Remittances to Mexico in Decline – May Be Related to U.S. Immigration Crackdown

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Allan Wall

Remittances, funds sent from Mexicans in the U.S. back to Mexico, are going down.

U.S. in orange, Mexico in green. Source: Wikipedia

In a previous article I reported that remittances in May 2025 were down 4.6% in comparison to May 2024, a year earlier.

Now the figures are out for June.

From Mexico News Daily: “The amount of money Mexico received in remittances fell 16.2% annually in June, the largest year-over-year decline for any month in more than a decade...The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) reported on Friday [August 1st] that income from remittances totaled US $5.201 billion in June, down from $6.207 billion in the same month of 2024. The 16.2% year-over-year decline was the biggest annual drop in remittances to Mexico for any month since September 2012. Considering only the month of June, it was the largest annual decrease on record.”

The June decline from a year earlier was in both numbers of remittance transfers and quantity of money in the payments:
Transfers: “The $5.2 billion sent to Mexico in remittances in June came in 12.7 million individual transfers. The number of transfers declined 14.3% compared to June 2024.”
Payment Quantities: ” “The average individual remittance to Mexico in June was $409, a 2.2% annual decline. While the average remittance declined in annual terms in June, the amount was the highest since August 2024.”

The U.S. immigration crackdown is a partial explanation: “Analysts partially attributed the sharp decline to fear of going out to work among Mexicans in the United States, where the U.S. government is pursuing an aggressive deportation agenda.”

The Mexico News Daily article quotes some analysts: “ ‘Remittances plummeted in June due to low job creation for Mexicans in the United States and the fear of migrants to go out due to the possibility of being deported,’ Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco Base, wrote on X…” 

“Jesús Cervantes González, director of economic statistics at the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies, said ‘there are indicators that show a weakening of employment for Mexican immigrant workers in the United States.’ ”

“ ‘That could be due both to a genuine decrease in demand for such workers and to their irregular presence at their workplaces out of fear of being deported,’ he said.”

The BBVA bank (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A.), headquartered in Bilbao, Spain, agrees: “BBVA said that ‘the recent actions and immigration policies of the United States government are marginally affecting’ the transfer of remittances to Mexico. The bank said that the decline in remittances to Mexico in the first half of the year is ‘mainly explained by a lower incorporation of new Mexican migrants to the United States labor market.’ ”

A look at the first half of 2025 shows a decline: “In 2024, Mexico received a record-high $64.74 billion in remittances, the 11th consecutive year of growth in such transfers. But in the first six months of 2025, income from remittances fell 5.6% annually to $29.576 billion, according to Banxico.”

“The amount of money Mexico received in remittances also declined in annual terms in May, April and February.”

“Siller, the Banco Base analyst, said that the data for June indicated that ‘remittances could continue to decline for the rest of the year, affecting consumption in Mexico.’ ”

“Analysts from the banks Banorte, BBVA, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan also believe there is a risk that remittances will continue to decline in the second half of 2025, according to the newspaper El Economista.”

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President Sheinbaum Doing Very Well in Mexican Approval Polls

Posted on August 14, 2025 by Allan Wall

Claudia Sheinbaum has been President of Mexico since October 1st, 2024. Her public approval ratings are looking very good.

President Claudia Sheinbaum. Source: AS/COA

AS/COA (Americas Society/Council of the Americas) tracks various polls and has reported them here.

The AS/COA quotes two polls from last month (July). El Financiero had a poll taken July 10-14 and 24-28). In that poll, President Sheinbaum had a 75% approval rating.
In an Enkoll poll (July 19th-22nd) President Sheinbaum had an 80% approval rating.

Regarding that Enkoll 80% figure, if you break it down between men and women, 79% of women approved and 80% of men.

If these polls are accurate, that means the Mexican public highly approves of the Sheinbaum’s presidential performance.

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How Safe is Mexico for Tourists? The State Department Travel Advisory Can Help.

Posted on August 14, 2025 by Allan Wall

How safe is it for Americans to travel to Mexico?

On the one hand there are terrible stories of violence emanating from south of the border. On the other hand there are tens of millions of Americans who visit Mexico every year, the vast majority of whom suffer no untoward incident.

Mexico is a big country (about the size of Western Europe) and how safe one is depends much on where one is and what one is doing.

One source that helps us get a handle on this paradox is the U.S. State Department’s Mexico Travel Advisory, which is updated from time to time. I have found this to be an accurate barometer of the situation in Mexico.

On August 12th the State Department’s Mexico Travel Advisory was updated. You can peruse it here.

The State Department has a four-level rating of how dangerous a state of Mexico is. The four levels are:
Level 1: Exercise normal precautions
Level 2: Exercise increased caution
Level 3: Reconsider travel
Level 4: Do not travel
The travel advisory breaks the whole country of Mexico down, applying the four levels to the states of Mexico. Here’s the travel advisory’s color-coded map of all of Mexico:

Source: U.S. Department of State

-Level 4, the “Do not travel” level, includes the states of Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. The State Department is advising Americans not to go to those states.

-Level 3, the “Reconsider travel” states, are Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos and Sonora. The State Department is saying “think twice” before going to those states. (There’s a color error on the map, Coahuila should have the same color as Chihuahua).

-Level 2, the “Exercise increased caution” states, are Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Durango, Hidalgo, the state of Mexico, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Tabasco, Tlaxcala and Veracruz.
Mexico City is also on Level 2.

-Level 1, the “Exercise normal precautions”, includes two states in the Yucatan Peninsula: the state of Campeche and the state of Yucatan, regarded by the State Department as the safest states in Mexico.

Some people complain about the State Department Travel Advisory, and some might quibble about the details, but I’ve found it to be accurate and a good starting point to get a feel for the security situation of the various states of Mexico.

Of course with enough information researchers can be even more specific and break down the security situation within each state, and even within the same metropolitan area.

By the way, the State Department has the whole world outside of the U.S. evaluated into the four levels, see the world map here.

I don’t tell people they should or shouldn’t go to Mexico. But I do say that you should know where you are going and what you are doing. Forewarned is forearmed.

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President Sheinbaum Commemorates the 700th Anniversary of Mexico City

Posted on August 10, 2025 by Allan Wall

This year, 2025, is the 700th anniversary of Mexico City, founded on an island on a lake as the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. (See Mexico City’s 700th Anniversary).

ABC reported on the commemorations taking place in Mexico City on July 26th, 2025.
From ABC: “Mexico City is marking the 700th anniversary of its founding with a series of public events on Saturday, including artistic performances honoring the city’s Indigenous origins.”

“Artists in Indigenous clothing reenacted the founding of the Aztec capital in front of the country’s top officials in Mexico City’s main square. Later, hundreds of dancers dressed in traditional clothing, feather headdresses, drums, and ankle rattles made of seeds performed sacred dances meant to connect with nature.”

“The anniversary commemorates the establishment of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica, a group also known as the Aztecs, who settled in the Valley of Mexico in 1325.”

President Claudia Sheinbaum presided over the official ribbon-cutting for a monument. Here’s photo of President Sheinbaum with her husband Jesús María Tarriba  (on her left) and others:

Source: Government of Mexico

From ABC: “ ‘Mexico was not born with the arrival of the Spanish; Mexico was born much earlier with the great civilizations,’ said President Claudia Sheinbaum in a speech in which she urged the eradication of the racism that still persists in the country.”

The Aztecs weren’t actually the first group to inhabit the island but the political entity they founded grew to dominate the whole region.

From ABC: “The main island in the lake was already populated by the Tepaneca people, but they allowed the Mexica to settle there in exchange for tribute payments and other services, Pastrana said.” [Miguel Pastrana of UNAM’s Historic Investigations Institute]

“Little by little, the Mexica’s power grew. They were strong warriors and commercially prosperous, and they were effective at making alliances with other peoples.” [And they were quite effective at conquering.]

“Tenochtitlan became a great city at the center of an empire until the Spanish conquered it in 1521.”

Tenochtitlan was destroyed but the Spaniards rebuilt it, Spanish-style, with the same stones. The city became the center of an empire again as the capital of the vast colonial territory of “New Spain”, and after that, the capital of independent Mexico.

Mexico City is one of the biggest cities on the planet. It is the political, economic and cultural capital of Mexico and the biggest Spanish-speaking city in the world.

Mexico City, 2018. Source: Government of Mexico City
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Will the New Sugar Cane U.S. Coke Be as Good as “Mexicoke”?

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Allan Wall

In the United States, Coca-Cola is made from high-fructose corn syrup while in Mexico it’s made from cane sugar. Some Americans know about Mexican Coca-Cola and like it and you can find it in the U.S. They call it “Mexican Coke” or “mexicoke”.

Mexican Coke. Source: City Foodsters

Formerly, the U.S. also had sugar cane Coca-Cola, but switched to high-fructose corn syrup in the 1980s.

Now Coca-Cola has announced it’s going to release a sugar cane Coke drink.

From USA Today: “Coca-Cola will add a new soda beverage made with real cane sugar this fall, the company says. Coca-Cola announced the development in its second-quarter report, according to a news release on Tuesday, July 22. The beverage company was reticent last week when President Donald Trump proclaimed on July 16 that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar for its soda beverages sold in the U.S. The Atlanta-based company did not announce that switch, however, but said that this fall Coca-Cola “plans to launch an offering made with U.S. cane sugar to expand its Trademark Coca-Cola product range,” according to the news release  ‘This addition is designed to complement the company’s strong core portfolio and offer more choices across occasions and preferences.’ ”

“The new drink will carry the Coke name. ‘We’re going to bring a Coke sweetened with U.S. cane sugar into the market this fall and I think it will be an enduring option for consumers,’ Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said on a post-earnings call Tuesday, July 22. ‘We are definitely looking use the whole toolbox … of available sweetening options, to some extent, where there are consumer preferences.’ ”

The CEO pointed out that they use sugar cane in other drinks.

“Quincey noted that Coca-Cola does use cane sugar in some of its other beverages including Gold Peak Sweet Tea, Vitaminwater, Costa Coffee iced coffee drinks, and lemonade.”

Yes, they are made by Coca-Cola but they’re not really “Cokes”.

What about other countries?

According to Newsweek, “…most countries use a variety of cane sugar or beet sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. The U.S. and Canada are notable exceptions, where high-fructose corn syrup is more commonly used in Coca-Cola products, according to the company’s website, which lists ingredients for its products worldwide. High-fructose corn syrup is also listed as an ingredient on the Coca-Cola websites for some Eastern European countries, such as Croatia, Hungary, and Kosovo.”

There’s an exception in the U.S. – a kosher Coca-Cola sold at Passover time, with pure cane sugar cane and/or beet sugar so observant Jews can drink a kosher Coca-Cola. The kosher cokes are in 2-liter bottles with yellow caps, and some Gentiles buy them too.

When Coca-Cola introduces its new sugar cane Coke drink, will it taste as good as Mexican Coke?

Accoding to Chloe Sorvino, no. She wrote a piece on Forbes entitled Why Coca-Cola’s New Cane Sugar Line Might Not Be As Good As Mexican Coke . Here’s why:
“Several people have asked me if I think this new product will be better than the cult-favorite Mexican Coke, which has been made with cane sugar for years and is a rare treat for many when they find it in a U.S. restaurant. I don’t think it will be, and here’s why: I doubt Coke will launch this new product in glass, as Mexican Coke is sold. Glass simply makes a better beverage, but tariffs are driving up the price of glass. I’d bet that the American cane sugar Coke launches in plastic bottles.”

Mexicokes. Source: Mike Mozart

 

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Mexican Government Offers Finabien Card for U.S.-Resident Mexicans to Avoid Remittance Tax

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Allan Wall

One element in the recent “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Trump is the tax on remittances.

Here’s the Wikipedia definition of “remittance”: “A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their [sic] home country or homeland.”

The new law takes effect January 1st, 2026, and will charge a 1% tax on remittances sent from the United States.

However, this tax is only to be applied to cash transfers, cashier’s checks, money orders and similar instruments. Examples include cash transfers through Western Union or MoneyGram.

It doesn’t apply to electronic transfers.

The government of Mexico is providing a card to enable Mexicans in the U.S. to send remittances electronically and not be subject to the remittance tax.

From Perplexity: “President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday [July 18] promoted a government banking card that allows Mexican migrants in the United States to circumvent a new remittance tax set to take effect next year. Speaking at her morning press conference, Sheinbaum brandished a Finabien card for cameras while encouraging its use for electronic money transfers.”

“The Financial Institution for Well-being (Finabien) [that’s Financiera para el Bienestar in Spanish] card enables users to send remittances electronically, avoiding the 1% federal excise tax that will apply to cash transfers starting January 1, 2026. The tax, part of President Donald Trump’s legislative package, targets outbound money transfers but exempts electronic transactions.”

Source: Government of Mexico

These cards can be obtained from the vast network of Mexican consulates in the United States, which by the way is the largest consular network in the world.

“The Finabien cards can be acquired at 53 Mexican consulates across the United States, by mail, or through digital application at miconsulado.sre.gob.mx. 
According to Mexico News Daily, accounts can be accessed at 1,700 sites throughout Mexico.”

Of course there is a small fee charged by Finabien.

“Finabien director Rocío Mejía Flores announced that transaction fees have been reduced from $3.99 to $2.99, benefiting the 30,000 cardholders currently operating in the United States. Users can send up to $2,500 per day and $10,000 per month, with funds accessible through an [sic] mobile application.”

How does it work?

“The card allows direct deposit operations, enabling employers to send wages directly to the card or through authorized institutions. Users can also reload their cards at major retailers including CVS, Walmart, and 7-Eleven.”

And the Mexican government has something for those who send funds via cash transfer. “Beyond promoting the Finabien cards, Sheinbaum announced that Mexico will reimburse the 1% tax for individuals who continue sending cash remittances. ‘For those who send in cash, we’re going to provide a reimbursement of that 1% through the Finabien card,’ she said during her press conference.”

President Sheinbum with Finabien cards.
Source: ObturadorMX

Note that what the Mexican government is doing is legal under U.S. law because the U.S. government exempted electronic transfers from the remittance tax!

It also shows that the Mexican government pays close attention legal developments in the U.S. that affect Mexican immigrants.

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Extortion of Businesses Getting Worse in Mexico

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Allan Wall

According to the Associated Press, the problem of extortion is getting worse in Mexico.

From the Associated Press (AP): “Extortion is strangling businesses in Mexico. Much, but not all, of it is linked to Mexico’s powerful organized crime groups. While some larger companies  eat it as the cost of doing business, many smaller ones are forced to close. The Mexican Employers’ Association, Coparmex, says extortion cost businesses some $1.3 billion in 2023. And this year, while other major crimes are descending, extortion continues to rise, up 10% nationally in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.”

In Mexico City it’s a big problem.

Mexico City. Source: Mexico City Government

From the Associated Press: “In Mexico City, the number of reported extortion cases nearly doubled in the first five months of 2025 to 498, up from 249 for the same period last year. It’s the highest total at this point in the year in the past six years, according to federal crime data.”

Notice that paragraph says “reported extortion cases”. Many are not reported, so the actual number must be much higher.

“Reported extortion cases are only a small fraction of the reality. Mexico’s National Institute for Statistics and Geography estimated that some 97% of extortion cases were not reported in 2023. Reporting is low because of a combination of fear and skepticism that authorities will do something.”

The article quotes the head of the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce:
“The problem, said Vicente Gutiérrez Camposeco, president of the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce, ‘has become entrenched’ in Mexico and especially the capital in recent years.”

Even a popsicle shop isn’t exempt.

“Daniel Bernardi, whose family has run a popsicle shop in the historic center for 85 years, was resigned to the situation. ‘There isn’t much to do,’ he said. ‘You pay when you have to pay.’ ”

The Mexico City government announced action.

“Last month, the Mexico City prosecutor’s office announced that it was creating a special prosecutor’s office to investigate and prosecute extortion.”

And so has the federal government.

“In July, President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would propose legislation giving the government greater powers to pursue extortionists. This week, her administration also announced a national strategy to address extortion. There will be a phone number to anonymously report extortion; the power to immediately cancel phone numbers associated with extortion calls; local anti-extortion units to investigate cases and the involvement of Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit to freeze bank accounts associated with extortion.”

Unsurprisingly, the drug cartels are involved, but they’re not doing all of the extortion.

“Extortion’s rapid expansion has to do with the significant sums it generates for organized crime, drawing in the country’s most powerful drug cartels, among others. The Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels have made extortion ‘one of the divisions of their criminal portfolios,’ said security analyst David Saucedo. And with the cartels involved, small-time crooks take advantage of the fear and run their own little extortion rackets, pretending to be associated with larger organized crime groups.”

The Associated Press article (here) relates the story of a men’s clothing story, in the same family for three generations, which shut down due to extortion threats. The article reports that
“The [clothing store] owner recalled that a nearby restaurant that had opened around the same time as his own store, had closed after its owner was killed, supposedly after not paying extortion demands.”

Click here and here for previous Mexico News Report articles on extortion in Mexico.

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Ovidio Spills the Beans, Who’s Worried?

Posted on July 21, 2025 by Allan Wall

Ovidio Guzman, son of El Chapo Guzman and a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was captured in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States later that year.

In July of 2025, Ovidio has made a plea bargain with the court and pleaded guilty. [See Who Are the Chapitos and Where Are They Now?] .

Ovidio Guzman. Source: U.S. State Department

What’s next for Ovidio and the case?

From NBC 5 Chicago: “Ovidio Guzman Lopez stood in a Chicago courtroom… and pledged to take a plea deal from federal prosecutors, promising to tell all that he knows about the illicit drug trade, its trappings and its corrupt connections in return for the prospect of a lighter sentence for his own misdeeds.”

This should be interesting. Ovidio is a gold mine of information.

“ ‘The curtain is up. I think we’re about to see a good show…’ said former Drug Enforcement Administration official Jack Riley, who also stated Mexican officials should feel the ground shaking under their feet. ‘If I was in the military or the police apparatus, or maybe even on the way all the way up to the presidential palace, I would really be concerned, because this is the time if anybody’s going to share intelligence on what really goes on in Mexico, it’s going to be now.’ ”

So what’s the plan?

“For at least the next six months, before his own sentencing on trafficking charges, Ovidio, 35, will be required to answer all questions posed by U.S. authorities about the notorious Sinaloa cartel, which has owned and operated 80% of street retail street drug sales in Chicago for decades.“

They may have already started this interrogation.

“For this kin of kingpin El Chapo, and one of four so-called Los Chapitos that their father installed as cartel leaders as Chapo sat in America’s Supermax prison, that would include a panacea of potentially incriminating information about the cartel hierarchy: the names of corrupt police agents and government officials on both sides of the border.”

Note that this could incriminate people on both sides of the border.

“Ovidio’s plea deal would also require him to testify in court against anyone the government puts on trial. If prosecutors want him to take the witness stand, he would have to do so under terms of the plea bargain.”

Ovidio is ready to spill the beans. Who’s worried?

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Mortuary Cave Discovered in Coahuila State

Posted on July 20, 2025 by Allan Wall

A recent discovery in northern Mexico revealed a mortuary cave in which pre-Hispanic nomads buried their dead.

This discovery was in Coahuila, a state that borders the U.S., across from Texas.

Coahuila in red. Source: TUBS

This is not the first mortuary cave discovered in Coahuila. There have been several. The most famous is the Candelaria Cave, investigated in the 1950s.

In these mortuary caves, the nomads would wrap their dead in fabrics and lay them in the cave, along with various objects.

This latest discovery was in the Ocampo National Protected Area in northern Coahuila.

INAH, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, received reports of looting.

So INAH went to investigate with the help of the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (Conanp) and the Asociación Coahuilense de Espeleología (the Coahuila Association of Speleology).

The team found this hole and went down it:

Source: INAH

They descended this small hole into a vertical shaft (less than 2 feet wide),
lowering themselves approximately 13 feet to the bottom.

At that level they found another vertical shaft. They lowered themselves down that shaft about 26 feet. At that level was the burial chamber.

The chamber had apparently already been looted and artifacts removed.

There were scattered human bones though and fragments of fabric.

They gathered the bones, apparently belonging to 17 persons: men, women and children. There were 12 complete skulls, including 5 of children. They are estimated to be at least 500 years old.

They found 15 textile fragments, from 4 types of mats. (Mats were used to place the dead).

Here is a photo of one of these fabric fragments:

Source: INAH

The bones and textile fragments were taken to the Museo Regional de la Laguna in Torreon, Coahuila, for safekeeping and investigation.

Click here for a July 1st bulletin in Spanish about the cave, click here or here for articles in English about it; with photos.

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The 100th Anniversary of the Mexican Baseball League

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Allan Wall

This calendar year, 2025, is the one hundredth anniversary of the Mexican Baseball League, Liga Mexicana de Béisbol (LMB), founded in 1925.

Source: Excelsior Archives

The Mexican Baseball League is the oldest professional sports league in Mexico. It is the ninth-richest professional sports league (by revenue) in North America and the second-richest baseball league in the Western Hemisphere (after Major League Baseball in the U.S.)

There are 20 teams in the Mexican Baseball League, 10 in the North Division and 10 in the South Division.

Like the World Series of Major League Baseball, the Mexican Baseball League has its own
best of 7 game championship, the Serie del Rey (the King’s Series).

The name of a Mexican Baseball League team may be generic, or it may reflect something about the city, state or region in which it is located.

Some examples of the latter:
1. Saraperos de Saltillo – The serape (sarape in Spanish) is a traditional men’s garment consisting of a woven rectangular cloak like a poncho but without a hole for the head. The city of Saltillo is famous for serapes, thus the team name.
2. Algodoneros de Unión Laguna – Historically, algodón (cotton) has been an important crop in the Laguna area, thus algodonero refers to people who cultivate or deal in cotton.
3. Acereros de Monclova – The “steelers” in honor of the importance of the steel industry in Monclova.
4. Olmecas de Tabasco – The Olmecs were a pre-Hispanic culture that flourished from 1200 B.C. to 400 B.C., in what are now the states of Tabasco and Veracruz.
5. Conspiradores de Querétaro – “Conspirators of Queretaro” – Named after a group of conspirators in the insurgency which became the Mexican independence movement two centuries ago.

The Mexican Baseball League actually has one binational team – the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos, the Owls of the Two Laredos, with one stadium in Mexico’s Nuevo Laredo and another on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande in Laredo, Texas.

Historically, the most successful team in the league are the Diablos Rojos del México, the “Red Devils of Mexico City”. The second most successful team are the Tigres de Quintana Roo. In third place are the Sultanas de Monterrey.

The Mexican Baseball League began in 1925, founded by sports journalist Alejandro Aguilar Reyes and baseball player Ernesto Carmona. The first game was played on June 28th, 1925.

Besides Mexican players, the Mexican Baseball League was able to recruit Cuban players and players from the Negro Leagues in the U.S. In 1946, there were 22 Major League baseball players enticed away from the U.S. to play in the Mexican league.

One of the Negro League players who went to play in Mexico was Monte Irvin, who after playing for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League, went to Mexico and played the 1942 season in the Mexican Baseball League.

Irvin played for the Azules de Veracruz, which though it had relocated to Mexico City still bore Veracruz as part of its name.

Even though Monte Irvin arrived to Mexico late in the season and missed almost a third of it, he led the league with a batting average of .397 and hit 20 home runs.

One of these home runs is related to an interesting anecdote involving Jorge Pasquel, then President of the Mexican Baseball League and owner of the Azules.

Jorge Pasquel. Source: Wikipedia

As reported by Larry Hogan of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) : “In a game in Mexico City when it was Monte’s time to bat, the Blues owner, Pasquel, called him over to his box seat and in effect ordered him to hit a home run. Monte demurred, saying the best he could do was to keep the rally going. Pasquel insisted that it be a home run. When Roy Campanella, catcher for the Monterrey team [another recruit from the Negro Leagues], learned from Monte what was going on, he said, ‘No way.’ After taking a strike, and fouling off the second pitch, Monte, guessing fastball, caught one on the fat of the bat for a game-winning shot over the center-field fence. Campanella was beside himself until Monte came over and said that Pasquel had given him $500 and told him to split it with Campy. “My man, my man,” said Campy in reply.”

As Monte Irvin reminisced, “When I got to home plate, Jorge was there to greet me and he had 500 bucks in his hand.”

Irvin wanted to return the next season but was drafted for the U.S. Army in World War II.

In 1949 Irvin finally made it to the Major Leagues, in the New York Giants, just two years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line.

Monte Irvin with New York Giants, c. 1953
Bowman Gum

Monte Irvin looked back at his year in Mexico as the best in his life: “For the first time in my life I felt really free. You could go anywhere, go to any theater, do anything, eat in any restaurant, just like anybody else, and it was wonderful.”

Felicidades to the Mexican Baseball League on its 100th anniversary.


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