Lazo Letters

Articles

On the last masters of Afro-Colombian machete fencing.

2 weeks ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

I am a huge nerd who fenced throughout high school. My 16-year-old self loved lunging and whipping my opponent with a flexible foil. During the tail end of the pandemic, when group activities were slowly reentering society, I took up fencing again, this time in the form of Historical European Martial Arts. That required a more hefty sword replica, often made of wood.
My favorite Signalgate memes

3 weeks ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

By now, everyone has heard the one about the global superpowerâs top national security officials planning a secret military operation with emoji-laden language via a commercial messaging app and then accidentally adding a journalist to the text thread. If you havenât, youâve been living under a rock or, at the very least, in a secluded Internet-less monastery. I envy you if thatâs the case. Itâs been a week for national security reporters everywhere.
Listening to Radio Free Europe while brewing espresso.

1 month ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

One evening, I was doing what I usually do before bed: boil a massive pot of espresso so it’s ready for me in the morning. I’m not a person who can wait 10-15 minutes each morning for coffee. I need caffeine immediately. So, I puttered around the kitchen, washing dishes, putting away plates, and doing the usual things one does while waiting for the espresso to boil. Typically, if I’m alone in the kitchen, I like to listen to something.
Europe's new London?

1 month ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

I was lucky enough to spend a good chunk of my young adulthood in pre-Brexit London. At the time, most of my friends, neighbors, housemates, and colleagues came from outside the United Kingdom. Often, those people came from somewhere in the European Union, and their native language wasn’t English. According to some of the most recent data, the number of students from EU member states choosing to study in the UK has dropped by half since Brexit.
What Happened When One Woman Tried To Escape Forced Marriage in Afghanistan.

1 month ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

Yesterday was International Women’s Day, so I’ve decided to share something someone sent me that highlights the dilemmas many women around the world face. On Thursday morning, I woke up and saw I had a text message from a source I hadn’t spoken to in a while: an Afghan man whose story of escaping the Taliban I once featured. Unsolicited, he had sent me a story about his sister and how he feels about her life now. I knew immediately that I had to publish it, so I did, with his permission, of course.
Understanding the end of the transatlantic relationship from a craft beer bar in Paris.

1 month ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

I’m heading back across the Atlantic this week, so much of my reporting has focused on the struggling, gasping transatlantic relationship. In the few short weeks I’ve been away, a lot has changed in the United States, and most of that is not for the better. Also, please pour one out for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is fighting for his country’s future as the leaders of the world’s most powerful country berate him on television.
The view after Munich.

2 months ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

The mood in Europe in the week after the Munich Security Conference can be summed up in just one word: dark. Donald Trump and his allies have, in the last few weeks, completely abandoned Europe and Ukraine. Trump cut both out of ongoing negotiations with Russia to end the war. He started making unreasonable demands of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and then called him a dictator when he didn’t capitulate. Trump has also been parroting Russian talking points left and right.
Hegseth hands over Ukraine.

2 months ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

OK, I was technically on holiday last week, so this will be a short note. But I want to call attention to the fact that Donald Trump’s new Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, attended his first Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Brussels (which was chaired by a country other than the U.S. for the first time), and laid out terms to end the war in Ukraine that the Kremlin might as well have written. It’s worth reading his full remarks here.
I'll be in Paris by the time you read this.

2 months ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

No, I’m not on some glamorous vacation. I’ve honestly never been much of a Francophile. I’m on my way to see family in Spain and decided to swing by Paris for the weekend to visit one of my best friends who happens to be from here. It’s just a two-day affair. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump’s envoy for Russia-Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, might meet in Paris with European foreign ministers next week. But alas, I will have already left before their tentatively scheduled meeting.
Week 2: Move fast and break things.

2 months ago | lazoletters.substack.com | Cristina Maza

During the second week of the second Trump administration, the president focused on breaking things (I stole the title of this newsletter from a very prescient book about how tech bros thwart democracy). The State Department halted all foreign assistance, going even further than Trump’s original executive order for development aid (part of which was later walked back when the administration realized it was a humanitarian disaster).