大象传媒

Pascale Harter presents stories from the United States and Mexico.

This week's election in America was supposed to be close. So close, some pundits told us, that the result might not have been known for weeks. In the end it only took hours. President Obama cobbled together a coalition that relied heavily on African-Americans, young people and Latinos to turn a small popular vote edge into an overwhelming win under America's electoral college system. Before the campaign Paul Adams had been traveling on the campaign trail for weeks, and around the country he found some clues that the final result might not be as close as many predicted.

In this edition we also visit Mexico with Will Grant. He's been toasting his ancestors in a small village in the enchanting state of Oaxaca. And amid the fiesta, he found out more about the Mexican idea of death, and life.

(Image: US President Barack Obama. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)