OK, Karen…

Sandra Cuevas, the “mayor” of Cuauhtemóc (the most populous of Mexico City’s 16 “alcadias”… or municipalities) apparently is one of “those people” who’d have made a better obnoxious HOA board president than … having been elected from the conservative PAN party, makes her home in the (admittedly gentrifying) working/middle class Colonia Santa Maria de la Ribera. Right across from the colonia’s popular Alameda, not the big downtown park, but their own, smaller version, graced with a cnetral bandstand… built originally by the firm of Gustav Eiffel as the Mexican pavillion for the 1903 New Orleans Worlds’ Fair that somehow, after declining into a skater ramp a few years back, has become the centerpiece of one of the nicer, neighborhood centers in the city.

See seems to resent that the neighbors are not up to HER standards of decorum… how dare they enjoy themselves with a Sunday in the park…. and isn’t it undigified for grandparents to be out dancing the afternoon away? She though so… two weeks ago chasing out the local band, Sincelejo, that would play there Sunday afternoons… a variety of traditional dance music for the enjoyment of not a buch of skaters or other types usually the target of Karenic wrath, but… grannies!

So… having called out black-shirts (literally…. municipal employees in black uniforms) … the grannies and grand-dads have, along with official complaints to the Human Rights Commission (the right to recreation is included in Mexico City’s Constitution, by the way) have launched a revolution that Emma Goldman would surely appreciate.

From “Vuelve el baile a Santa María la Ribera; exigen alto a la represión“, Laura Gómez Flores, Jorrnada, 27 Febrruary, 2023)

The dance returned to Santa María la Ribera, where a week ago “Sonido Sincelejo” was removed and several people were attacked by employees of the Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office, leading to complaints being filed with the Human Rights Commission.

The residents took advantage of the event to collect signatures on a petition to revoke the mandate of Mayor Sandra Cuevas and asked local deputies to formally being impeachment procedures against her for abuses of authority and violations of her human rights.

Another demand is to uncover the motives behind the forced removal of a band “which has been in this space for 12 years, providing seniors and families from different parts of the city to healthy fun, without selling of alcohol or drugs”,

With speakers brought from home and cell phones, the protesters “played the music we like,” as people like Melao — the blind man who says he’s been coming here from Iztapalapa every Sunday for the last decade to dance to the rhythm of cumbia, salsa, huaracha and merengue,

Armando and Lupita, who travel four hours from the State of Mexico to Santa María la Ribera and … with 66 years of experience behind them are considered “one of the best dancing couples”, amazing the attendees with their movements.

Ángela, Lupita, Mary and José, among others, explained that this “peaceful demonstration is to assert our right to dance, to have fun and to express our support for the members of the Sonido Sincelejo, whose horns were taken away by the people of the mayor’s office and even their speakers”, which, they note, have not been returned.

With placards reading “Sandra Cuevas, let me dance!”, “My happiness is mine, nobody takes it from me”, and “More dancing and less repression”, the attendees of the until-now regular Sunday event expressed their disapproval of those who “have taken away OUR space”.

Human Rights Commission personnel who were on-site commented that were there as part of their investigation of complaints about the events of 19 February, while neighbors collected signatures to “demand the revocation of [Ms. Curvas’] mandate.”

Francisco Urrutia explained that the signatures — the 63 he gathered in the previous hour, along with the other 720 he’d already collected will be delivered to the Electoral Institute of Mexico City so they can proceed accordingly, and “so that they can return the space to us as neighbors, not as Sincelejo Sound”. Other residents considered that “the citizen’s demand has to proceed: not just for the band which suffered attacks last week, but for those of us who were victimized by people from the Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office on orders from their boss, Sandra Cuevas , and so it never happens again.”

Dancers of the world, unite. Or never mess with grannies!