In this final part of this video about the Day of the Dead celebration in Berlin, Adriana explains how Mexicans prefer to celebrate death with humor, fun performances, and revelry.

Manuel Guarneros was the famous Mexican singer Chavela Vargas' main guitar player. In this video, he'll share with us his perception about various Mexican accents and slang as well as performing for us a piece of the popular polka song "El barrilito" [literally "The Little Barrel"], which is known in English as Beer Barrel Polka.

In part two of this video about the Day of the Dead celebration in Berlin, Adriana explains the elements that an offering to the dead contains, from sugar skulls to copal to music.

With roots in the world of theater in her home country of Mexico, Adriana Barrera moved to Berlin, Germany for love. The annual Day of the Dead celebration, which she will explain to us in detail, is one way in which Adriana and an association of fellow Mexicans in Berlin are able to maintain and raise awareness about aspects of the Mexican culture.

Guillermo the shaman, an expert in Mayan cosmology, explains the origin of and symbolism behind the Mayan word "chamamán" as well as some other interesting aspects of their belief system.

Xochitl from Monterrey, Mexico tells us about how the recent surge in violent crime in Mexico and in her area in particular affects the way that Mexican citizens live their lives.

Should government pump money into the economy and generate jobs by financing giant public works projects? In the extremely close Mexican presidential election of 2006 (which he lost), Andrés Manuel López Obrador made it clear that that his answer is a decisive ¡Sí!

Viviana really enjoys studying Political Economy at the UAM [Autonomous Metropolitan University]. She tells us about her major and the plans that she has for the future and shares some insights about the large social gap that exists in Mexico.

Could it be that the “Tu Rock es Votar” campaign resulted in a closer Mexican 2006 election, one that ironically left the youth feeling more disillusioned than ever? Felipe Calderón Hinojosa edged out Andrés Manuel López Obrador by such a thin margin that the losing side demanded a total recount, which was not granted. The ensuing cloud surrounding the election left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Mexicans.

Armando David Ortigosa decided that something needed to be done to motivate the young people of Mexico to participate in its presidential election. He looked north for inspiration, where the “Rock the Vote” campaign used pop stars to try and get young voters to the polls. The Mexican equivalent became known as Tu Rock Es Votar.

Enjoying almost full support by his party as their presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador stepped down from his post as Mayor of Mexico City, aka D.F. (Distrito Federal) to campaign for the presidency of Mexico in the 2006 elections against Felipe Calderón.

López Obrador’s campaign commercials really try to shake potential voters out of their sillas, attempting to give the potentially marginalized a strong message: “now it’s our turn, now it’s your turn!” He blatantly positions himself against the rich, those who “take the biggest piece of the cake.”

Felipe Calderón is running for president of Mexico as the candidate of PAN, Partido Acción Nacional. “The National Action Party” is also the party of Mexico’s current president, Vicente Fox. Felipe’s campaign slogan? Para que Vivamos Mejor, “So we can live better.” We know there must a word play parody of this phrase, but we haven’t found it yet!

Does Felipe Calderón love his children? We are quite sure that he does. If this promotional video for the possible heir to fellow PANista Vicente Foxe seems to you to have a “North of the border” slickness, it may not be simply coincidental.

Harvard-educated Felipe Calderón, who the New York Times calls “a dapper man who speaks with all the fire of an economist,” is perceived as the safe, business-friendly presidential candidate. This video carefully cultivates a persona antithetical to the rougher-hewn López Obrador.

Just over a quarter of Mexico’s 127.5 million people are aged 18-24, and as such the “youth vote” could easily make or break any candidate in Mexico’s upcoming election on July 2. Patterned after the “Rock the Vote” campaign in the USA, Tu Rock Es Votar is running a television, radio and web campaign that hopes to improve voter turnout in the Mexican youth population despite a general desencantado (“disenchanted”) attitude found amongst all eligible voters.

Tu Rock Es Votar, a.k.a. TREV, continues its efforts to rally Mexico’s youth to get out and vote come election day. It’s something of an unspoken secret that TREV’s organizers tend to lean to the left, but they strive to make the ads non-partisan.