Puerto Pe�asco Mayor Kiko Munro inaugurated new pavement covering 27,153 sq. meters along Ave. San Luis from Blvd. Benito Ju�rez to Blvd. Samuel Oca�a. The road work, at an investment cost of $32,163,149 pesos, also included 7,000 meters of sidewalk along with 3,500 meters of curbs. Furthermore, 165 residential discharge lines for sewage and potable water were installed as part of the overall project.

At the inaugural ceremony, Mayor Kiko Munro detailed this quality project for the community of Pe�asco had not initially included street lamps, though this was achieved through efficient application of funds. He stressed the importance of seeking resources to further such steps in order to improve the city's urban infrastructure and the quality of life for its residents.

"During the first 8 months of our administration, we have paved or repaved more than 200,000 sq. meters of streets and avenues across the city," he indicated, "through use of asphalt and hydraulic pavement."

Similarly, he remarked, once federal budgetary funds come through, work will begin on refurbishing and completing Blvd. Fremont, Ave. Sinaloa, and Ave. Sobarzo, among others on which the administration intends to focus so they may be in optimum condition before the end of the year. 

Nearly two years after announcing a new assembly plant, BMW Group began construction this week of a new factory in San Luis, Sonora.

The German auto maker will build the next-generation 3-series sedan at the new factory, with annual production predicted to total 150,000 cars.

The model is one of the top-selling luxury cars in the U.S. and represents 30% of BMW's revenues. The company sold 444,000 3-series models last year.

The US $1-billion plant will begin operating in 2019, employing 1,500 people directly, said company executive Oliver Zipse at a press conference.

He recalled that BMW began looking for a location to expand its North American operations in 2011, deciding on San Luis Potos� over Aguascalientes and Hidalgo for the "logistical triangle" it forms with Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara.

The 300-hectare site is big enough for expansion of the plant to produce an additional model, said Zipse.

The land was turned over to the company by the state government this week after it installed electricity, water, natural gas, a railway spur and temporary offices. One report said the incentives granted BMW totaled US $236 million and include state and federal tax exemptions for 10 years.

The factory will have its own body, paint and assembly shops but engines and transmissions will be made in Germany.

Zipse said the plant's production system will be a leader in productivity and sustainability. Most of its electricity will be generated by a solar-powered system on the site, and its water consumption per vehicle produced will be the lowest in the world.

The paint shop will use reconditioned and recycled water, making it the first of BMW's 31 plants to produce no wastewater.

Low labor costs and access to other markets are Mexico's chief attractions for auto makers. One advantage for BMW will be to save the 10% duty on vehicles it exports to Europe from its U.S. plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, by manufacturing in Mexico.

Summer is here and it's always nice to cool down with a frozen treat.  The ubiquitous La Michoacana ice cream shops catch your eye on every main street in every Mexican town. Not only does each shop offer hand scooped ice cream, refreshing juice and water combo called fruitas frescas, by far the favorite product is the treat-on-a-stick: paletas.

What's a paleta, you ask? A super-natural, much healthier version of our American style popsicles, paletas are all-natural frozen treats made from chopped up fresh fruit and water.  

The treat comes two ways: frozen fruit and water which has a crisp, hard freeze; and a cream and fruit version that has frozen fruit mixed with cream to form a thicker, creamier, less hard treat. At a typical shop in Mexico, paletas come in a large variety of flavors such as tamarindo, hibiscus flower, or mango con chile besides the many tropical fruit varieties.

The appeal of this icy treat is that it is easy to transport (throw a dozen on ice with the adult's beer and head to a day at the beach,) more filling and less sugary than a raspados (shaved ice doused in fruit syrup),  and a perfect beach and hot weather snack.

Recipes: 

Personal titles are very popular in Mexico.

You make a phone call and ask to speak to someone, giving their first and last name. Having ascertained, by shrewdness or direct inquiry, that the caller isn't a person of any great importance, the secretary informs you curtly that el licenciado, or la licenciada (or el ingeniero, or el arquitecto)  is out, on another line, or in a meeting. The title will probably be stressed for your future information.

Ingeniero, or engineer, encompasses a range of technical professions, from civil engineering to electronics and computers. Arquitecto means architect; and even contador, or accountant, has made its way into the list of titles acceptable as improvements on the plain se�or (or se�orita or se�ora).

The title licenciado traditionally applied to lawyers, but its use extends to anyone who has a degree in any number of fields: the highly popular business administration, the dizzying economics, the trendy marketing, the modern communications, or the stopgap history of art.

As with so many other things, titles have undergone a process of inflation. As the middle class grew, more and more people could afford to stay at five-star hotels, generating a "need" for a new category that stays ahead of the pack, and "Grand Tourism" was born. Likewise, as more and more people had access to university education, plain licenciado became somewhat run-of-the-mill and the PhD came into fashion. Now it's often the "doctor" who's in a meeting, or on another line, after which he'll be out to lunch, and then traveling.

The next step up from a bachelor's degree is a masters - maestr�a - but nobody on that particular ladder uses the title maestro, and this is why: maestro, like its English counterpart master, has plenty of meanings. It means teacher, or schoolmaster, and also refers to someone particularly skillful at a given  pursuit, in the arts or sports, for example, but maestro is also applied to the skilled builder, the plumber, or the chief mechanic.

In this last sense, the maestro is chief among equals in the realm of oficios, or trades, but somewhat unappreciated in the world of the professions. If we weren't such snobs, we could perhaps appreciate the irony of the maestro-who can build houses that won't fall down in earthquakes-being much less in the eyes of polite society than the licenciado (or licenciada), who happens to know his Manet from his Monet.