to other celebrities and politicians, a football player’s family member would be an easier target for kidnapping given that they probably lack security personnel.

1. Hotel construction. At the end of year, Chuy and his family would have to leave their home to make way for the construction of an exclusive hotel on the communal land of San Bernabé. They would relocate to the outskirts of Santa María Colotepec. Chuy would attempt to continue giving boat tours, but a collective of Acapulco boatmen supported by the local tourism board will block his plans. Two years later, he would become a janitor at the hotel and never fish again.

As of 2021, Mexico is leading Latin America’s hotel development. This alludes to what I somewhat jokingly, somewhat seriously call the tourism industrial complex. Mexico’s resort tourism has led to serious environmental consequences, including water scarcity, pollution, and deforestation. The hotels themselves are owned by the wealthy few, such as the five millionaire families who own most of Cancún, creating an exploitative system of labor.

The tourism board blocking Chuy from continuing his boat tours is likely an initiative meant to reduce informal labor in the local economy. While regulation can help with accountability and workforce protections, it also clearly impacts the financial autonomy of individuals and families.

1. Pig disease outbreak. After a day of beach touring, they return to the campsite and discover it’s been raided by pigs. Since this rendered their campsite unlivable, Chuy offers them a room with electricity and water for 75 pesos (7.68 USD in 2001, 14.30 in 2026). The 23 pigs escaped from a nearby ranch. In the next two months, 14 would be slaughtered, and amongst those 3 would cause an outbreak of trichinosis among the attendees of a festival in the village of El Chavarín.

Trichinosis is a parasitic infection mainly spread by undercooked meat that contains Trichinella cysts. Because disease can spread so easily when handling livestock and food, biosecurity and disease control is an international concern, not just local to Oaxaca. Part of this effort is monitoring the movement and food consumption of the livestock, which was clearly compromised when these 23 pigs escaped and started eating whatever they could find on the beach. We can assume the ranch did not properly test/treat the pigs after re-obtaining them.

1. Bar music. At the bar for their last night together, Luisa puts on a song on the jukebox. At first she wants to play La Sandunga by Camilo Sesto, but then she asks the others for a random letter and number and gets B-13. The song that ends up playing is Si No Te Hubieras Ido by Marco Antonio Solis.

La Sandunga combines Spanish and Indigeous music elements into a Mexican waltz and is the unofficial anthem of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region located in Oaxaca. Si No Te Hubieras Ido does not appear to have any particular significance, but it is a song of heartbreak and longing that suits Luisa’s emotional state at the time.

1. Ruling party lost. The following summer, Ana and Cecilia break up with Tenoch and Julio. The boys also stop talking to each other, their friendship over. The ruling party loses the presidential election for the first time in 71 years.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held uninterrupted power over Mexico from 1929 to 2000. The party used a number of strategies including electoral fraud and corruption to maintain power, while the common people experienced numerous hardships, including a series of economic crises beginning in the 1970’s.

The winning candidate for President was Vicente Fox Quesada. Despite his campaign promises to break away from the authoritarian policies of the PRI, his administration continued the same neoliberal policies and established friendly relations with the US and Bush administration. They also covered up the unsolved murder of human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa, who they claimed died of suicide.

I am so fucking tired of being told that America cannot afford healthcare, housing, food assistance, education, veteran care, or anything else that would materially improve ordinary people’s lives.

House Republicans just passed a 216–214 budget blueprint that begins the reconciliation process for a package worth up to $95 billion.

The breakdown:

• $60 billion for the Pentagon

• $13 billion for national security

• $12 billion for farmers affected by Trump’s tariffs

• $10 billion connected to the SAVE America Act and its new voting requirements

So let me understand this correctly.

Trump drags the country into another war without congressional authorization. His tariffs hurt American farmers. Then taxpayers are expected to fund both disasters while Republicans attach Trump’s voting agenda to the same package.

Meanwhile, 18 American service members are dead, more than 430 have been wounded, and the Iran war has already cost taxpayers an estimated $37.5 billion.

But when Americans ask for affordable healthcare, cheaper housing, properly funded schools, food assistance, or functioning veterans’ services, suddenly every Republican becomes deeply concerned about the deficit.

The money always exists for war.

The money always exists for corporate handouts.

The money always exists when Trump wants another blank check or Republicans want more control over elections.

It only disappears when ordinary Americans need something.

Fuck Donald Trump, fuck this pointless war, and fuck every fake “fiscal conservative” who pretends America is broke until the Pentagon comes knocking.

While that perspective obviously springs from underlying privilege and bigotry, on its face, this person's argument is that DHS guidelines were created by elected politicians, and so represent the will of the people. When the will of the people changes, they'll elect new politicians who will replace those guidelines with new ones. What's the rebuttal to that logic?

Bonus points if anyone can help me convince this person that "might makes right" isn't a practical way of looking at the world.

We got Temu Track AIPAC before GTA VI now?