I'm sitting next to Aldonza who is an anarchist, a flamenco dancer and a former Mexican champion of Kung-fu. We drink tequila with Sprite and now we are flying between Cuba and Miami. Traveling makes me feel lonely and alienated and I know it will take several days to land back in my life. Every encounter with a new culture impacts me more than I could afford.

The opening of my show on Saturday was fun. The Mexicans, or at least the Regios,  don't meet the stereotype of latinos. They are quiet and reserved. Like the Finns. Or the stereotype of the Finns. Raúl and me gave a talk in the beginning of the reception and nobody wanted to ask anything. Later we were drinking martinis at the roof terrace and an older güey who told me angry and almost shouting that he understood that I wanted to provoke but that he didn't get provoked at all.

I had a great time in Monterrey. Pristine Gallery team was extremely professional and hospitable. I had a couple of free days after the opening to walk around the city, buy some polar art paintings in the markets, visit Dr. Lakra's show at Marco Museum of Contemporary Art, Damian's studio, Juan Carlos' studio and eat lot's of delicious tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I will also remember always the Mexican sushi which is warm and never served with wasabi because the Mexicans think it's too hot and prefer to replace it with chili.

After a delay of a couple of days, Raúl – the curator of my show – arrived from New York. I had to take some decisions without his presence and I’m happy that he accepted practically everything. We done almost 20 shows together but his is our first solo show. Undoubtedly, Raúl is the person who has supported me more than anybody else during my career.

Without Raúl, who is originally a Tijuana immigrant, I would have done just a normal show about global issues, I wouldn't have dared to speak about anything local or the mother of all borders, the one between Mexico and United States, so near here. Raúl encouraged me to show the Wetback towel and other works related to the border theme.

Two days ago, just when I arrived, the finance minister of Mexico Ernesto Cordero (sheep in Spanish) stated that Mexico is not anymore a poor country – it only has a serious problem of poverty. The capitalism promised opportunities for everybody but it has proven to be just like patriotism or socialism – each individual must sacrifice himself for the glory of the system. Don’t complain if you are poor when the country’s economy is growing. The minimum wage in Mexico is less than five US dollars per day.

I want to thank Mr. Cordero for deciphering and contextualizing the title of my show perfectly – Don’t Ask What Capitalism Can Do for You but What You Can Do for Capitalism.  Now I'm painting in the gallery a mural with a shanty house and the text Riqueza Cordero.

In the morning, I arrived  in Monterrey after traveling over 30 hour. Daniel and Leonardo were at the the airport waiting me holding a sign with the logo of my show and a black Lobo camioneta – the powerful Ford 4x4 pick-up preferred by the Mexican narco hitmen.  I hope that the cocaine millionaires will buy my stuff though Juan Carlos said me that they are not yet on that high cultural level, they still buy just impressionism and old masters. In Colombia, the cocaine money is already enough old to buy cutting edge contemporary. Mexico's narcos are just vulgar nouveau riche.

Now I’m in my hotel room at the Crowne Plaza Monterrey drinking Tecate Light I got from a  7-Eleven. Brenda has told me not go out, because it’s the most dangerous city in Mexico, where the federal police, the army and the two cartels Los Zetas and The Gulf Cartel are in an open war against each other. Anyways, I ventured to some dark streets and had a good talk with the waiter of a shabby cantina. It’s total otherness but not like in China – here I can speak the local language.

It has been a fun week between my trips to Paris and Monterrey - I've been hosting Eeris, who has been on vacation here but also lectured at the local cookery school.

The most hilarious thing happened on Friday when I was showing Eeris Talavera de la Reina, the town that is 10km from our village. Actually I would consider Talavera more like a huge village than a small town, though it was funded by the Roman Empire and has now almost 100 thousand inhabitants. Talavera lacks culture. That's why I was so amazed when Eeris spotted BLO Laboratorio Digital, a hybrid space with a photographic studio, an art gallery and a book shop. The gallery was empty. Elliot, the owner, told that the painter who was supposed to inaugurate had had an accident and couldn't finish the paintings. Eeris told Elliot that I'm an artist. Elliot wanted to see my work and I opened my website and he said that he had seen this stuff before, actually that very morning. He opened his e-mail account and there was a post from a Mexican mailing list with the press release of my show at Pristine Galerie with picture of one drawing and one of my Super Size Happy Meal Boxes - a screen print series published by Eeris!

That night we went to install my show at BLO and we'll do a reception when I'm back from Mexico. I had never imagined to exhibit so close to where I live but with Eeris anything is possible.

Yesterday, I was in Talavera de la Reina shopping Yokana's summer clothes for Monterrey - I'm going there next Monday for my solo show Don't Ask What the Capitalism Can Do for You But What You Can Do for the Capitalism. I sat down at La Dolce Vita's Terrace to drink a capucciono and saw on the screen of my iPhone a photo of a destroyed facade. Damian writes in the caption that last Saturday four guys were killed outside, 2 of them the security guys. The AK 47 bullet impacts are still there. This is the bar were the art world people go in Monterrey, which used to be the safest city in the Latin America but is now the most violent place in Mexico. I got just linen shirts but maybe a bulletproof vest would have been a better choice.

Raúl, who curates my show at Pristine Galerie, comments: That is why we, or at least me, have to keep curating in Monterrey and bringing international artist there; we can not be held captive to fear (easy for me to say, I don't live there, and my thoughts are always with those who live in that milieu of senseless violence).