Mexico's Monarch butterflies in decline

By Mark Stevenson, The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY —The amount of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped 59 percent this year, falling to the lowest level since comparable record-keeping began 20 years ago, scientists reported Wednesday.

It was the third straight year of declines for the orange-and-black butterflies that migrate from the United States and Canada to spend the winter in mountaintop fir forests in central Mexico. Six of the last seven years have shown drops, and there are now only one-fifteenth as many butterflies as there were in 1997.

The decline now marks a statistical long-term trend and can no longer be seen as a combination of yearly or seasonal events, the experts said.

But they differed on the possible causes.

Who's at fault?

Illegal logging in the reserve established in the Monarch wintering grounds was long thought to contribute, but such logging has been vastly reduced by increased protection, enforcement and alternative development programs in Mexico.

More in the NBC News Article

Brilliant Soil

By custom, thousands of artisans in Mexico still use lead based glazes in their pottery without knowing the damage that this toxic element causes to their health.

Herlinda, an indigenous Purepecha potter, is one of the few artisans in her community who uses alternative lead-free glazes. Having achieved safer and healthier living conditions for her family, she faces the difficult task of finding a market for her impressive pieces.

But this does not dull her dreams of having her shop thrive and her brothers return from the United States to rejoin the family tradition.

An unexpected trip could crystallize this dream.

23rd Annual Morelia Guitar Festival

23rd Annual International Morelia Guitar Festival
The 8th to the 12th of April 

The International Guitar Festival of Morelia was founded by renowned guitarist Raul Olmos in 1991 and aims to show and expand knowledge in this sublime art. To promote and disseminate the music in all possible expressions, as well as recitals and concerts in various cultural spaces and schools within the city, the municipality and within the state.

One of the most important concerns of conducting this festival is to promote and foster awakening creativity of future generations. Capture the interest and curiosity of the general public. Expand and promote existing talent. Concentrating on different experiences, cultures and ideas to expand the expectations of our town, state and country. So the main objective of this festival is to create an open forum for young artists of Michoacan, contributing to their development.

Morelia Annual Guitar Festival

Butterfly Festival in Angangueo - 2012

The 21st annual Festival of the Monarch Butterfly is from November 23 to December 2. Opening ceremonies are Friday, Nov. 23 in the Temple of the Immaculate Conception in Angangueo.

1,000 year old tomb found in Tingambato

MICHOACAN.- The discovery of a funerary chamber of more than a 1,000 years old, in the Archaeological Zone of Tingambato Michoacan, with an unidentified character’s burial, accompanied by 19,000 green stone beads, shells and human bones, is one of the most outstanding results of a special archaeological investigation and conservation project by INAH in five different pre Hispanic sites in this zone.

According to the archaeologists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH-Conaculta), the architectural complexity of the mortuary chamber and the burial’s wealth (which belong to the Classic period [200 through 900 AD]) indicate that the remains belong to a high ranking character from the ancient metropolis of Tingambato.

The cultural particulars of the burial haven’t been identified yet, but it’s inferred that the chamber matches the funerary traditions of the West, such as shaft tombs and the tombs of El Opeño, although these we built during the Pre Classic period (300 through 200 BC) and continuing through the Classic period (400 through 600 AD).

Archaeologist Melchor Cruz, coordinator of the conservation and investigation works of Tingambato, reported that the characteristics that have dominated in Tomb II and the wealth of the burial indicate that Tingambato must have had a major importance in the pre Hispanic culture of this region, which until now “could have been a governing center of the Classic Mesoamerican period, in the central region of what today is Michoacan”.

Archaeologists discover funerary chamber more than a 1,000 years old in Michoacan