Robert Walzer
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Articles by Robert Walzer
Mexicans Will Do Just About Anything for a World Cup Win
A baby Jesus figure dressed in Mexico's national colors is displayed at Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral. Santiago Perez/WSJ MEXICO CITY—When Mexico’s national soccer team plays, fans don’t just hope. They promise. They vow to quit drinking, study harder, become better spouses or otherwise remake their lives if “El Tri” can deliver victory. For many, soccer becomes an expression of faith.
Pilgrimages for Goals: Mexicans Will Do Almost Anything for a World Cup Win
European News 4 hours ago Spain 2026 forest fires: the figures Euronews - By Jesús Maturana • 4h Spain’s wildfire season is intensifying, with almost 50,000 hectares burnt.
tovima.com - Breaking News, Analysis and Opinion from To Vima’s International Edition
A vintage car crosses a flooded street as Hurricane Milton passes close to the Cuban coast, Havana, Cuba, October 9, 2024.
古巴经济支柱旅游业全面崩溃
十年前，萨拉·福达(Sarah Foda)开始在Caribbean Tours的古巴业务部门工作时，当地旅游业一派繁荣。当时该公司有84名员工，每个月带领数千名外国游客，游览这座岛屿上带有西班牙殖民色彩的历史名城和碧蓝的海滩。 随着特朗普(Trump)政府加大对古巴共产主义政权的施压，这家瑞士公司的游客接待量已骤降至每月十几人左右。Caribbean Tours目前仍保留了22名员工并削减了薪酬，以维持运营，直到业务回暖——如果还能回暖的话。 Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
‘It’s Like a Pandemic.’ Cuba’s Tourism Industry Is Completely Unraveling.
Fuel shortages and economic turmoil are scaring away foreign visitors Tourists rode in a classic American car during a March visit to Havana. Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images Tourism was booming when Sarah Foda began working at Caribbean Tours’ operations in Cuba a decade ago, with 84 employees shepherding thousands of foreign visitors each month to the island’s faded Spanish-colonial cities and turquoise beaches.
Mexico has a major crush on its top cop
Robert P. Walzer In a country long plagued by drug-linked violence, Omar García Harfuch is inspiring a different kind of fixation. The square-jawed face of Mexico's anti-cartel campaign has become an unlikely sex symbol—his manly likeness splashed on blankets, reimagined in AI-generated fantasies and recast as a caped crusader.
How Much do the Jet Fighters That Crashed Cost?
A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft took off for a mission during Operation Epic Fury on March 14. U.S. Airforce/AFP/Getty Images U.S. jet fighters come at a steep price. The F-15E Strike Eagle model, the type which was downed in Iran on Friday, costs $31.1 million, according to a U.S. Air Force fact sheet. That price uses 1998 constant dollars, meaning its value would be higher in today’s money.
U.S. to Temporarily Allow Sale of Iranian Oil Already at Sea
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images The Treasury Department said it would temporarily allow the sale of sanctioned Iranian oil already at sea, a step officials say could bring roughly 140 million barrels to market and ease pressure from rising prices. It remains unclear how much of that supply can be redirected quickly.
Exclusive | Power and Celebrity Converged Inside This Mexico City Mansion, Now for Sale
During Irma Serrano’s whirlwind Mexican life of 89 years, she sang and acted her way to fame, ran a bawdy nightclub, pilloried the ruling party as a lawmaker and, she said, posed nude for Diego Rivera and had an affair with a married president that ended with her publicly slapping his face. Now her longtime home in a ritzy Mexico City neighborhood is on the market for $13 million, one of the capital’s most expensive listings. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
They Travel the World-and Cheat Death-for License Plates
Collectors trek to all corners of the globe for rare finds, from diplomatic tags to the devilish 666; the Vatican City holy grail Some people dream of scaling a peak or writing a novel. Ethan Craft wants to collect at least one license plate from 500 global jurisdictions. The quest has taken the 27-year-old across the world in search of junkyards, antique stores and other collectors willing to trade plates. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Macario Martinez Went to Bed a Street Sweeper. He Woke Up a National Celebrity.
April 28, 2025 5:30 am ET Until recently, Macario Martínez was one of the thousands of fluorescent-green uniformed street sweepers in Mexico City, toiling with their long-bristled brushes in 8-hour shifts for about $10 a day. Then came the video. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The race is on to save beloved salamanders
XOCHIMILCO, Mexico—A homely aquatic salamander with a cartoonish smile and the ability to regenerate lost body parts has become a global phenomenon, appearing as characters in Minecraft, Fortnite and Pokémon and inspiring a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy. Where the axolotl can barely be found: in its natural habitat in Mexico.
The Race to Save the Axolotl, a Salamander Whose Image Spawned a Global Cottage Industry
XOCHIMILCO, Mexico—A homely aquatic salamander with a cartoonish smile and the ability to regenerate lost body parts has become a global phenomenon, appearing as characters in Minecraft, Fortnite and Pokémon and inspiring a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy. Where the axolotl can barely be found: in its natural habitat in Mexico.
The Race to Save the Axolotl, a Salamander Whose Image Spawned a Global Cottage Industry
The axolotl (pronounced ah-SHO-lohtl) is hurtling toward extinction, just as it becomes globally familiar with a cottage industry using its image to sell beer, T-shirts and videogames. Scientists estimate that no more than 1,000—and perhaps as few as 50—are left in the wild in their last natural habitat, a Venice-like system of canals and islands built by the Aztecs that still exists in the Mexico City borough of Xochimilco.
Forget Italy. Why Albania Should Be Smart Travelers’ Next Stop.
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Forget Italy. Why Albania Should Be Smart Travelers’ Next Stop.
Once a year, a pal and I plan a bike trip—a gambit that both scratches our itch for cycling adventure and lets us explore a new corner of the globe at ground level. Committed bon vivants, we’ve managed to hit some of the usual suspects like France and Spain, and some less-usual ones, like Ethiopia. Still, when my friend suggested this year’s destination—Albania—my eyebrows shot up. I recovered quickly.
Mexico Tries a New Tactic to Get Its Antiquities Back: Social Pressure
MEXICO CITY—Mexico’s global hunt for missing ancient artifacts recently led to a Stockholm storage room, where a pair of 2,000-year-old ceramic figurines used decades ago to advertise the Mexican liqueur Kahlúa were gathering dust. The startled Swedish corporate archivist who found the statuettes this spring contacted a Mexican Embassy official, who called anthropologists in Mexico City who soon certified them as shaft-tomb artifacts, leading to their return to Mexico in a June ceremony.
A Long-Awaited Return Trip to Puerto Rico
ON A RECENT visit to a beachfront cultural center in Loíza, a Puerto Rican town with the island’s largest Black community, I heard Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric music blasting from a car stereo. A young man danced, another carved a ceremonial mask from a coconut and one more filled my glass with his homemade sugar-cane liquor flavored with guava fruit. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS If you have visited Puerto Rico, share your favorite tips with other readers. Join the conversation below.
Why Sunny Puerto Rico Is a Terrific Covid-Era Escape
ON A RECENT visit to a beachfront cultural center in Loíza, a Puerto Rican town with the island’s largest Black community, I heard Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric music blasting from a car stereo. A young man danced, another carved a ceremonial mask from a coconut and one more filled my glass with his homemade sugar-cane liquor flavored with guava fruit. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS If you have visited Puerto Rico, share your favorite tips with other readers. Join the conversation below.
A Mexico Vacation During the Pandemic? The Rewards vs. Risks
MILLIONS OF American and other foreign tourists are flocking to Mexico, but they’re drawn by more than warm weather, beaches and cultural and culinary abundance. Mexico has been liberal about admitting tourists without proof of negative Covid tests or quarantine requirements at a time when places from New York to Europe to Asia have blocked or restricted pandemic travel. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Have you visited Mexico during the pandemic, or would you feel comfortable visiting the country?
Buying in Mexico City Wasn’t Easy for This New Yorker-But It Was Worth It Original
When my Mexican-American wife and I decided to buy an apartment in Mexico City earlier this year, it kicked off a five-month journey that was rocked by the coronavirus pandemic, Mexico’s bureaucracy, long distances and cross-cultural and legal gaps. It started during a February vacation to Mexico City, when we did a mad dash of apartment viewing in La Condesa, a Greenwich Village-like neighborhood bursting with restaurants and shops.
The France That Time and Tourism Forgot
A DECADE HAD passed since my family’s Paris days, a three-year period during which I worked at a newspaper, our daughters studied at French écoles and we explored many of France’s most-celebrated regions, from Normandy to the Alps to the Côte d’Azur. But, like most foreigners, and even most French, we’d never journeyed to Ariège—a rugged and secluded region between Toulouse to the north and Spain to the south, with a checkered history.
From ‘Narcos’ Danger Zone to Rising Tourist Star: Colombia’s Medellín
NOT LONG AGO, Comuna 13, a hillside shantytown in Medellín, was controlled by paramilitaries who took a dim view of outside visitors. When I was there recently, however, it felt welcoming, with dozens of foreigners riding the outdoor escalators that link its various levels, many accompanied by local guides. Young shirtless men performed a spontaneous hip-hop street show, rapping in Spanish.
Cold War Cloak and Dagger Comes to New York
When two big Russians tightly strapped a visitor’s hands and legs into an uncomfortable metal-and-wood interrogation chair recently, a tinge of anxiety followed, the visitor’s mind retracing Cold War images of waterboarding and brass knuckles. Luckily the chair was just one of 3,500 original Soviet artifacts crammed into the new KGB Spy Museum in Manhattan, which starting Thursday beckons visitors into the secretive world of espionage between 1917 and 1995.
Traveling to Cuba is (Still) Easier Than You Think
MY LAST TRIP to Cuba had been in 1997 when the country was still enduring the periodo especial—the euphemistically dubbed “special period” of deprivation after the Soviet Union’s collapse. At that time, traveling under a journalist visa, I noted roads devoid of cars and bare store shelves. Despair and paranoia pervaded the air, with Cubans miming a long beard when criticizing Fidel Castro rather than speaking his name out loud.
This Mole Sauce Makes Any Occasion Special
A FEW MONTHS ago, my wife’s family and I crowded into a kitchen in the Pantitlán zone of Mexico City to help prepare for my mother-in-law’s 86th birthday party. As her canary, Güero (Blondie), chirped excitedly along, the apartment filled up with huge pots full of colorful Mexican dishes and sauces—from tacos to guacamole to refried beans—plus roughly 10 pounds of fresh, warm tortillas. The centerpiece: mole poblano.
Jazz Producer, Hendrix Confidant Alan Douglas Dies
By the time he befriended Jimi Hendrix in Greenwich Village, Alan Douglas was already an established producer of jazz luminaries. Mr. Douglas, who died on June 7 at 82 years old in Paris due to complications from a fall, one of his daughters said, had a knack for combining unlikely talents such as Duke Ellington with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, who were of different generations and styles.
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