Accent and Assimilation
I like to poke fun at my friend Christian. Though he is Guatemalan, when I see him in Buenos Aires he speaks like a native Porteño. A few months later, in Santiago, and his accent changes completely to the affectionate chirpiness of Chilean Spanish. I have heard his...
How to Read Google Earth Like Proust
It is said that Marcel Proust preferred to read train timetables as he fell asleep. According to Alain de Botton: The document was not consulted for practical advice; the departure time of the Saint-Lazare train was of no immediate importance to a man who found no...[Review] The Lacuna
I had a personal stake in this one. When I hear the prevalent claims of false nostalgia that “modern writers can’t compete with the classics,” I often point to Barbara Kingsolver as an obvious illustration of literary prowess that far exceeds even...
Fame, Followers, Anonymity and Activism
What follows is more or less a rough approximation of my notes for a presentation I gave on Monday at a conference organized by the United Nations Development Program and the Institute for Elections and Citizen Participation of Jalisco. The panel, “Technological...
#PublicidadOficial
In April 1982 then-President José López Portillo ordered all government agencies in Mexico to cancel their advertising contracts with Proceso Magazine. It was well known that López Portillo ran one of the most corrupt governments in the world at the time, but he was...
Keeping Internet Service Providers Transparent and Honest
In his review of Tim Wu’s The Master Switch, Evgeny Morozov writes: Net neutrality is a simple idea with powerful implications. A neutral net would, for example, prevent cable providers from slowing down their customers’ connections or, worse, banning them from...
So many great projects that may not be innovative; just merely important
“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” According to the famous quote by science fiction writer William Gibson, the future was in Austin this past week for SWSX Interactive. More than 15,000 of the digitally inclined brought...
Presunto Culpable, Censorship Copyright and Philanthropy
Four months ago I published a detailed series of posts looking at internet censorship and freedom of expression in Latin America. My aim was to show that online censorship is more complicated than just blocking web pages. For example, copyright claims have been used...
Malls and Plazas
For the past week I’ve been working on a long essay about public and private space in Mexico City. It was first inspired by Andres Lajous’ essay, “The Political Economy of the Metro” and by sections Daniel Hernandez’s book, Down and...Latest Photos
