Category: Arts & Entertainment

The popular workplace comedy mockumentary format, which has been remade in countries around the world, is still alive. La Oficina brings the spirit of The Office to a Mexican setting, using a familiar style to explore often awkward workplace dynamics.

Set in the city of Aguascalientes (the Scranton of Mexico, we presume), the series takes place inside Jabones Olimpo, a soap company where a group of employees navigates meetings, on-the-spot decisions, and situations that reflect the everyday reality of any workplace. With a comedic tone, the show looks at professional relationships, management mistakes, and the small tensions that simmer between coworkers.

This production is part of the well-known format created by BBC Studios, which has been adapted in 17 countries over the years. The Mexican version aims to translate the original’s workplace dynamics into a specific cultural context, using humor to portray everyday situations in a professional environment.

The action centers on a group of employees who are constantly trying to keep the business running while dealing with questionable decisions, organizational problems, and the unexpected situations of the daily grind.

At the center of the story is Jerónimo Ponce III, the company’s regional manager. The character got the position by inheriting it from the family business, but he lacks the experience needed to run it. His management style and decisions constantly create awkward situations.

Fernando Bonilla plays Jerónimo Ponce III and leads the cast. His character becomes the focal point around which many of the situations employees face revolve, as they’re often left to clean up the mess left by their boss’s decisions.

The workplace — which bears a striking resemblance to Dunder Mifflin in Scranton — brings together a mix of personalities. Some are just trying to do their jobs while dealing with personal or financial problems that spill over into daily office life.

Mockumentary Style as a Storytelling Tool

La Oficina uses the tried-and-true mockumentary style that defines the original format. This technique allows characters to speak directly to the camera and share their thoughts on workplace situations, giving viewers an inside look at how coworkers interact.

This narrative approach has been one of the keys to The Office’s success in its different international versions. The structure lets audiences observe power dynamics, workplace conflicts, and each character’s quirks from a perspective that blends observation with humor.

La Officna Production and Creative Team

The series is directed and produced by Gaz Alazraki, with Marcos Bucay as showrunner. Both are part of the creative team responsible for adapting the format to the Mexican context.

The production is part of a global agreement among Amazon, MGM Studios, and Máquina Vega to develop local content with international appeal. La Oficina will premiere on Prime Video on March 13.

A new exhibition opening this weekend at Oaxaca’s state folk art museum will bring together 100 handmade pieces from craftswomen across the state’s eight regions, timed to coincide with International Women’s Day.

Mujeres. Creadoras de historias [Women: Creators of Stories] opens at noon Sunday at the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular Oaxaca [State Museum of Popular Art of Oaxaca], known as the Meapo. The show spotlights the craft traditions that Oaxacan women have long carried — textiles, embroidery, black clay pottery, and basketry — and makes their work available for sale directly from the artisans.

Women Drive the Craft Economy

Carlomagno Pedro Martínez, director of the Meapo, estimates that women make up roughly 65% of the state’s artisanal workforce. Their presence is especially pronounced in textiles — weaving and embroidery in particular — as well as in ceramics and basket-making.

“The artisans maintain living ancestral techniques, passing knowledge from generation to generation. This work is a form of creating stories, keeping the memory of their communities alive in the face of modernity,” Martínez said.

Oaxaca is widely considered one of Mexico’s most important states for folk art. It is home to an estimated 20,000 working artisans, and crafts account for a significant share of the state’s economy. Women have historically been the primary keepers of those traditions, though their individual contributions have not always received formal recognition.

Who Is Showing

The exhibition features work from named master artisans representing communities throughout Oaxaca. Among them is Angélica Vásquez, a recipient of the National Prize for Sciences and Arts in 2011 — one of Mexico’s highest cultural honors. Also showing are Elida Merino, an artisan and bilingual teacher from San Pedro Amuzgos; Carolina Hernández, a Mixtec artisan from San Juan Colorado; and Elodia Martínez from San Blas Atempa.

The Meapo’s home village of San Bartolo Coyotepec is itself represented through master potters of barro negro [black clay], the polished dark pottery that has become one of Oaxaca’s most recognized craft traditions.

The show draws participants from communities across the state’s eight geographic regions, including both indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities, making it one of the more geographically inclusive exhibitions the museum has mounted.

About the Meapo

The Museo Estatal de Arte Popular Oaxaca sits on the south side of the main plaza in San Bartolo Coyotepec, about 12 kilometers south of Oaxaca city. Inaugurated in 2004, the museum is dedicated to preserving and promoting Oaxacan folk art and the artisans who produce it. Its permanent collection spans the pre-Hispanic period to the present, with particular depth in barro negro pottery. Carlomagno Pedro Martínez — himself an accomplished ceramicist who began training in his family’s workshop — has led the institution since its founding.

The timing of Mujeres. Creadoras de historias is not coincidental. March 8 is International Women’s Day, observed globally, and the exhibition specifically frames the work of Oaxacan craftswomen within a broader conversation about labor, cultural preservation, and identity.

Women’s craft traditions in Oaxaca have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, largely because of high-profile cases in which international brands have reproduced indigenous designs without crediting or compensating the communities that created them. Those disputes have accelerated federal efforts to establish legal protections for Mexico’s indigenous intellectual property. Yucatán Magazine has reported on similar cases involving Oaxacan heritage.

The Mujeres exhibition takes a different approach — not confrontation, but visibility. By presenting the work in a formal museum setting, with the artisans identified by name and community, the show pushes back against the long tradition of displaying folk art anonymously, a practice the Meapo has been actively working to end since its founding.

Pieces in the exhibition include traditional garments, embroidered textiles, and objects made using techniques that predate European contact. More information on the museum is available at UNESCO’s intangible heritage program.

Quick Facts: Mujeres. Creadoras de historias

• Opening: Sunday, March 8, at noon — International Women’s Day
• Venue: Museo Estatal de Arte Popular Oaxaca (Meapo), San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca
• Number of pieces: 100
• Regions represented: All 8 regions of Oaxaca, including indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities
• Featured artisans include: Angélica Vásquez (National Prize for Sciences and Arts, 2011), Elida Merino (San Pedro Amuzgos), Carolina Hernández (San Juan Colorado), Elodia Martínez (San Blas Atempa), and barro negro masters from San Bartolo Coyotepec
• Craft disciplines: Textiles, embroidery, weaving, ceramics, barro negro pottery, basketry
• Museum director: Carlomagno Pedro Martínez
• Meapo location: About 12 km south of Oaxaca city on the main plaza of San Bartolo Coyotepec

Source: Excélsior

At the Museum of Natural History in Mexico City, visitors are taking a deep dive into the world of hummingbirds. 

Colibríes, arte y biodiversidad urbana (Hummingbirds, Art, and Urban Biodiversity), aims to educate the public about these remarkable birds while showcasing detailed clay sculptures by artist Davit Nava.

Hummingbirds possess extraordinary physical abilities. They can hover in midair, fly backward, and change direction instantly—feats that have long fascinated scientists and bird enthusiasts alike. The exhibition highlights these traits while emphasizing the bird’s significance in Mexico’s ecosystem.

Museum Director Mercedes Jiménez del Arco explained that the institution — part of the Mexico City Environment Secretariat — focuses on communicating important environmental topics to the public. Hummingbirds, she noted, are a key subject because of their unique biodiversity value.

The Americas are the only places in the world where hummingbirds exist naturally, making the region particularly privileged. According to the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), more than 300 species of hummingbirds have been discovered globally. Mexico is home to approximately 59 of those species, and remarkably, nearly half can be found within Mexico City itself.

“A city that we apparently see with many cars and many buildings still has such great biodiversity,” Jiménez del Arco said. “It’s really spectacular.”

The 23 clay sculptures are each a life-sized representation of a hummingbird species rendered with scientific precision. Nava, a sculptor deeply committed to environmental issues, produced pieces that allow visitors to appreciate the birds’ intricate details up close.

Beyond the scientific facts and artwork, the exhibition also provides an opportunity to reflect on the cultural significance hummingbirds have held throughout Mesoamerican history. Ancient civilizations, including the Aztecs and Maya, regarded these tiny creatures as sacred beings with deep spiritual meaning.

The Maya people told a creation story in which the gods, after making all other animals, realized they had no messenger to carry their thoughts between worlds. With no remaining materials to fashion a new creature, they carved a small jade stone into the shape of an arrow and breathed life into it, creating the first hummingbird. According to Maya belief, these birds were so light and delicate that they could approach the most fragile flowers without disturbing a single petal. Their purpose was to travel between the human realm and the divine, carrying thoughts, prayers, and messages.

Some traditional beliefs persist in parts of Mexico today—that a hummingbird appearing nearby brings a message of love from someone who is thinking of the observer. The Maya also maintained that hummingbirds should never be captured or caged, as their role as divine messengers required them to remain free.

For the Aztecs, hummingbirds held equally powerful symbolism. Their primary deity, Huitzilopochtli—whose name translates to “Hummingbird of the Left” or “Hummingbird from the South”—was the god of war and the sun. Aztec tradition held that warriors who died in battle would be reincarnated as hummingbirds, returning to life to flit among flowers and drink nectar. The birds thus represented the spirits of fallen warriors, embodying strength, energy, and good fortune. Aztecs viewed the hummingbird’s long, sharp beak as a weapon, and believed that wearing hummingbird talismans conferred energy and power.

Another Aztec legend described the hummingbird as the sun in disguise, taking the form of the tiny bird to court the moon, his true love, secretly.

The Museum of Natural History and Cultural Environment is located in the Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City’s large urban park, on Avenida de los Compositores in the second section. The exhibition is included with regular museum admission, which costs 38 pesos for the general public. Students and teachers with valid identification pay 18 pesos, while senior citizens and people with disabilities enter free upon presentation of credentials.

The museum operates Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with ticket sales ending at 4:30 p.m. Colibríes, arte y biodiversidad urbana will remain on display through April 12.