Death and the Virgin
When Jesús Guízar Villanueva, did not respond to his doorbell or his telephone last 20 January, his brother and sister, concerned about the welfare of their sibling, found a locksmith to let them into Guízar’s home. The 63-year-old, who lived alone, was discovered in his bed, badly beaten and unconscious. There was no apparent sign of a break-in. After being admitted to the nearest hospital, Guizár was transferred at the insistence of his employer and the employer’s insurance representative— and over the strenuous objections of the attending physicians and is family — to a private clinic where he subsequently died. Although the employer attempted to claim the body and order a cremation, but the family intervened, and after some strenuous arguments with the private hospital staff, were able to claim Guízar’s remains, for burial in the family plot.
It’s an odd story to be sure, but nothing that would catch your attention (unless you were interested in the way Mexican employers sometimes attempt to take charge of their employee’s personal lives, or suspect insurance companies of being too anxious to close troublesome cases that might lead to expensive settlements or claims). But I left out a few, possibly significant details about the late Jesús Guízar Villanueva.
The unexplained beating might make for a small crime item in the local paper, and perhaps you might get a decent article for a business publication out of the micro-management run amok , but I get the feeling there’s more than enough here for any number of good thrillers… and maybe even a Dan Brown novel or two.
Let’s rewrite that first paragraph a bit.
When the Very Reverend Jesús Guízar Villanueva, Canon of the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe (and a nephew of Saint Rafael Guízar y Valencia), who had recently sent confidential information to Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Norberto Ribera and Papal Nuncio Christophe Pierre regarding “unorthodox” behavior by Basilica authorities, specifically by Rector Diego Monroy Ponce, did not respond to his doorbell or telephone last 20 January…
Monsignor Guízar, according to his brother Gonzalo (a physician, by the way), was admitted to Hospital Angeles Lindavista, where physicians recommended re-hydration for the next three days while the patient was stabilized and the full extent of his injuries could ascertained. However, Father Rafael Bustillo, who handles insurance matters for the Basilica, order Monsignor Guízar transferred to Hospital Santa Elena, where he died — supposedly of a heart attack while in an induced coma — on 23 January. Within five minutes of Guízar’s death, Rector Monroy, viewed the body, and was insisting on cremating the Canon’s remains, for inhumation in the niche reserved for Basilica canons. Despite pressure from the Basilica administration, the family buried the body in their own plot at Panteon Jardin.
Unfortunately for Dan Brown fans, Rev. Guízar’s confidential reports had nothing to do with lost symbols, or clues to the DaVinci Code. And for those who hope for even juicier scandals involving at the least drug abuse and sex, like those caused by Rev. Guízar’s cousin, the late (unlamented) Marcial Maciel, the irregularities at the Basilica were run-of-the-mill sins stemming from the root of all evil… greed.
Diego Monjoy at work
Although the land for the “Plaza Mariana” (the combination visitor’s center, museum, cemetery, shopping mall and parking garage added to the Basilica complex under Rev. Monroy’s rectorship), was transferred to the Basilica at no cost by the Federal District, and Carlos Slim paid the construction costs, Reverend Monroy was busily raising funds for the project during his tenure as Rector. That he “retired” after accumulating a sizable nest egg, including several houses in Mexico City, a family home in Queretaro and a private museum (and art collection) in Patzcuaro, and an unknown amount of personal assets in several bank accounts.
Father Enrique Glennie Graue was appointed Rector this past week. Cardinal Rivera, in accepting Monsignor Monjoy’s resignation praised his “love of the Virgin of Guadalupe … exhibited by his various and continuous activities…”
Perhaps we should be Joyful that there is a new rector, which could could prove Luminous in resolving the Sorrowful circumstances of the Very Reverend Guízar’s demise… which remains a Glorious Mystery to be sure*.
*To those who understand the last sentence… why yes, I did go to Catholic school through 12th grade… but even with the help of Wikipedia I can’t avoid the near occasion of really bad puns.
La patria chica
Recently writing about one of the “old school” Sinaloa marijuana exporters, Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseca Carillo, who is presently serving a lengthy prison sentence, Malcolm Beith says “But one look at Don Neto’s history, his place in a society neglected by government, and one can begin to understand just why the average Sinaloan might support a guy like that.
… in that homeland [the rural Sinaloa sierras], he’s seen as a hero. There is no doubt that he has put more money into the community, created more jobs, and given people more hope than the government has ever tried to do. There is no doubt that he is the patron, a man who kept crime down (even if by force and brutality) and kept society (albeit one founded on illicit activity) running…
I’m not saying it’s right, but I do understand it.
Whether Fonseca Carillo is “old school” is probably a matter of semantics. The history of Sinaloa narcotics exports goes back to the 1880s, and Don Neto was hardly a traditionalist, being one of the pioneers of a new neo-liberal “free trade” system. He spent most of his business career in Ecuador, handing cocaine exports to the United States via his own organization in Guadalajara. What seems “old school” perhaps is that Fonseca Carillo never forgot where he came from, and was generous to his hometown, and/or was supported by his “homies.”
I’m not saying it’s right, either, but being on the wrong side of the law, or even morals, is no barrier to being seen as a hometown legend… Jesse James has been dead for over 125 years and is still a hometown hero to many in Clay County, Missouri.
Malcolm quotes a “U.S. official” as asking why Mexicans would support a person who “poisons your society” — meaning narcotics are also sold in Mexico (although, even at double the present rate, still a fractional use of that of the United States, or any of the wealthy nations) and admits its a “good question.” I think it misses the obvious answer.
Fonseca Carillo’ is “old fashioned” perhaps in that he was a patrón . Because “El Neto” was involved in an illegal trade, perhaps the word “patrón” conjures up an image of the fictional Don Corelone in Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather”), but he might be something more along the lines of the haciendado Don Jacinto in B. Traven’s “The White Rose”, or the very real Juana Catalina Romero.
The 19th century illiterate Zapotec business-woman “Doña Cata”, like our contemporary Sinaloan Don Neto, made herself very rich exploiting foreign demand for Mexican agriculture (and exploiting Mexican labor), but is a heroine to her people. It wasn’t her business acumen and innovation introducing new crops and industries to the Isthmus of Tehuanatepec, financing infrastructure developments and lobbying for the Trans-Isthmus railroad) that made her a much memorialized local figure, but her role as “patróna”. She founded schools and hospitals, and fostered and protected — not Mexican — but traditional Zapotec values and culture while participating in the global economy.
Doña Cata, was able to obtain her near-feudal control of the isthmus largely through personal connections (as a teen-aged cigarette vendor, she was the girl-friend of a young soldier named Porfirio Diáz) in an era when the state was unable to provide services in isolated communities. How personal and close the ties are between today’s patróns of the narcotics trade and the “powers that be” is speculative, but — with the Revolutionary goal of providing for the isolated communities, and the abandonment of rural Mexico since NAFTA — rural services have declined or disappeared, and it is no surprise that those providing for these communities are local heroes.
Don Neto is old-fashioned in another way. He doesn’t seem to have ever thought of giving an ideological basis to his patronage that would legitimize his role within his patria chica beyond the purely feudal lord and servant model. “La Familia Michoacana” , whatever I may think of their puritanical U.S. model (Focus on the Family), does.
Terror and/or intimidation is certainly part of the package, but then any resistance group — from the Zapatistas to the Taliban — has to deal roughly with those that resist their attempts to create an alternative to the larger state. Neither financing a movement though criminal acts against the outside world (as if resistance to the state was not, in itself, criminal), nor an eccentric ideology is any bar to the “success” of these kinds of small-scale insurgent movements. Really, the only thing that makes “La Familia” seem like a serious threat is that they are up-front about their motives. With the loss of their “drug lord” leader recently, they have been making overtures to the federal government, offering to give up their struggle, asking only for guarantees of security in Michoacan.
Naturally, one should be skeptical of the “good faith” of “la Familia”, but — with the present administration balefully ignoring “security” in the broad sense (of social security, reasonable educational and economic prospects for youth and the chance to maintain a decent life in the country, within a patria chica, while taking advantage of what the wider world has to offer), those who do offer at least a minimal of “security” in those senses to their patria chica are going to continue to thrive.
Just providing the folklore Americans can’t
What’s stranger? A chupacabra in Kentucky, or Cindy Casares at Guanabee falling for the story on día de los inocentes?
Borderlands crime
Another spillover effect from the “War on Terror/drugs/Mexicans/youth/women/sex”? Well, I suppose if, in the name of “Homeland Security”, crossing back and forth across the border wasn’t such a hassle, the lad might have gone to Boys Town in Reynosa.
Sex tourism, and exploitation are, of course, serious issues, but at least in Mexico, the prostitute is not a criminal. Then again, the kid is a minor. While Mexico’s “age of consent” (18) is older than that in Texas (17), I kind of doubt there would have been anyone calling the police over a matter like this, and the “alleged perp” would not be facing a 10,000 dollar fine and 10 years in prison for “indecency with a child”.
Of course, had dad found a naked 35 year old man dad with his 16 year old daughter (or, his son, I suppose) there might have been a corpse out in the desert… on one side of the border or the other.
Rapid Response
Hey, remember what happened in the Gulf last April?
… crew members died and suffered terrible injuries because every one of the Horizon’s defenses failed on April 20. Some were deployed but did not work. Some were activated too late, after they had almost certainly been damaged by fire or explosions. Some were never deployed at all.
And the Gulf was screwed, and fishermen, homeowners, states, the federal government, British Petroleum, insurance companies et. alia are arguing over who has responsibility to pay what and to whom, and will keep arguing for a very long time… as in years. That’s the American way.
Here, a PEMEX pipeline explosion a week ago Sunday in San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, killed 29 persons and destroyed 101 houses. It is not yet certain whether the explosion was caused by thieves stealing oil, or poor maintenance on the PEMEX line, or subsidence combined with negligence, not that identifying the culprit is the most immediate concern of those who lost their homes or loved ones.
PEMEX has already started making restitution to survivors and those who lost property. 18 partially or wholly damaged houses in colonia San San Damián were demolished Christmas Eve in preparation for new construction. That’s the Mexican way.
La navidad auténtica
Hermano Juanito — a true believer in the proposition that it is better to give than to receive — should not mind my passing along these thoughts from his website:
Nadie podrá celebrar la Navidad auténtica
si no es pobre de verdad.
Los autosuficientes, los orgullosos,
los que desprecian a los demás porque todo lo tienen,
los que no necesitan ni de Dios,
para ésos no habrá Navidad.
Sólo los pobres, los hambrientos,
los que tienen necesidad de que alguien venga por ellos,
tendrán a ese alguien,
y ese alguien es Dios,
Emanuel,
Dios-con-nosotros.
Sin pobreza de espíritu
no puede haber llenura de Dios.
Monseñor Oscar Romero, 24 de diciembre de 1978
Peace on Earth…
Quote of the year
“If you were planning to die, you wouldn’t need money drops in Mexico.”
U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley, sentencing former Ohio banker Rebecca Parrett to a twenty-five year prison sentence for fraud, money laundering and other charges. During her stay in Ajijic, Parrett surprisingly did not work as a real estate agent or time share saleswoman, though it sounds like she had the right stuff .
The Reds’ ransom of el Jefe
With a lot more wit than I can muster, Burro Hall nicely sums up the reaction so far to the re-appearance of Jefe Diego:
So far, about the only reasonably credible piece of information to come out since he got sprung is the fact that the ransom negotiations were headed up by Jefe Diego himself. Some people just don’t know how to delegate. Apparently the kidnappers wanted an Austin Powers-esque One…hundred…million…dollars! But El Jefe told ’em fuck you, 30 mil or I walk. So $30 million it was. In cash. US dollars. El Jefe just had it laying around. Other press reports are saying that he’s been free since Dec 11.
Opposition politician in Querétaro are now saying things like “How great that he’s re-appeared – if he really was kidnapped, that is,” while others are saying that it would be unfair of PAN to use the kidnapping to gain an advantage in the polls next year. We Americans have some experiences with right-wing politicians cashing in on their lengthy involuntary confinement, and we can tell you it’s never pretty.
Meanwhile, fingers are pointing at the Ejército de Liberación Nacional as the possible kidnappers, though there doesn’t appear to be any actual evidence for this…
Some question the “evidence” that a kidnapping by anyone took place.
What struck me first about the so-called manifesto that appeared after Fernández de Cevallos was either released (or emerged from wherever he was holed up) was its clumsy, and prolix reiteration of the “alternative presidency” platform. While I have my doubts that the Ejército de Liberación Nacional is even active — besides the “evidence” that they were involved in a pipeline sabotage last year also being dubious, its leadership would be in their late 70s or early 80s, if they’re even alive…and, back when they were active, Queretaro — from whence Fernández de Cevallos disappeared — was never ELN territory. I’m even more dubious of the proposition that “former policemen” carried out the kidnapping. Although badly written, “former policemen” don’t write manifestos, especially not manifestos beginning with a quote from Bertold Brecht’s Über das Töten — a fugitive essay written in 1933 or 34 and published posthumously in 1956.
The classics established no statues that forbade killing. They were the most compassionate of human beings, but they saw enemies of humanity before them who could not be overcome through persuasion. All that the classics strived for was to create the kind of conditions under which it was no longer necessary to kill anyone. That fought against the violence that abuses, and the violence with impedes the movement. They did not hesitate to oppose violence with violence.
There is no such thing as forensic literary criticism, and I’m not all that into playing amateur CSI guy. I’d just say that Epilogo de una desaparión is too Lopez-Obradorish (in its complaints) to be from ELN and is the output of reasonably well-educated people, which rather eliminates another popularly suggested group of kidnappers, “former policemen”. Although the ELN is typically Marxist, and might include people who’ve read obscure works by Brecht, as a “popular liberation front”, it would be unlikely to appeal to the Mexican masses (or to the Mexican elites for that matter) with quotations from a German playwright’s political essay justifying the Stalin’s purge of the Bolsheviks. I’d guess you’d need at least a master’s in Marxist Studies — or a lot of luck and a good search engine — to figure out the quote. My translation was largely based on David Pike’s “Lukács and Brecht” U of North Carolina Press, 1985, page 233). Pike explains the quote this way: “Killing was acceptable if it occurred as part of a regulated revolutionary process. The ‘classics’ — Marx and Engels — had given their blessing to selective killing, after all, because it would take place in order to do away with killing.”
Very early on, the manifesto makes mention of “Fobaproa” — the bank bailout and restructuring program of the 1990s attacked endlessly by López Obrador for destroying middle-class savings and enriching the “mafias” — and continually returns to the more or less “bourgeois” populist concerns:
We see day-to-day military impunity, police who deliver victims to the narcos and evident coexistence between the president of the Republic, governors, senators, deputies, judges, generals and police chiefs with major [narcotics] capos. It is not too much to state that the high bureaucracy and reactionary sectors of the political class are the most criminal of the nation’s mafias. The “war” the government claims to wage for the sake of peace is not to combat the root of the problem nor the real criminals —committed by white-collar criminals who — through fobaproas, business bailouts, privatization (highway concessions, secret contracts in the oil, fiber-optics and natural resources) oil, fiber and other natural resources) — are enriched and acquire the ability to make and unmake governments.
However the most sophisticated form of violence, which hits us every day and is perhaps least recognized as violence do not seem to come from any one person. This is the “invisible” structural violence continually presented as “havoc”, “blows” or “international crisis” that never seem to end for we the people, and are presented to us as “progress”. The television duopoly and the government wants us to believe in “progress” and “modernity” while there are more layoffs, fewer opportunities to find productive employment and our salaries are worth less every day. This “modernity” is not our dream, nor something we wish to leave to our children.
In other words, this is highly unlikely to be the product of a ragtag band of RURAL Marxist guerrillas.
Jefe Diego himself said his kidnapping was both economic and political. Burro Hall implied (nah… said) that as a “victim” the Jefe was being positioned as a viable candidate for public office. I’d add that, given his statements that he was somewhat open to his kidnapper’s point of view, that it also gives him an opportunity to run as a viable anti-Calderón PANista. Needless to say, Epilogo de una desaparión is a veritable grab-bag of talking points. It not only lays out (badly worded as it is) the short-comings of the present PAN administration, but of the expected PRI alternatives as well. And, being the product of supposedly irresponsible leftists, very neatly leaves a political opening for … Jefe Diego.
Politically, this benefits Jefe Diego. Economically? I have heard of people negotiating their own ransom, so the reports that Diego was actively involved in arranging the transfer of thirty million U.S. dollars (in U.S. currency) is relatively plausible. One amusing (or troubling) detail, that I saw in a U.S. news report and neglected to bookmark, had him pressuring the Mexican government to pay up some overdue bills for legal work, to raise an untraceable large amount of cash to be handled by the “Global Transformation Network”. Which still sounds like a banking services company to me.
And 30 million dollars — Not bad for a few months of work.
(I noticed after I posted that Octavio Rodriguez Araujo makes some of my points in Regeneracíon).
Faith and ahora — the one that got away
Early last summer, I was asked to write a short article on John Riley and the San Patricios for an Irish historical publication. Alas, other things kept interfering and, having pushed back my deadline to September, and now it being nearly Christmas, I have the feeling the project may be permanently shelved.
Still, it isn’t a complete wash. One primary source I’d intended to use, and one I’d read with great benefit when writing Gods, Gachupines and Gringos, was Michael Mack Hogan’s “Irish Soldiers of Mexico,” published in Guadalajara in 1996. My own copy having disappeared along with most of my Mexican history library in the course of writing my own book (and moving between Houston, Cuernavaca, Mexico City, Fort Worth, west Texas and Mazatlán), I’ve been rebuiding the library here, and acquiring several new sources.
When I decided to write my article, I also was considering another article on Don Pedro Alonso O’Crouley y O’Donnell, a Cadiz merchant of Irish descent who traveled through north-west Mexico (which in his time also included today’s Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas). In one of the on-line catalogs, I found an English translation of O’Crouley’s 1774 Idea compendiosa del Reyno de Nueva España had been done by Irish writer, Seán Galvin, as “A Description of the Kingdom of New Spain” and printed in a limited, rather lavish hard-back (with some gorgeous color plates and a big honkin’ map of 1774 Nueva España), which was impossible to resist.
After shelling out more than I should, I was in a bind when the least expensive copy of The Irish in Mexico back then was around a hundred U.S. dollars. I could take the bus to Guadalajara, stay overnight, buy the book from the publisher and return to Mazatlán for less than that. Which I would have done, if they still had copies… which they didn’t. I looked everywhere for something less expensive, and was ready to beg (I’m not particularly proud) when I sent an e-mail to Dr. Hogan, who managed to find a slightly water-damaged copy of the final press run for a book that should have been in print.
Of course, the logical publisher of books on Mexico, especially by writers living in Mexico is Editorial Mazatlán. And, perhaps we still will snag a book from Dr. Hogan. But, in the meantime… why be churlish. Tis the season and all that… and I’m happy to see The Irish Soldiers of Mexico made available at a reasonable price. Dr. Hogan passes this along:
The Irish Soldiers of Mexico which has been out of print since 2004 is now available in a Kindle Edition at Amazon. This is a revised edition with maps, photographs, hundreds of references. In addition, it also has the following:
1. Historical updates including the death of John Riley and the certification by a parish priest in Vera Cruz.
2. Information about John Riley’s last days, his mustering out and the location of his remains.
3. New commemorative events and activities of the San Patricio battalion including films and documentaries.
4. The dedication of a bust of John Riley in Mexico City by the Irish Ambassador in 2010.
5. Irish/Mexican commemorations by the Irish Friendship League of Chicago.
6. A new San Patricio CD by the Chieftains.
7. New novels on the San Patricios and the Mexican War.
The original book published in 1996 went out of print in 2004 when the Mexican university press lost its U.S. distributor.
That 9.99 USD is the price in the United States. It’s 11.99 in Mexico, but still worth every centavo. Buy it… after buying Gods, Gachupines and Gringos (in paperback or “kindle” edition… or both!) of course.
The sum of us
As of yesterday, a new anti-discrimination ordinance came into effect in the Federal District of Mexico (Mexico City). From El DeFe and Proceso (my translation), the changes to the existing ordinance (to bring it into line with international standards):
… prohibits any form of discrimination, which means the denial, exclusion, distinction, impairment, denial or restriction of one or more of the human rights of individuals, groups or communities whether as personas fisicas or personas morales*, whether intentional or not, whether by an act of commission or omission, attributed to ethnic origin; nationality; language; sex; gender; indigenous identity; gender identity; expression of gender role; age; disability; or judicial, social or economic condition.
Also prohibited is discrimination based on physical appearance, health conditions, genetic characteristics, pregnancy, religion, political, academic or philosophical beliefs, identity or political affiliation, sexual orientation or preference, marital status, form of thought, dress, action or gesture; presence of tattoos or body piercings; or any other reason that has the effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment and exercise of the rights, fundamental liberties and equality of people.
Commenting on the new ordinance (which also creates a “decentralized” Commission for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination as an independent body within the Federal District’s Secretariat of Social Development), El DeEf’s Carlos Jesús writes:
Without a doubt it will not be a easy task: entrenched prejudices and ingrained ideas only can be fought through information. We hope the newly approved commission makes transmitting and sharing this information with those sectors in need of ideological transformation will be a high-priority task for the newly approved commission. Meanwhile, we are called on to reflect, and to remember that respect for all diversity is the keystone of our progress.
I think the Commission is going to have its work cut out for it. It’ll be easy to castigate the nightclub that turns away indigenous tattooed transvestites, but try dealing with the employers who solicit employees every day in the newspapers, specifying not only the gender, but the age and general appearance of job applicants. Still, the first step is defining the terms, and I can’t see any category of human beings that haven’t been overlooked.
* Legal concepts from Roman/Napoleonic law that don’t easily translate into English. A persona fisica has “natural” or “God-given” rights and obligations as a human being, a personal moral rights and obligations acquired through the law. If a mugger knocks you down and steals your watch, he has violated your personal fisica in knocking you down (as a human being, you have the right not to be injured) and your persona moral (there’s no inherent right for human beings to own watches, but you have a right under the law to your own property). The mugger’s persona fisica had an obligation not to knock you down, and his persona moral has an obligation to respect your rights to your watch.
Another drop in the bucket…
I’ve added a Secret/Noforn (Secret, no foreign distribution) cable from then U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, fretting back in October 2008 about the Calderon Administrations attempts to repair relations with Venezuela, which weren’t all that bad, although the Calderon and Chavez administrations come from very different ideological and economic places, and Calderón (probably with Garza’s assistance) was still claiming Hugo Chavez had something to do with the López Obrador campaign, which both López Obrador and Hugo Chavez both deny. My favorite quote from this one:
[Foreign Ministry’s (SRE) Director for South America, Rafael] Bernal [Cuevas] mentioned the presence of Bolivarian groups in Mexico, but noted that such groups exist throughout the world and that, as a democracy, Mexico had to offer them freedom of expression.
Rather inconvenient when foreigners take democracy seriously.
mexfiles.net 