Oaxaca « The Mex Files

Entries categorized as ‘Oaxaca’

Perverse and unnatural unions

21 January 2010 · Leave a Comment

It seems the Church isn’t the only organization in Mexico that wants to decide what is, and what isn’t, “natural” when it comes to associations.

PRI Senate leader Mario Fabio Beltrones sneers that such unions are “unnatural” , and presidential hopeful, State of Mexico Governor, Enrique Peña Nieto called them “perverse. Not THAT – although even the party’s General Secretary hasn’t a clue what the party line is, but the proposed PAN-PRD fusion tickets in the PRI controlled states of Hidalgo, Durango and Oaxaca in this years gubernatorial elections. Other than a PAN’s inistance (which is probably negotiable) that PRD recognize Felipe Calderón as the “legitimate president” of Mexico (which may be negotiable demand), the union would be no more perverse than any other marriage of convenience and could produce off-spring.

Going back to Mexican independence (when Criollo landowners, the church and peasant leaders agreed on a single formula for independence), compromise and mutual interests have always been the way politics works in this country. Historically, the PRI was an outgrowth of Plutarco Elías Calles’ Mexican Revolutionary Party, which united the “Revolutionary Family” of anarchists, peasant traditionalists, nationalists, proto-fascists, communists, socialists, democrats, syndicalists … and opportunists … into a single political machine. With so many moving parts, the machine didn’t always function as well as it should, but gave years of service. Last time I checked, PRI was ostensibly socialist, although with its pure “neo-liberal” and pro-capitalist stances over the last few years, hard to say.

While PAN has always adhered to a fairly “pure” ideology, the intermural squabbles of the last few years (and its disastrous showing in the 2009 Congressional elections) are largely the result of attempting to stay “pure”… the “Catholic” party line never did resonate with large sectors of the electorate, and PAN’s adherence to U.S. style economic theory doesn’t play well outside the north. People tend to forget that Vicente Fox, PAN candidate, did not win the 2000 Presidential Election. Vicente Fox, PAN-Green-Social Democracy “Alliance for Change” candidate captured Los Pinos by appealing for a “useful vote” against PRI that, he argued, would be wasted voting for any of the other opposition candidates (including Cuautémoc Cardenás, running for the “pure” PRD).

PRD — despite the best efforts of Cuauhtémoc Cardenás — never was “pure”. It was, after all, a fusion of minor parties to begin with, and Cardenás’ insistence that the party not compromise with the PRI limited its ability to compete against the machine. Andres Manuel López Obrador — love him or hate him — masterminded the party (and his own political machine)’s spectacular growth, both by emulating Lazaro Cardenas (bringing untapped interest groups into the party, in PRD’s case, street vendors, prostitutes, indigenous migrants to the Mexico city and “persons of the third age” — i.e., old people) AND though strategic alliances with dissatisfied PRI factions and politicians, as well as PAN and minor parties to run candidates under the PRD label.

And, it’s not like these left-right fusions are new. It was only by breaking the “old” PRI that the opposition parties were able to carve out a meaningful political presence. In 1993, the PRD-PAN alliance ran PRD candidate Salvador Nava for governor of San Luis Potosí, and as a way of breaking the “caique” control of Salvador Santos. Dr. Nava, unfortunately was already dying when he ran for office, but his election did seriously weaken the machine. In 1999, PAN candidates ran fro the governorships of both Tamaulipas and Coahuila.

These last two candidates lost, as did Gabino Cué Monteagudo — a PRI operative who lost out in an internal power struggle and joined Convergenica, was the PRD-PRI fusion candidate (along with Convergencia) in Oaxaca in 2004. This time, with PT, which was the only one of the national opposition parties to not join the anti-PRI coalition will be part of the fusion ticket. Cué has a reasonable chance this year, especially given the ambivalence of the national PRI towards the state’s party, and their present governor, the odious Ulises Ruiz, opposed within the party itself as a “dinasaurio” — seen as opportunists avid for money and power, and an embarrassment to the PRI, whatever ideology its espousing today.

Categories: 2000 Mexican Presidential Election · 2006 Elections · AMLO · Beatriz Paredes · Coahuila · Cuauhtémoc Cardenas · Durango · Enrique Peña Nieto · Felipe Calderón · Hidalgo (State of) · Lazaro Cardenas · Manuel Beltrones · Mexican History 1810-1824 (Independence) · Mexican History 1921+ · Minor parties · Oaxaca · PAN · PRD · PRI · Politica (Mexicana) · Provincia · San Luis Potosí · Tamaulipas · Vicente Fox

Oaxaca: come together, right now

7 January 2010 · 1 Comment

Although I’d read a few excerpts and briefly skimmed Mexican Messiah, George Grayson’s 2006 biography Andres Manuel López Obrador, I picked up the Spanish-language edition at the supermarket (marked down to 30 pesos) and am now engrossed in that. While extensively researched and footnoted, the premise is ridiculous and more than slightly forced: Grayson believes AMLO is modeling his career on Jesus Christ, Jesus had some loyal female followers, AMLO’s police security detail were “las gazelas” — female officers with martial arts training — ergo…

Still, the book is worthwhile not just for the biographical information, but as a look at how practical politics is done in Mexico. Or anywhere, for that matter, especially when a politico is looking to challenge the entrenched status quo. That requires building coalitions, even fractious ones. I thought of that when I read last week about the upcoming Oaxaca elections. The [Mexico City] News (30 December 2009):

State leaders of the PAN, PRD, Convergence Party and PT confirmed their alliance for the 2010 local elections.

Meeting at a restaurant in the north of the city, they presented the candidates who will contend for the state government led by Convergence Party Senator Gabino Cue Monteagudo.

Also present were the remaining candidates: Federal Deputy for the New Alliance Party, Irma Piñeyro Arias; former Treasury Under-Secretary during President Ernesto Zedillo’s term, Carlos Altamirano Toledo; and local PAN Deputy Gerardo Garcia Henestroza.

Carlos Moreno Alcantara, local leader of PAN, stated that the presentation of these candidates is confirmation of the progress of this great opposition alliance for next year’s elections. In which “we will have to face the whole state apparatus that wants to maintain control of the power in Oaxaca.”

At first glance this looks nutty — PAN and the PT, Papists and Maoists (er, Carlos Salinasists that claim to be Maoists), together in perfect harmony? Of course not, but that’s the way Mexican politics has always worked. Independence back in 1824 was achieved when Iturbide and Guerrero put together the “Three Guarantees” somehow yoking together the Church, the propertied classes and the masses; Obregón’s “barrage of gold pesos” — uniting anarchists, proto-fascists, Communists and agrarians into an unbeatable force effectively ended the Revolution and kick-started the modern Mexican state. López Obrador built an effective political machine in Mexico City by not just appealing to the “pure” left as his predecessor, Cuautémoc Cardenás did, but by roping in every unclaimed organized group around (everything from prostitute’s union to semi-criminal pirate taxi owners clubs to neighborhood merchant’s associations) and effectively creating group identities for people like “third age citizens” (what we call “senior citizens”) and indigenous workers.

Others — notably Patricia Mercado — have tried to sell their own ideology to several “unclaimed” potential voter blocs, but the successful politicians — like Obregón and López Obrador — have been those who let the ideology grow out of balancing the goals of those blocs.

In Oaxaca, Gabino Cué has been a candidate for an anti-PRI coalition ticket before. That effort failed partially because of dubious electorial processes to be sure, but also because it seemed to follow the unsuccessful Mercado model rather than the Obregón-AMLO one. Cué was a united opposition candidate for PAN, PRD and his own Convergencia party in 1994. Dissident PRD members complained that Cué (then Presidente Municipal of Oaxaca city) was too closely tied to some of the smellier PRI officials, and backed the Social Democratic (then “Social Democratic Alternative and Campesinos Party) candidate. That party was, of course, the successor party to Mercado’s failed “Women, Protestant, Gay and Lesbian, Indigenous” Mexico Posible Party and suffered from the same “purity” problem that has kept the opposition out of power in Oaxaca.

While there is no sense that Cué is “pure”, and radical social change in Oaxaca is still a goal with significant numbers of people (many of whom have given up on electoral politics), there is a better chance in the 2010 gubernatorial election of finally breaking PRI control over the state IF that is the only goal.

Bringing the small PT into the coalition is something of a coup. The PRI can count on the usual subservience of the Greens, but Esther Elba’s Nueva Alianza party (PANAL) which is basically SNTE — the main teacher’s union — at the ballot box could become vitally important. Oaxaca’s social uprising in 2006 began with a strike by dissident teachers and a fight within the unions, and it was thanks to PANAL draining support from the united dissident Presidential candidate (AMLO) and giving Oaxaca’s always questionable voter count to Felipe Calderón, of PAN.

Calderón has been bending over backwards ever since to keep Esther happy. But, with the state PAN itching to gain at least some power, as the national party loses ground, and with PANAL and PT both seen as the right and left wings of Carlos Salinas’ personal machine, which means the Salinas clients have some cover to defect to the opposition by voting PT. And, the Oaxaca PRI is something of an embarrassment to the national party, which may be willing to sacrifice the governorship in that state with the goal of electing another Salinas protegé (Mexico governor, Enrique Peña Nieto) to the Presidency in 2012. PANAL, sensing that PAN is losing clout, simply sit this one out and try for a better deal with the national PRI.

Oaxaca being Oaxaca, dubious voter counts are expected, but those dubious counts may just count out the PRI this time around. No one will be completely satisfied with the results, and no one will be able to claim a complete victory, but in Mexican politics victory, is seldom pure and never simple.

Categories: Carlos Salinas · Enrique Peña Nieto · Ester Elba Gordillo · Felipe Calderón · Mexican History 1921+ · Minor parties · Oaxaca · Oaxaca en luche (2006) · PAN · PRD · PRI · Politica (Mexicana) · Provincia

All natural Sunday morning readings

3 January 2010 · Leave a Comment

Things go better with coca…

Otto and BoRev indulged in dueling snark over “Coca Colla” (“Colla” is Bolivian slang for one indigenous group, which has traditionally grown coca, and has been looking for alternative internal markets). Sabina, at Hollow Hill, reviews the non-recreational uses of the popular Andean crop:

Coca in its natural state is not enough to give a mosquito a buzz, either. There is so little alkaloid in fresh or dried unprocessed coca that tonnes of it are needed to make just a kilo of cocaine. And believe me, you don’t want to know just how much, and how many, polluting nasty chemicals go into the making of that stuff. (How about a snootful of chlorine, acid and kerosene–sounds appealing, eh?)

The sacred leaf is, however, an effective suppressant of hunger, thirst and exhaustion. And whether chewed plain, or with a small pinch of powdered lime made from burnt, crushed seashells, or brewed as tea, it’s the only remedy that really works for high-altitude sickness. You can see why the indigenous peoples of the Andes, from Colombia right down to Chile, have used it for as far back as any of their histories go. It makes farming at higher altitudes possible–something it would not have been if not for coca. Use of lime makes coca work better, which may be one reason why the indigenous peoples of Bolivia remain hopeful that one day, their country will again have access to the sea–a ready source of that helpful coca-boosting mineral.

But again, this is not about being stoned all the time. At altitude, coca leaf enables people to live and work normally. Without it, they’d all have whanging headaches and be in a constant state of exhaustion. Is that much human suffering really worth the approval of the ignorant moralists of the northern global elite?

And speaking of all-natural products…

Sarah Menkedik (Posa Tigres) on growing up a “normal” blond in Ohio, and becoming a güera in Oaxaca:

…Ohio’s often a stand-in for American “normality,” the bland singular personality of flag-waving middle ‘merica. Obviously you could shake Ohio around for awhile like a piggybank and all sorts of normality-defying truths would fall out, and same goes with the monolithic notion of “middle class” or “white.” But still, these categories – Ohio, middle class, white – seem to be commonly accepted as normality defaults.

But blonde? I didn’t think to question it at all as a function of the standard normality myth until I was walking down the street a few days ago and somebody shouted, for the upteenth time, “RUBIA!” in yet another act of Macho-Stating-The-Obvious-In-A-Mildly-Threatening-And-Self-Congratulatory-Way. It’s always one of two things with me: guërita or rubia. Little whitie or blondie. The two are interchangeable. Blondeness is whiteness and foreignness. It makes me so much more of a female object, confirms and reinforces a stereotypical gringa-ness that makes it OK to treat me like a small plastic doll that can be picked up and played with.

But, more interestingly, it feeds into, shapes and reaffirms my definition of what it is to be a “normal” American and acts on my sense of identity. It makes blondness a part of me in a way it wasn’t before – makes it that thing that separates me from them, that thing that says this is me and I’m from here and these are my roots in the way that the indigenous costuming of Oaxaca’s artists says this is me and I’m from here. That cultural street always goes both ways- the way other people see you in another place reflects their given prejudices and their worldview, and simultaneously alters, contradicts, and/or compliments your perception of your own identity.

Natural sceptics

I didn’t see this until last week, but Rajeev Syal, in the Observer, finds British bankers a tad reluctant to accept the theory that people put money into banks:

Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.

British bankers would want to see any evidence that Costa has to back his claims. A British Bankers’ Association spokesman said: “We have not been party to any regulatory dialogue that would support a theory of this kind. There was clearly a lack of liquidity in the system and to a large degree this was filled by the intervention of central banks.”

Back to nature

The late Lady Bird Johnson fought long and hard to have advertising billboards (“hoardings” to some of you) removed from federal roadways. In Mexico City, Edna Alcantara (Latin American Herald-Tribune [Caracas] reports, it’s a case of “if you can’t fight ‘em, join em”:

A dozen vertical gardens featuring a broad selection of different plants will decorate the sides of Mexico City’s main thoroughfares beginning next year, adding a touch of green to this notoriously polluted city of 19 million inhabitants, organizers of the project said.

More than 15 fern species and an ample variety of plants and flowers are to be placed on some signs and billboards situated alongside highways and atop buildings.

The goal is to create environmental awareness and promote sustainable development, according to the heads of the groups sponsoring the initiative – the environmentalist organization VERDF and the Grupo Rentable company, which rents outdoor advertising space.

Crimes against nature?

Mexico City health worker, Natanya Robinowitz, on restricting abortions in Veracruz and other states (reprinted in Counterpunch from CIP Americas’ Program):

The reforms to the Veracruz State Constitution include a last-minute stipulation by the National Action Party (PAN) that women who illegally obtain abortions can avoid jail time by accepting medical and psychological treatment. This change, they say, will “defend the right to life and protect women.” Margarita Guillaumín, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), retorted, “Now women who feel driven to abort are ill, crazy, unhinged, perturbed—and they are going to rehabilitate them. Hallelujah!”

The debate in Veracruz, fueled by passion and anger, is characteristic of the larger fight throughout Mexico on the issue of abortion that spans the personal and the political. The abortion wars in Mexico involve political issues, such as the direct intervention of the Catholic Church in a secular state, and health issues deriving from the high incidence of complications from clandestine abortions.

On a personal level, the abortion debate forces the society and politicians to examine the hidden implications of stringent abortion policies and clandestine abortions on the health and lives of Mexican women.

Categories: Agriculture · Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico) · Birth Control · Bolivia · Catholic Church · Coca-Cola · Economy & Business · Environment · Food and Drink · Gringo(landia) · Health · Human Rights · Lady Bird Johnson · Oaxaca · Provincia · Religion · Veracruz · Women

Delivery girl

11 November 2009 · Leave a Comment

A lot of people, myself included, had our first job as teenagers making deliveries. Bertha Martinez Sebastian is one of them… but her deliveries are a little more complicated than the morning newspaper:

(Ricardo Ibara, EFE, via Latin American Herald Tribune [Caracas])

Bertha Martinez Sebastian, 16, combines going to school with her work as a traditional midwife in an isolated village in the southeastern Mexican state of Oaxaca, where she has assisted at more than 40 births.

A Mixe Indian, Bertha Martinez told Efe in an interview that her career as a midwife began at the age of 14 in her native town of Santa Maria Alotepec, which is four hours by road from the nearest public hospital.

… [S]he acquired the necessary skills through organizations that promote natural methods such as Nueve Lunas, which has a training program for midwives called “Luna Llena” (Full Moon).

Bertha is a member of Mexico’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights Network, and since becoming a midwife has also attended international conferences and training courses in the neighboring states of Morelos and Chiapas.

…

Bertha combines her work as a midwife with high school studies and plans to continue until she becomes a professional doctor, though her immediate goal is to study natural medicine and the complete functions of the human body.

Up to now, one of her priorities has been to use and promote medicinal plants as a means of healing the sick.

“I like to say that it’s always better with medicinal plants because they don’t contain all those chemical compounds, they’re something natural that our ancestors knew about and they’re an inheritance we ought to make use of,” she said.

Bertha’s house is also her office. There she gives advice and administers treatments to those who come because they are pregnant or for some ailment.

She also makes house calls for her patients, since a pregnant woman in an Indian settlement prefers to give birth at home surrounded by her family.

I wonder if she also does baby-sitting? Probably not on school nights.

Categories: Children · Education and educators · Health · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Medicine · Mixtec · Oaxaca · Real Mexico · Teenagers · Women

Human rights — slightly better

16 October 2009 · Leave a Comment

[P]rove one case, one single case in which the authorities have not acted, in which human rights have been violated, in which the relevant authorities haven’t responded to punish those who have abused their legal powers: whether they are police, soldiers, or any other authority.

Felipe Calderón

Where to start? Amnesty International, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and The Committee To Protect Journalists have all weighed in at various times… but have been dismissed as foreign meddling. Now, the Supreme Court of Justice has responded — taking the unusual step of not only ruling on a “single case in which the authorities have not acted, in which human rights have been violated,” but also informing probable or potential human rights abusers what exactly they are doing wrong.

Last Wednesday (14 October), the ministers issued a finding that specifically named Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz as the authority that violated human rights during the 2006 teachers’ protests that escalated into full scale rebellion. Three ministers (Juan N. Silva Meza, José de Jesús Gudiño Pelayo y José Ramón Cossío) issued what in the U.S. system would be a concurrent opinion, naming Vicente Fox, then Secretary of Public Security Eduardo Molina Mora and then Secretaría de Gobernacíon, the late Carlos Abascal, as equally responsible.

In addition, two police officials were also named in the report as culpable for criminal violations.

The Supreme Court of Justice cannot order prosecutions, and for political reasons it is unlikely that Ruiz will face charges (both the State and Federal legislatures are controlled by the PRI, Ruiz’ own party, which is loathe to open up a can of worms, and Ruiz’ support was crucial in electing [if he was elected] Felipe Calderón to the Presidency). Ruiz’ term expires in December 2010, with elections scheduled for next July. The most likely immediate result is a united front to break the PRI hold on state government. The last attempt, which included only the left failed — depending on who you chose to believe — because of election fraud on the part of PRI, because the PRI was able to take advantage of the large Zapatista constituency within the state (the Zapatistas rejecting electoral politics) and the failure to bring PAN into the equation. The Zapatistas are going to do their own thing, no matter what, and with the National PAN now seeing the PRI as a bigger threat to hanging on to the Presidency than the PRD-led coalition it faced in 2006, a united opposition is a viable, and probable, option.

The unusual step taken by the Supreme Court in sending their findings to all State governors, puts them on notice that “any authority” — at least at the state level — who violates human rights is fair game for ambitious public ministers. A couple obvious candidates for scrutiny — Enrique Peña Nieto (the odds-on favorite for PRI Presidential candidate in 2010) for state action during the Atenco situation and former Jalisco Governor, Francisco Ramírez Acuña (a hard-right PANista, who served as Calderón’s first Sec. de Gobernacion) for having anti-globalization protesters arrested and tortured during a May 2004 summit meeting). Mario Marín Torres, the “gober preciosa” accused of having Lydia Cacho kidnapped, jailed and raped for uncovering his connection to an international kiddy-porn ring, may not be off the hook, although an earlier court ruling said he was not personally liable for the particular incident involving Cacho’s phony arrest.

Undoing all “impunity”, especially that enjoyed by federal officials is going to take a little more time. At least the President can no longer blithely dismiss claims of abuse. Just the admission that attention must be paid to human rights is a huge step forward.

Categories: 2006 Elections · Courts · Crime and Punishment · FAP (PRD-PT-Convergencia) · Felipe Calderón · Human Rights · Jalisco · Legal system · Mexico (Estado de) · Oaxaca · Oaxaca en luche (2006) · PAN · Politica (Mexicana) · Provincia · Puebla · Ulises Ruiz Ortiz

Today we have to correct those things that don’t work in the country

12 October 2009 · Leave a Comment

(One update at end)

… or so said Don Felipe, justifying the dissolution of Luz y Fuero de Centro, the Mexico City metropolitan electric company (the rest of the country is served by CFE, Comisión Federal de Electricidad.

While I’m waiting for the snarky responses from those that are going to list other government entities that “don’t work in the country”, I was struck by Calderón’s calling attention to the amount of money lost by LyFC compared to other government programs… which would indicate a management, not a labor problem.

If I heard right, the workers — whom, if we take Calderón at his word, are losing their jobs because of poor management — are going to receive assistance finding jobs with “small enterprises”. How that jives with his statement that there were no plans to privatize the national power company makes me wonder if he doesn’t, as the union claim, simply want to break contracts, and destroy the union movement… something his party has always stood for (and, until recently, the other parties wouldn’t).

Electrical workers' protest (photo: El Universal)

Electrical workers' protest (photo: David Jamarillo, El Universal)

While privatization may be technically off the table, I wouldn’t be surprised to see introduction of a PEMEX type “reform” that allows for outside contractors to bid on subsidiary services, and which will pit the laid off 15,000 union workers who took to the streets in protest Sunday.

At the same time, there are legal questions. For starters, a union contract with one employer is still valid when another owner takes over the business… in this case, when CFE takes over LyFC. Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) is not going down without a fight, with other unions and several political leaders (notably AMLO) arguing the Calderón Administration’s end game is the destruction of the independent union movement… something well in line with both PAN’s more recent “neo-liberal” policies that assume a public utility should turn a profit (something alien to political traditions that hold the utilities to be a public service, not a business) and its historic roots in anti-labor movements (including fascism).

Photo: Alberto Lopez, El Universal

Ironically, CFE is raising its electrical rates, which have led to protests by business groups, manufacturers, consumers and tourist operations throughout the country. Protests, like this one by Tehuana women, are becoming more common.

Laura Carlsen, as usual, provides excellent background and overview:

The decree follows a union conflict that the government fueled and then took advantage of to eliminate the company and its union. The union elections last June were contested by the losing group amid rumors that the federal government was actively fomenting division. In a warning sign, on Oct. 5 the Secretary of Labor, Javier Lozano, rejected registration of the new union leadership without waiting for a decision from the Labor Tribunal…

…The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME, by its Spanish initials) is among the most active and independent unions in a country that has been dominated by government-affiliated unions. Its membership has led the many battles for defense of labor rights and standard of living in the country. SME leader, Martin Esparza, declared the Calderon takeover “unconstitutional” and has vowed to fight against the liquidation of the company and of the union contract. In a joint interview on MSVRadio, he spoke alongside the defeated union candidate, Alejandro Munoz, in which both declared common cause to fight against the administration’s union-busting move.

Categories: AMLO · Economy & Business · Felipe Calderón · Human Rights · Manifestaciones · Oaxaca · Organized Labor (Sindicatos) · PAN · Politica (Mexicana) · Provincia · Real Mexico

What he said

10 August 2009 · Leave a Comment

Being Presidente Legitimo means never having to say you’re sorry, but it does mean that — unlike United States Congressional Representatives — when you’re out doing the August meet the people thing, the intimidation level is a lot more than just shouting and subtle threats of violence. Lopez Obrador is meeting with the 418 Mixtec communes in Oaxaca which are governed by “uso y costumbre”.

In Santa María Tepalcatepec local state police commander Andrés Melchor Hernández sent out a dozen officers armed with high caliber weapons to “convince” locals not to attend the speech. Lopez Obrador gave it anyway. He pretty much said what he wrote to Messers. Calderon, Obama and Harper this weekend:

Respectable leaders:

There is still time to correct the defects in the origin of the North America Free Trade Agreement; a model that was designed to benefit large corporations rather than people.

Without a doubt, the fifteen years of this treaty have seen the worst this country has suffered. Throughout this period there has been virtually no economic growth, no support for producers, the manufacturing sector has lost 15 percent of the jobs that were available before 1994, we import more than half the food we eat, and have become a major exporter of laborers.

In large measure, due to the absurd policies imposed during the fifteen years of NAFTA, six million Mexicans have been forced to emigrate, risking everything, to suffer from discrimination and violation of their human rights, to find something to quench their hunger and their poverty.

Despite this, the governments of the three countries have not undertaken any agreements to build a more efficient, equitable, fair and mutually beneficial relationship. By contrast, in 2005, they supported the Alliance for Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), which presupposes that cooperative military actions are the means to foster development.

It is incredible that in addressing the migration issue and the problems of insecurity and violence, you consider only coercive measures, without understanding that these problems are rooted the lack of economic growth, unemployment and the welfare crisis in our country.

Hence, we respectfully urge you review reconsider the terms of our relationship in terms of cooperative development, which will improve the working and living conditions of our peoples, and recognize that security and peace are the fruits of justice.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Whether I agree with Lopez Obrador or not is beside the point. He articulates a common sentiment about NAFTA that is widely held in Mexico. Statistically, he received as much of the vote in the last presidential election as Felipe Calderon, and he has by no means gone away. Even if he is not a candidate for office, or only a candidate for a minor party, his constituency — mostly rural and working class — will matter very much and are ignored by foreign commentators at their own peril.

Categories: Agriculture · Economy & Business · Emigrant labor/remittances · Mixtec · Multinationals · NAFTA · Oaxaca · Trade agreements and issues

Tradition… it’s a drag

26 November 2008 · 1 Comment

BY MICA ROSENBERG

Reuters

JUCHITAN, Oax. – Attaching flowers to a ribbon headdress, pulling a lace slip under an embroidered skirt and draping a necklace of gold coins over his head, Pedro Martínez puts the finishing touches on the traditional costume of Zapotec women in southern Mexico.

“When I get all dressed up like this my father always says, ‘Oh Pedro! You look just like your mother when she was young,’ ” beams Martínez, 28, gluing on fake eyelashes in front of a mirror.

Martínez spent two hours in the hair salon he owns getting ready for this past weekend’s festival of the “muxes,” indigenous gays and transvestites in the town of Juchitán who have found a haven of acceptance in Mexico’s macho society.

The muxes (pronounced moo-shes), mostly of ethnic Zapotec descent, are widely respected in the southern town where a dance and parade that crowns a transvestite queen and celebrates the harvest has been held annually for the last 33 years.

Anthropologists say the tradition of blurring genders among Mexico’s indigenous population is centuries old but has been revived in recent decades due to the gay pride movement.

RAUCOUS PARTY

Several dozen muxes were blessed by a Catholic priest at a Mass before joining visiting transvestites and other townsfolk at a raucous party on Saturday night. The muxes wore either traditional local costumes or ball gowns and high heels.

The beer-fueled fiesta continued into Sunday at a parade through town.

Some of the muxes, a Zapotec word derived from the Spanish for woman, or “mujer,” dress as women year round and others are gays who only don women’s clothes at the annual party, or not at all.

The area around Juchitán, a laid-back town near the Pacific, has a history of women playing leading roles in public life.

“The legend here is that mothers pray for a gay son who can take care of them when they are old,” theater director Sergio Santamaría, 56, said over a traditional breakfast of iguana soup and sweet corn tamales.

DUAL-GENDERED GODS

Native people in the Americas with ambiguous gender were often regarded as wise and talented, said Rosemary Joyce, a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.

“They were seen as having a kind of spiritual power that comes from being more like the ancestors who are mothers and fathers at once, and more like the divinities who may be dual gendered,” Joyce said.

Anthropologists have found evidence of mixed gender identities across Mesoamerica, from Mayan corn and moon gods that are both male and female and Aztec priests who ritually cross dressed.

The Spanish Conquest in the 16th century and the Catholic Church snuffed out much of that tolerance.

“The colonizing power was very rigid about sex. They came in and rapidly suppressed all these practices, which doesn’t mean they went away. It means they went underground,” Joyce said.

While homosexuality has long been accepted in Juchitán, it is only recently that muxes feel secure enough to cross-dress and they have taken on causes like AIDS education, since the region has one of the highest HIV rates in the state of Oaxaca.

“There have always been muxes, but before they would wear just a dress shirt with a feminine touch, like gold buttons. The transvestites are the new generation,” said Santamaría.

Categories: Gays · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Oaxaca · Provincia · Real Mexico · Tourism · Travestis · Zapotecs

The Bird Man of Mazatlán

3 November 2008 · 3 Comments

Whether Andrew Jackson Grayson should be included among the great artists who were only recognized posthumously, or as a 19th century scientist and explorer is hard to say. Whether being expected to work on a history of Mazatlán is a sign of faith in Gods, Gachupines and Gringos… or more proof that no good deed goes unpunished, I’ll leave to you.

But Grayson is a fascinating — and largely unknown — 19th century personage. Was it a tragedy that an artist had to toil in a shop, or was toiling in a shop what made him the artistic and scientific genius that he was?

This is a draft for the Mazatlán book. The original material is based on my translations from Oses Cole, Diccionario biográfico e histórico de Mazatlán (Mazatlán, Sinaloa:Cruz Roja Mexica, 2006) and information from Beyond Audubon: Andrew Jackson Grayson, Louisiana’s Forgotten Artist (Louisiana State Archives). The photo is from the Lousiana State website. Artwork from Andrew Jackson Grayson: Birds of the Pacific Slope (San Francisco: Arion Press, 1986).

Born in 1818 in Lousiana, the son of a prosperous plantation owner, Andrew Jackson Grayson had always wanted to draw. One glimpse of Audubon’s Birds of the United States was enough to set Grayson on his life’s mission – bird painting – and his frustrating, tragic career as a scientist and artist, whose importance is only now being recognized.

Already a recognized bird expert by the early 1840s, Grayson was hired as a field collector by the new Smithsonian Institution. This didn’t put food on the table, and Grayson, with his wife Francis and infant son, Edward, emigrated to California in 1846. In a career marked by bad luck and worse timing, whatever it was that forced the Graysons to drop out of their wagon train along the way was probably for the best. The Donner Party went on without the Graysons.

Financially, Grayson did extremely well out of the California gold rush, as a San Francisco retail grocer and real estate speculator. In some ways, he welcomed the end of the gold rush, which allowed him to move to rural San Jose, where he built “Bird Nest Cottage,” worked on his artistic technique and become more than an amateur painter.

There, as the anonymous author of the Louisiana State Archives biography says:

He developed his own painting style and soon became a very competent artist.

His technique involved an initial sketch of the outline of a bird and the form of the background landscape and vegetation. The bird was then painted in minute detail in light pencil strokes then developed with washes in pale tones. He then progressed to filling in the detail of the background. He finished using a dry brush technique working in strong, clean colors.

In part because of the Donner Party experience, travel between California and the settled eastern half of the United States in the 1850s was normally done by sailing down the Pacific Coast to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, crossing the Isthumus of Tehuantepec to what was then Puerto Mexico (today’s Coatzacoalcos) or Veracruz, and then sailing to New Orleans. On a business trip, combined with his part-time work for the Smithsonian, Grayson made the first of the paintings later included in his masterwork, Birds of the Pacific Slope, while travelling across the Isthumus in 1857. Although recognized as both an artist and a scientific writer, he was unable to completely support his family on by these activities, and finding the San Francisco retail trade not as lucrative as it had been during the early gold rush, Grayson moved his family – and opened a new store – in the then booming port of Mazatlán in 1859.

While his store never prospered, his artistic career matured during his time in Mazatlan. In his major works, Grayson’s technical skill exhibits a surprising ability to achieve dynamic compositions with brillliant color and exotic details.

(more…)

Categories: Andrew Jackson Grayson · Animals · Artists, Writers, Philosophers, etc. · Birds · Emperor Maximiliano · Environment · Gringo(landia) · John James Audubon · Mazatlan · Mexican History 1824-1910 · Nayarit · New Orleans · Non-Mexican writers/artists on Mexico · Oaxaca · Provincia · Science · Sinaloa · Tabasco (Estado de) · Veracruz · Writers, artists, philosphers outside Mexico

Fight for the right to party!

21 July 2008 · 1 Comment

(Dissident teachers at the start of the Alternative Guelaguetza,in Oaxaca. Notimex photo by Hugo Alberto Velasco, printed in The News)

It’s that time again. The annual running of the protesters in Oaxaca always cumulates in the now traditional duelling traditional Guelaguetzas. What had been since the 17th century a religious fiesta and market was always running away from the authorities, as the locals had their own ideas of what they expected from the Oaxaca-wide swap meet and party. In the early 1930s, to satisfy the people’s needs, and at the same time satisfy restrictions on religious processions in public, Guelaguetza was given a new identity as a “folk festival.” That was fine until the State, in the 1980s and 90s decided to make the event a tourist attraction. While the State invested in facilities and brought in “acts” to perform for the tourists. The chronic political and social unrest within the State, as tourism and other foreign investments (especially in mining) left people feeling more and more alienated from the State government, cumulated in violent uprising in 2006.

One “victim” of the violence was the offical Guelaguetza — dissidents burned down the “traditional” site (in use since the 1930s). Since “the show must go on” (and the last thing anyone wanted were tour groups cancelling their reservations), the Guelaguetza went on in a heavily guarded compound, while an ad hoc alternative Guelaguetza took place in the streets, sponsored by the dissident unions and other groups.

This year’s events are being held both at the official site (Cerro Fortin) and at the State University Stadium. The problem in Oaxaca, according to some, was that the state was run by a single political party. Maybe this doesn’t change the politics, but it’s a step in the right direction to set up a “two party” system.

Categories: Economy & Business · Folklore/customs · Guelaguetza · Human Rights · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Mining · Oaxaca · Oaxaca en luche (2006) · Politica (Mexicana) · Provincia · Real Mexico · Tourism

Used wife, one owner…

2 July 2008 · 1 Comment

I still do not “get” the people who defend “usos y costumbres” as a progressive cause (I’ve had run-ins with the Oaxaca Studies Action Group people over this — the upshot being I subscribe to that yahoo group any more, and I seriously question the journalistic integrity of Narco News Bulletin, which was printing reports by some of these people without fact-checking). As best I can understand, the traditionalists were among the many who opposed (and still oppose) the Ulises Ruiz administration, and the PRI political machine. Some on the progressive side seem to think voting by consensus (as opposed to a “free and secret ballot” in the words of the Mexican Constitution) among communities that reject PRI is “good” … and that among those who back the PRI is the result of manipulation.

Setting aside individual rights within traditional communities was probably the worst thing the Fox administration did. I know there are those who defend the constititional change (a capitulation to the Zapatistas — which for some odd reason enjoys wide support from the left) on the grounds that it preserves native culture, but as a human rights issue, I’m not sure it should be supported by these progressives. Most of them would scream bloody murder if they had to live in small towns run by “traditional family values” rules.

People either have rights just as people, or they don’t. I don’t see how a modern state, and our modern concept of individual rights can coexist with these “traditional values”… and seriously doubt that preserving them is worthwhile.

My translation is from a 24 June 2008 article in Milenio by Blanca Valadez

Follwing the uses and indigenous customs of the pueblo of Santa María Asunción, Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Guadalupe was sold by her family on two different occasions, .The first time, as a 17 year old, she sold for seven thousand pesos. The second, having been forced to return home when he husband no longer wanted her, her parents sold her for 3,500 pesos, “slighly used.”

She had been married for six years to the first husband. Her son was left behind. A few days later she was “acquired” by Manuel, who refused to pay the full price to his in-laws, alleging his purchase had been mislabeled as a virgin.

Manuel’s in-laws complained about the non-payment, and a few months later filed a legal demand befor the municipal agency for payment of the 3,500 pesos.

Municipal authorities would not stop the sale. On the contrary, they obliged Manuel to pay up immediately, or risk being sent to jail. The court procedings in this community are in the first langague, Mazateco.

“In Santa María Asunción when a man sees a woman who doesn’t have a boyfriend, he doesn’t try to get to know her, but buys her. He goes to her parents and asks “what do you want for her, and what can I afford?’.”

“In many families, they also require you to feed the family on the wedding day, but not everyone adds that condition,” said Yolanda Bartolo Cortés; whose mother, Cecilia Cortés, was sold by her father over 20 years ago.

Yolanda said that some men have tried to avoid paying for women, as did Ramiro Bartolo Cortés, who refused to pay the 5,000 pesos demanded for Eva, with whom he now lives in Mexico City.
However, under pressure from his in-laws, who tracked them down to their home in colonia Santa Domingo in delegación Coyoacán, he had been obligated to pay at least 3000 pesos.

Now Ramiro wants to send Eva back home, and to live with Maria, a teenager from that same Oaxaca town he met when Eva went back to Santa María Asunción to have their first child.

“Even though Maria’s parents knew Eva was my pregnant sister-in-law and Ramiro was her husband, they offered to sell him their daughter for ten thousand pesos. The only reason he didn’t buy her is that he didn’t have the money. In fact, he’s not working, and his wife is supporting him,” Yolanda Bartolo Cortés related.

“My brother told Eva, “Get lost. I don’t want you any more. I want the other girl,” but my sister-in-law stayed, even though he beats her, not caring that he is pregnant.”
Although the sale of women is practically a custom in that community, not everyone accepts their destiny, and some try to flee.

Cecilia Cortés is 39 years old. At 14 she was sold to Hipólito Bartolo, a year older. “My mother tried to flee when she found out the negotiation. One of her uncles found her down by the river, and dragged her back by her hair.

“There was no way out. To leave, she’d need a boat to get out of that palce, since thee wasn’t any bridge. And my mother had no money or help. There was no other option for her, but to marry my father both in church and in a legal wedding, and to spend years in a living hell.”

Lupita, Eva and Cecilia not only have in common being sold by their families, but being the victims of abuse and family violence as well.

Yolanda saw her alcoholic father knock her mother to the ground several times, as was she several times when she tried to defend her mother.

There is hope for legislative change.

A government agency, Inmujeres – the Women’s Institute — has denounced the mainly poor and indigenous communities of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Campeche and Guerrero, that by use and custom allow women to be sold, often for as little as two cases of soda pop and one case of beer.
A study by Inmujeres finds that in these states the criminal penalities for cattle theft are more severe than for attempting to sell a woman, sexual abuse, holding a woman against her will, or holding her peonage.

Liliana Rojero Luévano, the Executive Secretary of Inmujeres, says the institute is working with the individual legislators in the state congresses to modify the penal codes and civil procedures in these matters.

“In places like Campeche, a man usually is absolved of rape charges if the woman lives in the same house. The same result happens in child abuse cases, if he is able to manipulate the child’s testimony.”

In Oaxaca, for example, there has been in increase in the number of women murdered by their husbands, family, or other men have been increasing, and the legal sanctions are missing.
In the last several months more than 30 women have been murdered, leading to to formation of a commission to recommend a series of changes.

In Oaxaca, women who have attempted to change their situation, or spoken out on the matter have been murdered, as were communal radio journalists Teresa Baptist Merino and Felícitas Martinez Sanchez.

There have also been intimidation in these communities against women like Eufrosina Cruz, whose election first as municipal president and then edil of Santa María Quiegolani were nullified despite votes in her favor.

“If the states do not modify their penal and civil laws, they will not receive a single one of the seven million pesos earmarked for anti-violence programs. In San Luis Potosí major modifications in the law that protect women have been implemented, and, what is important, they were done without targeting any communal uses and customs,” Rojero Luévano said.

Categories: Campeche · Chiapas · Clueless gringos in Mexico · Crime and Punishment · Folklore/customs · Guerrero (State) · Human Rights · Indigenous People(s) · Informal economy · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Legal system · Mazatecos · Oaxaca · PRI · Provincia · Real Mexico · Ulises Ruiz Ortiz · Zapatistas

Oaxaca… “Totally partial” — say what?

15 June 2008 · 1 Comment

I know some people assume the source (Al Jazeera) would be de facto unreliable, but I’m not sure why a news organization owned by Arab oil money would be any more biased than one owned by any other corporatation. Besides, not having a dog in this hunt, I can’t see why they’d want to spin anything. Anyway… the U.S. press seems to have forgotten about Oaxaca, even though protests still go on.

Tens of thousands of protesters have converged on the southern city of Oaxaca in Mexico to protest against the regional government.

The protests on Saturday also mark the second anniversary of a violent crackdown on a teachers’ protest, that left more than two dozens dead.

Florentino Lopex Martinez, a protester, said: “This is a policy of oppression, the most fascist type of oppression in the whole of Oaxaca’s history. The methods of repression have worsened considerably.”

In 2006, protesting teachers had siezed the main plaza demanding better working conditions.

They complained that Ortiz was corrupt and came to office through a stolen election.

The protest developed into a broad demonstration against social and economic conditions in the poor Mexican state.

Violent crackdown

State and federal police violently cracked down on the protest leaving at least 27 people dead.

Witnesses claim gunmen supporting the governor fired into a crowd. There have been no convictions for the killings as yet.

His opponents say Ortiz uses violence to suppress his political opponents.

Amnesty International has said that his administration has been behind the murders of dozens of opposition members.

National and international human rights organisations say most of the violence now takes place in remote villages of Oaxaca.

Talking to Al Jazeera, Ortiz said: “There is no documentation to implicate any government official. Amnesty International’s report is totally partial.”

Ortiz’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has ruled Oaxaca for nearly 80 consecutive years.

Categories: Human Rights · Manifestaciones · Oaxaca · Oaxaca en luche (2006) · PRI · Politica (Mexicana) · Provincia · Ulises Ruiz Ortiz