Voices of Mexico issue 61

Voices of Mexico is published byEl Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte, CISAN (Center for Research on North America),of the Office of the Coordinator of Humanities, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM

(National Autonomous University of Mexico).

EDITORIAL BOARDSergio Aguayo, Adolfo Aguilar Zínser, Jorge Bustamante, Jorge Carpizo, Emilio Carrillo Gamboa,

Alonso García Chávez, Guadalupe González, Rosario Green, Roberto Gutiérrez López,

Andrés Henestrosa, Julio Labastida, Miguel León-Portilla, Jorge Alberto Lozoya, Antonio Luna Arroyo,

Paz Consuelo Márquez Padilla, Mario Melgar, Silvia Núñez García, Olga Pellicer, Elena Poniatowska, Federico Reyes Heroles,

José Sarukhán, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, María Teresa Uriarte, Mónica Verea, Luis Villoro.

Address letters, advertising and subscription correspondence to: Voices of Mexico, Canadá 203, Col. San Lucas, Coyoacán, 04030 México, D.F. Tel: 5336-36-01, 5336-35-95and 5336-35-96. Electronic mail: [email protected]. Web site: http://www.unam.mx/voices. Annual subscription rates: Mexico Mex$150; USA U.S.$34; CanadáCAN$44.80; other countries U.S.$68.50, prepaid in U.S. currency to UNAM. Opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily represent the views of Voices of Mexico.All contents are fully protected by © copyright and may not be reproduced without the written consent of Voices of Mexico. The magazine is not responsible for the return ofunsolicited manuscripts. Publicación trimestral, año dieciséis, número 61, octubre-diciembre de 2002. ISSN 0186-9418. Certificado de Licitud de Contenido No. 2930 yCertificado de Licitud de Título No. 3340, expedidos por la Comisión Calificadora de Publicaciones y Revistas Ilustradas. Reserva al uso exclusivo del título No. 04-2002-060413383000-102, expedida por el Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor. Correspondencia nacional de segunda clase. Registro 0851292. Características 220261212.Correspondencia internacional de segunda clase. Registro Cri D F 002-92. Preprensa: Ediciones de Buena Tinta, S.A. de C.V., Insurgentes Sur 1700, 6o. piso, Col. Florida, ÁlvaroObregón, 01030 México, D.F. Tels. 5661-66-07, 5662-28-3. Impresa por Editorial Offset, S.A. de C.V., Durazno No. 1, Col. Las Peritas, Tepepan, Xochimilco, México, D.F.

Rector, UNAM

Juan Ramón de la Fuente

Coordinator of HumanitiesOlga Elizabeth Hansberg

Director of the CenterFor Research

On North America (CISAN)José Luis Valdés-Ugalde

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ISSN 0186 • 9418

Editor-in-ChiefDiego Bugeda Bernal

Assistant EditorMaría Cristina Hernández Escobar

LayoutMa. Elena Álvarez

EditorElsie Montiel

Copy Editor & TranslatorHeather Dashner Monk

Sales & Circulation ManagerTonatiuh Soley DíazWalls

Editorial AdvisorDolores Latapí Ortega

Art DirectorPatricia Pérez

Business ManagerMaría Soledad Reyes Lucero

DirectorJosé Luis Valdés-Ugalde

Our Voice

Visions ofMexico’s FutureInterviewwith the PresidentsOf the ThreeMain Parties

The Reform of the StateChronicle of an ImpossibilityFrancisco Valdés-Ugalde

DidWeReallyWin?A Balance Sheet OfFox’s First TwoYearsAlejandro Hope

WhyRub Salt in theWound?FindingOut the Truth about 1968 and theDirtyWarAdolfo Sánchez Rebolledo

The Files of the SecretWarGustavo Hirales

1968, Human RightsAndMexicanDemocracyRoberto Escudero

SusanaAlfaro’s Tonal PaintingAureliano Sánchez Tejeda

MarianaYampolskyAn Impassioned EyeElizabeth Ferrer

MythGatherersThe Sculptures ofMaribel PortelaAgustín Arteaga

Number 61 October • December 20024

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Contents

Art and Culture

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Society

Politics

Editorial

CoverSusana Alfaro, Homage to Efraín Huerta, 29 x 24 cm, no date

(etching and aquatint).

Back CoverSusana Alfaro, Comets, 120 x 90 cm, 1993 (acrylic on canvas).

How theU.S. EconomyLooks fromHereElaine Levine

Mexamerica, Inc.MexicanMultinationals InTheUnited StatesLeopoldo Eggers

SouthernU.S.MarketsANewNiche forMexican ExportsBrenda Méndez

Intraprovincial TradeAndIntelligent Borders in CanadaDelia Montero

TlaxcalaInDefensa of Its PastCarolina Figueroa Torres

Allegory in the CacaxtlaMuralsPablo Escalante Gonzalbo

The Blue EyebrowIn theCacaxtlaMuralsAndrés Santana Sandoval

Echoes and Reflections ofFranciscanCulture InSixteenth-Century TlaxcalaMilena Koprivitza

Carnival Fiestas in Tlaxcala

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TheNational PuppetMuseumElsie Montiel

WomenWriters OfTierraAdentro Publishers. Part IIGraciela Martínez Zalce

I Prefer FuneralsCarolina Luna

The SearchCarolina Luna

TheMostMine (Fragments)Cristina Rivera-Garza

Guillermo FlorisMargadantLaw ScholarBeatriz Bernal

El nuevo norteamericano: integracióncontinental, cultura e identidad nacionalTeresa Gutiérrez-Haces

Bandidos, héroes y corruptos o nuncaes bueno robar unamiseriaRafael Yaxal Sánchez

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United States Affairs

History

Economy

In Memoriam

The Splendor of Mexico

Canadian Issues

Reviews

Literature

Museums

Errata

In Voices of Mexico 60, in Dr. Alejandro Chanona’s article "Mexico,

Modern Diplomacy and the European Union," on page 51, second col-

umn, third paragraph, "Finally, in his last European tour fromMay 14 to

18, President Zedillo inaugurated a program…" should read, "Finally,

on his last European tour from May 14 to 18, 2002, President Fox ina-

ugurated a program…"

In addition, the complete name of the author of "Ten Years of NAFTA.

A Mexican Perspective," p. 56, is Antonio Ortiz Mena L. N.

We apologize to our readers for these errors.

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Ayear after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a reflection on their different implications and the state ofthe world as a result of those tragic events is obligatory. As we have already said in previous editorials, in

a single stroke, the attacks caused the highest number of civilian casualties in the recent history of interna-tional terrorism. This fact alone gives us the idea that the ultimate objective of world terrorism (now presum-ably headed up by Al Qaeda) is to escalate the offensive and directly attack the crucial points of its declaredWestern enemies, among whom the United States is the central one. While this ill-fated act of terrorism doeshave precedents in colonial memory and the disorder inherited from the end of the Cold War, it is also truethat it has significantly damaged the precarious post-Cold War world order.In addition to pointing out that international, national, transborder, land and aviation security as well as

other matters in which the most important actor (and victim) is international civil society have been themost acutely affected by the terrorist attacks, five other fronts have felt the impact: 1) the nature and integri-ty of the democratic political regimen, both worldwide and locally have been damaged; 2) the urgently need-ed economic arrangement that would allow an alternative distribution of wealth to compete with the unfor-tunate saga of globalization has been delayed even more; 3) significant indications about the psychologicaland emotional impact among parts of civil society —mainly Americans— who have been exposed tounprecedented risks and instability because of the role both the state and non-state actors are now playinghave begun to come to light; 4) international consensuses have seriously deteriorated, mainly among theEuropean Union allies, from the very moment the decision was made to attack Afghanistan; and, last, butnot least, 5) it has become clear that Washington has re-initiated a “no policy” period vis-à-vis LatinAmerica,which has already had significant implications in the economic and social life of the hemisphere.In international relations theory, there is an analogy that links international and local society. In any case,

today more than ever, it is becoming clear that the persistent trend of world events with an influence onthe nature of international relations affects and will continue to profoundly affect the life of national soci-eties. Just as much as global economic and financial trends or the pressures of international crime —tomention just a couple of these phenomena— today, terrorism intensely disturbs the life of nations.National societies have been harshly exposed to the economic, political and social factors from “the exte-rior,” understanding “the exterior” to mean mainly the United States. This means that the inevitable U.S.influence, today expressed in an increasingly unilateral, total fight against terrorism, involves broad sectorsof the national. The fact is that the United States has not been calm since September 11; this means thatthe world surrounding it —that is, the entire reality and all the international actors who have been inter-connected one way or another with U.S. interests— has been put at risk in an unprecedented fashion byvirtue of the fact that it is a relationship completely lacking in minimal equilibria or counterweights thatcan give coherence (beyond the defense of its national security) and moderation to Washington’s decisions.Today, the possibility of an attack on Irak and the escalation of a conflict of unknown consequences is

a matter of major importance. Clearly, in Washington there is an intense discussion about the suitabilityof orienting the response to the September 11 attacks in this way. In this debate, the hard-line group ofPresident George W. Bush’s national security cabinet seems to have the upper hand. Both the UnitedNations Security Council and the European Union countries, as real factors of power in the world con-cert, together with Washington, must be those who resolve a conflict (organized terrorism, whether it beon the part of private, nongovernmental groups or of nation states that promote it) that corresponds to theentire world community and cannot have a single country as its custodian.If this balance in the decisions about a comprehensive fight against international terrorism is not

achieved in the coming weeks, there will be a risk of dangerously erasing the consensuses necessary upuntil now for dealing with many other issues on the world agenda that unfortunately have been postponed.

OUR VOICE

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Among them are the recurring economic crises in some Latin American countries; in part, they areexplained by the assault on their societies and economies by the unjust effects of globalization that haveso idly fostered the most recalcitrant interests of the world economic system, many of which are based inthe West’s most important financial capitals. Also among the many issues that require the immediate atten-tion of Washington and its Western allies and that keep the world community on the brink of aggravatedworld insecurity already gravely challenged by international terrorism are the environmental crisis, wide-spread poverty and the dangers that the ever-increasing number of the world’s migrants face every day.1

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December 1 is the second anniversary of the Fox administration, the first non-Institutional RevolutionaryParty government in more than 70 years. The new administration has walked a difficult path marked by apolitical situation unprecedented in Mexico’s history: the different branches of government are divided,with an executive that has not been able to forge the necessary agreements with the political forces repre-sented in Congress and the other parties in order to make headway in governing.The July 2003 federal legislative elections will be crucial for defining the country’s way forward, which

is oscillating between a reactivation of the reforms needed to consolidate the democratic regimen and thelack of governability. It is in this context that we decided to interview the leaders of Mexico’s three mainpolitical parties, Luis Felipe Bravo Mena of the National Action Party, Roberto Madrazo Pintado from theInstitutional Revolutionary Party and Rosario Robles Berlanga of the Party of the Democratic Revolution,asking for their opinions about issues we consider key for the country’s immediate development, both polit-ically and electorally, and with regard to the economy and international relations.The interviews are complemented by two excellent articles analyzing the last two years. UNAM scholar and,

until recently promotor and participant in the discussions about the reform of the state in his role as directorof the Institute for Historical Studies of the Mexican Revolution, Francisco Valdés-Ugalde describes the rea-sons why the regimen and the political forces have been unable to advance the reforms required for the con-solidation of democracy. Political scientist Alejandro Hope Pinsón explains why, in his opinion, until nowPresident Vicente Fox has not been able to keep all the campaign promises he made or preserve people’s hopefor change and, as a result, maintain the high popularity ratings he enjoyed early in his administration.One of the things that remains to be done to achieve a full transition to democracy in Mexico is the clar-

ification of what happened during the 1968 and 1971 student massacres and what has been called the“dirty war,” when innumerable violations of human rights were committed during the government’s fightagainst guerrilla movements in the 1970s and early 1980s. Without any intention of carrying out a witchhunt, the declassification of all the files in the hands of Mexican state and army, as well as the trial of thoseresponsible and still living can no longer be postponed if we want to forever eliminate the practices ofimpunity that were characteristic of the authoritarian regime that has been left behind. Well-known polit-ical analyst Adolfo Sánchez Rebolledo and two participants in those events, former guerrilla GustavoHirales and ex-student leader Roberto Escudero, write in our “Society” section about this undoubtedly cor-rect initiative of the Fox administration and its importance for Mexico’s incipient democracy.Has the economic recession ended in the United States? Has recovery begun? In the “Economy” sec-

tion, specialist Elaine Levine answers these two questions in her article, offering us an analysis from theMexican perspective.In “United States Affairs,” we continue with the analysis of Hispanics’ purchasing power and consumer

habits in the United States, this time with an article by Brenda Méndez about the South, including usefuldata for Mexican investors and companies. In this section, we also include a detailed article by journalistand business editor Leopoldo Eggers about a rather sui generis phenomenon: the successful penetration of

1 About these issues, see the recent analysis by José Luis Valdés-Ugalde and Diego Valadés, comp., Globalidad y conflicto. EstadosUnidos y la crisis de septiembre (Mexico City: UNAM-CISAN-IIJ, 2002).

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the U.S. market by fifteen Mexican companies that have become multinationals based on their under-standing of the new rules that the North American Free Trade Agreement and globalization have broughtinto play. The “Canadian Issues” section deals with the study of the consequences of NAFTA in intraprovin-cial Canadian trade in an article in which Delia Montero also takes a detailed look at the implementationof policies and strategies linked to creating “intelligent borders” between the United States and Canada.

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The “Art and Culture” section brings us three Mexican artists: Susana Alfaro, Mariana Yampolsky andMaribel Portela. Susana, a disciple of painter Luis Nishizawa, with studies in music and painting, showsin her work the fruits of years dedicated to constructing ambiances based on the use of concepts commonto both artistic endeavors: scale and tone. Voices of Mexico dedicates part of this section to a posthumoushomage to the passionate lens of Mariana Yampolsky, born in the United States and naturalized Mexican,whose undeniable love for this country, particularly for the Mexico of the dispossessed, resulted in anarchive of hundreds of images, invaluable both for their testimonial wealth and their aesthetic discoveries.Lastly, sculptor Maribel Portela presents us her mythological beings and gods, larger-than-life clay figuresthat form part of the world of the gatherers of dreams and objects.In this issue, “The Splendor of Mexico” visits the state of Tlaxcala, whose cultural abundance covers cen-

turies of our country’s history. We begin with Cacaxtla, the enigmatic pre-Hispanic site whose main attrac-tion are its murals, restored and in excellent condition. The origin and meaning of these murals have beenthe object of many studies and interpretations such as the one presented here by researcher Pablo EscalanteGonzalbo, who reflects mainly about the allegory of what is known as the Mural of the Battle, and archeol-ogist Andrés Santana, who comments on Element “C” or the “blue eyebrow” in the murals’ representationsof mythological animals. The Franciscans’ presence was determinant for the Spaniards’ spiritual conquest ofthe Tlaxcaltec population. Milena Koprivitza writes about the close link between the first Franciscans andthe indigenous people who submitted to their teachings and the mutual benefits that came from that inte-gration. Lastly, we take a brief tour of the state’s main festivities, Tlaxcala’s carnival, that involves hundredsof splendid, ingenious masked and costumed participants in traditional dances.The Museo Nacional del Títere (National Puppet Museum), unique in Latin America, takes us to a world

of characters that exists thanks to the imagination and skill of artisans from the world over, and is a well-deserved homage to the Rosete Aranda family, which kept the puppet tradition alive for a century in thecity of Huamantla, Tlaxcala.The alliance of the Tlaxcaltec people 500 years ago with the Spanish conquistadors to defeat the pow-

erful Mexica army has been interpreted by several generations of Mexicans as a betrayal of the pre-His-panic world and a determining factor in sealing the fate of the indigenous peoples under Spanish domina-tion. In our “History” section, Carolina Figueroa questions this position by interpreting the alliance as justanother military strategy, common to the period, and describing the benefits it brought to the Tlaxcaltecpeople for several centuries.In “Literature” we continue with Graciela Martínez-Zalce’s contributions about promising women in

Mexican literature. In this issue, we include poet Cristina Rivera-Garza and short story writer Carolina Luna.Lastly, we dedicate our “In Memoriam” section to outstanding Dutch-Mexican university professor and

researcher, prestigious jurist and erudite law historian, Don Guillermo Floris Margadant, who recently died.

José Luis Valdés-Ugalde

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P O L I T I C S

Visions of Mexico’s FutureInterview with the PresidentsOf the Three Main Parties

Voices of Mexico interviewed the presidents of the three most important national political partiesabout different issues that we consider vitally important for Mexico’s political and

economic development, as well as for the viability of the recently established democratic regimen.

Although the interviews were done separately, we have merged them here to facilitate comparisonof the party leaders’ positions on the issues. The order in which we print each answer, as well as

the photographs and bullets, follow the criteria used by Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institutefor arranging the parties’ emblems and candidates’ names on the ballots and electoral documents:the order in which they were registered as political parties. This mechanism has the stamp of approval

of the parties themselves and aims to maintain impartiality. The National Action Party (PAN)has had official registration the longest, followed by the Institutional Revolutionary

Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

Susana

Navarrete/C

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The three party presidents discussing the nation.

Voices of Mexico • 61

VOICES OF MEXICO: Poverty, and above all extremepoverty, has been an unresolved problem in Mexicofor decades. It may be the most important one for thefuture and the viability of any political project. Whatstrategies and policies is your party planning to dealwith this problem?

LUIS FELIPE BRAVO MENA: Resolving the problem ofpoverty in Mexico involves different issues. In the veryfirst place, our democracy must be based on the ruleof law. A country whose institutions and communitylife are not strictly ruled by the law has a very difficulttime creating conditions of justice for the whole soci-ety. So, the first basis for solving this kind of problemis the rule of law.Second, economic development. We need an eco-

nomic policy that will enhance our country’s economicgrowth and productivity, as well as increase the oppor-tunities for development that will help us becomemore competitive among all nations.The third aspect is precisely equal opportunities,which

are linked to educational policy. This is the center and thevery soul of any profound, substantive strategy for fight-ing poverty. That is why it is important to create the pos-sibilities for Mexicans to get trained and well educated.Regarding extreme poverty, the country needs new

social policies, like the ones proposed by President Vi-

cente Fox, which discard paternalism and the patronagesystem, the main problems that keep people in poverty.What is required is a social policy that will create waysout, fostering self-sufficiency, independence and self-realization as the main objectives that help reducepoverty.

ROBERTO MADRAZO: We propose a competitive econ-omy with social responsibility based on a fiscal reformto foster growth and link up to productive chains soMexico can create jobs, and the benefits will trickledown to the country’s population and enter into theirhomes.This economic policy, closely tied to a clear indus-

trial policy, a consolidated mortgage market and reac-tivated, strengthened domestic savings, will achievean average economic growth of at least 5 percent ayear.We will concentrate our efforts on the three levels

of government (federal, state and municipal), instru-menting the ideal programs and mechanisms to cre-ate a million jobs a year and on ensuring that the ma-jority of Mexicans have access to public education onthe secondary, technical, undergraduate and graduatelevels.This strategy is fundamental because jobs and fair

wages are decisive for overcoming poverty, and edu-

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Luis Felipe Bravo Mena (PAN).

“The National Action Partyis working hard toward the upcomingelections to get important political

and legislative resultsthat may refresh the processof change and speed up all

the structural reformsour country needs.”

Pol i t i cs

cation and training guarantee that the social inequal-ity of the market economy be counterbalanced.We will fight in Congress for the federal, state and

municipal governments to earmark more resources tosatisfy the demands of the neediest sectors of thepopulation: jobs, real opportunities in intense regionaland micro-regional development; the transfer of tech-nology; and the expansion of the domestic market.Our proposal emphasizes particularly the reactivationof the countryside: renovating irrigation infrastructureand integrating production, industrialization and mar-keting of agricultural activities.

ROSARIO ROBLES: The PRD has always said that the bestway to fight poverty is through employment, to providea decent income that will let people cover their basicneeds.We do not agree that the inequality and enormous

economic and social polarization that prevails in Mex-ico can be overcome by distributing crumbs to just man-age poverty.That is why our agenda has always included prior-

ity issues like job creation, the fight for a decent wage,economic recovery, fostering productive activities, sup-port for our small and medium-sized industries that cre-ate employment and support for the Mexican country-side to guarantee stability, since it is in rural areas thatthe greatest poverty is concentrated. For this reason, wefight for full rights for everyone, as a constitutional right,not like up until now when rights have been seen asperks for a political clientele.

VOICES OF MEXICO: Mexico participates in the NorthAmerican Free Trade Agreement, recently signed theFree Trade Agreement with the European Union andis part of the negotiations for the future Free TradeAreaof the Americas (FTAA). What is your party’s positionregarding trade regionalization?

LUIS FELIPE BRAVO MENA: Mexico has taken importantsteps for diversifying its economy considering that ourcountry’s vocation is varied. Just as we are partners inNAFTA and are committed to taking advantage of theopportunities brought by free trade, Mexico also has his-toric and cultural relations with the European Union.That is why these agreements will let us optimize our

geographic position not only toward Europe and NorthAmerica but also toward Latin America.The upcoming FTAA has been talked about a great

deal, but it seems quite remote. Currently, basic ele-ments for its viability do not exist, starting with the sit-uation in the United States itself and also with thepolitical instability among LatinAmerican nations. But,in any case, whenever it becomes a viable and seriousproject, Mexico will surely have outstanding participa-tion in the FTAA.Regionalization is a stage of globalization in which

the regions optimize their advantages and capabilitiesby an internal union and association. In this scheme ofthings, I think Mexico is doing pretty well.

ROBERTO MADRAZO:We acceptmultinational trade blocsbecause, if we know how to take advantage of them,they can regionalize important economic cycles soMex-ico can move forward. But we reject limiting ourselvesto an economic policy that disregards the issues of re-distribution and greater equality of opportunities.Our position is not against globalization but against

being globalized. We must turn globalization into anopportunity, controlling its risks and dangers to achievethe greatest advantages possible and find the instru-ments that will make our project of a just nation viable.Thus, we will give economic globality its national,

human dimension, which means finding local solu-tions to global problems.The market requires freedom to assign productive

resources and investment, but the distribution of thebenefits of economic growth demands public policieswith a long-term state social vision, as much as specificmechanisms that avert third party interference in in-ternal matters and the temptation of extraterritoriallyapplying the laws of any other country, unilateral cri-teria and any attempts at subjection or submission.The fundamental characteristic of twenty-first-cen-

tury Mexico must be that inequality not turn intoinjustice or a source of humiliation; that social devel-opment correspond with the place our economy hasgained in the world.

ROSARIO ROBLES: We promote multilateral relationsand the consolidation of regional development plans,but very different and alternative to those fostered until

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today, which are basically models for integration inconditions of profound inequality. The free trade agree-ment with the United States and Canada has not ben-efitted Mexico; on the contrary, it has given rise toconsiderable losses, for example in the case of agricul-ture and transportation, and the dismantling of otherproductive sectors.The world context we face today is one in which

great powers argue for free trade and integration, butat the end of the day, are the first to protect and sub-sidize their producers.Given this situation, we propose forms of regional

development, global development, but based on total-ly alternative proposals using criteria of equity andjustice that would make it possible to create a solidbasis that includes respect for the rights of communi-ties and citizens and the sovereignty of nations.

VOICES OF MEXICO: The first parliamentary electionsafter alternation in the presidency, to take place inJuly 2003, will be key because they will define the via-bility of a system that is still presidentialist but with adivided government. What are your party’s strategiesand expectations for the 2003 federal elections?

LUIS FELIPE BRAVO MENA: Our party is working tomake the 2003 elections an opportunity for having more

room for maneuvering in the context of the currentpolitical change. Mexico has gone through a difficultprocess of change; it has not been easy and this 2003election must push it forward.The National Action Party is working hard toward

these upcoming elections to get important politicaland legislative results that may refresh the process ofchange and speed up all the structural reforms thatour country needs.

ROBERTO MADRAZO: We are delineating a new archi-tecture for power for the twenty-first century. With it,we will win in 2003 and recover the federal executivein 2006. We will invigorate change with direction—today the country lacks this direction— and clarifythe kind of country we all want, rooted in diversityand plurality.We know that no victory is final and no defeat is

eternal. Reality teaches that the PAN has not learnedto live with the president and the PRI must learn tolive without the presidency. The odds are on our side.The profound democratization of the PRI includes

opening ourselves up to Mexican society, synchroniz-ing and joining with it, showing that we are key for thetransition to democracy and indispensable for the gov-ernability of this country. In the 2003 elections wewill run in the country’s 300 districts. Taking into con-

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Roberto Madrazo (PRI).

“The market requires freedomto assign productive resources

and investment, but the distributionof the benefits of economic

growth demands public policieswith a long-term state

social vision.”

Pol i t i cs

sideration the deputies elected by proportional rep-resentation, we are aiming for at least 287 seats inthe Chamber of Deputies. Currently we have 208seats: 132 of the 300 elected by district and 76 elect-ed proportionally.In the July 2003 gubernatorial elections, we will be

reelected in San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Campeche andColima and win back Querétaro and Nuevo León, justas we did in Chihuahua. The PRI currently occupies17 of the country’s 31 state houses. We will run inMexico City’s Federal District’s 16 wards and in 564mayor’s races. This will allow us to keep a majoritywhere we already have one and recover those we hadlost. We already have an electoral strategy structuredto this end.

ROSARIO ROBLES: Our goal is to remain one of thecountry’s three most important political forces. We aregoing for the largest third. We have an entire strategylinked to making a priority of the areas in which weare most competitive, where we have the best chancesof winning.We want to position our party as the only distinc-

tive party, the only one that can represent real changebecause the Institutional Revolutionary Party and theNational Action Party in many ways propose the samepolicies. For example, at different times, both haveproposed levying VAT on food and medicine. UnderErnesto Zedillo, the PRI attempted to privatize theelectricity sector as the PAN is now trying under Vi-cente Fox.Given this situation, the PRD is the party today that

can offer a real alternative, besides the fact that it isnot mixed up in scandals like that of the Mexican oilcompany, Pemex, and its possible financing of the PRI

[presidential] candidate, or the matter of the Friendsof Fox, involving alleged participation of foreign com-panies in presidential campaign funding.We have great possibilities as an ordered, organized

party, with clear positions, an identity and a project forthe nation that speaks to people in terms of their realneeds and aspirations, a party that speaks to peopleon the issues that concern them (employment, wages,education, health, social security, public safety and jobsecurity), that puts the citizenry’s issues at the centerof its agenda.

All of this makes me very optimistic about thePRD’s showing in 2003 and, based on that, about pre-parations for the 2006 presidential elections.

VOICES OF MEXICO: The events of 9/11 produced,among other things, the strengthening of the percep-tion in the international community that the UnitedStates is assuming and acting the role of a single in-ternational power. What does your party think of theFox administration’s foreign policy of greater alignmentwith the United States?

LUIS FELIPE BRAVO MENA: I think President VicenteFox’s administration is operating on the basis of polit-ical realism and with strategic vision. If our main part-ner, our main neighbor and our main field of actionfor both migration and other issues is the United States,we have to give it a privileged place in our foreign rela-tions.I think it is correct for President Fox to extend and

reinforce the bilateral agenda, as well as facing prob-lems constructively, not in a confrontational way basedon views from the past, but with an accurate vision ofthe future. That is correct.At the same time it is important to strength our

participation in multilateral fora in the context of glob-alization. In this way, we can find alternative supportfor a single power scenario, where the internationalcommunity’s multilateral organizations might becomean important counterweight to the United States’strength. In this sense, an organized international com-munity can grow faster for the well being of our insti-tutions, as long as we all observe international law.This means that the dual strategy of maintaining a

privileged relationship with the United States and pro-moting an international approach toward other regionslike the European Union, the Pacific Basin and LatinAmerica is the correct policy that Mexico must con-tinue to follow.

ROBERTO MADRAZO: We are subjected to an intenserelationship between unequal economies. We do morethan 80 percent of our trade with the United Statesand sell it most of our oil, on which theMexican econ-omy is dependent in large part. The partial solution tothis interdependence lies in trade diversification.

11


The advance of globalization makes it difficult forstates to exercise absolute sovereignty: the processesof trade integration and free circulation of capital andinvestment seem to erase borders and nationalism.However, the basic principles of Mexican foreign pol-icy must remain in place because they continue torespond to the need to safeguard the identity and via-bility of the national project.The Constitution establishes the principles of self-

determination of all peoples, non-intervention, the peace-ful solution of controversies, the banning of threats orthe use of force in international relations, legal equal-ity of all states, international cooperation for develop-ment and the fight for peace. These are and mustcontinue to be the crosscutting themes that guide Mex-ico’s relations with the United States and the rest ofthe world.Mexico’s foreign policy must defend our sovereign-

ty, effectively advance our national interests and es-tablish a balance between association, trade or coop-eration agreements and the sovereign right to makepublic decisions in the framework of democratic ins-titutions that respond exclusively to our national in-terests.

ROSARIO ROBLES: The PRD has emphasized that rela-tions with the United States are central to what we are

experiencing every day. But obviously we are totallyagainst the foreign policy that the current administra-tion has followed, aligning us with the U. S. Much ofMexico’s strength lies in its multilateral relations, inits ability to become the spokesperson for Latin Amer-ica vis-à-vis the United States and not the reverse, as isthe policy’s aim, being the spokesperson for the UnitedStates vis-à-vis our sister countries in Latin America.We do not share the view of wanting to be included ina project of North America —or all of the Americas—following the dynamic of the U.S. government. Neitherdo we share the Mexican administration’s relativelyuncritical position of the war in Afghanistan or other[U.S. policies].We have a different opinion in these matters. The

PRD has put forward the idea that foreign policy mustbe a state policy [not merely a matter for each admin-istration], and with that in mind, it must be discussedand defined by the Mexican people so that it is notsubject to fluctuations every six years, but rather thatit correspond to the country’s interests and placementin the international concert.Our foreign policy should reinforce Mexico’s inter-

national position as an actor on basic issues such asequality, security, peace and the self-determination ofpeoples, all of which are values that weMexicans shoulddefend.

12

Imagen

latin

a

Rosario Robles (PRD).

“The free trade agreementwith the United States and Canada

has not benefitted Mexico;on the contrary, it has given rise

to considerable losses, for examplein the cases of agriculture

and transportation.”

Vicente Fox’s electoral campaignand first few months as pres-ident were profuse in pro-

mises and encouragement for thereform of the state, a condition, it wassaid, for democracy not to be limitedto alternation in office but to consoli-date into a completely transformed polit-ical regimen. Almost two years intothe Fox administration, an overall, coher-ent legislative proposal to reform thestate has not been presented eitherby the administration itself or the leg-islature. Its appearance and disappear-ance in public debate according to the

needs of the political moment consti-tute a “chronicle of an impossibility.”The imagined objectives presuppose

an arduous task. Seventy years of In-stitutional Revolutionary Party admin-istrations based on a presidentialistpolitical system with an almost totalpredominance of the hegemonic partyforged a political regime that subordi-nated the rule of law to the exerciseof power.Little by little, human, civil and social

rights, the municipality, state legisla-tures, the state governments, the federalgovernment, Congress and the courtswere carved in the image of the pres-idents and governing groups surround-ing them. Taking the 1917Constitution

that came out of the Mexican Revo-lution as the starting point, we cansee that, 83 years later, the results ofthe evolution of the political regimenare stamped on more than 400 amend-ments to that document. What in therepublican and democratic frameworkof the Constitution could have givenrise to a democratic state, instead ledto the authoritarian evolution in whichthe president, based first on the armyand then on the corporate organiza-tion of society by the regime itself, be-came the only power capable of giv-ing form to and controlling politicaland legal norms. In other words, pres-idential authority was placed abovestate norms and adapted them to the

13

The Reform of the StateChronicle of an Impossibility

Francisco Valdés-Ugalde*

* Researcher at the UNAM Institute forSocial Research.

Susa

naN

avar

rete

/Cua

rtosc

uro

Minister of the Interior Santiago Creel (third from the left) and the leaders of the three main parties.


needs of the governing group and, aboveall, to the requirements of the discre-tional exercise of political power.It has not been by chance that over

the last 20 years, political life has beenmarked by political actors’ continualreference to the incongruities and ad-justmentsneeded in theConstitution.Asnew alternatives in the form of groups,movements and parties made their ap-pearance and became stronger, themodel organized around the centralistaxis of presidentialism began to yielddiminishing returns until it ended byoffering up unsatisfactory results fromthe point of view of maintaining polit-ical stability and producing other pub-lic goods.Thus, to the concerns about every-

day politics was added an excess of mat-ters linked to the organization of powerand the effectiveness of state institu-tions. Political actors’ growing unhap-piness with the latter rarified the atmo-sphere for solving day-to-day problems,little by little forcing up the costs ofpolitical negotiation. As often happensin situations like this, the absence ofspontaneous coordination by importantpolitical actors, derived from (non)con-formity with the systems of decision-making rules, means that decisions be-comemore difficult tomake and discordabout their meaning and legitimacygrows until it reaches the point wherethe consensus needed to govern hasto be created ad hoc, case by case, sincethe system does not have a structure ofequilibria that can per se produce thenecessary agreement or acquiescenceto the government’s course.In this situation, three basic ques-

tions emerge: What reforms are need-ed to achieve the required equilibria?How feasible is it that they be made?And, what effects would the current

stagnation or a change in the rules haveon the political process?

THE NECESSARY REFORMS

The answer to the question of whatreforms are needed will depend onyour understanding of the situation.If you see government inefficiency

as the main problem, you will tend topropose reforms that attempt to guar-antee effective government and rapiddecision making. Once “effective suf-frage” is a reality, the challenge is “effec-tive government” (which will not nec-essarily be “effectively democratic”).If, by contrast, your analysis empha-sizes deficiencies in the state’s demo-

cratic functioning, your answers willtend to guarantee the extension of civilrights, the distribution of power andthe creation of alternative mechanismsfor strengthening representation. Inaddition to effective suffrage, an effec-tive democratic government is consid-ered necessary.A perfect example of the first per-

spective is the proposal by renownedItalian political scientist GiovanniSartori in the postscript of the latest,2001 edition of his classicComparativeConstitutional Engineering: An Inquiryinto Structures, Incentives and Outcomes:with small variations, returning to theletter of law on government organization

as laid out in the 1917 Constitution.For Sartori, constitutions are instru-ments of government, not programsfor action. Their objective is to produceeffective government and their mainindicator for success will be the sys-tem’s governability. For that reason, itshould not be surprising that he pro-poses four reforms as the solution forthe problems in the Mexican consti-tutional design: a) returning to the 1917Constitution to avoid inconsistencies;b) allowing for reelection of deputies;c) instituting a second round of elec-tions for deputies to eliminate small,non-representative parties; and d) lim-iting and reinforcing the powers ofthe presidency over those of Congressand establishing the presidential veto

on legislative decisions. If the mainobstacle toMexico’s government’s effec-tiveness today is the imbalance in therelationship between the president andCongress, the solution is to make thechanges needed for that relationshipto function effectively with a dividedgovernment or a government that doesnot enjoy an overwhelming majority.The main difficulty with this pro-

posal is that it does not break with theauthoritarian legacy of the past. In orderto not overload the agenda with a pro-found constitutional reform that wouldmake day-to-day decisions difficult orslow them down, it does not move for-ward with the reforms needed to break

14

A profound review of the 1917Constitution in order to adjust the

institutional design of government is neededto deepen the democratic political process.

Pol i t i cs

with some institutional practices thathave proved inoperative when the aimis to govern democratically.With regard to the second perspec-

tive, combatting the deficiencies of thedemocratic functioning of the state, aposition I subscribe to, the alternativeis a profound review of the 1917 Con-stitution in order to adjust the institu-tional design of government as well asthe declaration of rights and guaran-tees to deepen the democratic politicalprocess without losing sight of govern-ment effectiveness.The achievement of this objective

requires:

1. A review of the declaration of rightsand guarantees, systematizing and

making explicit unrestricted respectfor human rights, bringing socialrights up to date and incorporatingso-called third generation rights:those of minorities, environmentalrights, etc.

2. An improved equilibrium among thebranches of the federal government,first by establishing rules that pro-vide incentives for cooperation be-tween Congress and the executivein order to avoid stalemates that delaymeasures the country needs.1 Sec-ondly, permitting reelection for thelegislature, which would result ingreater professionalism and special-ization among legislators and would

be an incentive for greater commu-nication between representatives andthe citizenry. Thirdly, improving theadministration of justice by makinga clear distinction between thosewho bring charges and those whojudge. And fourthly, strengtheningthe judicial branch’s attributions ofjudicial review to reduce the otherbranches’ involvement in decisionsthat should be reserved to the judi-ciary.

3. Broadening federalism by giving thestates the right to establish the in-ternal regimen they deem appropri-ate, limited only by the Constitution;returning to them the powers usurpedby the federal government and reor-ganizing the powers of the three

levels of government, creating incen-tives for cooperation.

4. Completing the democratic electoralreformwith rules favoring a greater in-clusion of political parties in all levelsof public life, as well as broadeningout the channels for public represen-tation through the authorization ofregulated independent candidacies.2

5. Redefining the state’s economic func-tion through rules that combine theguarantee of an open economy withclarity about the state’s compliancewith its social and economic obli-gations.

6. Setting up procedures for constitutionalreform through rules that establish

the steps needed to make a changeof political regimen.

Regardless of whether there is agree-ment on the measures outlined, the sec-ond question that must be answered isthe feasibility of achieving the politi-cal cooperation needed for an integralreview of the Constitution.

THE FEASIBILITY OF THE REFORMS

A reading out of context of the dis-course of the main political parties andimportant actors would surprise ob-servers, since they all argue the need forconstitutional reforms. Nevertheless,their proposals differ with regard to thedepth of the reform they think is neces-sary. It can be argued, however, that itis these differences in degree that crip-ple the reform.A bad habit left over from the past

is a tendency to aspire to totalizing con-sensuses, conditioning the reform to“totally” agreeing on all issues. A con-sensus of this kind is probably a uselesspassion.The pluralism of democratic polit-

ical processes is, by definition, op-posed to this kind of total consensus.Reaching an agreement of this kindwould be the equivalent to the endof democratic politics, the negation ofthe possibility of changing normsthrough a discussion of the best pos-sible options when society’s dynamicdemands it.One alternative to this “totalizing

consensus” is seeking a “substantive butlimited consensus,” a consensus aboutthe basic issues of the reform of thestate, about the rules for processingdifferent social interests rather thanon every single issue of political life.

15

Beyond trust in existing electoralmechanisms, there is no shared idea

about the bases of gooddemocratic government.


Nevertheless, the possibility for thiskind of consensus implies the prefer-ences of each of the important actors.Logic indicates that, since current elec-toral rules make political alternationpossible, each of the political actorsshould have an interest in cooperatingto achieve a more appropriate institu-tional design for decision making.The possibility of being in office andbeing subjected to the aforementionedparalysis is a reality that should be apositive motivation for reform.In that context, the absence of a con-

sensus of this kind shows two things:first, that beyond trust in existing elec-toral mechanisms, there is no sharedidea about the bases of good democra-tic government. The second thing—more serious than the first— is thatfor some important actors, a reformthat jibes with the principle of alterna-tion is not desirable.These two probabilities would ex-

plain why simple, inclusive reformmechanisms have not been considered,for example, like those proposed by theStudy Commission for the State Re-form: forming a bicameral commis-sion of deputies and senators based onCongress’s current powers, to reviewthe Constitution in a reasonable peri-od, carrying out all the relevant con-sultations and subjecting the resultsto the plenary of both the deputiesand senators, who, after their debate,would process them according to Ar-ticle 135 and then put them to the voteas a referendum.3

Clearly, there are two options: main-taining the Constitution as it is, or, inthe best of cases, camouflaging it; or,on the other hand, an overall reviewof the Constitution to bring it into linewith the requirements of democraticgovernment. I will now briefly analyze

the consequences of each of theseoptions.

THE CONSEQUENCES OFTHE OPTIONS

As the neo-institutionalist current ofeconomics and political science hasdemonstrated, the social results thatguarantee the greatest benefits for alldepend on the institutions that artic-ulate the interactions of the differentactors.Based on that premise, maintaining

the current constitutional frameworkor making minimal modifications to itwould not generate significant changesin the relationships of the actors and

the social results of the institutions. Themechanism for achieving power throughclean, competitive elections would func-tion, but the state would not be trans-formed in the sense of deepening thedemocratic forms of decision making.The imbalances among the branches ofgovernment would continue, as wouldthe limits on human rights, the deficien-cies of federalism, etc. In the best ofcases, changes would lead to quickerdecision making (following the approachproposed by Sartori), and in the worstof cases, we would find ourselves facinga situation wherein people would attainpublic office through effective suffragebut the executive, judicial and legisla-tive branches would not cooperate and

government would be paralyzed. Theconsequence of the first option wouldbe amore effective regimen, though notnecessarily a more democratic one. Theconsequence of the second would bea paralyzed —and therefore weak—government which in the medium termwould be de-legitimized.From the premise of an integral

review of the Constitution, the mostachievable possibility is deepening dem-ocratic government. This would notonly guarantee and surpass effectivesuffrage, but, in seeking an appropriatebalance among the different branch-es, between the state and society andbetween the state and the economy, itwould also create the mechanisms for ademocratically effective government.The options and their possibilities

are clear and it is forMexicans to chooseamong them. Effective suffrage or ef-fective suffrage with effective demo-cratic government. The first optionaccepts the inheritance of a great dealof institutional authoritarianism and issatisfied with respect for existing insti-tutions, regardless of the consequencesof the paralysis. The second optionopens a window to the future. Theques-tion is whether Mexico’s political eliteis up to carrying it out.

NOTES

1 In this sense, the possibility of adopting aparliamentary or semi-parliamentary govern-ment might be an appropriate way of solvingthe problem.

2 This means establishing prerequisites for thiskind of candidacies.

3 Article 135 of Mexico’s Constitution refers tothe mechanisms for proposing and effectingamendments to the Constitution itself. [Editor’sNote.]

16

Once “effective suffrage”is a reality,

the challenge is“effective government.”

You might not remember, butaround August 2000, in thoseheady days of the transition

period, Vicente Fox made a speechthat contained the ominous warning,“If I fail, I will be the most detested ofMexican presidents.” Unfortunatelyfor Fox, his followers and Mexican so-ciety, this stylistic bon mot, insertedon the fly by one of the numerousspeech writers of the then-president-elect, has become a telling commenton the present.

VicenteFox does not yet incite hatred,but disillusionment is the order of theday. The extraordinary approval ratingsof the first months of his administra-tion are no longer anything but mem-ory, a cruel memento of howmuch hasbeen lost (see graph). And, althoughthe president’s popularity has recov-ered somewhat (GEA-ISA’s last nation-al poll reported a 13-point recovery inFox’s approval ratings since June),1 un-deniable public disenchantment canbe seen in a thousand ways: everydayconversations, press diatribes, the com-plaints and recriminations to be foundin solidly “Foxista” milieus, etc.

The scathing national mood is notthe Fox administration’s only sign offailure. Evenmore significant is the lackof transformations. Without underes-timating substantial advances, like theTransparency Law or the financial re-form, the absence of great achieve-ments or even anything remarkable bythe self-styled “government of change”are notable. Undeniably, the obstruc-tionism of the legislative oppositionand budget restrictions have hinderedmany of Fox’s major projects, but evenon the issues that fall exclusively with-in the sphere of executive decision anddo not require congressional approval

17

Did We Really Win?A Balance Sheet of Fox’s

First Two YearsAlejandro Hope*

* Consultant with the Group of Econo-mists and Associates (GEA).

Courtesy

ofthePresident’s

PressOffice

President Fox delivering his second annual report to the nation, September 1, 2002.


or immense financial resources (thefight against corruption, for instance),the results are slim.Given this panorama, most analysts

ask a politically relevant —though in-tellectually, frankly boring— question:How can Fox change the current sit-uation? The answer is always the same,though in differing degrees: cabinetchanges, agreements with the opposi-tion, winning the mid-term elections,social pacts, etc. I do not underestimatethe importance of this debate about thefuture, but neither do I have the voca-tion of an oracle, nor do I wish to haveto rectify my “visionary” analysis injust a few months time.Therefore, this article, more than a

list of prescriptions, is a rather disor-dered collection of intuitions about thequestion that keeps me up at night:What happened to Fox? Why did hewaste a historic opportunity for chang-ing the country? I warn the readerfrom the outset that he or she will notfind here a compact, rigorous argu-ment, but rather only a few hypothe-ses, constructed in the light of chats,

reading and leisure time over a periodof 18 months. As my hypotheticalreaders will soon see, they are prelim-inary thoughts about a very complex,very recent issue that may not resistthe test of time and the emergence ofadditional information, but may serveto provoke additional thinking aboutour immediate past.

FIRST HYPOTHESIS:FOX GOT THE AGENDA WRONG

When he took office, Vicente Fox wasin the perfect position to be able to pushforward an agenda for change: his le-gitimacy was unquestionable; his pop-ularity was sky high; the oppositionwas demoralized and divided. And yet,after fewer than six months of gov-ernment, he had lost the political ini-tiative and found himself under siege,on the defensive. At the time, this cat-astrophic start-up was put down toinexperience or the lack of politicalsavvy. Although these explanations con-tain a grain of truth, they are insuffi-

cient for understanding the deteriora-tion of those first few months: theInstitutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)administrations were overflowing withexperience and, despite that, they couldnot control the political agenda after1997 or avert a crushing electoral defeatin 2000.The key is not so much in tactical

decisions as in strategic definitions. Letme explain: the greatest restriction thatthe Fox administration faced was theinstitutional design inherited fromthe PRI regime.Mexico’s long transition,with its fast-forwards and reverses,left an explosive institutional cocktail:a presidentialist regime combined with amulti-partisan system, a high level ofdiscipline inside the party organizationsand a sui generis brand of federalism.In short, a system designed for paral-ysis, deprived of incentives for collab-oration and instruments for breakingdeadlocks.Given this context, the very first,

not-to-be-postponed task of the newadministration was the political reform,an objective that not only had intellec-tual back-up, but could have foundallies in the Party of the DemocraticRevolution (PRD) and some sectors ofthe PRI. However, instead of pursuingan attainable, high-yield transforma-tion, the indispensable prologue to otherstructural reforms, President Fox andhis political operators picked a rocki-er road, that would of necessity leadto massive resistance: fiscal reform.This terrible decision was based on

a fallacy: the idea taken on board andspread by the government itself thatPresident Fox’s success or failure shouldbe measured by his ability to foster aseries of economic reforms that werehighly polemical and would createdmulti-faceted resistance. When he

18

PRESIDENT FOX’S APPROVAL RATING 2001-2002

Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the job Vicente Foxhas done as president?

Source: GEA-ISA national surveys.

Pol i t i cs

launched the most unpopular of allthese reforms as the first big projectof his administration, Fox fell into anairtight trap: the fiscal reform wouldnot only allow the PRI and the PRD tomaintain their opposition status withlow political costs, but it would alsomake the executive a hostage of Con-gress and of the internal equilibria ofthe opposition parties.Lacking the instruments that would

facilitate opposition collaboration andwith its prestige at stake, the admin-istration launched an unsuccessful ne-gotiation that lasted eight months andbled the president of political capital.Everyone knows the outcome: a fiscalreform, irrelevant in terms of revenues,that put a large part of the private sec-tor on guard in addition to seriouslybruising the presidential image andtensing relations between the admin-istration and the opposition.After this debacle, the Fox govern-

ment found itself without an agendaor allies, the rest of the structural re-forms under fire and betting its futureon gaining a legislative majority in the2003 elections, an aim that at this pointit seems very doubtful will be achieved.And, of course, all this without a polit-ical reform or any indication of an agree-ment for moving toward one.

SECOND HYPOTHESIS: FOXOVERESTIMATED THE POLITICALEFFECTS OF HIS POPULARITY

As the graph shows, Vicente Fox touchedthe clouds in the first months of hismandate: in March 2001, three out ofevery four Mexicans approved of hisperformance as president. This pro-duced the government’s fantasy of theFox groundswell: all obstacles would

be swept aside by presidential popu-larity. For this reason, time and again,Fox used direct communication withthe population —shunting the partiesand Congress to one side— to promotehis agenda and, in particular, the fiscalreform. However, he missed the mark:the president’s televised messages notonly did not crush the resistance ofthe opposition parties; they strength-ened it.Vicente Fox paid a high price for

learning a fundamental axiom of Mex-icanpolitics: during non-electoral periods,the president’s popularity is politically

irrelevant. In our unfinished democracy,there are no mechanisms for translat-ing approval or disapproval of the chiefexecutive’s performance into concretepolitical results. Without immediatelegislative re-election, the political futureof a deputy or senator depends on partybureaucracies, not on state or districtconstituencies. Without the possibili-ty of a plebiscite or referendum, a pop-ular president does not carry the bigstick of direct recourse to the popula-tion to facilitate the collaboration ofopposition parties. Without the possi-bility of dissolving Congress and call-ing new elections (like in parliamentaryor semi-presidential systems), obstruc-tionism has few costs for legislators.Presidential popularity only has an

impact on politicians’ behavior as fed-eral elections approach: the president’s

approval rating will have a powerful(although not automatic or mechanical)impact on electoral preferences for hispolitical party. This correlation, how-ever, reduces legislative activity as elec-tion day approaches. The president’spopularity may, therefore, determinean electoral outcome, but turns intowet gunpowder as soon as the elec-tions are over. This inevitable truth ofour political life turns the presidencyinto a weak institution, despite its imageof omnipotence and the parapherna-lia of the head of state. Given this con-tradiction, it was almost inevitable that

Fox’s popularity would suffer the dam-age it did: nothing disillusions anddisconcerts as much as the image ofimpotent power.

THIRD HYPOTHESIS: FOXUNDERESTIMATED THE MEXICANSTATE’S LACK OF LEGITIMACY

During the debate on the fiscal reform,GEA measured public opinion timeand again on issues of revenues andtaxes. Rejection of the government’sproposal was systematic: more than 90percent of the population (as was to beexpected) opposed levying value addedtax on food and medicine. But thiswas not the most interesting piece ofpolling data. I think it was much morerevealing to see that two-thirds of all

19

The extraordinary approvalratings of the first months

of Fox’s administration are nothingbut a memory, a cruel mementoof how much has been lost.


Mexicans considered that the govern-ment spent too much and that morethan 30 percent thought that govern-ment would function worse if it hadmore resources. We should underlinethat these results were constant overan entire year; they were not statisti-cal anomalies.These figures are a graphic, brutal

sample of the lack of structural legiti-macy of public action in Mexico. Inother words, they indicate that thepopulation only barely puts up withthe Mexican state, no matter whoheads it up. Unlike developed nations,

there are no generally accepted pub-lic programs: not a peso is spent thatis not questioned nor is any publicoffice widely respected. Vicente Foxis without a doubt a legitimate office-holder given that he is there by thegrace of majority consent. However, inthe eyes of most Mexicans, the struc-ture he presides over is something likean occupation army. Under these con-ditions, asking the population to makea bigger tax effort was the equivalent ofrunning his head against a brick wall.The root of this phenomenon can

probably be found in the tradition of theMexican state whereby office-holdersconsiderpublic resourcesunder their aegisto be their own personal property to bedealt with as they see fit. This is toobroad a debate to deal with here, but itis undeniable that this lack of legitima-

cy severely limits the manoeuveringroom for any government and mustbe faced by any project for change.This aim implies two simultaneous

tasks: first, it is indispensable to notonly reduce corruption levels in stateinstitutions, but also—and this is muchmore difficult— to convince the pop-ulation that corrupt individuals will notgo unpunished. In the second place,state legitimation requires its institu-tions to become more effective. Thismeans, undoubtedly, assuring that pub-lic spending effect concrete, percepti-ble benefits for the population, but

also that the institutions respond tothe population’s preferences. In otherwords, it demands a broad political andadministrative reform of the state.Until now, Fox has not undertaken

this task, perhaps because he under-estimates the unpopular nature of themachinery he is heading up. Regardlessof his reasons, the fight against corrup-tion has been drowned in the unfruitfulsearch for big fish, and political-admin-istrative reforms (or the reform of thestate, or whatever you want to call it)have been postponed for a better mo-ment. There may be valid reasons forthis postponement, but the countrywill not stand for any more delays. Itis not by chance that people have mademachetes a political tool, kidnappingpublic officials to show their discon-tentment.2

CONCLUSION

Speaking of the Fox “failure” may beexcessive and premature. After all,the president’s popularity seems to beexperiencing a recovery. What is more,it is not completely improbable that hewill achieve a majority in the Chamberof Deputies next year. However, thelast two years’ experience cannot helpbut leave a bitter taste in our mouths.In my opinion Vicente Fox missed ahistoric, one-of-a-kind opportunity forchanging the country, for healing someof its ancestral sores, for making it alittle more just and a little less unhap-py. It was not necessary, as many sup-posed, to keep each and every one ofhis campaign promises. No politicianin any country in the world is able toperform such a feat. But it was nec-essary to put his priorities in order andcorrect above all the country’s politicalfetters. In this administration’s remain-ing years, regardless of the mid-termelection results, it will be much moredifficult to carry out this task success-fully because Fox has lost a preciousasset in these erratic months: the feel-ing of possibilities that came with histaking office.

NOTES

1 GEA-ISA is one of Mexico’s most prestigiousconsulting groups. [Editor’s Note.]

2 The author is referring to events in July andAugust 2002, when there was an incipientrebellion of peasants and inhabitants of SanMateo Atenco, a town in the State of Mexico,against the expropriation of their land to buildthe new Mexico City airport. This rebellioncaused the project to be cancelled, a stepbackward by the president and the adminis-tration, who had supported it against all oppo-sition. [Editor’s Note.]

20

Vicente Fox paid a high pricefor learning a fundamental axiom

of Mexican politics: during non-electoral periods,the president’s popularityis politically irrelevant.

21

S O C I E T Y

l. Opening up the secret files on re-pression, including the ones about the1968 student movement, the events ofJune 10, 1971, and the period of the so-called dirty war that lasted into thebeginning of the 1980s,1 is the mostimportant step by any Mexican govern-ment toward clarifying this dark periodin our recent history. In addition, thegovernment has created the (incrediblynamed) “Special Prosecutor’s Office forthe Investigation of Events that WereProbably Federal Crimes CommittedDirectly or Indirectly by Public Servants

Against Persons Linked to Social andPolitical Movements of the Past.” Thisoffice will be assisted in its efforts bya “Citizens’ Committee to Supportthe Prosecutor,” in which former stu-dent activists and guerrillas will parti-cipate, as well as an “InterdisciplinaryCommittee,” that, according to the Min-istry of the Interior, will be “in chargeof studying, analyzing and presentingthe proposals for determining proce-dures and terms in which reparationsare to be made.”2

It should be underlined that thesemeasures are the result of decades ofefforts by successive independent com-mittees of victims’ family members who

never gave up in the face of the silenceor cynicism of judicial, political or mil-itary authorities who for years deniedthe facts or validated the decisions bykangaroo courts totally divorced fromany rule of law. It is thanks to the te-nacity of people like Rosario Ibarra dePiedra and their insistent, irrefutabledenunciations, considered by many tobe inopportune or politically incorrect,that the issue of human rights viola-tions is now on the national agendaand has become key to the democraticdevelopment of the republic.

To these efforts should be addedthose carried out by some of the 1968movement leaders themselves, whoafter being jailed and exiled started along political and legal road back tomake the judicial branch act profession-ally and legally rectify abuses by magis-trates and judgeswho,underdirect ordersfrom the executive branch and withoutdue process, had charged and sentencedcitizens for alleged crimes committed inthe course of their open political struggleor as part of clandestine armed action.Definitely, if the judicial branch aspiresto becoming the independent branchthat democracy requires, it must beginby cleaning house.

2. Clearly, as many have said, thesemeasures in and of themselves will not

Why Rub Salt in the Wound?Finding Out the Truth about 1968

And the Dirty WarAdolfo Sánchez Rebolledo*

* Political analyst and contributor to theLa Jornada daily newspaper.

Man

uelG

utiérre

zPa

rede

s’Archive,

CESU/U

NAM

-HistoricArchive


automatically clear up the truth andbring justice to those wronged, but itmust be recognized that the governmenthas cleared institutional obstacles outof the way —although there continueto be some with regard to the armedforces— so that today Mexican socie-ty has an arsenal of instruments andsources available as never before. In noway do they resemble, as some havesaid, a “smoke screen” to gloss over thefacts, and they do have the intentionof punishing those responsible for theviolations of human rights wherever andwhenever the law allows. Much lessdoes it seem what others have called,a useless exercise because it is too late,an exercise that can only bring divisionto our society, a mere act of retroactivevengeance that is of no interest to newgenerations who know very little aboutthe historic facts in question.

Delving deeply into the underworldof official, secret repression containedin the files recently handed over to thepublic will reveal the modus operandiof the authoritarian state, the codes ofimpunity, the networks of complicitywoven between security forces and thejudicial apparatus to cover up the com-mission of extremely grave crimes. It

will paint a painful picture of violenceand irrationality, of pain and stupidi-ty: the death figures that, for reasonsof political and moral health, must berevealed without hesitation.

The clarification of the methods andthe tragic numbers of repression meetsa first condition for beginning to bringto light a very important part of thehistoric truth. However, a great deal isleft to be done if we are to: 1) situateMexican state policies in their possiblerelationships with the anti-communistcounterinsurgency strategies of theCold War implemented in LatinAmer-ica since the victory of the CubanRevolution; and 2) know the concretehistory of the guerrilla movement inMexico, both the rural movement underthe command of Genaro Vázquez andLucio Cabañas and the urban guerrillasconcentrated mainly but not exclusive-ly in the September 23 CommunistLeague,3 sidestepping mythical sim-plifications.A precise idea of the extentof the so-called “dirty war” has still tobe established, since there are thosewho see continuity running from Octo-ber 2, through the halcones to the re-pression of the White Brigade,4 whichsowed terror and death for almost two

decades. Others, by contrast, think thatthe continuity begins when the disap-pearance of detainees became a sys-tematic state practice, immediately afterbusinessman Eugenio Garza Sada wasmurdered by the guerrillas in 1973.This is no trivial matter if we take intoaccount that for juridical effects, it isimportant to situate the duration intime of certain kinds of behavior andthe commonalities to their victims.

3. People too easily recognize the needto clarify the facts so that “the violenceis not repeated,” at the same time say-ing that it is not a good idea to applythe law to events that “no longer mat-ter.” This is false. They also come upwith legal arguments about the statuteof limitations having run out and thesupposed lack of interest in the eventsamong the new generations of citizens.However, some opinion polls show thata sizeable number of Mexicans knowwhat happened and recognize the res-ponsibility of the governments of thetime.

In that sense, a poll done by the Pa-rametría company for television’s Natio-nal Polytechnic Institute’s Channel 115

concluded that 62 percent of those

22

Demonstration of former 1968 students demanding those responsible for the October 2massacre be tried.

Luis Echeverría, president of Mexico from 1970 to 1976, arrives at the prosecutor’soffice to make a statement about his responsibility in the crimes of 1968 and 1971.

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surveyed knew what had happenedOctober 2, 1968, a very high figure ifwe take into account that for the last 35years only scant and marginal infor-mation has been available about thoseevents, information generally limitedto left milieus. It is also important tonote that “72 percent of those whoknow what happened October 2, 1968and June 10, 1971, and who know whoLuis Echeverría is, think that the for-mer president is responsible for bothevents; 69 percent think that he shouldbe charged and tried, while 16 percentthink that these events should be leftin the past to avoid division of Mexicanstoday. On the other hand, 43 percentof those polled think that the emer-gence of the issue today is an attemptto divert attention from [current] na-tional problems, while 45 percent thinkthat [the government] really does intendto see justice done with regard to theevents of 1968 and 1971.”6 Accordingto this survey, Mexicans think that “eventhough the events are in the past, the for-mer president should be prosecuted.”7

4. We need to know the truth not onlybecause of an ethical imperative, theurgency of rationally coexisting basedon tolerance and respect for the law,but also because of the necessity ofdrawing the lines of demarcation be-tween the methods for preserving thestate, even if they passed over the ruleof law, and what must be a political reg-imen based in the rule of law. In otherwords, delving into these tragic, vio-lent events is valuable if it is useful ineliminating from our social conscienceand the political culture inherited froman authoritarian regime the idea thatthe “raison d’état,” interpreted in a dis-

cretionary manner by governments with-out any control by society, can protectitself through the suppression of itsadversaries. Nothing condemns anauthoritarian regime more than the des-cription of the atrocities committed inthe name of the law and national unityby those who should have protectedthe constitutional rights of all citizens,even those who at one time or anothercommitted crimes. The recognition thatthat other history is real and not theproduct of a subversive imagination isa warning against the common ideathat any social problem that can causedisturbances and threaten stability canonly be explained by an external con-spiracy or as the result of a shamefulplot. In the past, impunity and repres-sion went along with the paradigms ofthe so-called Cold War that the Mex-ican government —political specifici-ties aside— accepted completely.

Anyone examining early 1970s pub-lications will find, with very few excep-tions, a determination to presentMexicoas an exceptional island of stability andpeace, particularly compared to the vio-lence that plagued a convulsive LatinAmerica.Mexico was different, said thepropaganda; nothing was going on heredespite the fact that very shortly be-fore, on October 2, 1968, the world hadwitnessed a cruel massacre of studentsby army troops and plainclothes policewho acted behind the civic, democra-tic facade of the presidentialist regime.The state, which considered itself theheir of a revolutionary movement, main-tained political control thanks to a sin-gle party without apparently placing toomuch importance on the subversiveactivities of small, isolated organizationsthat had risen up in arms. But this wasnot the case. The silence about thebloody events of October 2, 1968, and

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A precise ideaof the extent of the so-called

“dirty war” has stillto be established.

A poster of the time highlights those responsible for the repression. The third figure from the left is former PresidentEcheverría.

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later, the impunity of the perpetratorsof the June 10, 1971 massacre, underthe administration of Luis Echeverría,was due precisely to the authoritarianlogic of not recognizing dissidence,which in the end was the justificationfor the armed movement. Anyone whotries to study and understand the rootsof democratic change in Mexico willfind in this gap between the dominantideological illusions and the conflic-tive reality that no one dares talk aboutone of its original sources.

I will never tire of saying that the1968 student movement was the firstlarge modern protest of the second halfof the century in Mexico whose broad,democratic demands could not be dealtwith by the authoritarian state. The gov-ernment’s tragedy was that it could notsummon up a minimum of flexibilityto face a protest that turned aroundquestioning the “principle of authori-ty” that was the basis for the political

system’s normalcy. Even today someessential files about the period are keptunder lock and key.

With their actions, the students provedthat the regime preferred to sink intothe swamp of repression than to con-cede even an insignificant amount inthe monopolistic exercise of power.That is why the 1968 crisis marked thecourse of history in a way that otherequally tragic events in this extremelylong transition did not.

5. The October 2 repression crushedthe student movement, but the mas-

sacre became the justification for aviolent armed confrontation that wasobjectively fed by the lack of politicalfreedoms and the excesses of the secu-rity forces employed to curb the grow-ing democratic demands of a societythat no longer fit in the straightjacketof a regime unable to satisfy them. Ofcourse the guerrilla movement is a res-ponse that has particular social, politicaland even ideological causes accordingto the individuals that promote it, thestage they act upon and the means theypractice to achieve their ends, but it isdifficult to say that it was the contin-uation of the student movement “byother means.”

It is true that underlying the atti-tude of the guerrillas was a direct andemotional spring born of the experiencesof 1968 and 1971 that was marked byrepression. Subjectively, the guerrillasborrowed their ideas from “foco-ist”theory, based on a rudimentary, dog-matic Marxism that was barely enoughto “theoretically” justify armed actions.However, in the words of a former mem-ber of the September 23 CommunistLeague,ManuelAnzaldo Meneses, “Thereality was that they didn’t leave usany alternative. The persecution, themassacres in the streets were everydayevents. If you went to a normal demon-stration you were shot at, massacred,murdered; the porros,8 the white guardssimply executed you and threw youinto an alley. In the morning you ap-peared knifed or shot by police, riotpolice, soldiers.”9

Was there really no other alterna-tive, as the guerrillas said? That issuemust be addressed if we wish to learnfrom the past. In other words, the Truth—capitalized— will not be known aslong as we do not have a general histo-ry of the armed movement, not just as

24

Delving into theseevents is useful

in eliminating the politicalculture inherited from anauthoritarian regime.

Detainees in University City during the 1968 student movement.

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a victim of repression, but as the ex-pression of a political proposal whoseaim was taking power through revolu-tion and whose evaluation, particular-ly by left thinkers, is far from havingbegun. Regarding this point, we lacka minimal history that would allow usto move from accepted generalities toreal comprehension of an inexplicablylittle understood period. We must gobeyond the —absolutely necessary—description of the atrocities of repres-sion and move toward the analysis ofthe conception of the state and revo-lution that the left shared and thenabandoned but without the self-criti-cal look that the issue and the politicaltasks demanded. Unfortunately, thereis no balance sheet on hand despitethe fact that for more than 30 years theneed to discuss the political and ide-

ological implications of the armed roadhas been on the table and that the cur-rent question of whether all forms ofstruggle are legitimate simply becausethey confront an oppressive state hasnot been answered.

NOTES

1 On October 2, 1968, the Mexican govern-ment ended a student movement for demo-cratic reforms with a massacre in which hun-dreds were probably killed. Many others werejailed or exiled. This was known as the mas-sacre of Tlatelolco. On June 10, 1971, a studentdemonstration was repressed by governmentforces, resulting in dozens of dead and woundedand an indeterminate number of disappeared.[Editor’s Note.]

2 Secretaría de Gobernación, Informe de la Secre-taría de Gobernación sobre Derechos Humanos(Mexico City: Secretaría de Gobernación, 2002).

3 Both Vázquez and Cabañas were guerrillaleaders in the state of Guerrero in the early1970s, while the September 23 Communist

League was the most active of the urban guer-rilla groups. [Editor’s Note.]

4 The halcones were the paramilitary group thatmassacred students on June 10, 1971. TheWhiteBrigade was the armed branch of the govern-ment office in charge of repression, the FederalSecurity Office. [Editor’s Note.]

5 Channel 11 is a public television station thatbelongs to the National Polytechnic Institute,one of the academic institutions whose stu-dents, researchers and teachers suffered mostin the repression of 1968 and the “dirty war.”[Editor’s Note.]

6 http://oncetv-ipn.net/noticias, consulted on17 September 2002.

7 Ibid.

8 Groups of fake students that the authoritieshired to break up demonstrations and carryout repression. [Editor’s Note.]

9 Forum to Commemorate the Attack on theMadera Barracks, Mexico City, 23 September1995. The attack on the military installationat Madera in the state of Chihuahua was thefirst “revolutionary” action of the guerrillas ofthe 1960s and 1970s. [Editor’s Note.]

25

26

What does the opening ofthe files of the Federal Se-curity Office, safeguarded

by the Center for Intelligence andNational Security (CISEN), mean?1 Asa result of my own experience, I thinkit is a political and historic event of thefirst magnitude. Contrary to what hasbeen said and written to the effectthat “there is nothing important inthe files,” or that the files had alreadybeen cleaned up (opinions I shared be-fore I had seen them myself), the truthis that they contain a series of piecesof information that make them a sin-gular reference point and testimonyabout what happened in our countryduring what have been called “the dirty

years.” Of course, you have to knowhow to look.

The first indication I had of the valueof the Federal Security Office (DFS) fileswas references by researchers like Ser-gio Aguayo who were the first to pen-etrate this terra incognita.2 Later I hadaccess to substantial parts of the inves-tigation done by the National HumanRights Commission in the files due tothe “Special Report on Forced Disap-pearances in the1970s and Early 1980s,”which gave me a clear sign that thefiles were fundamentally intact, thatis, that they had not been “cleaned up”or destroyed.

What is the main criterion that ledme to think that the files had not beentampered with? First, in the prominentcases (Jesús Piedra Ibarra or IgnacioSalas Obregón, for example),3 the fun-

damental information was there: thatthey were detained; when they weredetained and underwhat circumstances;who participated in the detentions; whatpolice forces their captors belonged to;where they were interrogated; whatthey stated in the first interrogation ses-sion, etc. The fact that together withthis basic information, eventually, otherpieces of information aimed at coun-tering the first reports (for example,denying the detentions altogether andattempting to make people believe theversion that Piedra Ibarra and SalasObregón died in “clashes”, etc.) doesnothing but confirm the legitimacy ofthe first information, even if only be-cause of the methodological fact thatthe first information is much more ela-borate, with more references and pre-cise details, than the second.

The Files of the Secret WarGustavo Hirales*

* Writer and former member of the 1970sguerrilla movement.

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Second, everything seems to indi-cate that when the profoundly degen-erated DFS disappeared, there was noone to make the decisions about des-troying the information. On the con-trary, influential people inside thenational security apparatus itself (see,for example, Jorge Carrillo Olea in hisunrefuted public testimony) took ener-getic measures to ensure that the filescontinued to include that informationand that “historic truth.”4

In the third place, it seems that nei-ther those who wanted to doctor thefiles nor those who wanted to preservethem in their original state thoughtabout the possibility of alternationin office for the presidency and there-fore about the possibility that the fileswould fall into other hands. They (we)were all surprised by history.

Why would such compromising filesbe kept? For one basic reason: theywere the record of the tasks that thehead of the supreme power of the na-tion (the president) charged the nation-al security apparatus with during a“particularly historic” period, and thefundamental proof of how that appa-ratus carried out those tasks. It couldnot simply burn “the historic record”of how these forces, civilian and mili-tary bosses, agents, soldiers, madrinas,5

etc., contributed to a job that, from theirpoint of view, was not only necessary,but highly patriotic or even heroic. Theybroke some laws along the way andviolated a few basic constitutional rights?As some of the persecutors of that timehave said now, “You can’t make an ome-lette without breaking a few eggs.”Or, as the “historic” chief of the polit-ical police, Miguel Nazar Haro, saidin December 1973, “When national se-curity is at stake, no Constitution orlaw matters a fucking good goddamn.”

What is special about the DFS files?From a certain point of view, they arebureaucratic, boring, probably repetitive,but extremely symptomatic. Behind theuniform police jargon that notes that“on the eighth of this month” so-and-soand so-and-so “of the September 23Communist League were detained bythis Federal Security Office,” is the his-toric drama of significant numbers of ayoung generation. This generation,blinded by the poverty and authoritari-anism of Mexican political life and daz-zled by the redemptionist dreams of apure and intransigent Marxism (whichwas actually dogmatic, elementary andsemi-illiterate), cracked its head againstthe wall of the well trained, tough polit-

ical police and the fraction of the Mex-ican military that dedicated itself toanti-subversive activities, with their—wemust recognize— high combat morale.

With regard to the disappeared, thefiles’ information is very important be-cause they contain details (the completeoriginal statements) about such wellknown figures of the armed struggleas Ignacio Salas Obregón (the historicleader of the September 23 Commu-nist League), Jesús Piedra Ibarra,Aliciade los Ríos Merino, several membersof the Tecla Parra family, etc.

I found clues to the extra-legal exe-cutions of Salvador Corral García andIgnacio Olivares Torres, both nationalleaders of the September 23 Com-

munist League. It is public knowledgethat Salvador Corral’s body was foundin mid-February 1974 in Monterrey,Nuevo León, near the residence of rela-tives of Eugenio Garza Sada. IgnacioOlivares Torres met the same fate, buthis body was disposed of near the houseof the Aranguren family in Guadala-jara. They were both bloody tributefrom the political police (that is, thepresidency) to the families of the busi-nessmen who had been murdered byleague members.

However, at that time the DFS bluffed,saying it did not know the identity ofthe bodies and DFS agents even wentto several prisons to ask imprisonedguerrillas “if they didn’t know whothis person was.” Beyond these kindsof smoke screens, the files are very clear:the record states that on January 31,1974, “In Mazatlán, Sinaloa, SalvadorCorral García and José Ignacio Oliva-res Torres, both members of the Po-litical Bureau of the leadership of thisleague [sic] were detained. They havebeen sent to the DFS for interrogation.”In the corresponding file, dated Jan-uary 30, 1974, it says, “The FederalJudicial Police detained in the city ofMazatlán two men who identifiedthemselves as Salvador Corral Garcíaand Raúl Gómez Armendáriz,” whoturned out to be “José Ignacio OlivaresTorres (a) ‘Sebas’, a prominent mem-ber of the Political Bureau of theleadership of the September 23 Com-munist League, who was in charge ofthe state of Jalisco.” The note is signed“very respectfully” by “Captain Luisde la Barreda Moreno, Director of theFederal Security Office.”

On February 11, 1974, the follow-ing brief notation is all that is includ-ed in the DFS file: “The body of JoséIgnacio Olivares appeared in Guada-

The secret policefiles shed lighton what reallyhappened.


28

lajara, and the body of Salvador Co-rral García appeared in Monterrey.” Asthough they had not reported just tendays before that they, the Federal Se-curity Office, had both detainees andwere interrogating them! As thoughsomeone outside the DFS had commit-ted the two murders!

Another piece of information inter-esting because it is symptomatic, is theDFS “analysis” of the death of EugenioGarza Sada in mid-1975, which, at theend, includes a list of those implicatedin the attack. Next to the name of ElíasOrozco Salazar is the note, “subject totrial in the Nuevo León penitentiary.”Next to the name of Anselmo HerreraChávez is the note, “killed in a kidnap-ping attempt.” But, next to the nameJesús Piedra Ibarra, there is no note. Itdoes not say “detained” or “escaped” or

“killed”. This silence is understandable:they could not write down the words“disappeared” or “in custody.”

I am sure that, if we work rigorously,with perseverance, intuition and know-ledge, many interesting things will comeout of these ultra-secret files of the Mex-ican political police, whichwill undoubt-edly contribute to what we need to knowabout our recent past.

NOTES

1 The files contain information about govern-ment action against the 1968 student movementthat concluded with the Tlatelolco massacre,as well as what has been called the “dirty war”,including torture and a significant number offorced disappearances, against the urban andrural guerrilla movements of the 1970s. [Editor’sNote.]

2 The Federal Security Office (DFS), under theaegis of the Ministry of the Interior, was the bodyresponsible for planning and carrying outrepression and the majority of the actions ofthe dirty war from 1960 to the beginning of the1980s. [Editor’s Note.]

3 Both were victims of forced political disap-pearance as reprisals for the attack againstMonterrey businessman Eugenio Garza Sadain the early 1970s. Since then, the mother ofPiedra Ibarra, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, hasdemanded her son be returned alive and forthree decades has been an undisputed, untir-ing political and moral leader in her fight forrespect for human rights in Mexico. Shefounded and has led, among others, the Eure-ka Group, the Mexican version of Argentina’sMothers of the Plaza de Mayo. [Editor’s Note.]

4 Jorge Carrillo Olea had a high post in the Mex-ican state’s intelligence apparatus. He was thegovernor of the state of Morelos for the In-stitutional Revolutionary Party and resigned inthe wake of accusations of corruption. [Editor’sNote.]

5 Madrina is a Mexican political slang wordmeaning “professional thugs.” [Editor’s Note.]

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In 1968 during Mexico’s studentmovement and even after theOcto-ber 2 genocide, no one ever talked

about human rights despite their clearviolation and its impact on Mexicansociety. Despite the fact that the gov-ernment committed illegal atrocitiesto fight two armed rural guerrilla groupsthat emerged in the state of Guerrero,headed by Genaro Vázquez Rojas andLucio Cabañas,1 and the urban guer-rilla movements that surfaced in the1970s, headed by different groupsof armed youths, the most important ofwhich was the September 23 Com-munist League, nobody talked abouthuman rights either.

Actually, the concept of “humanrights” did not become common in ourcountry until well into the 1980s. Fromthat time on, practically everyone knowsto some degree what human rights arewithout the need for a significant back-ground in law, history or philosophy.Why? Because, in addition to the

cases mentioned above that were wide-ly disseminated by themedia and there-fore known by the general public, andto a lesser degree to the internationalpublic, many Mexicans have been thevictim of some form of abuse by privateindividuals or government agents, abusethat in one way or another has violatedtheir human rights.Little by little, but increasingly rapid-

ly, the country became aware that theabuses and atrocities thatMexicans andsome foreigners were often victim of

had a specific name: the violation ofhuman rights, perpetrated by an autho-ritarian regime that governed us formorethan 70 years.It was very natural, then, that with

Vicente Fox’s victory on July 2, 2000,and alternation in office, one of thepopulace’s most frequent and constantdemands was the defense and updat-ing of human rights, something whichpeople have known for years was oneof the country’s legal and political pri-orities.All of this went along with what

was happening throughout the world:the universalization of human rightsis one of the most distinctive charac-teristics of our era, precisely because,as many scholars from different coun-tries have pointed out, they are theresult of loathsome collective crimes

1968, Human RightsAnd Mexican Democracy

Roberto Escudero*

* Former 1968 student leader, professorand researcher at the Autonomous Met-ropolitan University, Iztapalapa campus.

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Demonstration at the university. The large placard on the right says, “The monkey [President] Díaz Ordaz.” Students being arrested on the university campus.

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that have been committed in manyparts of the world.2 Today there areonly two or three other legal-politicalconcepts that have the same univer-sal standing as human rights.Mexico’s new administration has

responded to the severe problem put toit by different social groups, nongov-ernmental organizations and individ-uals relatively rapidly, for reasons thatseem obvious to me: Vicente Fox’s partywas not stained with victims’ blood. Onthe contrary, the National Action Party(PAN) had also suffered from repres-sion, while not as constantly and syste-matically as the left parties and move-ments, despite the fact —we shouldemphasize— that its opposition activ-ities were always legal and it also had

always condemned violence. Anotherreason closely linked to this one is thatwith regard to this momentous issue,the Fox government uses every possi-ble means to separate itself from theInstitutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).Not only that, it also tries to differen-tiate itself from the PRI by righting itswrongs. The last reason is that today oneof the most solid criteria for decidingon the quality of a liberal democracyis respect for human rights.Thus, a few months ago the govern-

ment created a special prosecutor’s officeto investigate those responsible for thehuman rights violations of the past, sig-nificantly, those against the participantsin the 1968 student movement and the

guerrillas active in the 1970s. The office’saim is also to clarify all the major arbi-trary actions taken against other socialmovements also subjected to repressionand brutal assassinations.Special Prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo

Prieto’s revelations about the violationscommitted inGuerrero, the state whereboth Genaro Vázquez Rojas and LucioCabañas operated, cannot be classifiedas anything but atrocious: illegal massgraves of guerrillas in what are nowbuildings; cowardly shootings of youths—some almost children—, adults andold men in small towns as vengeanceby the army because they had not foundwhat they were seeking: guerrillas. Andthe height of cruelty: the day after themassacres, the army would return to

give “aid” in solidarity with the townthat had suffered the visit of the “guer-rillas.” This was all told to the specialprosecutor by relatives of the victims ofalmost 30 years ago and by other eyewitnesses.This single example makes it possi-

ble to say that if the new administra-tion does not clear up these and similaractions, the “government of change” willalways carry with it the burden of thePRI government human rights deficit.I am one of several former student

leaders who brought a suit before fed-eral Attorney General Jorge MadrazoCuéllar exactly on the thirtieth anni-versary of the October 2, 1968 geno-cide. We filed the suit a few hours

before 6:10 p.m., the time when thoseof us present remember that the aggres-sion against the students and gener-al public began. I would like to take afew lines here and say something aboutthis suit, which illustrates in more thanone way the permanent importance ofhuman rights. What did we demand?That more than a dozen individuals bepunished, beginning with then-Pres-ident Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and hisMinister of the Interior Luis Echeve-rría Álvarez; including General Crisó-foro Mazón Pineda, the commander ofthe troops present that day at the ThreeCultures Plaza, the place the genocidewas perpetrated; and Colonel ErnestoGómez Tagle, commander of theOlym-pia Battalion which began the shoot-ing. We also accused the head of thepresident’s general staff, General LuisGutiérrez Oropeza, one of the clumsiest,cruelest leaders who acted that day.What did we accuse them of? Of

“acts that may constitute the crimes ofgenocide, illegal arrest, abuse of author-ity and any and all that emerge againstthe undersigned” (p. 1 of the suit).Of all these crimes, perhaps the

least understood is “genocide” becauseof its little-known meaning and, moreimportantly, because it has only re-cently been defined as a concept.While human rights have been res-

pected for a long period, dating backto the 1789 Declaration of the Rightsof Man and the Citizen, and were up-dated by the General Assembly of theUnited Nations in its Universal Decla-ration of Human Rights, on December10, 1948, the concept of genocide is ofmore recent origin, making it worth-while to review it succinctly.The term, as used worldwide today,

was coined by Rafael Lemkin when heheard of Turkish leader Talaat Pasha’s

On October 2, 1968, there was an attemptto partially destroy a national group perfectly identifiable

by its permanent interests and objectives: students.Therefore, the crime committed was genocide.

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murder of 80,000 Armenians. In 1944,Lemkin, horrified by this massacre andthe impunity of people like Pasha, andlater by the Jewish holocaust, whichWinston Churchill called “a crime with-out a name,” formulated an appropriatename for these crimes against humani-ty: genocide.From that time on, the definition of

the crime of genocide has remainedpractically the same and has been stip-ulated as such in all the criminal codesthat include it, such as Mexico’s. Inour suit, we quoted part of Article 149bis of Mexico’s criminal code, whichstates, “The crime of genocide is com-mitted by any person who, with theaim of totally or partially destroyingone or more national groups or ethnic,racial or religious groups, perpetratesby any means crimes against the lifeof members of such groups or imposesmass sterilization with the intention ofimpeding the reproduction of the group.”For those of us who participated

actively in the 1968 student movementand who brought the suit, as well as for

our attorneys, it is obvious that this lawleaves no room for doubt: on October 2,1968, there was an attempt to partiallydestroy a national group perfectly iden-tifiable by its permanent interests andobjectives: students.Therefore, the crime committed was

genocide. The magnitude of the crimeindicates that it was all a conscious,calculated plan.Before we brought the suit and until

today, we have insisted that the files notonly of the different police forces thatoperated in Mexico in 1968, but also ofthe Ministries of National Defenseand the Interior, be opened.At that time,theMinistry of the Interior exercised thepolice functions directed against dissi-dents and was the stepping stone forbothGustavoDíazOrdaz and Luis Eche-verría Álvarez to the nation’s presiden-cy. Opening up these files will make itpossible to see the sequence of eventsand the exact chain of orders that weregiven that ended so tragically in 1968.I would like to conclude with a cou-

ple of statements that leave no room

for doubt about the origin of the ordersto perpetrate the genocide. One is thespecial prosecutor’s statement a fewweeks ago that events of the magnitudeof October 2 could not be ignored bythe highest authorities of the land. Thisis a major step forward in clearing upthe facts and establishing responsibili-ties, just as we requested in our petitions34 years ago.The other declaration is contained

in the next-to-the-last paragraph of the“Denunciation of Facts,” the suit Ihave been referring to:

The surprise attack by the army, the par-

ticipation of shock troops like the Olym-

pia Battalion, the existence of police

and military corps, the large number of

dead and wounded, the high number

of arrests, the immediate police con-

trol of civilian hospitals, the swiftness

with which political censorship func-

tioned, the celerity with which the dis-

trict attorneys’ offices functioned and

the extraordinary coordination by all the

government agencies that intervened

directly (the Ministry of National De-

fense, the prosecutors’ offices, the Min-

istry of the Interior, etc.) show that the

government had prepared the final blow

to the movement.

NOTES

1 Leaders of the National Revolutionary CivicAssociation (ACNR) and the Party of the Poor,respectively. Both were killed by the Mexicanarmy in 1974. [Editor’s Note.]

2 In this debate my personal position is for theuniversality of human rights, although for rea-sons of space I cannot develop this issue here.

Professors and university authorities supported the 1968 student movement.

Unive

rsity

Colle

ction,

CESU/U

NAM

-Historic

Arch

ive

33

ART AND CULTURE

SusanaAlfaro’s Tonal PaintingAureliano Sánchez Tejeda*


It is very difficult to talk about LatinAmerican painting without men-tioning regionalism. There may be

a global aesthetic that assigns attrib-utes to the painting from each part ofthe world; that way we have a prede-termined vision for each nation’s art.But that is not SusanAlfaro’s case. Herwork stamps her as a citizen of theworld,and not only because she is an untiringtraveler.Her painting becomes universal art

because the theoretical and formal con-cerns underlying her images are those ofcontemporary painting without borders.They are paintings of Space, Time andAtmosphere.Thewritten discourse mustexpand the painted work, not make itspoetic. It is important to say that Alfa-ro’s images transcend “chromatic folkart regionalism.” She goes far beyondobstreperous local color, substitutingit with a structure of chromatic com-

position. She turns her painting into afield of mental action, as Leonardo daVinci said more than 500 years ago. Itis not primitive or naive painting. Onthe contrary, it is painting of elaboratestrategies of meaning.Susana has spent many years re-

searching composition in music and thevisual arts. This has been no trivial mat-ter: her professional training in bothdisciplines has allowed her to developprojects that relate to the possible inter-penetration of both languages. Theessays and theses she has written in thisfield are very interesting, and we findin them the origin of the idea of tonalbase as a structuring concept in herpainting. Tonality and the scale are con-cepts common to bothmusic and paint-ing. Using them makes it possible toconstruct ambiances and atmospheres.That is why her works combine playfulstrategies in crafting them, but are basedon a mature reflection about the struc-turing concept. Again, that is why theyevoke spaces of vast dimensions thatstretch beyond their format.

34

* Painter, researcher and professor at theUNAM National Visual Arts School andthe La Esmeralda school of painting.

In a Garden…, 90 x 120 cm,�1993-1994 (oil and tempera on canvas).

�Previous page: The Broken Wing, 120 x 90 cm,1994 (oil on canvas).

Ar t and Cul ture

The painting, in this case, seemsto hide the conceptual elements thatstructure it. This is due to the fresh-ness with which it is created. Anypainter who subjects him or herself tothe rigors of art knows that atmospher-ic unity can only be achieved througha correct grading of tonal contrast. Inher works, Susana Alfaro applies thebreadth of the scales of chromatic val-ues and hues. The painter’s well-edu-cated eye knows that it is more diffi-cult to paint the difference in light inshadows and half-tones without resort-ing to the high contrasts that easilycapture the viewer. This is not paint-ing of simultaneous contrasts nor ofchromatic dissonances. It is of imagesachieved in chromatic and tonal har-monies. On the other hand, for Alfaro,

each canvas, each surface is a “field.”In it, there is a debate between a pos-sible total abstraction or the recoveryof the world through representation ofobject references. This is one of herinternal demons.Each of Susana’s works is like an

event. It implies a temporality, but notone of time as a represented theoret-ical figure. Painting, from mannerismto romanticism and even impression-ism, captures time associated with therepresentation of the scene. The tem-porality in Alfaro’s paintings is not thatof a mythological scene, nor that of thereal or the virtual of “cinetic art.” Herconcept of temporality alludes to themoment of execution: again, musicandpainting transmit their essences.Wespeak of time-execution that is expe-

35

�Two-Sided Folding Screen, 180 x 240 cm, 1992-1993 (encaustic, tempera).

�The Wait, 120 x 90 cm, 1998 (oil on canvas).


36

�The Dream, 115 x 175 cm, 1994 (acrylic on paper).

rience, the experiential plane and re-flexive action: this is what time is likein Susana’s painting, more than a def-inition of a perennial event, which isonly recovered by memory based onthe painting-image. Thus, music andits execution penetrates these images,even if the influence remains distantfrom the viewer.The “generation of the break” ap-

peared in Mexican visual arts in the1960s. It was a group of painters andsculptors whose proposal was a breakwith the nationalism expressed in the“nopal curtain.”1 Our artistic history andaesthetic expression paid the price of theloss of the artistic sense that broughtus together as a Mexican nation in thetwentieth century.The best legacy of contemporary

Mexican art breathes in Susana’s sim-�Music…Woman?, 60 x 40 cm,

1988 (oil on paper).

Ar t and Cul ture

37

�…The City When It Rains, 12.5 x 19 cm, no date (color etching).

ple paintings, its direct descendent.Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Blas Galin-do, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Ta-mayo, Alfonso Reyes, Julián Carrillo,Manuel Enríquez.Susana’s work, together with that

of those who give Mexican art its vis-age, achieves the maxim of the greatCuban writer, Alejo Carpentier: “Weonly reach the universal from our speci-ficity.”

NOTE

1 The nopal is aMexican cactus that nation-alist painters, among them the muralists,adopted as a symbol, and that thereforeis frequently found in their work. [Editor’sNote.]

Polyphonic Reflections, 60 x 40 cm,�1988 (oil on paper).

38

Susana Alfaro, with her vast cultural knowledge andsolid technical training, continues her pilgrimage

through the world of painting, a world in which shewho speaks the least is the most eloquent. I feel thather route is excellent, even though external voices

push her to audacity but not to her truth. She knowsthis and tenaciously struggles to remain alone and beable to freely pour into her painting the accumulationof dreams nesting in her heart. The road is a long one

since it is very difficult to be oneself and not the reflectionof nothing. Along that road will be all the anxieties possible,

but also all the joys. I have faith in her vocationand hope that it will take her very far; this

is one of my fondest desires.

LUIS NISHIZAWA

�Female, 100 x 80 cm, 1998 (acrylic on wood and canvas).

�Two-Sided Folding Screen, 180 x 240 cm, 1992-1993 (encaustic, tempera).

�Massacre, 80 x 110 cm, 1998 (oil on canvas).

Susana Alfaro stops time in her etched atmospheres,in her insinuated landscapes, in her

delicate textures. Everything is stopped, quiet; nothingalters that apparent calm, an instant, a glorious instant,half a sigh, that moment is sufficient for Susana toperpetuate time. Now I understand the medieval

alchemists a little more; she uses etchingtechnique mysteriously and achieves her

purposes: resin here, soft-ground there and her firmdetermination to contribute something discovering

and discovering herself, showing us throughher efforts what her work and her talentcontribute to our rich graphic legacy.

Total silence and time stopped, integratingharmoniously into art.

JESÚS MARTÍNEZ ÁLVAREZ

Texts on this page were taken from the catalogue, “Lo orgánico por símismo” (The Organic in and of Itself), Escuela Nacional de Artes Plás-ticas, Galería Luis Nishizawa, México City, 1992.

Susana in the Eyes of Other Artists

39

INDIVIDUAL SHOWINGS

2001 “Portrait of a Composer,” Homage to Manuel Enríquez,Seminar of Mexican Culture, Mexico City.

1998 “Painting Exhibition, Fourth Festival of Visual Arts, ENEP-Acatlán,” State of Mexico.

1996 “Graphic Works, Homage to the Poet Jaime Sabines,” JaimeSabines House of Culture, Mexico City.

1996 “Gathered Images, Graphic Works,” Study of Elena Martín,Madrid.

1994 “Painting Exhibition,” Domecq Cultural Institute, Mexico City.1994 “Homage to Manuel Enríquez,” Rufino Tamayo Gallery,

Oaxaca House of Culture, Oaxaca.1992 “The Organic in and of Itself,” Luis Nishizawa Gallery,

National School of Visual Arts, UNAM, Mexico City.1990 “Painting-Installation,” Concert Hall, University of Northridge,

Northridge, California, U.S.1989 “Sonorous Atmospheres,” La Salle University, Mexico City.1988 “Color Monoprints,” Domecq Cultural Institute, Mexico City.

SELECTION OF COLLECTIVE EXHIBITS

1999 “At Risk. 25 Visual Artists,” San Ángel Cultural Center,Mexico City.

1998 “Art and Spirit,” Oia Gallery, Santorini, Greece.1998 “Nishizawa and His Students,” Topete Gallery, Mexico City.1997 “Century-End Images,” Historic Center Festival, Mexico

City.1997 International Miniprint, Cadaqués, Spain.1996 Second University Art Fair, University Museum of Con-

temporary Art (MUCA), Mexico City.1996 Cadaqués International Miniprint, exhibits in Japan,

England, France and Spain.1994 Homage to Luis Nishizawa, Mining Palace, Mexico City.1992 “Fresh Paint: Young Latin American Painters,” André

Malraux Gallery, Yerres, France.

�Homage to Manuel Enríquez, 80 x 100 cm, 1999 (mixed techniques on canvas and wood).

Mariana YampolskyAn Impassioned Eye

Elizabeth Ferrer*

Untitled, Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, no date.

41

Mariana Yampolsky’s photographs aresteeped in an emotional intimacy andintensity that is startling to behold.1

Throughout my long friendship with the artist,I struggled to come to terms with the seemingdissonance between the difficult lives of therural poor she photographed and the raw beau-ty suffusing much of her imagery. This is notto say thatYampolsky aestheticized poverty; quite tothe contrary, she could be strident in criticizingthe deep social and economic inequities inMex-ico. Yampolsky herself found poignancy in thefact that she found beauty in unexpected realms,among marginalized people who make do withso little and in the stark environments whichframe their daily existence. In bearing witnessto these realities, Yampolsky gave to the worldeloquent images of elemental truths —im-

passioned and utterly honest in what they sayabout the human condition.Yampolsky’s artistic practice was inextrica-

bly bound to an ethos that guided her daily life,one in which superficial differences like eco-nomic class and social standing mattered littlein judging a person’s true worth. She was moti-vated, rather, by a profound respect and con-cern for people who others ignore, and by thecamera’s ability to validate and inform. Her pho-tographs became captured moments of tran-scendence, revealing in everyday lives a senseof beauty that may be all but invisible to a lessdiscerning eye.Born in 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, Mariana

graduated from the University of Chicago in1948. She arrived in Mexico in 1944 after beingintroduced to the work of the Popular GraphicsWorkshop and becoming intrigued by its revo-lutionary idealism and innovative working meth-ods. Its members were engaged in the carefullyaligned goals of producing images that com-pellingly responded to the most urgent concerns

* New York-based writer and curator specializing inMexican art and photography.

All photos are reproduced by permission of the Mariana Yam-polsky Cultural Foundation.

The Apron, 1988. San Simón de la Laguna, State of Mexico.

42

Mariana was motivated by a profoundrespect and concern for people

who others ignore, and by the camera’sability to validate and inform.

Orange Stand, no date. Axochiapan, Morelos. Child Pulque Seller, 1979. Soyaltepec, Tlaxcala.

Charnel-house, 1973. Dangú, Hidalgo. Cone Granery, no date. La Trinidad Hacienda, San Luis Potosí.

of the rural poor and other underpriv-ileged people in Mexico, and of distri-buting their work to these very com-munities by way of inexpensivelyproduced graphics. Yampolsky’s workas a printmaker and curator with thegroup became fundamental to her ar-tistic and political formation. Throughit, she developed an understanding ofart as essentially social in purpose and asa powerful tool of communication andpersuasion.Yampolsky began experimenting

with the camera early in her career, inthe late 1940s, when she had the goodfortune to enroll in photography classesat the San Carlos Academy taught byLola Álvarez Bravo. She began to usethe camera sporadically during her ten-ure with the workshop, producing pho-tographic records of her travels. Shepursued her first sustained project withthe medium much later, in the mid-1960s, photographing popular tradi-tions in many parts of the country fora seminal work onMexican folk art, Loefímero y lo eterno del arte popular me-xicano2 (TheEphemeral and the EternalinMexicanFolkArt). These photographswere to guide the direction her workwas to take in the 1980s and 1990s, thedecades of artistic production for whichshe ultimately became best known.As she evolved as a photographer, Yam-polsky was consistently drawn to twoprimary subjects: people, the Mexicanpeople whom she profoundly loved, andarchitecture, a less appreciated butequally significant aspect of her work.The formal rigor with which Yam-

polsky approached the photographicmediummight best be observed in thosecompositions without people, inher ar-chitectural images as well as in her ele-gant studies of maguey plants and otheraspects of the rural landscape. In ap-

43

The formal rigor with which Yampolskyapproached the photographic medium

might best be observed in thosecompositions without people.

The Beast, 1988. Suchiatepec, State of Mexico.

Flowery Bread, no date. San Pablito, Puebla.


proaching architecture, the artist constantly ani-mated the inanimate and uncovered beauty in un-expected realms. But it is people, those whosefaces have been made memorable through Yam-polsky’s photographs, who have the most endur-ing place in her oeuvre. Perhaps her most con-centrated body of work involved photographs ofimpoverished Mazahua women from the Stateof Mexico. Yampolsky’s images of these womenare exceptional for a number of reasons, one beingthat she gave them a substantial role in the creationof their own image. Often when photographingpeople, she worked in relative anonymity, call-ing little attention to herself as she capturedfleeting passages of time, moments of spiritualintensity, or the random gaze of passersby. In herwork with the Mazahuas, however, Yampolsky’ssubjects were keenly aware of her presence, andher photographs of themmark intimate encountersshared equally by photographer and subject.For Mariana Yampolsky, the photographic me-

dium also maintained special value because itcould amply reveal the complex struggle betweentradition and modernity that lay at the heart ofcontemporary Mexican life, urban and rural. So

much of Yampolsky’s imagery portrays communi-ties striving to maintain traditions even as theyintegrate aspects of a global, commodity-drivenculture into their worlds. Tradition, as photo-graphed by Mariana, is seen as part of a continu-um that necessarily embraces the past and pres-ent. Rather than seeking to portray an idealizedversion of Mexico, especially later in her life, shesaw the need to photograph the country (espe-cially the countryside), as it underwent radical,even violent change. In an age when the veracityof photographic imagery was being broadly ques-tioned (as it still is), Yampolsky remained firm inher reliance upon the camera —and in the un-manipulated black-and-white print— not only forits unique expressive capabilities, but for its abil-ity to impart truth.

NOTES

1 This text was adapted from “Mariana Yampolsky: UnaMirada Apasionada/An Impassioned Eye,” in MarianaYampolsky: Imagen-Memoria/Image-Memory.Mexico City:Centro de la Imagen, 1999.

2 Lo efímero y lo eterno del arte popular mexicano (MexicoCity: Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana, 1971).

44

The Exterminating Angel, 1991. Tlaxcala.

45

Myth GatherersThe Sculptures of Maribel Portela

Agustín Arteaga*

Carlo

sAl

arcó

n

Downthrough thehistory ofMan,myths have been built day today: some reflect man’s tradi-

tions in terms of his daily life, others cap-ture his aspirations, desires or fantasies.The latter create a world parallel to real-ity, as important or more for the fulfill-ment of life’s cycles.

Maribel Portela is one of the fewpeople who in her daily life conscious-ly recognizes all rituals as a part of her,from the moment she opens her eyesuntil she closes them again at the endof the day.

In the same way that, in ancienttimes, nomads lived by hunting andgathering, today we all are gatherers

and nomads.We journey endlessly with-in an enormous universe that, thoughperhaps limited physically to our im-mediate surroundings, because of tech-nology, we can wander through televi-sion or surfing the Internet. Otherwise,we are gatherers of things as diverse asmatch boxes, photographs, dreams, orworks of art and —why not?— money.

Whatever our weakness for accumu-lation may be, it will be reflected in ourway of life, building our own rituals.

With her cheerful, intense, overflow-ing nature, Maribel Portela reveals tous a world she is a part of, the world ofgatherers of dreams and objects. As ifin an act of contrition, as a sculptress,she brings to light a never-ending seriesof characters who can be identified by


46

* Mexican art critic.�Goddess of the Heart, detail, 167 x 48 x 43 cm,2002 (clay and metal, engobe technique).

�Hunters and Gatherers,2000.

Previous page: Groupof Goddesses, 2002(ceramics and engobetechnique).

Jesú

sSá

nche

zU

ribe

Carlo

sAl

arcó

n

Ar t and Cul ture

their dress or symbols with the activ-ities of the spirit. Her beings emergefrom a distant past but are immediatepresences. She looks for human con-tinuity in the primogenial, linking ar-chaism with modernity; it is difficultto place her surprisingly simple terracotta creations in time.

Maribel’s latest work shows that shehas matured, or should I say becomeaware of what in previous stages was amagic world inhabited by an infinityof small sized characters. Then it wasa mirror of the crowded contemporarymetropolis, and in general, of this over-

populated world, leaving to each onethe possibility of playing the role of thedramatically expressive anonymity ofbeing part of an amorphous mass.

Today, her works have grown con-siderably in size, multiplying the ex-pressiveness that the small format pro-vides. It is not just a matter of meremonumental transference, but of mag-nified introspection. As her charactersreach an average height similar to thatof many human beings (1.60 meters),they attain the possibility of facing areflection on an altered mirror. In them,what lies on the other side of us is re-

47

Maribel Portelareveals to us a world she is a part of,

the world of gatherers of dreams and objects.

�Right: Gatherer of the Future 177 x 65 x 48 cm, and Hunter of Glances, 158 x 56 x 40 cm, 2001 (clay and engobetechnique).

�Goddess of Abundance, 85 x 29 x 32 cm, 2002 (clay and engobe technique).

� Landscape, 20 cm, 2001(gourd and wood).

Carlo

sAl

arcó

n

Jesú

sSá

nche

zU

ribe


flected, the being that is primitive, spon-taneous, natural, full of symbols andmyths, fears and anxieties, dreamsand desires.

Maribel Portela resolves naturallythe creation of Man. Technically, herpieces are impeccable, based on thepremise of purity and honesty. Theyare what they are, clay constructionsthat register the gesticulation of theircreation; simple, straightforward, self-sustainable, a return to the greatness ofmother cultures. Ancestral echoes arecaptured in her pieces, reflecting spar-kles of the Middle East and the West,ofMesoamerica orMesopotamia. Beforefiring, she adds the oxides that make

volume another aspect of creation;paint is not added, it is integrated andindivisible, but this does not deprive itof its own impact.

Compositions that alternate line andpoint rhythmically shape organized tex-tures, cadences that account for privaterituals. Clay skin turns into codex skin,into map paper, into an individual, hu-man cartography.

Maribel Portela’s magical world givesus the opportunity of recovering ourlost memory of the everyday, of iden-tifying ourselves with an essential partof the chain of life, so as to recover ourdeprived fantasy, integrating it intothe collective mystique.

48

� Circle of Life, 60 cm, 2000 (wood).

� Goddess of Strength, 179 x 53 x 57 cm, 2002(clay, seeds and engobe technique).

� Cat, 54 x 24 x 18 cm, 2001 (ceramics and clay engobe technique).

Car

los

Alar

cón

Jesú

sSá

nche

zU

ribe

49

E C O N O M Y

On more than one occasionover the past few months,after President Bush insist-

ed publicly that the U.S. economy iswell on the road to recovery, the stockmarket has responded with a signifi-cant drop the following day, as if toprove him wrong. In mid-July,Washing-ton Post staff writers noted, “For thesecond time in as many weeks, Pres-ident Bush offered reassuring wordstoday about the nation’s economy. Andfor the second time investors drovestock prices steeply down just afterhis address.”1 Throughout the spring

and summer the White House triedto convey optimism about the courseof the nation’s economy. Some over-enthusiasts in Washington went so faras to doubt that a recession had evenoccurred since, according to initial data,the gross domestic product (GDP) hadonly contracted for a single trimesterin 2001. Near the end of July, TreasurySecretary Paul H. O’Neil said on NBC-TV’s Meet the Press, “If people countas a recession one quarter of negativegrowth, God bless them. I don’t care.”2

In early June, the National Bureauof Economic Research (NBER) pinpoint-ed “sometime in March” 2001 as thepeak of the economic expansion that

began in March 1991, and hence thebeginning of a recession. They citedfour key indicators for determiningwhether or not “a significant decline inactivity” —their definition of a reces-sion—has taken place: 1) employment;2) industrial production; 3) manufactur-ing and wholesale-retail sales volumes;and 4) real personal incomeminus trans-fers. “Most of the recessions identifiedby our procedures do consist of two ormore quarters of declining real GDP, butnot all of them,” the NBER affirmed,adding, “The present recession may bean example that lacks two quarters ofdecline.”3 At that time the bureau didnot identify a trough date, i.e., a turn-

How the U.S. EconomyLooks from Here

Elaine Levine*

* Researcher at CISAN.

ChipEast/Reuters


ing point that would indicate the endof the recession. In fact, as they them-selves stated, the bureau’s BusinessCycleDatingCommittee “waits for manymonths after an apparent trough tomake its decision, because of data re-visions and the possibility that the con-traction would resume.”4

Data revisions released at the endof July did indeed raise new uncer-tainties about the current and futurecourse of the U.S. economy. They alsodispelled any doubts about whetheror not a recession had occurred. TheCommerce Department “revised itsGDP data back to the start of 1999,revealing that national economic out-put contracted for three straight quar-ters during the first nine months of2001, handily surpassing a rule-of-thumb definition that two quarters ormore of declining output is a reces-sion.”5 Although first quarter growth—originally reported at 5.8 percentand subsequently 6.1 percent— wasrevised downward to 5.0 percent,surely the most disappointing newswas that in the second quarter of thisyear output only grew at a 1.1 percentseasonally adjusted annual rate —thatis, “half the 2.2 percent rate estimat-ed by Wall Street economists.”6

It now seems that the decline ineconomic activity was a bit longer anddeeper than originally estimated (a de-crease of 0.8 percent rather that a riseof merely 0.1 percent) and yet mildwhen compared to other downturns. Inspite of all the time and energy spentmaking predictions and all the paper andink used to print them, the questionsremaining unanswered thus far are:“Is it over?” “How badwas it, really?” and“What long term effects will it have?”

Although economics has made enor-mous strides since the days of Adam

Smith, the business cycle, while seem-ingly still inevitable, is nonetheless ahighly unpredictable phenomenon interms of its precise timing, exact mag-nitude and overall impact. Only theadvantage of hindsight allows us tofully explain the often erratic behav-ior of certain economic indicators andeven then experts do not always agreein their interpretations of the econom-ic events observed and their underly-ing causes.

The 2001 recession is an excellentexample of how difficult it is at timesfor economists to make reliable predic-tions in spite of all the information to

which they now have almost instanta-neous access.

While the experience of the pasttwo decades may indicate that the cyclehas been tamed somewhat —judgingby the magnitude of the fluctuationsin GDP– it definitely has not been elim-inated. Furthermore, the ostensiblymild recession in 1990-91, for exam-ple, had a much stronger and longerlasting impact than initially expected.According to David Brauer the subse-quent recovery and expansion’s lack ofmomentum, after the recession troughwas reached, is without precedent inthe entire postwar period. Both GDP

and industrial output took over twoyears to reach their previous peaks.Private sector employment fell contin-uously for 19 months (until February

1992) and as late as July 1993 had notrecuperated its pre-recession level.7

Nevertheless, the long lingeringeffects of that recession were finallydimmed by the economy’s surprising-ly strong performance during the sec-ond half of the 1990s. In spite of thepresident’s public and private scandals,which cast their shadows over Clinton’sWhite House years, and the numer-ous defeats he suffered in Congress,the Clinton administration can claimseveral important accomplishments inthe economic domain, such as loweringunemployment, eliminating the fiscaldeficit and sustaining GDP growth for

eight years. After the first trimester of1998, the unemployment level reacheda 28-year low. The fiscal deficit waseliminated more rapidly than expect-ed and, for the first time in 30 years,there was a budget surplus in 1999.

Midway into Clinton’s second termhis Council of Economic Advisers as-sured that there were no indications theexisting economic expansion was indanger of winding down yet.

They pointed out that there wereno inflationary pressures, nor build-upof inventories and no evidence of fi-nancial disequilibrium.

They highlighted the fact thatinvestment had been growing since1993 and productivity and salaries hadbeen on the rise since 1996. Howeverthey also recognized that personal sav-

50

It was mainly consumer spendingthat got the economy back on track

in the fourth quarter of 2001 and fueled its surgeat the beginning of 2002.

Economy

ings were extremely low and house-hold debt continued to climb. Theyshowed caution in warning that “therecent achievements do not mean anend to inflation or that the cycle hasbeen defeated nor a permanent rever-sal of the secular tendencies of low pro-ductivity growth and increasing ine-quality in the income distribution.”8

Continuously high growth rates in GDP

and productivity from 1996 to 2000surpassed even the most optimisticprojections. The favorable coincidenceof low unemployment rates, low infla-tion and high rates of growth achievedduring those years was just as surpris-

ing as the reverse phenomena of highinflation rates, high unemploymentrates and almost negligable growth ratesfor output and productivity —referredto then as “stagflation”— which hadcaused so much concern at the end ofthe 1970s. According to the Clintonadministration, this favorable combi-nation of circumstances was due tothe positive interaction of 1) great pro-gress in information technology andtelecomunications that in turn had animpact onmany other sectors; 2) changesin business organization and practicesthat enhanced competitiveness; and3) public policies which created a favor-able climate for innovations and invest-ment —particularly fiscal disciplineto convert the deficit into a surplus,thereby allowing for lower interest

rates, which encouraged private invest-ment.9

In spite of all the Clinton adminis-tration’s rhetoric about the “new eco-nomy,” the spectre of a recession hadbeen haunting the horizon for quitesome time before September 11. In-vestment growth proceeded at a muchslower pace after 1998 and actuallybegan to wane in the third quarterof 2000, continuing to do so through-out 2001. Manufacturing employmentbegan slipping in the second semesterof 2000 as did employment in gener-al after March 2001. Nevertheless the“r” word was not openly or widely used

until after the terrorist attacks. Up tothat point, the Bush administrationhad been hoping that Fed chairmanAlan Greenspan would be able to com-mandeer a “soft landing.”

As is to be expected, theWhiteHousewas reluctant to admit that a recessionwas underway and a bit hasty, perhaps,in proclaiming it over. Once the initialshock effects of September 11 had sub-sided, consumers responded quite wellto all the overt exhortations —manyassert that there were subliminal onesalso— that it was their patriotic duty togoout and spend. It wasmainly consumerspending that got the economy back ontrack in the fourth quarter of 2001 andfueled its surge at the beginning of2002. Later on it seems that the patriot-ic spending impulse was severely damp-

ened by all the newsof corporate scandalsthat plagued the economy throughoutthe spring and summer months.

The revised data released at the endof July and the continuously errat-ic behavior of the stock market havebelied the administration’s upbeat dis-course. The president now finds him-self faced with the dilemma of eitherappearing to be absurdly overly opti-mistic —and thus not sufficiently con-cerned about the immediate future ofthe economy and those most affectedby hard times— or too pessimistic —possibly setting into motion a self-ful-filling prophecy of imminent furtherdecline. With an eye to the upcomingmidterm elections the Republicans arehoping to strike a proper balance.Aroundthe middle of August, about a weekafter the economic forum he convenedin Texas, Bush announced to the pressthat he was in the process of consideringadditional measures to help stimulatethe economy. “That’s one of the thingsthat came out of the meeting, that somehave urged us to think about additionalmeasures to help growth, so I’m think-ing about it,” the president said.10

Just a few days before Bush’s state-ment about considering a package ofnew steps to help out the economy,the Federal Reserve decided to leaveinterest rates unchanged. At the sametime, it “downgraded its view of theeconomy and signaled that it wouldconsider cutting rates if the recoveryfrom last year’s recession continued tolose steam.”11 By mid-August both theFed and the President were soundingless optimistic than they had only amonth earlier. Another ominous sign isthat even though the twin towers havenot been replaced yet, the twin deficits—the trade deficit and the fiscal de-ficit— have reappeared.

51

An ominous sign is that even thoughthe twin towers have not been replaced yet,

the twin deficits —the trade deficit and the fiscaldeficit— have reappeared.


52

Currently a V-shaped recession —abrusk dip followed by a quick upswing—seems much less likely that it did somemonths ago. It now appears much morelikely that the recession has assumeda U shape —an apparently mild declinefollowed by a rather slow, sluggish re-covery. However it is still too soon todiscard the possibility of a W-shaped,or double-dip, recession. Regardless ofthe form the U.S. recession assumes,the only thing certain for the Mexicaneconomy is that the negative impactwill probably be even stronger and lasteven longer here than in the U.S. Ithas been shown time and time againthat in terms of economic health, whenthe U.S. sneezes, Mexico gets a cold,

and if the U.S. gets a cold, Mexicocomes down with pneumonia.

NOTES

1 “Market Ignores Bush’s Bullishness,” TheWashington Post, 15 July 2002, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10058-2002Jul15

2 “O’Neil, Lindsay Laud Strength of Economy,”The Washington Post, 29 July 2002, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13926-2002Jul28

3 Business Cycle Dating Committee, “TheNBER’s Business-Cycle Dating Procedure,”National Bureau of Economic Research, 7June 2002, www.nber.org/cycles/recessions.html.

4 Ibid.

5 “Economy Grew Only 1.1% in 2nd Quarter,Less Than Expected,” The New York Times onthe web, 31 July 2002.

6 Ibid.

7 David Brauer, “A Historical Perspective onthe 1989-92 Slow Growth Period,” FederalReserve Bank of New York Quarterly Review(summer 1993), pp. 3-5.

8 Economic Report of the President 1997(Washington, D.C.: United States Govern-ment Printing Office 1997) Chapters 1 and 2;EconomicReport of thePresident 1998 (Washing-ton, D. C.: USGPO, 1998), Chapters 1 and 2and p. 42.

9 Economic Report of the President 2001(Washington, D.C.: United States Govern-ment Printing Office, 2001).

10 “Bush Considers New Measures in a Bid toBoost the Economy,” The New York Times,17 August 2002, wysiwyg://38/http://www.nytimes.com/2002

11 “No Cut in Rates as Fed Lowers Its Assess-ment of the Economy,” The New York Times,14 August 2002, wysiwyg://37/ http://www.nytimes.com/2002

When negotiations began forthe North American FreeTrade Agreement, many

thought that the treaty would be a one-way street in terms of foreign direct in-vestment and that the business possi-bilities for Mexican companies wouldfocus on exporting goods and services.And it was no wonder: the flood of U.S.investment between 1991 and 1994 sur-passed the total for the previous 100years, and Mexican companies’ scantresponse seemed to confirm the firstimpression.

Analysts also argued that the U.S.and Canadian markets were the world’s

most open even before the negotiations,and if Mexican companies did not investin them under conditions of trade pro-tection, what would point them Northunder conditions of free trade?

With this limited viewpoint, the ar-gument about Mexican investment gen-erating jobs in the United States wasnever used to counter the pressure andlobbying against NAFTA by U.S. unions.

Fortunately, eight years after it cameinto effect, on the NAFTA horizon there isa clear, not-to-be overlooked impact ofdirect investment by Mexican companiesin theU.S. andCanadianmarkets (here-tofore to be called “NAFTA markets”).

Currently, about 30 Mexican groupsand companies have direct investment

and an important level of operations inNAFTA markets. For this article, I havepicked the 15 most important from thepoint of view of the size of their industrialor commercial businesses, their revenues,assets and investments from 1994 onand the weight of their NAFTA operationsin comparison to their whole business.

Another criterion for selection wasthepossession and control of stocks in thebusinesses located in the NAFTA region,excluding the groups that participate inthem asminority partners through strate-gic associations and joint ventures.

This small but select club of 15 com-panies that I have dubbed Mexamerica,Inc. is representative and serves to illus-trate the beginning of a current of in-vestment and positioning of Mexicancompanies in NAFTA markets that willexpand to a hundred before 2010 and,of course, will have amuchmore impor-tant participation in business in NorthAmerica.

By no means does this signify thattheir current participation amounts tonothing more than a hill of beans: in2001 the subsidiaries of Mexamerica,Inc. reported earnings of almost U.S.$17billion, assets of over U.S.$18 billionand an accumulated investment in theirNAFTA operations of around U.S.$15billion. In 2001 alone, Mexamerica,Inc.’s new investment surpassedU.S.$3

53

Mexamerica, Inc.Mexican Multinationals In

The United StatesLeopoldo Eggers*

* Editor of Mundo Ejecutivo magazine.

Carlos Slim (CompUSA), left, Roberto González Barrera (MASECA), center, and Lorenzo Zambrano (Cemex), right:three of the most successful Mexican business leaders in the United States.

Germán

Romero/C

uarto

scuro

VictoriaValtierra/C

uarto

scuro

U N I T E D S T A T E S A F F A I R S

billion, a much higher figure than theannual investment in many small na-tions in Central or South America orthe Caribbean.

In terms of employment, the fig-ures are no less impressive if we con-sider that Mexamerica, Inc.’s 55,000direct jobs generate about 400,000 in-

direct jobs related to these Mexican-owned companies.

SURVIVAL OR NAFTA

It is worth asking what spurred thesegroups to accept the challenge to go into

the competitive U.S. markets? SomeNAFTA experts think that the treaty wasnot the direct cause of the impulse to in-vest from South to North, but they admitthat its effects on the economic envi-ronment in the short and medium termdid create institutional and macroecono-mic conditions that encouraged the com-


54

THE FIXTEEN LARGEST MEXICAN COMPANIES OPERATING IN THE UNITED STATES

Revenues Portion Operating Net Profit Assets Accumulated No. of Employees

No. Company Subsidiaries in the U.S. Var. % of Total Profit

or Group and Canada Sector 2001 2001/2000 Revenues (%) 2001 2000

1 Grupo Slim US Comercial (CompUSA) Retail, systems and 4,129.7 2.0 15.51 (123.3) 40.2E-commerce 822 Tenedora US and Condumex, Inc. computer equipment

2 Grupo México* American Mining Company Mining and metal 2,435.0 25.4 80.5 23.3 311.7and Asarco, Inc. working

3 Cemex* Cemex, Inc. Cement and concrete 1,872.5 143.6 29.0 351.1 183.1

4 Vitro* VVP América, Vitro Packaging Construction glass, 1,568.7 18.9 52.3 34.5 ndand Crisa Corporation containers and auto

5 Grupo Bimbo* Bimbo USA Bread and pastry 1,284.5 na 30.3 (4.9) (8.0)

6 Grupo Alfa Alpek and Nemak Petrochemicals 1,204.0 42.2 24.2 50.0 ndand autoparts

7 Gruma Gruma Corporation Food: flour and packaged 894.8 4.0 45.8 57.6 41.4tortillas

8 Grupo Imsa Glass Steel, VP Buildins and Covered steel and metal 692.8 38.3 30.1 15.7 10.4Ges America products

9 Savia* Seminis Inc. Bionova Holding Corp. Agricultural biotechnology 672.6 (3.1) 95.8 (53.8) (74.1)

10 IUSA* Cambridge Lee Holding and Metal products and 518.9 (16.8) 60.3 5.0 24.5United Copper Industries electrical equipment

11 América Móvil TracFone Mobil telephone services 472.6 26.7 10.4 (347.4) (213.4)

12 Corporación Durango* Durango and McKinley Paper Paper and packing 385.6 (25.0) 36.7 nd 22.2

13 Grupo Accel Elamex, Inc., Tropical Sportswear Textiles, garment 179.3 (17.7) 81.7 nd ndInternational, Flankin Connection and candy

14 Grupo Cementos GCC of America, Inc. Cement and concrete 157.4 33.6 41.6 21.1 2.3de Chihuahua*

15 Interceramic* Interceramic, Inc. Ceramic products 113.6 (0.4) 39.2 nd nd

Numbers in millions of U.S. dollars except employment figures and business units.

Source: Direct reports, company quarterly and yearly reports and other public documents.

Research: Leopoldo Eggers Muñoz, Antonia Arellano Benítez and Raúl Olmedo Gutiérrez.

panies to begin their NAFTA adventure.Of the 15 groups selected for this arti-cle, Grupo Maseca (Gruma), Cemex,Grupo Accel, Interceramic and GrupoVitro made their move before NAFTA wasnegotiated and signed. GrupoSavia,Ce-mentos Chihuahua (GCC), Grupo Bim-bo, Grupo IUSA and IMSA arrived in the

first years after it came into effect. Cor-poración Durango, Grupo Alfa, GrupoMéxico and the Slim family companies(U.S. Comercial and América Móvil)arrived in the final years of the last de-cade and the first of the current one.

Other Mexican companies with a di-rect stake in NAFTA territory are Grupo

Industrial Saltillo, Grupo Desc, Televisa,TV Azteca, Grupo Lamosa, Grupo Gi-gante, Famsa, Del Valle, TransportaciónMarítima Mexicana, Grupo Posadas, CIE

andSoftek, but their operations are veryrecent, and until now, they representonly a small or marginal portion of themother companies’ total business.

Uni ted States Af fa i rs

55

Var. % Investment Var. % Business

2001 2000 2001 2001/2000 1994-2001 2001 2001/2000 Units/Coverage

(26.0) (66.3) 2,268.7 14.8 2,300.0 14,721 (28.9) 221 stores

(195.1) 348.8 3,587.8 0.7 2,939.0 3,280 nd 10 plants

nd nd 4,827.4 14.9 2,970.0 5,273 28.6 nd

nd nd 296.5 nd 350.0 3,280 0.1 16 plants226 service and dist. centers

nd nd 1,147.8 166.6 1,156.0 9,276 nd 22 plants

nd nd 635.0 nd 454.2 3,000 87.5 5 plants

11.3 9.2 738.7 0.0 363.1 5,030 nd 18 plants3 dist. centers

nd nd 663.7 33.6 491.0 4,398 nd nd

(152.8) (89.4) 835.4 (16.3) 1,019.8 2,750 nd 70 laboratories560 patents

(2.0) 8.6 223.2 1.5 110.0 830 nd nd

nd nd 2,630.4 233.6 1,536.0 940 (42.0) 1,913,000 subscribers

5.4 nd 374.0 (4.5) 306.8 1,301 3.2 nd

2.1 17.5 133.4 (23.6) 156.0 310 nd nd

nd na 332.1 194.4 407.0 269 nd 11 plants6 dist. centers

0.7 (74.9) 69.9 1.4 55.0 606 0.0 nd

NOTE: * Includes revenues from U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries and exports to U.S. and Canada.1 Portion of total revenues vis-à-vis all companies controlled by the Slim family.

KEY

na = non-applicable nd = no data available


SUCCESS STORIES

Among the pioneering companies, themost notable cases are Gruma andCemex.

The Universal TortillaRoberto González Barrera’s businessacumen and vision has allowed him tosee the enormous potential of the His-panic-Mexican market for the consump-tion of corn flour, tortillas and othersimilar products like tostadas and toto-pos. That vision took him to the UnitedStates in 1977, 18 years before NAFTA.His company, that took the name Gru-ma Corporation, had everything it need-ed to be a winner: a profound knowledgeof the importance of corn consumptionin the cultural profile of Hispano-Mex-icans anda complete commandof its owninnovative technology for making cornflour, tortillas and other supplementa-ry products.

History proved him right. Today, theU.S. market for tortillas and derivativesis valued at an estimated U.S.$1.9billion; Gruma’s share of that marketis 25 percent, and it has achieved an80 percent share of the corn flour mar-ket in the last two years.

Gruma Corporation is the world’slargest producer of tortillas; it is Gru-ma’s most important business and oneof the most consolidated and profitable.Among its strengths is the projectionand positioning of its brand names Ma-seca, Misión and Guerrero, all leadersin the U.S. market. Its importance forthe group is such that it is in charge ofexpansion into the European market,which it began a year ago when it set upa tortilla plant in Coventry, England.

Cybernetic CementCemex’s entry into the U.S. market in

1985 coincided with Mexico’s entryinto the General Agreement on Tariffsand Trade (GATT) and, above all, withanother visionary, Lorenzo Zambrano,coming on board at the company. Underhis leadership, Cemex restructured andbegan its impressive international ex-pansion, which has made it the world’sthird cement producer, perhaps themost respected and admired of all.

But Cemex is much more than that.It is the most spectacular example ofhow, even in a commodities industry,enormous amounts of value added can

be generated: Cemex’s contribution toits sector has consisted of transformingcement into an industry of solutions:operational, financial, technological,logistical and commercial.

Its initial steps into the NAFTA mar-kets started with the need to attend tothe enormous U.S. market from theinside because of the high anti-dump-ing tariffs the government levied onMexican cement in the 1980s and thatcontinue in effect today. With a cur-rent production capacity of 13.2 mil-lion tons, plus what it adds this year,Cemex, Inc. is already the largest ce-ment company in the United Statesand the Americas.

WITH CAUTION

The slow expansion of Mexican com-panies toward the NAFTA markets is

closely related to how very difficult theyare. They are enormous, very compet-itive markets; their consumers demandquality, low prices and service; they havelow brand-name loyalty and are highlysensitive to technological advances andpermanent innovation in design, mate-rials and creative publicity strategies.

Broken GlassMexican investors still remember afew spectacular failures like Grupo Vi-tro’s early 1990s acquisition of AnchorGlass Container, which went bankrupt

in 1996 after losing the market for bot-tling carbonated drinks to the blos-soming PET resin industry.

The losses and bankruptcy ofAnchorGlass were a harsh blow to Vitro, whichwas barely able to recover and refor-mulate an expansion strategy in theNAFTA markets, although, of course witha business plan much more focused onmanufacturing and selling glass prod-ucts for construction and automobileglass in segments that require greaterspecialization, value added in their prod-ucts and client service.

Political RisksAnother case that illustrates NAFTA mar-kets risks is the Grupo Savia experi-ence with their division of agriculturalbiotechnology products headed up bySéminis and Bionova, Inc. It is commonknowledge that well-known business-manAlfonso Romo bet a veritable for-

56

Currently, about 30 Mexican groupsand companies have direct investment and

an important level of operationsin NAFTA markets.


tune on his acquisition of an enormousglobal network of research laboratoriesthat developed vegetable seeds; in afew years, it had become the world’snumber one producer of modified veg-etable seeds.

Grupo Savia’s problem was that itdid not foresee the strong resistancethese products would encounter fromenvironmentalist organizations opposedto the use of genetically modified seeds.These groups’ activities have been force-ful enough to stop the expansion of mo-dified seed use, and this has severely

limited Grupo Savia’s business poten-tial and viability.

In Aztlán, Even King Midas Trips...The NAFTA markets are the supremetest for even the most far-sighted anddecided Mexican entrepreneurial spirit.Recently, even Carlos Slim, with allhis experience and analytical capabil-ity, has encountered some difficultiesin expanding andmaking theCompUSAretail chain profitable. He bought it in2000, but it has already suffered lossesand fines to the tune of millions ofdollars.

From Tiny Markets to Huge MarketsThe NAFTA markets’ challenge has alsobeen levied at the most proven of thebusiness and trade models, Grupo Bim-bo. One of Mexico’s most widely rec-ognized family businesses, it has alsohad some difficulties in replicating

the business model that it has suc-cessfully implemented at home and inother Latin American countries.

Little by little, Bimbo has had tolearn that in the NAFTA markets, be-cause of their size and competitiveness,unlike in Latin America, the key to suc-cess is not in having wide distributioncapabilities, economies of scale or buy-ing companies and brands easily iden-tified by local consumers.

For Bimbo, the real challenge of theNAFTA markets will be in being highlyinnovative, developing new products

and creating a marketing strategy thattargets a much wider population thanfirst- and second-generation Hispanics.Only thenwill Bimbo’s baker-bear NAFTA

operation chalk up black numbers onits financial balance sheet.

Watch Out for the Business CycleWith the acquisition of Asarco, Inc.,one of the United States largest min-ing-metalworking companies and inturn owner of the Southern Peru Cop-per Corporation, Grupo México be-came the world’s third largest copperproducer. The importance of its pro-ductive enclave, headquartered inPhoenix, Arizona, in the heart of theworld’s most important metal market,led it to set up the American MiningCompany (AMC) there, the corporatehead of a mining business with rev-enues more than U.S.$2.4 billion in2001 (not including its Mexican divi-

sion’s earnings), with mining and ex-ploration operations on the five conti-nents.

AMC’s problem is mining’s high sen-sitivity to the cyclical nature of inter-national industrial markets for metalslike copper (its main product), lead,zinc and preciousmetals. Cycles are keyin this business since financial resultsare subject to the fluctuations of inter-national prices and investments are huge,financed by debt emissions of severalhundreds of millions of dollars.

Doing a Good JobThe case that shows a true NAFTA voca-tion is Corporación Durango, LatinAmerica’s largest producer of packingpaper. From the early 1990s, Corpora-ción Durango set its NAFTA businessfocus by specializing in making pack-aging for use by exporters and the uni-verse of maquiladora plants that oper-ate along the Mexico-U.S. border. Later,with the audacity and determinationthat characterize the Rincón family, itacquired McKinley Paper Companyin 1997 and Gillman Paper in 2000 tosatisfy from both sides of the borderthe demand for packing materials forexport and import along the main in-dustrial and commercial corridors thatmove trade between Mexico and theUnited States.

Having organized its NAFTA opera-tion under the aegis of Durango Inter-national, the results have been satisfac-tory up until now. Nevertheless, thethreat of a recession is now its mainchallenge: in 2001 its U.S. revenuesdropped 25 percent and its net profitsslumped to only U.S.$5 million.

The Myth of High WagesOther cases worthy of special mentionare the Grupo IUSA and Grupo Accel,

57

With a current production capacityof 13.2 million tons, Cemex, Inc. (Cementos Mexicanos)

is already the largest cement companyin the United States and the Americas.


who have used their experience in thefield of manufacturing and the devel-opment of industrial solutions to po-sition themselves in the NAFTA mar-kets in businesses as disparate as metalworking, candy, textiles and apparel.

Thus, while in Mexico the immensemajority of entrepreneurs in apparelcomplain of the increase in real wagesand the over-valued peso, putting themat a disadvantage vis-à-vis the “power-ful” economies of Haiti, El Salvador,Trinidad Tobago, Malaysia and Viet-nam, GrupoAccel, through its TropicalSportswear International, designs, man-ufactures, develops brand names andsells apparel from its Tampa, Floridabase of operations. It has registered sev-eral million dollars on the right side ofits balance sheet despite U.S. wage

levels, which are seven to eight timeswhat they are in Mexico.

For its part, despite the fact that the2001 recession complicated its NAFTA

business performance, headed up byCambridgeLeeHolding,Grupo IUSA alsohad positive results from its copper tub-ing andwiringmanufacturing operations.

SOME LESSONS

The experience of the Mexican cor-porations that have dared to set upshop in NAFTA territory can in generalbe termed positive, both from the pointof view of their financial results and ofthe learning curve that will allow themto avoid mistakes and perform in high-ly competitive markets.

Even though profits are glaringlyabsent in the majority of cases, it is alsofair to say that most Mexican business-es in NAFTA territory are still consoli-dating.

The fact that most of the business-es of Mexamerica, Inc. were estab-lished by purchasing already existingcompanies with entrepreneurial cul-tures that would be difficult to trans-form and that have often been over-valued means that Mexican corporateexecutives who want to expand into theNAFTA markets must refine their busi-ness sense. They have to learn to notmake bad acquisitions of companieswith scant vocation for change andprofitability or companies in sectorsthreatened by substitution or techno-logical obsolescence.

58

Traditionally, most economic activ-ities of Hispano-Americans inthe United States have been

carried out in the West, in states likeCalifornia, Arizona, New Mexico andColorado, where the largest number ofHispanics reside.1 However, we shouldnot underestimate the growth poten-tial developing in the South’s Hispanicmarket, which boasts annual sales of

more than U.S.$86 billion and thehighest number of Hispanic business-es in the country.

Geographic proximity, the differentlevels of economic development, socio-cultural diversity and trade agreements,among other factors, have favored bothmigration and trade between the south-ern United States and Mexico. To ana-lyze this trend, the Mexican-AmericanSolidarity Foundation prepared a seriesof studies about the Hispanic marketin four regions of the United States.This article presents some of the de-

mographic and economic traits of thesouthern states, as well as a projectionof the area’s demographic and econom-ic development.

THE DYNAMIC HISPANIC MARKET

Hispanics make up 12.5 percent of theU.S. population; numbering 35.3 mil-lion, they are the largest ethnic minor-ity. At least 23.6 million of them areofMexican origin. This community con-stitutes an ethnic market with almost

59

Southern U.S. MarketsA New Niche for Mexican Exports

Brenda Méndez*

* Analyst at the Fundación de SolidaridadMexicano-Americana, A.C. (Mexican-American Solidarity Foundation).


U.S.$500 billion annually in buyingpower.2 This equals the size of the Mex-ico’s economy each year.

The Hispanic market is a naturalbridge to the rest of U.S. society, butabove all it implies an extremely im-portant business niche for both nations.Hispanics, and particularly Mexican His-panics, have adapted to a new way ofsocial and economic life in their hostcountry, but they also maintain theircustoms, traditions and language. This iswhy they are the most important targetsfor exports from Mexico, above all thosewho reside in the southern states, whohave significant purchasing power.

The U.S. South is made up of 16states and the District of Columbia.Today, 11.6 million Hispanics are dis-tributed throughout this area, 32.8percent of all Hispanics in the UnitedStates. They are highly concentratedin Texas, where 57.6 percent live (6.7million people) and in Florida, where23.2 percent live (2.7 million). Together,the two states make up 80.8 percent ofall Hispanics in the South. In nine south-ern states, Hispanics do not even makeup 1 percent of the total population.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE HISPANIC

POPULATION IN THE SOUTH

Mexicans are the dominant group inthe region, making up 56 percent of theHispanic population. The second largestgroup is made up of what the CensusBureau calls “other Hispanics,” that is,

people mainly from Central and SouthAmerica, who total 29 percent. Cubansrepresent 8 percent and Puerto Ricans,7 percent. Florida concentrates 90 per-cent of all the Cubans in the Southand 74.2 percent of all Cubans in theUnited States.

Even though they represent muchsmaller markets than those of Texasand Florida, the importance of Mexicanconsumers in Oklahoma, Arkansas,North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee

should not be underestimated. In thosestates, Mexicans make up more than60 percent of Latinos.3

In the last decade, Arkansas andNorth Carolina registered the largestgrowth in Hispanics’ buying power inthe region, which indicates its growingpotential. Other markets like Georgiaand Tennessee are developing and maybe attractive above all for Mexican in-vestors. In these states, more than 25percent of Hispanic businesses areowned by Mexicans.

Texas also concentrates the largestnumber of people of Mexican origin,with 5.1 million, surpassed nationallyonly by California.4 One indicator ofthe growing importance of the Hispanicmarket in Texas is that in the 1990salone, Hispanics represented 56.6 per-cent of its total population growth.

Florida is the South’s second largeststate in terms of Hispanic population:23 percent of all its residents are His-panic and it is fourth in the country,

with 2.7 million, after California, Texasand New York. Despite being a pre-dominantly Cubanmarket, this state hasthe South’s second largest Mexicancommunity, with 364,000 inhabitants.

Texas will probably continue for along time to be the state with the great-est number of Hispanic consumers inthe south, reaching 11.6million in 2025.Nevertheless, demographic projectionsshow that the Hispanic population willgrow the most in the states with the

60

The Hispanic market is a natural bridgeto the rest of U.S. society, but above all

it implies an extremely importantbusiness niche for both nations.

HISPANIC BUSINESSES IN THE SOUTH BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic, 1997. Survey of Minority-Owned BusinessEnterprises, Company Statistics Series, EC97CS-4.


fewest Latinos, at the same time thatmore Hispanic businesses will openthere. This is the case of Arkansas andOklahoma.5

GROWTH OF THE

HISPANIC POPULATION

In the 1990s alone, the Hispanic pop-ulation grew 57.9 percent, increasingfrom 22.4 million in 1990 to 35.3 mil-lion in 2000, compared to a 13.2 per-cent increase overall in the UnitedStates.

This dynamic growth will continue.U.S. Census Bureau projections indi-cate that the Hispanic population inthe South will expand 84 percent by2025, increasing from 11.6 million to21.3 million. Hispanics will continueto grow at a much higher rate than thegeneral population.

By 2025, Florida will also have a5.5 million Hispanic population andGeorgia, 796,000. It is estimated that

at least Florida, Maryland, Virginia,Alabama, Arkansas and the District ofColumbia will double their Hispanicpopulation.

Fourteen of the 38 metropolitanareas (almost 37 percent) with the high-est Hispanic population in the U.S.are located in the South. Four of thesehave over a million inhabitants, mak-ing them important markets.6

Of the South’s 11.6 million Hispanicconsumers, 6.6 million, or 57 percent,

live in these 14 metropolitan areas.Texas is home to nine of the 14, fol-lowed by Florida with four, and the

fourteenth is spread over parts of Mary-land, Virginia, West Virginia and theDistrict of Columbia.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro-politan area is the third largest ethnicmarket in the United States, the South’slargest, with 3.5 million Hispanics.7

Laredo, McAllen-Edinburg-Missionand El Paso are the areas with the high-est proportion of Hispanics, with 95percent, 87 percent and 74 percent,respectively.

OTHER SOCIOECONOMIC INDICATORS

The 2000 census showed that the av-erage age of the U.S. population is 35;however, while for Anglo-Saxons it is36, for Hispanics, it is only 26. Amongthe latter, Mexicans are the youngestgroup, with an average age of 24.

Of all the United States’ Hispanics,14.5 million (41 percent) were bornabroad. They are older on the average(35) than U.S.-born Latinos (26). Forty-one percent arrived in the United Statesafter 1990; 93 percent have jobs, butare part of the lowest-income groupin the country.

All this has significant implicationsfor anyone interested in accessing thismarket, since the simple demographicweight of the foreign-born determinesa great deal about how themarket works,particularly with regard to language, lifestyle, consumer patterns and the demandfor certain goods and services.

61

Hispanics are the ethnicminority that has the largest numberand variety of media in their language,

built around their culture.

HISPANICS’ PURCHASING POWER IN THE SOUTH (PERCENT)

Source: Terry College of Business, “Buying Power at the Beginning of a New Century:Projections for 2000 and 2001,” Georgia Business and Economic Conditions(July-August 2000).


For example, Hispanics born abroadprefer to speak Spanish. As a group,they tend to rent housing instead ofbuying; they are more likely to sendremittances to their countries of origin;and they usually live in homes withlarger families.8

A vast majority consume Mexicanproducts and make their purchases incash, despite the fact that they use bankservices and have lived in the U.S. forseveral years.9

The Spanish-language media hasplayed a fundamental role. Hispanics

are the ethnic minority that has thelargest number and variety of media intheir language, built around their cul-ture. Two television networks, Univi-sión and Telemundo, have more than95 stations; about 638 radio stationsbroadcast in Spanish; 26 newspapersand 490 periodicals publish a total of12 million copies; and 268 magazinesin Spanish are currently available.

GROWING HISPANIC FREE ENTERPRISE

The last “economic census,” done in1997, put Hispanic-owned businessesat 5.8 percent of all U.S. companies.Mexicans owned 39 percent (472,033)of the 1.2 million Hispanic business-es in the country. Central and SouthAmericans were next with 24 percent,while Cubans —who have the highestincome level of all the sub-groups—owned 10 percent, despite only repre-senting 3.5 percent of the total Hispan-ic population. Overall, Hispanic busi-nesses employed 13 million people in1997 and had earnings of U.S.$186.3billion.10

The South has half a million His-panic businesses, the largest numberof any region in the United States, aswell as the highest level of annual sales.This is even more significant if weconsider that the West has the largestHispanic population, with 3.4 millionmore than in the South.11

According toHispanic Businessmag-azine, the 20 most important Hispa-nic businesses in the South are amongthe 35 largest nationwide; 13 of theseare in Florida. The largestHispanic busi-ness in the country,MasTec, Inc., a tele-communications company, is headquar-tered in Miami. Texas is home to four,among which is the nation’s fourth, an

62

PROJECTION OF HISPANIC POPULATION FOR 2025

STATE HISPANIC POPULATION GROWTH

2000 2025 (PERCENT)

Texas 6,669,666 11,605,218 74

Florida 2,682,715 5,526,392 106

Georgia 435,227 796,465 83

North Carolina 378,963 655,606 73

Virginia 329,540 659,080 100

Maryland 227,916 464,948 104

Oklahoma 179,304 353,228 97

Tennessee 123,838 225,385 82

Louisiana 107,738 204,702 90

South Carolina 95,076 182,545 92

Arkansas 86,866 176,337 103

Alabama 75,830 128,911 70

Kentucky 59,939 102,496 71

District of Columbia 44,953 89,906 100

Mississippi 39,569 73,203 85

Delaware 37,277 71,572 92

West Virginia 12,279 26,768 118

Total South 11,586,696 21,342,762 84

Source: U.S. Bureau, Projections for States by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin:1995-2025, 1996, P25-1130.


auto sales and services company. Geor-gia has two, in the same sector. Okla-homa has one, the nineteenth largest,a meat derivatives manufacturer.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hasthe largest number of businesses in theSouth,with140,150companies.The sec-ond largest metropolitan area is Hous-ton-Galveston, with 95,518. In the threemost important metropolitan areas,there is a direct correlation between thenumber of businesses and the size ofthe Hispanic population. However, thecase of Dallas-Fort Worth shows thatthis is not always the case: it is fourthin population size while five other me-tropolitan areas have more Hispanicbusinesses.12

BUYING POWER AND

CONSUMER HABITS

Generally speaking, the income of theHispanic population in the 1990s in-creased continually. In 1993, the aver-age annual income in Hispanic homeswas U.S.$26,919; by 2000, it hadreached U.S.$33,447, an increase of24.3 percent in seven years. From 1999to 2000 alone, it increased 5.3 percent.This change may be related, amongother factors, to the economic boomthat the United States experienced afterthe 1990-1991 recession.13

In the South, Hispanic householdincome was U.S.$33,584, slightly high-er than the national average. Comparedto the nation’s other three regions, theSouth is in third place, surpassing onlythe Northeast.

According to data from the SeligCenter for Economic Growth, Texasranks second nationwide, after Califor-nia, in terms of Hispanic buying power,with U.S.$75 billion a year; Florida

comes in third with U.S.$44.1 billion.Virginia ranks tenth. Of the ten stateswith the highest increase of Hispanicbuying power between 1990 and 2001,Arkansas is first, with an impressive316.6 percent hike; North Carolina isthird with 255.2 percent; and Geor-gia, fourth, with 250.6 percent. Thesestates have relatively small but flour-ishing Hispanic markets.

With regard to consumer habits, His-panics, particularly Mexican-Americansand Mexicans, have preserved cultur-al patterns, customs and traditions fromtheir countries of origin, as well as theirlanguage. These characteristics remainvibrant because of the constant migra-tion to the United States, giving thispopulation particular characteristics,needs and consumer habits.14

Hispanics also show more brandloyalty and more stable consumer habitsthannon-Hispanics. Thus, there is a highdemand for our products and a grow-ing presence of Mexican companies inthat market.15

The Hispanic market in the Southdisplays vigorous buying power andconsumers are avid for products withwhich they can identify culturally. Thisis a great opportunity for producers whoare able to satisfy those needs.

NOTES

1 Mónica Bellizia, Medio Oeste, Serie de Estu-dios sobre el Mercado Hispano de EUA, vol. 1(Mexico City: Fundación Solidaridad Mexi-cano-Americana, May 2001).

2 Esther González and Erika González, Oeste,Serie de Estudios sobre el Mercado Hispanode EUA, vol. 2 (Mexico City: Fundación Solida-ridad Mexicano-Americana, November 2001).

3 U.S. Census Bureau, Profile of General De-mographic Characteristics: 1990 and U.S. Census

Bureau, Profile of General Demographic Char-acteristics 2000 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov-ernment Printing Office, 1990 and 2000).

4 By “Mexicans” we mean everyone of Mex-ican origin who lives in the United States,including both Mexican-Americans andpeople born in Mexico.

5 Betsy Gusmán, The Hispanic Population. Cen-sus 2000 Brief (Washington, D.C.: U.S. CensusBureau and the U.S. Department of Com-merce, Economics and Statistics Administra-tion, May 2001), at http://www.census. gov

6 U.S. Census Bureau, “MetropolitanAreas withLarge Numbers of Selected Racial Groupsand of Hispanic Origin Population: 1997,”Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1999,no. 45, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, 1999).

7 Carmen De Navas-Walt, Robert W. Cleve-land and Marc O. Roemer, “Money Incomein the United States: 2000,”Current PopulationReport (Washington, D.C.: U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, 2001), pp. 60-213, at http://www.census.gov

8 The Mexican-American Solidarity Foundationused Gallup-Mexico methodology to do asurvey about the consumer habits of Mex-ican residents in the U.S. With help from theMexican Telephone Company, they conduct-ed 3,600 phone interviews with Mexicansover 15 who had resided more than three yearsin the United States.

9 Carmen de Navas-Walt et al., op. cit.

10 Melissa Therrin and Roberto Ramírez, “TheHispanic Population in the United States,”Current Population Reports at http://www. censu.gov/population/www/socdem/hispanic.html

11 Ibid.

12 Pedro Pulgar, “Dólares latinos,” La Opinión(Los Angeles), 11 December 2001.

13 U.S. Census Bureau, “Buying Power and Pro-jections for 2025” (Washington, D.C.: n/p,1990).

14 BANCOMEXT, Estados Unidos, perfil del merca-do hispano (Mexico City: BANCOMEXT, 2000).

15 See Leopoldo Eggers’ article about the mostsuccessful Mexican companies in the UnitedStates in this issue of Voices of Mexico,pp. 53-61.

63

64

Intraprovincial trade in Canada haschanged over the last 20 years, par-ticularly since the modifications in

economic policy implemented in themid-1980s that led to trade and finan-cial opening.Canada had traditionally maintained

greater protection for its investments

and trade until the mid-1980s. How-ever, it gradually became completely instep with the new form of trade rela-tions in the world: globalization. Thisimplied greater openness, which canbe clearly observed recently not onlyin its deeper trade and financial ties tothe United States, but also in its pro-vincial trade, which has changed des-tination.It is important to answer the ques-

tions: Why have international exports

grown significantly while Canada’s in-ternal trade has dropped, and what isthe short-term impact of this?My answer is that globalization has

linked Canada’s provinces more to theUnited States than among themselves.This erodes trade relations within thefederation and, more than character-istic of development, I see it as a me-dium-term problem, for several reasons.The first is that the world economyhas not yet been able to recover from

Intraprovincial Trade AndIntelligent Borders in Canada

Delia Montero*

* Professor at the Economics Department,Autonomous Metropolitan University,Iztapalapa campus.

JimYo

ung/

Reut

ers

Some Canadian premiers are concerned about the significant drop in intraprovincial trade brought by NAFTA.

65

the economic slow-down demonstrat-ed in a drop in global trade and invest-ments; secondly, the United States isonly very slowly recovering from itsrecent recession and its trade with andforeign investment in Canada havedropped significantly. Thirdly, this haspostponed the Canadian national pro-ject of strengthening the domestic econ-omy in light of the greater linkage to amarket that may not respond to tradeexpectations, particularly since theevents of September 11. This process,that makes for greater outward inte-gration, may have enormous consequen-ces, and not necessarily positive ones,particularly since the globalizationmodelis increasingly coming into question anddoes not bode well for a rapid recoveryof trade and investment in the worldeconomy in the short run.

THE CANADIAN ECONOMY

The enormous growth of the U.S. econ-omy in the 1990s, with very low infla-tion and unemployment levels, hadits effect on Canada. The most impor-tant impact was the strengthening ofthe discourse about the blessings of thefree market system and the insupera-ble benefits of U.S. capitalism. Thiscan be observed in the different econom-ic opening policies that Canada im-plemented since then. Another effectof the United States’ impressive eco-nomic performance in that period is theundoubted increase in Canada’s depen-dence on it, particularly with regardto trade and investment. The strongU.S. economic expansion in the 1990sincreased the two countries’ tendencyto greater economic integration.In that decade, the differences be-

tween the Canadian and the U.S. econ-

omies were seriously accentuated, par-ticularly with regard to productivityand employment, indicators that werelower inCanada. These trends were alsoreflected in an unprecedented drop inthe exchange rate, which showed un-certainty during the whole decade, incontrast with the economic upturn in theUnited States.Nevertheless, the recent performance

of the U.S. economy is different. Theeconomic recession, openly recognizedby the administration, and the very slowrecovery, in addition to the events ofSeptember 11, have had an impact ontrade between the two countries.A con-stant concern for Canadians has been

their growing dependence on tradewith their southern neighbor, which hasincreased since the terrorist attacks.Since the bilateral Free TradeAgree-

ment came into effect, the volume ofCanadian exports to the United Statesincreased spectacularly to 80 percentof all exports. Between 1989 and 1998,total trade volumewith theUnited Statesincreased 140 percent. Exports wentfrom 27 percent of gross domestic pro-duct (GDP) in 1988 tomore than 40 per-cent in 1999. Canadian exports aremainly raw materials, auto products,other goods like electrical machineryand services.Parallel to this increase in interna-

tional trade, intraprovincial trade in Can-ada has dropped from 27 percent of

GDP in 1988 to less than 19 percent in1999. It can therefore be said that Can-ada is evolving into being part of agroup of regional economies that turnnorth-south around the U.S. axis, tothe detriment of the east-east axis oftrade among its own provinces.

GENERAL TRENDS OF

INTRAPROVINCIAL TRADE

Until 1984, the Canadian economy,despite its always having been highlyintegrated into the U.S. economy, main-tained large intraprovincial trade anda very well integrated domestic market.

This situation has changed for sev-eral reasons, among them the reductionof Canadian tariffs, weak GDP growthand weak growth of intraprovincial ex-ports.Among the general policies dictated

by the General Agreement on Tariffsand Trade (GATT) and the Free TradeAgreement was the drop in tariffs, whichwent from an average of about 3.75percent in 1981 to 0.93 percent in 1996.This has put intraprovincial exportsmore at the mercy of foreign compe-tition.In 1996, trade among the provinces

represented 20 percent of CanadianGDP and in some provinces, like NewBrunswick, Prince Edward Island,Man-itoba and Alberta, more than 25 per-

The changes in intraprovincial trade,which translate into a greater integration with

the U.S. economy, are evidence of a structuraltransformation in Canadian trade.

P O L I T I C SC A N A D I A N I S S U E S


66

cent. Because of its vast territory, tradeflows between neighboring provincesare considerable: that is, distance isan important aspect of trade relationswithin Canada.If we look at the trade between the

most industrialized provinces and thosethat contribute most to GDP, we findvery interesting figures. For example,in 1996, 11.5 percent of Quebec’s GDPcame from its exports to Ontario, itsnext-door neighbor. For its part, 8 per-cent of Ontario’s GDP came from itssales to Quebec.Also, more than 5 per-cent of British Columbia’s GDP comesfrom its sales to neighboring Albertaprovince.1

The service industry, one of thecountry’s most important, is the biggestcontributor to Canada’s domestic trade.It should be noted that 75 percent ofjobs are in the service sector and theremainder in manufacturing. Four pro-vinces (Quebec, Ontario, Alberta andBritish Columbia) concentrate 85 per-cent of all service provision.2

In fact, of Canada’s 10 main indus-tries that trade domestically, five belongto the service sector. Other very impor-tant industries for intraprovincial tradeare automobile and truck producers,the food industry and mining, whichall together tripled their internal tradefrom 1984 to 1996. Processed foodsand mineral fuels are also involved inintraprovincial trade.Nevertheless, the economic impor-

tance of Canadian intraprovincial tradehas dropped since 1984. Interprovin-cial exports compared to GDP have fal-len in all provinces except New Bruns-wick, where they have remained fairlystable. Oil-richAlberta’s intraprovincialexports have also fallen in absolute termsdue to fuel sales being diverted to inter-national markets.

While intraprovincial exportsdropped, international exports morethan doubled in the same period. Theincrease in foreign trade was particu-larly important between 1991 and 1996,with a 17 percent mean annual growthrate in exports, a much higher figurethan the 4 percent mean annual growthrate for intraprovincial trade in the sameyears.Until 1991, intraprovincial and for-eignexports hadgrownmoreor less at thesame rate, diverging from that year on.Import performance has been sim-

ilar. On an average, imports from abroadhave increased 150 percent and intra-provincial, 48 percent in the sameperiod. This shows how, with the pas-

sage of time, the Canadian economyhas become increasingly more depen-dent on international trade.This trend coincides with the invest-

ment policy Canada implemented fromthe 1980s on that centered on threebasic stages: the first, when the ForeignInvestment Review Agency (FIRA) wasreplaced by Investment Canada underBrian Mulroney’s government, whichcame into office in 1984 and had amoreliberal trade and investment policy. Thisnew policy had a new mandate: stim-ulating both the entry and outflow ofinvestment and foreign trade, whichis why Investment Canada opened thedoors to foreign investment and foreigntrade, albeit maintaining heavy pro-tection for the biotechnology and cul-tural industries.

The second stage began with thesigning of the first free trade agree-ment between the United States andCanada in 1989, which resulted ingreater investment and trade both ways.The third stage was consolidated withthecoming into effect of theNorthAmer-ican Free Trade Agreement in 1994.Since then there has been a firm ten-dency toward foreign trade and a size-able flow of foreign direct investment(FDI). Between 1985 and 1992, Cana-dian FDI grew an average of 9 percenta year.These economic transformations also

coincide with the reduction in U.S.tariffs, which dropped from 2.58 per-

cent in 1981 to 1.91 percent in 1996, aswell as the changes in labor costs peremployee in the United States com-pared to Canada, which have gone upand down, and the constant fluctua-tion and instability of Canada’s exchangerate.All the provinces, with the exception

of Prince Edward Island, dependedmore on international than intrapro-vincial trade in 1996. However, therewere appreciable differences amongthem as to the degree of economic de-pendence.If we disaggregate GDP information

by province for the same year, we cansee that some oriented a significantpart of their trade abroad, among them:the Yukon Territories (25 percent), Al-berta (38 percent), Ontario (46 percent)

A constant concern for Canadianshas been their growing dependence on trade

with their southern neighbor, which has increasedsince the terrorist attacks.

Canadian Issues

67

and Quebec (35 percent). Ontario wasthe province most dependent on for-eign exports in 1996.All the provinces except Ontario

had a deficit in their intraprovincialtrade balance in 1996. For some, thisdeficit was important in comparisonto their provincial GDP. For others likeQuebec and Manitoba, intraprovin-cial exports and imports were almostbalanced.In 1996, more than 40 percent of

Canada’s intraprovincial commerce camefrom Ontario, the leading province indomestic trade. That year, it was thelargest market for most of the otherprovinces, and it was also an important

intraprovincial exporter. However, themost significant trade relationship inCanada is the one between Ontarioand Quebec, which represents 22 per-cent of the total value of all domestictrade. The export of products and ser-vices to Ontario represents more than11 percent of Quebec’s GDP, while thatof Ontario to Quebec represents 8percent of the former’s GDP. These twoprovinces, plus British Columbia, con-centrate 75 percent of Canada’s pop-ulation and 87 percent of its GDP.3

AND SINCE SEPTEMBER 11?

The changes in intraprovincial trade,which translate into a greater integra-tion with the U.S. economy, particu-

larly of the most dynamic provinces,are evidence of a structural change inCanadian trade. This transformationoccurred under particular conditions,geographically, by sector and by degreeof intraindustrial specialization.Seemingly the Canadian govern-

ment, far from being concerned aboutthis structural change and creating theconditions to turn around its trade re-lations, considers that the Septembercrisis constituted an opportunity forbuilding what has been called “an in-telligent border” to avoid, among otherthings, the enormous lines at the bor-der, reduce waiting and facilitate “just-in-time” shipments.4

An intelligent border aims mainlyat getting goods across the border moreefficiently, as well as a safer flow of in-dividuals. Ensuring this requires betterinfrastructure and more efficient ex-change of information.The project includes a series of

controls at Canada’s large productionplants, constituting a kind of pre-cus-toms check system for the approxi-mately 700 large factories that domi-nate trade. It also would provide forU.S. customs agents to be stationed atCanadian airports to pre-check mer-chandise before it actually arrives inthe United States.These sorts of measures, far from

propitiating Canada’s trade diversifi-cation abroad and strengthening do-mestic trade, would create greater de-

pendency vis-à-vis the United Statesand erode intraprovincial trade. Theywould also promote the concentra-tion of controls, mainly for large cor-porations, while medium-sized andsmall companies would continue goingthrough the traditional customs checksor would be absorbed by the largecompanies.With the intelligent borders project,

Canada seeks to strengthen its modelof outward insertion and reinforcethe concentration of its trade with theUnited States, which could make forgrave consequences for its economy,particularly since there are no clearsigns of the U.S. economy recoveringrapidly. At the same time, the dyna-mism of north-south integration notonly translates into a visible decreasein east-west trade, but in a greater con-centration of foreign trade in few pro-vinces, few industries and few sectors,which in the short term may have im-portant repercussions—and not neces-sarily positive ones— for the Canadianeconomy.

NOTES

1 Patrick Grady and Kathleen Macmillan, Uneanalyse des fleux du commerce interprovincialde 1984 a 1996 (Ottawa: Industrie Canada,1998).

2 Annuaire du Canada 2001 (Ottawa, 2002),p. 499.

3 Ibid.

4 Cristhie Keith, speech delivered at the“Fronteras reales/fronteras simbólicas” semi-nar in Mexico City, 25-27 February 2002.

With its intelligent borders project,Canada seeks to strengthen its model of outward

insertion and reinforce the concentrationof its trade with the United States.

68

The Tlaxcaltecs arrived in thistiny part of Mexico’s territory—about 0.2 percent— covered

with small valleys, mountains, hills andits great volcano, Matlalcuéyetl or Ma-linche, about the year 1100. They werepart of the vast migrant group knownas the Teochichimecs. Like other peo-ples who settled in Mexico’s centralhighlands, the Tlaxcaltecs began theirtrip at Chicomoztoc, “The Place of theSeven Caves,” a site that down throughthe years becamealmostmythical, whichhistory books have located somewherein the northeast.

The long years of wandering andcoexisting with more developed cul-tures like the Toltec and Teotihuacancivilizations allowed the Tlaxcaltecsto polish their forms of socioeconomic,cultural and religious organization.To establish themselves in the Pue-bla-Tlaxcaltec valley, they had to sub-due other peoples settled there likethe Otomí and the Olmec-Xicalan-cas, the creators of the splendor thatis Cacaxtla.Both historical sources and arche-

ological exploration have contributedinformation to clarify the foundationof the Tlaxcaltec settlements and theirevolution. The first known settlementwas Tepetícpac, meaning “Between the

Hills,” founded by Culhuatecuhtli Qua-nez in around the twelfth century.The second settlement was Ocote-

lulco, or “In the Place of the Pines,”which originated with the populationand land that the Lord of Tepetícpacgave to his brother Teyohualminqui.Power struggles among the Ocotelul-cas led to the assassination of the gov-erning family and put a Cholultecgroup at the head of the fief. Underthese circumstances, a group led byTzompane decided to leave Ocotelul-co and establish themselves in Teo-tlalpan. After more bloodshed, like theassassination of ruler Xayacamachan,a group of Tlaxcaltecs left and found-ed the fief of Tizatlán, “Place of the

TlaxcalaIn Defense of Its Past

Carolina Figueroa Torres*

* Researcher at the Tlaxcala HistoryCollege.

Dra

win

gby

Ross

ana

Bohó

rque

z

69

White Stone,” the third largest fief.After some years, a new group of Teo-chichimecs asked the Tlaxcaltecs tobe allowed to settle in the land undertheir rule, leading to the building ofQuiahuiztlán.When the Spaniards arrived in Tlax-

caltec lands in 1519, the four aforemen-tioned fiefs were the most important inthe region, despite the existence of otherimportant communities like Chiau-tempan, Atlihuetzía, Tepeyanco andHueyotlipan.Generally speaking it was the te-

cuhtliwho topped the pyramid of Tlax-caltec political organization. Even whenhis decision making was supported bya council of elders, the final choice wasin his hands.In the long struggle by the Tlaxcal-

tecs to consolidate and preserve theirterritory, they had to face and stop theexpansionism of cities like Cholula,Huejotzingo, Tezcoco and Tenochtitlan.The rivalry among these peoples,

despite its depth, was not very old. His-torical sources refer to the constantcoexistence amongmembers of the gov-erning elites of Tlaxcala, Tenochtitlanand Tezcoco, in addition to the impor-tant trade that the Tlaxcaltecs did withthe peoples of the Valley of Mexicoand the coasts of the Gulf of Mexicountil the mid-fourteenth century.We should, then, try to clarify how

intercultural relations between theMexicas and the Tlaxcaltecs becameas strained as what the Spaniards foundon their arrival. This would put thealliance or military agreement betweenSpaniards and Tlaxcaltecs into its his-torical context.About 1454, given the bad harvests

caused by a drought that affected alarge geographical area, some rulersand their councilors agreed to program

armed clashes, attributing the lack ofrain to the anger of their gods. In ad-dition to appeasing the gods, some ofthese pacts to do combat served astraining and education for Mexica,Tezcocan, Tlaxcaltec and Cholultecwarriors, as well as those from all thecities who accepted participating inthe “flowery wars.” Some chroniclers,like Friar Diego de Durán, took downwhat these wars consisted of and theprotocol that regulated them, in addi-tion to noting the disputes and enmitiesthat rose out of the clashes and someof the consequences that tainted rela-tions among the peoples, such as thedeath of Tlacahuepatzin, the son ofMoctezuma, tlatoani of Tenochtitlan.TheMexicas began to block the flow

of goods from Tlaxcaltec traders. Theblockade went as far as to ban theirtraveling certain routes under the con-trol of the pochtecas, or Mexica mer-chants, making it impossible for themto trade with the peoples of the Gulfof Mexico and the Valley of Mexico.With time, this blockade strength-

ened the Tlaxcaltecs’ character and in-dependence; they learned to live with-out products like salt or cotton, and inother cases, they took initiatives to tryto substitute them. Also, the defenseof their territory in the face of contin-ual threats from neighboring peoplesbecame vital for later generations.Circumstances like those described

contribute to explaining why it wasrelatively easy for the Tlaxcaltecs tomake a pact with the Spanish expedi-tion commanded by Hernán Cortés,but there are also other factors. Ini-tially, the Tlaxcaltecs interpreted theSpanish incursion as a new threat totheir territorial integrity, thinking theSpanish were emissaries or allies oftheMexica emperor Moctezuma Xoco-

yotzin. They had decided to fight thenew invaders with the resources at theirdisposal, charging the Otomís livingon their lands and serving as “borderguards” with fighting the strangersand if possible, preventing them fromentering. Defending the territory wasa task that the Tlaxcaltec troops joinedin. During the battles, the defenderspracticed all kinds of strategies: forexample, night fighting, given theirsupposition that the sunlight favoredthe foreigners. After a series of armedencounters in September 1519 in whichthe Spaniards’ combat superiority wasclear —they had steel, gunpowder andhorses— the Tlaxcaltecs decided toreceive them in peace.Cortés took advantage of his stay

in Tlaxcala to explain to the lords ofthat land the principles supposedlyunderlying his expedition: discoveringnew territories and spreading the Cath-olic religion among their inhabitants,putting them under the aegis of theOne True God and Emperor Carlos V.Achieving these aims, particularly ap-pearing before the powerful Moctezu-ma in Tenochtitlan, required the sup-port of the Tlaxcaltecs in the form ofmen, arms and foodstuffs.The council discussed the question

of supporting the Spaniards in theirenterprise. There were those who pre-dicted the danger that, once theMexicashad been beaten, the Spaniards wouldrefuse to recognize the independenceof Tlaxcaltec society and would try tosubject it by imposing authorities ordemanding tribute. Xicohténcatl Axa-yacatzin, the warrior son of Xicohtén-catl the Elder, lord of Tizatlán, whoonly a few days earlier had distinguishedhimself in the defense against theSpaniards, was one of the most tena-cious exponents of this point of view.

P O L I T I C SH I S T O R Y


70

Nevertheless, the prevailing opinion,held by Maxixcatzin, lord of Ocotelul-co, was to offer the aid requested.Several events symbolically sealed

the Spanish-Tlaxcaltec alliance. Onewas the acceptance of the Spanish godby the main lords, who were even bap-tized and given Christian names.1 Thissacrament was the beginning of theacceptance of the Spaniards as repre-sentatives of a different culture, anoth-er power and its symbols.The alliance was strengthened by

the offering of a group of maidens ofgood lineage, in whom a new seed, newblood would germinate. The Spaniards,for their part, knew how to take fulladvantage of the Tlaxcaltec aid and,overcoming difficulties and setbacks—wemust not forget The SadNight—2

achieved their purposeAugust 13, 1521.An alliance between indigenous and

Spaniards? It was not the first, northe only one, nor was it to be the last.The Tlaxcaltec lords were neither thefirst nor the only ones to negotiate withthe Spaniards the terms under whichthey would march together to conquerTenochtitlan. Over the years, manyhave pointed to this alliance by theTlaxcaltecs with the Spanish invadersas “treason.” From the strictly histori-cal point of view, the Tlaxcaltecs, likethe Cempoaltecs before them or theXochimilcas after them, limited them-selves to weighing the advantages anddisadvantages in joining in a conquestby a technologically more advanced armylike the Spaniards’ against a regime, liketheMexica regime, that had done every-thing to try to subdue them.From that same point of view, it

should be remembered that pre-His-panic political and military history hasnumerous examples of alliances madeto conquer peoples and territories. Thus,

following the custom of the time, theTlaxcaltecs allied with the Spaniardspursuing the same military objective.The notions of nationality or sovereign-ty did not figure in the equation; theseconcepts were used to refer to the phys-ical area dominated by a particularculture through language, economic-political forms, cultural creation and aspecific world view.The big difference for the Tlaxcal-

tecs is the advantage they were ableto extract from this alliance. This advan-tage was not merely momentary, butlasted for years or even centuries.In addition to their participation in

the conquest of Tenochtitlan, the Tlax-caltecs gave very important aid to theSpaniards during the conquest and

pacification of New Spain. They par-ticipated in the battalions that con-quered and pacified the lands to thenorth, all the way to New Galicia, andto the south all the way to CentralAmerica.Tlaxcaltec participation in this pro-

cess defined an exceptional relation-ship to the Spanish Crown and gavethem tangible benefits, like the rightto reorganize their structure of govern-ment, taking some elements from theirpre-Hispanic political tradition; forexample, the distribution of the landby fiefs and the ability to name a rep-resentative of each fief in the new gov-ernment, as well as the right to namean indigenous governor. With the years,

the Tlaxcaltecs would enjoy other pre-rogatives like their lands being exclud-ed from the distribution of land grantsto Spaniards or their inhabitants beingexempt from the payment of some trib-utes.Around 1535, the Tlaxcaltecs re-

quested that the Spanish Crown for-mally recognize their alliance duringthe conquest of these lands; this peti-tion was resolved by granting Tlaxcalathe title of “Loyal City,” modified 50years later by Felipe II, who broadenedthe definition to “Distinguished, MostNoble and Very Loyal City.”A decade before the end of the six-

teenth century, a newproject for expand-ing the territory would once again callthe Tlaxcaltecs to cooperate with the

Spanish Crown. After the discovery ofrich veins of precious metal, particular-ly silver, the Spanish tried to imposethemselves and their economy on thevast lands north of Mexico City. How-ever, continual Chichimec rebellionsforced the use of a large part of thehuman and material resources ear-marked for working the mines to pro-tect the nascent Spanish towns and thecaravans that transported foodstuffs,clothing, tools or precious metals.3

After several failed attempts to sub-due the rebels forcibly or send mission-aries and gifts, another solution wasfound: moving Christianized indige-nous families to the Great Chichimecarea to contribute to the pacification

The Tlaxcaltecs limited themselvesto joining in a conquest against a regime

that had done everything totry to subdue them.

Histor y

71

and indoctrination of the Chichimecs,in addition to teaching them to “live ingood order,” as the different pacifica-tion initiatives emphasized. The Tlax-caltecs, of course, were the chosen ones.Although this proposal has been attrib-uted to several people —the viceroysthe Marquis of Villamanrique and hissuccessor Luis deVelasco II, theSpanishmonarch Felipe II and Captain MiguelCaldera— it may be the latter who orig-inated the idea. Of Spanish father andGuachichil indigenousmother, CaptainCaldera may have himself experiencedthe advantages and disadvantages ofhaving both indigenous and Spanishblood.In any event, after arduous negoti-

ations between Luis de Velasco II and

the Tlaxcatec municipal council, andthanks to the good offices of the Fran-ciscans Jerónimo deMendieta and Jeró-nimo Zárate, a caravan of 400 familieswas finally formed that left Tlaxcalaen route to the Great Chichimec be-tween June 6 and 9, 1591. The caravanwas protected by the Spanish author-ities and had a series of benefits like theright to found towns separate fromthe Spanish settlements and the rightto use the noble title “Don” before thenames of themales, the exemption fromtaxes for a certain period, water rights,etc.4

For the 300 years of Spanish gov-ernment, the Tlaxcaltecs were able tomaintain certain independence vis-à-

vis the viceregal authorities since it wasfirmly established that their councilhad the right to audience with theSpanish monarch. However, this didnot mean, of course, that the right tomaintain government with slight butdefined Spanish participation was com-plied with in all cases to the letter.Upon the imposition of the Bour-

bonic reforms in the last third of theeighteenth century, the new adminis-trative organization for New Spain im-plied subjecting Tlaxcala to the inten-dancy of Puebla. This led the Tlaxcaltecsto defend their autonomy yet again,arguing—as was to be expected— theirhistorical role as allies. After the pre-sentation of royal letters and argumentsby the Tlaxcaltec council, interviews

with the viceroy and petitions to theSpanish court, Carlos IV finally orderedthat Tlaxcala be separated from Pue-bla, assigning it a military governoranswerable to the viceroy.After the independence of New

Spain, well into the nineteenth cen-tury, many attempted to use the studyof history to unify or create a nationalconsciousness. For those beginning his-torians, many of them staunch anti-Spaniards, the Tlaxcaltecs were to besituated with the invaders, naturallydescribed as traitors to their own raceand blood.The great national histories and even

twentieth-century Ministry of Educa-tion textbooks maintained this idea.

Fortunately, the objective, scientific studyof pre-Hispanic cultures has made itpossible to discard the ominous ideas—or better said, prejudices— aboutTlaxcaltec treachery. The task of refor-mulating the role andweight of the Tlax-caltecs in our history could be termedtitanic. It is certainly a job that impliesdifferent levels of participation, knowl-edge and analysis. But, Rome was notbuilt in a day. Some decisions to orientour historical road have already beenmade; it is up to this and future gener-ations to review and repair the errors ofinterpretation that still cloud our visionof the past; and if history is also theroot that unites and strengthens, whynot nourish it with better elements everyday?

NOTES

1 Friar Juan de Torquemada states in hisMonarquía indiana (Indian Monarchy) thatXicohténcatl was baptized Vicente; Maxix-catzin, Lorenzo; Tlehuexolotzin de Tepeticpac,Gonzalo; and Citlalpopocatl de Quiahuiztlán,Bartolomé.Monarquía indiana vol. 3 (MexicoCity: Editorial Porrúa, 1986), p. 169.

2 The Sad Night is the name commonly givenin Mexico to the episode before his final vic-tory when Hernán Cortés broke down andwept after hundreds of his men and thou-sands of Tlaxcaltecs perished during a retreatfrom the Mexica capital, Tenochtitlan.[Editor’s Note.]

3 ”Chichimec” was the generic name given toCazcans, Guachichiles, Copuces and Pames,among other inhabitants of the territoryknown as the Great Chichimec or the GreatTunal, because of the abundance of cacti andtuna, or prickly pears.

4 The results of this initiative are a contrastwith the 1560 failure promoted by ViceroyLuis Velasco senior when there was anattempt to take Tlaxcaltec colonizers to rein-force the Spanish towns or build new ones;this proposal was rejected outright by theTlaxcaltec municipal council.

Reformulating the role theTlaxcaltecs play in our history is a job

that implies different levels of participation,knowledge and analysis.

73

The first thing that surprises you when youlook at the Cacaxtla murals is the sensationthat you are seeing something that belongs

somewhere else: these paintings’ formal language,theme and enormous number of iconographic detailscome from the Mayan tradition. And although thisobservation does not suffice, nor is it enough to ex-plain the meaning of the work, it is important not todisregard it. Good arguments have been made for

the idea that the groups responsible for Cacaxtla’srise belonged to that variety of multi-ethnic league—simultaneously warriors and traders— that the lit-erature calls Olmec-Xicalanca (made up of Mixtecs,Popolocs, southern Nahuas and perhaps anotherethnic group). But even if theOlmec-Xicalancas werethe largest group in the Cacaxtla fief during its gold-en age, the artists who produced the palace paintingsmust have been trained within the Mayan sphere ofinfluence. Perhaps the Xicalanca component of theleague, which seemingly came from Tabasco, wasresponsible for bringing with it secrets of the artistictradition centered in the Usumacinta basin.

Allegory in the Cacaxtla MuralsPablo Escalante Gonzalbo*

* Researcher at the UNAM Institute forAesthetic Research.

Photos reproduced by permission of the National Institute of Anthro-pology and History. Conaculta-INAH-Mex.

Unlesson

therwise

specified

photos

arecourtesy

ofSe

ctur

Tlaxcala

T H E S P L E N D O R O F M E X I C O


The Cacaxtla murals (the one of the battle onthe talud of Building B, and the images of isolatedindividuals on the portico of BuildingA) were paint-ed between A.D. 650 and A.D. 750, which explains agreat deal about their appearance. Right at thattime, Teotihuacan stopped being the indisputablepower that dominated a large part of Mesoamerica;and the “peripheral” cultures, as the Mayan culturehad been considered in relation to the Teotihuacansystem, began to have an impact on the central high-lands and left very clear signs of their iconographicand stylistic preferences. In Xochicalco, in what isnow the state of Morelos, a city whose zenith wascontemporary with that of Cacaxtla, we can appreci-ate the stamp of several cultural traditions. A seriesof priests are seated on the talud of the Quetzal-cóatl pyramid in Xochicalco; their style reflects notonly clear Mayan origin, but particularly, a certainlink to the city of Copán.

Cacaxtla and Xochicalco together express verywell the ebb of the contraction of the Teotihuacansystem. However, an important difference existsbetween the two sites: while Xochicalco is a mosaicof eclecticism, Cacaxtla has a strong Mayan per-sonality to which other elements of different originadapt subordinately. The Mayan personality of theCacaxtlamurals is seen in the naturalismof the scenes:the soft contours, the anatomical proportions, thesuperposition of the figures, which gives the scenesdepth. The individuals’ gestures, the dramatic por-trayal of pain, the emphasis on the adversary’s beingphysically subdued, as well as the clothing, head-dresses, arms and ornaments are all typically Mayan.Also, we should note another important feature ofCacaxtla’s paintings: while in Teotihuacan —andno less in Xochicalco— we find the monotonous re-petition of identical figures that parade in what areapparently processions, in Cacaxtla, we see the

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The Cacaxtla “battle” could be understoodas an allegory of the struggle between opposites, or the allegory

of the cosmic conflict.

Christa

Cowrie

/SecturT

laxcala

The Mural of the Battle, detail. Artists were using more the language of allegory than of history.


magnificent deployment of a series of figures thatare all distinct and doing different things. In otherwords, when we observe the Teotihuacan murals,we have the feeling that something is being prayed orsung; in Cacaxtla, we feel that something is beingnarrated. This is the Mayan legacy.

THE ALLEGORY

Some authors who have written about Cacaxtlastate that the mural of the battle relates a specificclash; they see this magnificent painting as historictestimony of a specific victory of the Olmec-Xicalan-cas over the Mayas that they imagine took place.The dramatic realism of the warriors who bend overin pain spilling their intestines outside their bod-ies and who, exhausted, let their heads loll, easilyleads the viewer to the conclusion that it is a real

event. However, the idea that the painting com-memorates a specific battle has no basis in fact.The scene’s apparent realism is immediately mit-

igated by the improbably simultaneousness of theactions depicted. We can see warriors who attackwith dart-blowers, a weapon useful for combat at adistance, together with others who are thrustingtheir lances into the chests of their adversaries;some are binding the arms of their captives withcords while others are cutting their victims with sac-rificial knives. One of the “sacrificers” is barelytouching a fallen adversary’s chest with the point of hisflint knife, which is enough for a stream of blood toburst forth at heart level. The artists may be depict-ing wounds and forms of attack that really occurredin the wars of the time, but when they bring themall together in a single scene, they are using more thelanguage of allegory than that of history. More thandepicting a concrete battle, they seem to be allud-

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More than depicting a specific clash,the Mural of the Battle seems to be alluding

to war as a whole.

VicenteGuijosa/S

ecturT

laxcala

The Mural of the Battle, detail. The Mayan character is seen in the naturalism of the scenes.


ing to war as a whole, from the initial approach ofthe armies, with their dart-blowers, to the outcome,with the sacrifice of captives.Showing the intestines of the vanquished, which

for us is an upsetting detail, should be read in termsof the Mesoamerican religious tradition as a form ofexalting human sacrifice, in the same fashion as thetablets of Monte Albán’s so-called “dancers.” Thesymbolic emphasis on sacrifice can also be seen indetails such as the depiction of a fleshless shin-bone(a trophy that victorious warriors used to keep afterthe sacrifice), the placing of a chalchihuite, or jadebead, on the warrior’s wound and the representationat several places in the mural of the glyph knownas the bleeding heart.

THE OPPONENTS

And in this allegory of war and sacrifice, who arethe opponents? In the first place, we should say that

this is not a battle with losses on both sides, which,once again, removes us further from a historical ac-count. All the figures dressed as birds are the van-quished, the wounded, the defeated; and all thosewho wear skins, claws or jaguar trophy heads arethe victors, subjecting the others. The birds havelong feathers and the pointed beaks of rapaciousspecies; they seem to be a hybrid between an eagleand a quetzal. Birds versus felines: we could say verylittle about this struggle if we did not know thatit was one of the most common symbolic formula-tions of the Mesoamerican Postclassical period. Itexpressed the indigenous peoples’ conviction thatthe cosmos was animated by the constant strugglebetween opposing forces: themasculine, sky, sun, theforce of the bird, usually exemplified by the eagle;and the feminine, earth, water, moon, that of thefeline, generally represented by the jaguar.On a second level of understanding, the Cacaxtla

“battle” could be understood as an allegory of thestruggle between opposites, or the allegory of the cos-mic conflict, of war par excellence. The paintings onthe portico of what has been called Building A, sit-uated on the highest level of Cacaxtla’s palace com-plex, reinforces the idea that this evocation of cosmicopposition was a central concern for the elite andlocal artists. The painting on the north wall (an areaassociated with the underworld and death, the fem-inine part of the cosmos) represents a man dressedin a jaguar skin standing on the body of a large ser-pent, also covered in jaguar skin. This figure is ac-companied by a calendar “date”: 9-reptile eye. Onthe south wall (an area associated with the sky andlife, the masculine sector of the cosmos), we see a fig-ure disguised as an eagle standing on a plumed ser-pent and accompanied by the “date” 13-eagle feath-er. Not only is the clothing of both the men and theserpents related to the two cosmic extremes, butthe calendar-type references are also significant: inMesoamerica something we could call a visual synec-doche (a deer antler is used to allude to the deer andthe practice of running long distances, or a jaguar clawis used to allude to the jaguar and its ferociousness). Areptile eye can be read as a metaphor for the terrestri-al world; the eagle feather as a metaphor for the celes-tial world; the number nine coincides with the num-

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The north wall painting represents the feminine part of the cosmos.


ber of levels of the underworld, while the number 13corresponds to the number of celestial levels or layers.If we accept the thesis of the cosmic opposition,

we would still need to ask ourselves why in the muralof the battle, one of the two forces triumphs over theother. Are not both forces necessary, just as are manand woman, day and night? In one part of this muralis a majestic figure with a cloak of stars, who is unin-jured although his hands may be tied. Surroundedby dark threatening forces, this figure with his ele-gant bird clothing remains standing. In the same way,at midnight, the army that accompanied the suntoward dusk has been defeated, but the sun survives.After this temporary defeat, the sun emerges victo-rious in the next morning’s dawn, gaining strength asit rises, and vanquishes its enemies until it reachesits zenith.This is the way that the struggle of opposites seems

to have been conceived and expressed in Mesoamer-ican thought and art: a struggle that is never tied be-

cause a tie would be a quietus. It is a struggle thatalways progresses. Only for a few seconds, at dawnand at dusk, the forces seem to balance each other:moments of anguish. An instant later one forcegrows until it subjects the other, but as soon as themoment of excessive domination arrives, the oppo-site force begins to recover ground.Is the mural of the battle, then, an allegory for

the nocturnal sky at midnight? I believe so, but itcould also be understood as an allegory of the apogeeof the nocturnal —and therefore, humid— forces.Several of the feline figures are facing a mask of Tla-loc, the god of rain, and both on the upper porticowalls and on the door-jambs, we can observe recep-tacles, streams of water and the effigy of the god ofrain himself. Was the idea to celebrate the abun-dance of water or to pray for rain in the most burn-ing part of a prolonged drought? We must look forthe answers and continue to deepen our understand-ing of this exceptional work.

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The Mural of the Battle, detail. The warriors’ pain is depicted with dramatic realism.

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The Blue Eyebrow In the Cacaxtla Murals

Andrés Santana Sandoval*

Unless otherwise

specified photos courtesy of Sectur Tlaxcala

Red Temple, detail.

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The Cacaxtla murals are of great value instudying pre-Hispanic Tlaxcala because oftheir colors, state of preservation and the

symbols they depict. Though they belong to a sin-gle period and culture, they have contradictions;that, together with partial interpretations, leads toconclusions that are far from their true meaning.This article contends that the society that createdthem already had a notion of an omni pre sent, abstractgod, the recipient and origin of all minor gods, someof them very old.The series of monuments that concern us, close

to the colonial sanctuary of San Miguel Arcángel(Archangel Saint Michael), have been studiedsince 1975 when the first mural was discovered.Immediately after their discovery, scholars pre-

cipitately assumed the truth of the link that histo-rian Diego Muñoz Camargo had made in 1576 be -tween this place and the Olmec-Xicalancas group,attributed with being tri-ethnic. Historic sourcesfrom Cho lula, Tlaxcala and central Mexico in gen-eral are quoted abundantly in reference to thisgroup; so, scissors and glue in hand, people havepasted together a history about the place based ongranting these texts absolute credibility. My point of view is different, since, when these

facts are examined and compared among themselvesas well as with those discovered in excavations atthe site and its surrounding areas, important con-tradictions emerge.1 While this issue has beendealt with in other articles, I refer to it becauseseveral authors base themselves on them to explainthe history of Ca caxtla and the symbolism of itspaintings.Cacaxtla’s buildings contain several groups of

mural paintings: the group of five murals in Build -ing A; the mural of the battle, formed by two sec-tions of the same scene; the two murals in the Roomof the Stairs; the two murals and the banquet paint -ed in the Red Temple; the painted pillars of the

Temple of Venus; the borders of the “Hall of theSerpents”; and the Chimalli mural.Numerous fragments of other murals and mul-

ticolored reliefs have also been recovered, showingus ex tensive production over a long period; there-fore, in the future, we may find other examples ofthis religious expression.The murals were painted between A.D. 744 and

A.D. 800 approximately, although the territory wasinhabited both before and after by other dwellers.Detailed observation of the paintings brought to

my attention the repeated presence of a symbol, the“Blue Eyebrow.”When trying to characterize this element in Ca -

caxtla, the first thing that became clear is that it is notexactly an eyebrow; while it does occupy the placean eyebrow would be on a face, it does not looklike an eyebrow or the hair that an eyebrow wouldhave. That is why I call it “Element C” or the “BlueEyebrow.”During the Post-classical period in central Mex -

ico, human beings’ eyebrows were part of the spir-itual center that was the eye, closely linked to theacquisition of knowledge and the perception of itssurroundings.2

People in the pre-Hispanic world did not per-ceive a radical difference between Man and ani-mals. Proof of it is the contemporary belief in na gua -les, sorcerers who turn into animals. For this reasonwe suppose that the eye had the same function andvalue in animals. An example of this is the amuletof the eye of a deer used today.The eye and eyebrow in Cacaxtla’s representa-

tion of non-humans are con ventional and symbolic,which implies a social convention to be understood.While the blue eyebrow is linked in meaning to

water and the jaguar, the concept represented ismuch broader and richer than has been supposed.In the first place, it is exclusively associated to

zoomorphic representations, and, in one exceptionin a face that, while formally anthropomorphic (themask of Tlaloc in the receptacle held by a figureon the northern door-jamb in Building A), it isactually the symbol that distinguishes the god.Also, the blue eyebrow is present in the mythi-

cal animals and in clothing made of animal skins.

* Archaeologist and researcher at the National Instituteof Anthropology and History in Tlaxcala. Former direc -tor of the Cacaxtla Project and of the Tlaxcala Re gionalMuseum.

Photos reproduced by permission of the National Institute of Anthro -pology and History, Conaculta-INAH-Mex.

Voices of Mex ico • 61

80

While formally the skin of an animal used as cloth -ing is a dead, inert animal, in the case of the rep-resentations I am referring to, it is an active elementin the meaning, and is even the central motif of theimage, since the figures wearing the clothing are im -mersed in the symbolism of the whole.This is the case of the figure in the northern mural

in Building A, whose features are insufficient toidentify him or differentiate him from any other fi g -ure in the murals, just as happens with the old mandepicted in the east mural of the Red Temple, whosemask and spiraled eye make him impersonal.In point of fact, the individuals are invested by

the clothing they wear to personify the deity; onthe other hand, the paintings do not narrate featsof famous men, since the individuals re presented

are only vehicles for the divinity to manifest itself.The mark we are dealing with is found on animalswho our Western taxonomic system places in dif-ferent zoological orders (birds of prey and birds ofprecious feathers, carnivorous and herbivorous mam -mals, mollusks, crustaceans, snakes, chelonia, batrachiaand fishes). At the same time, the Meso amer icanreligion linked these animals to different aspects ofthe divinities, to different moments of the agricul-tural cycle, to the higher levels of the cosmos, theunderworld and to several stars, among other things.As with the human figure, the animals are not

only naturalistic representations that illustrate apredominantly aquatic environment, since in addi-tion to the blue eyebrow, they all have in commona protective covering or abode from where they exit

The concept represented by the blue eyebrow is much broader and richer

than has been supposed.

The old man’s mask and spiraled eye make him impersonal. Red Temple, east mural.

The Splendor of Mex ico

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In Cacaxtla, the omnipresent God is represented by the blue eyebrow, which never appears

on the human faces.

Red Temple, detail.


82

or “are born”, such as the scales on the fishes andserpents, the plumes on the birds, the shell of thetortoises and the shells of the mollusks and crabs.In this regard, a human figure that is exiting

from inside a Strombus shell held by a priest paint-ed on the southern door-jamb of Building A isespecially important since this puts the human fig-ure on the same iconographic plane as the rest ofthe animals depicted.On its counterpart, the northern door-jamb, we

can see two other births: the water that is coming outof a vessel with the face of Tláloc, which the figurecarries in his arms next to a cloud serpent, and aflowering plant that is born from the navel of God,who with his ocelot clothing represents the earth.The murals’ creators had already developed the

concept of a God that ordered all existence. Thisgod, although present in the night and its stars,symbolized by the skin of the ocelot; in the daytimesky, represented by the diurnal birds; in the worldof the dead in the paintings of the Red Temple: in thefish, tortoises and herons, and in the clothing of

men and women who represent the planet Venus,could not or should not be shown in a single form.This deity whose name we do not know manifest-

ed among the people as the god of the rain, of the sun,of each of the stars, of death, etc., in each case withdifferent clothing, which, when reproduced for useby the priests in their ceremonies, conferred on themthe supernatural qualities of that particular minor god.In the Cacaxtla paintings, the omnipresent God

is represented by the blue eyebrow, which neverappears on the human faces, but is always on themythical animals, in the clothing, in the dates andsymbols represented there and even in the names ofthe characters.

NOTES

1 Andrés Santana Sandoval, “La identidad de los habitantes deCacaxtla,” “Ubicación cronológica del Gran Basamento y suspinturas” and “La Ceja Azul en las pinturas murales y su signi -ficado,” Cacaxtla. Proyecto de investigación y conservación (Tlax -cala, Mexico: INAH-Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala, 1990).

2 Alfredo López Austin, Cuerpo humano e ideología vols. 1 and 2(Mexico City: UNAM, 1984).

Southern door-jamb of Building A. Northern door-jamb of the same building.

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Echoes and Reflections OfFranciscan Culture In

Sixteenth-Century TlaxcalaMilena Koprivitza*

Photos

courtesy

ofSe

ctur

Tlaxca

la

Bell-tower of a former Franciscan monastery.

“Tlaxcala is the living bread with whichChrist gives us...” These words illu-minate the lines of the character Faith

as the intermediary for Understanding andStrength in the auto sacramental, or one-actreligious allegory, also known as the colloqui-um of the Count of Coruña. In addition to theliteral allusion to Tlaxcala as the land of breadmade of corn, its meaning is a clear example ofthe spiritual place that Tlaxcala and its inhabi-tants occupied in the profound emotions of thesixteenth-century missionaries.

While the military and political alliance ofNew Spain was the work of Carlos V and thespiritual conquest that of Felipe II, both areresponsible for the formation of the resultingculture. This endures as part of history becauseof both institutional and human works and ideas.In Tlaxcala, these factors are crystallized in theessential combination of faith and language with

characteristics that model the singularity of itsidentity.Sixteenth-century chronicler Father Mendieta

states that the Spaniards saw the aid of the Tlax-caltecs as a divine gift. The Tlaxcaltecs opened upthe way for the true spiritual conquest of Mexico:in addition to the strategies imposed by the mil-itary treaty, they facilitated the Spaniards the useof local languages and the interpretation of eventsin an unprecedented scenario.In Tlaxcala, from 1524 on, the Franciscan fri-

ars took upon themselves the arduous task of

converting the populace to Christianity and usinganother language to impart instruction aboutother ways of understanding life.According to the enthusiastic accounts of

Motolinía, Sahagún, Mendieta and Torquema-da, the admirable expression of Tlaxcaltec Chris-tianity was due to the extraordinary reciprocalcharisma of the relationship between the friarsand the converted people. Their conversion wasorganized upon the arrival of 12 Franciscan mis-


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Franciscans learned to admirethe indigenous ability

in working stone, ceramics, woodand vegetable fibers.

Tlaxcala’s cathedral and open chapel, the combination of Franciscan austerity and indigenous carving.

* Director of the Tlaxcala Regional Museum.

sionaries who chose as their first residence thehouses offered them by Maxicatzin, the Lordof Ocotelulco.The missionaries were inspired by the stamp

and splendor of their predecessors, whom DonArtemio del Valle Arizpe called “The Three Li-lies of Flanders.” Of all of them, it was the teach-ings of Friar Pedro de Gante, a defender of theindigenous people, apostle of the Gospel andthe first educator of the Americas, that spurredhis brothers in Tlaxcala to continue impartingChristian doctrine. Understanding the indige-

nous’ facility for learning, they taught them theSpaniards’ skills and arts at the same time thatthe friars learned to admire their extraordinaryability in working stone, ceramics, feathers, woodand vegetable fibers, some of which —like ma-guey fibers— after working, were as soft as silk.In this exchange of knowledge, the cultiva-

tion of Tlaxcala’s land, eroded and poor, yieldedits maximum results thanks to the wisdom withwhich it was worked. The opening of canals and

the management of the sluices to distribute thewater sent by the gods combined perfectly withthe terrace system on the mountain sides.The mingling of knowledge was also seen in

medicinal herbalism, in raising the huexolotl(turkeys) and other fowl in exchange for cattle.The results of this process can be seen in the

sixteenth-century constructions of the monaste-ries, open chapels, and visiting churches, in whichFranciscan austerity is joined to the splendorof the stones carved by Tlaxcaltecs, with whichthey did inlays of Mudéjar wainscots, carved

Gothic ribs, Renaissance rose-windows, Tuscancapitals, Roman voussoirs, heraldic coats-of-armsand emblems of Christianity they used to dec-orate the walls and coverings hastily erected overthe old ceremonial places of idolatry.1

Although much of the success of the missionwas due to the personality of Friar Martín de Va-lencia, who headed up the group, the mission-aries immediately won the admiration and res-pect of the multitudes when word was spread


85

In Tlaxcala, from 1524 on,the Franciscan friars took upon themselves

the task of convertingthe populace to Christianity.

Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows. A vestige of Franciscan influence in the state.


among the indigenous population that HernánCortés had welcomed them kneeling in the dust.Also, since their arrival in Veracruz, the Spanishand indigenous nobles had all been seen gath-ered to kiss the hand of Friar Martín.2

Friar Martín de Valencia taught the alphabetand Latin to indigenous children and adults inthe high atrium of the monastery dedicated toOur Lady of the Ascension. He also destroyedthe idols of the temple to Camaxtli on top ofMa-tlacuéyatl mountain, where he founded a chapeldedicated to Saint Bartholemew.It was Friar Toribio de Benavente (called Mo-

tolinía, the Poor, by the Tlaxcaltecs) who cele-brated the first mass in the city of Tlaxcala in1530. His chronicles tell us that the open chapelwas painted with murals and that whenmass wassaid, multitudes congregated in the low atrium.On these occasions the indigenous singers andinstrumentalists sang and played flutes and fla-geolets, oboes and citherns just as solemnly andmusically as in many cathedrals in Spain.Motolinía’s story culminates around 1540 when

events led to the zenith of themingling of the Fran-ciscans and the converted, revealed in the des-cription of the collective acts of the Catholicliturgy, from baptism to the processions of Lent.Suffice it to picture the night of torches cele-brated on Thursday of Holy Week, when eachpenitent lashed the back of the penitent in frontof him.

Around 1538 and 1539, a series of festivitiesstemming from the previous decade were per-formed in the monastery’s high atrium; at thesame time they are the proud origin of theaterin the Americas. To this day, the presentation ofthe autos sacramentales The Fall of Adam and Eveand The Conquest of Jerusalem continue to amazethe public.Taking into account the vivacity and tradition

of Tlaxcala’s fiestas today, it is not difficult toimagine how the processions of indigenous inlines with candles, torches, crosses and imagesparsimoniously made their way through a thou-sand flower arches, simulating the form of anenormous three-nave church. Adam and Eve’shome was paradise, fashioned from flowers andfruit and other figures made of different sizedplumes from owls, birds of prey, small birds andparrots. Motolinía wrote,

In a single tree, I counted 14 parrots, large and small.

The rabbits and hares were so plentiful that every-

thing was full of them...

Adam and Eve showed their misgivings going

back and forth from the serpent to the forbidden

tree three or four times in front of the audience.

Eve begged and bothered Adam saying that she

thought he did not love her very much and that her

love for him was greater than his for her; and, sitting

in his lap, she begged him so much that he went

with her to the tree. Adam gave in and they both

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Banner with the state emblem.


ate, as we all know, of the forbidden fruit. Recog-

nizing the serpent’s guilt, the angels hung down

clothed in the skins of animals to cover the shame

of those who had won their expulsion from Para-

dise.

The most interesting thing, says Motolinía,

was to watch them leave, exiled and weeping: three

angels bore Adam and another three bore Eve....

This was so well played that no one who saw it

but wept very hard; only a cherubim was left

guarding the doors of Paradise, sword in hand.

The audience’s despair was so great that they

took great time in dispersing and when they did,

they left with faces mortified by gloom, singing a

villancico under their breaths

Why did she eat,

The first married woman

Why did she eat the forbidden fruit.

She and her husband

Have brought God to a poor resting place

For having eaten

The forbidden fruit.

Motolinía’s account is moving in that it showsthat their catechismal zeal allowed the Fran-ciscan missionaries to touch the deepest feel-ings in the souls of the indigenous. When theydid, they discovered the chords of human pain

and of divine love and with them awakened thedesire to discover themselves in the others,the barefoot, the compassionate and the exiled.They exchanged knowledge with the fascina-tion of the illogical, which in the end wouldconverge with respect for nature where primi-tive simplicity made way for creative contempla-tion. The spirit of Renaissance humanism hadreached land in the heart of New Spain.

NOTES

1 The conversion’s solid building euphoria lasted until 1553,a date that is chiseled on a door-jamb of the monastery’shigh cloister perhaps to mark the end of the original con-struction. Later, two other stages mark the time betweenthe splendor and the decline of Franciscan activity. Oneis the transfer of the Tlaxcala cathedral to the neighboringcity of Puebla; for the building involved, Tlaxcalan laborwas used. The second is the contradictions that emergedwith the arrival of the secular clergy and to a certain extentthe notorious lack of interest on the part of the friars whoreplaced the first Franciscans. While they carried outtheir work, they had lost the extraordinary spiritual driveand humanist involvement that their predecessors hadvis-à-vis the indigenous population.Toward the end of the sixteenth century, demoralization

increased because nature’s droughts and pests togetherwith political mistakes led to the loss of the privileges thathad been won.

2 The Franciscans founded three monasteries: the first atOcotelulco, which was made the headquarters for theTlaxcala bishopric; the second on a site called Cuitlixco;and the third on a hill that had springs south of the banksof the Zahuapan River where there was a long-veneratedcross and an indigenous chapel.

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The San Francisco Cathedral. The magnificent carved, panelled ceiling and its altarpieces are its main attractions.

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Carnival Fiestas in Tlaxcala

Carnival is one of the state of Tlaxcala’smost attractive, traditional fiestas, both be-cause of its origins and because each year

it brings together folk artists who dedicate theirefforts to preserving a centuries-old tradition.As a festival of relaxation and escape in the ancient

Greek and Roman tradition, the celebration of car-nival was unknown in pre-Hispanic Mexico. Like inmost of Mesoamerica, the ancient inhabitants ofTlaxcala performed ceremonial, religious dances tohonor their gods. Particularly noteworthy were thosecelebrated in the Ocotelulco fief, at the temple ded-icated to the god Camaxtli, the main deity of Tlax-

callan. At that time masks were used to frightenaway evil spirits.With the arrival of the Spaniards and the so-called

Hispanic-Tlaxcaltec alliance, both the meaning andthe concrete manifestations of these celebrationschanged, with the spread of Christianity playing acentral role. The Franciscans, the predominant orderin the state, repudiated the traditional fiestas andceremonial dances dedicated to Camaxtli, whichwere gradually lost.It is said that the way carnival is celebrated today

is rooted in rebellion and sarcasm. The haciendasystem began to be imposed in the state in the sev-

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enteenth century. Hacienda owners, Spaniards whomissed Europe’s life of luxury and splendor, organizedsumptuous fiestas and dances to which they, of course,did not invite their peons or indigenous servants. Inresponse, the poor went into the streets and plazasextravagantly dressed, covering their faces with white-skinned, blue-eyed masks and danced with strangemovements, sarcastically imitating their landlords.Despite the anger of the hacienda owners, who askedthe governor to prohibit these celebrations, the pop-ular dances and their mockery continued.With time,music was added, interpreted on folk instruments,and each town developed its own distinctive dances.

The meaning, costumes and masks also changed sothat each region took on its own characteristic touch.

A CENTURIES-OLD TRADITION

Today, Tlaxcala’s carnival fiestas include differentkinds of celebrations, but it is the more than 50towns’ dances that are the most attractive and pop-ular. Carnival is celebrated on the Sunday, Mondayand Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. To open theway for joy, the Friday before there is a ceremonyto burn “the Bad Mood,” which consists of setting

89

Tlaxcala’s carnival fiestas include differentkinds of celebrations, but it is the dances from more than

50 towns that are the most attractive and popular.

Los Charros headdresses, a display of color.


fire to a paper figure and the “coffin ofsadness, rancor and anger.”Voluntary labor —part of the pre-

Hispanic community organizationaltradition that survives in many placesin Mexico— before the fiesta is fun-damental: men, women and childrenparticipate in organizing, raising moneyhouse to house for the music, embroi-dering costumes, putting on rehearsals,choosing who will be in charge of serv-ing mole and tamales to the dancersand the general public, etc.The dancers, or huehues, are the fies-

ta’s main participants. Thanks to thesefolk artists, the tradition has not diedout. The huehues, organized in groupsof 20 to 40, form a band; each band isgiven a specific name in accordance withthe region, costume and the dances theyperform.The most representative performan-

ces and costumes of the state of Tlax-cala are Los Charros (The Horsemen),

Los Chivarrudos (The RoughGoats), LosCatrines (The Swells), Las Cuadrillas(The Quadrille), Las Cintas (The Rib-bons), La Danza de los Cuchillos (TheDance of the Knives) and the play TheKidnapping of the Magistrate’s Daughter.1

The dances can be veritable playsdistinguished by their region of origin,their meaning and the costumes andmasks of the participating huehues. Forexample, the dance of the snake inter-preted by Los Charros, has its originin the legend of a beautiful, frivolouswoman who sparks the passions of theregion’s young men. The people thenpray to the gods to free them from her,and the gods, hearing their plea, makethe maiden disappear amid thunder andsmoke; but when the air clears, in herplace is a disgusting snake that tormentslocal inhabitants. The only way to ap-pease it is a dance that uses long whipsimitating the reptile’s movements. LosCatrines is a reminder of the sarcastic

90

The dancers, or huehues,are the fiesta’s main

participants. Thanks to thesefolk artists, the tradition

has not died out.

The Las Cintas dance is one of the most colorful.Los Catrines’ customs are the finest and most enigmatic.

Different phases of mask making.


name used for the aristocrats who own-ed most of the land. Their costumesand masks are the finest and mostenigmatic. Las Cintas is spectacularlycolorful: the huehues, adorned with ker-chiefs, serapes and multicolored hats,dance around a post festooned with asmany ribbons as there are members ofthe band.The Las Cuadrillas dancers from San

Dionisio Yauhquemecan are particular-ly outstanding because of the numberof huehues, their magnificent costumesand their fine, multicolored masks.Women do not participate in the LosCuchillos dance, and so the men addbraids to their headdresses to play thewomen’s parts, and their costumes aredifferent from the rest of the bands inTlaxcala.The most surprising thing is that

the passing of the centuries has notburied a tradition that, despite havinglost much of its social and critical con-

tent, continues to be a factor of com-munity cohesion and pride.

NOTE

1 The dances are performed in the followingtowns: Los Charros in San Francisco Papalotla,San Cosme Mazatecochco, Santa María Acui-tlapilco, San Pablo del Monte and San Fran-cisco Tepeyanco; Los Chivarrudos in Santa InésZacatelco; Los Catrines in San Bernardino andSan Miguel Contla, San Bernabé Amaxac deGuerrero, San Nicolás Panotla and Santa CruzTlaxcala; Las Cuadrillas in San Pablo Apetati-tlán, SantaAnita Huiloac, SanAntonio Cuaxo-mulco, Santa María Atlihuetzía, San DionisioYauhquemecan and San Salvador Tzompan-tepec; Las Cintas in San Juan Totolac and SantaMaría Tocatlán; La Danza de los Cuchillos inToluca de Guadalupe and San Nicolás Terre-nate; and the play, The Kidnapping of the Mag-istrate’s Daughter, in Santa María Nativitas.

SOURCES

Dirección de Promoción de la Secretaría de Tu-rismo del Estado de Tlaxcala, “Carnaval” (Tlax-cala, Mexico: Secretaría de Turismo del Estadode Tlaxcala, 2002).

“Carnaval en Tlaxcala, la versión indígena delas fiestas paganas en Europa,” Tlaxcala TourismMinistry website, http://www. tlaxcala.gob.mx/turismo/Tradicional/carnaval.htm

91

The dances can bedistinguished by their regionof origin, their meaning andthe costumes and masks

of the participating huehues.

Ocotoxco huehue dancer. Huehue couple. Charro horseman’s mask from Papalotla, Tlaxcala.

Painting a mask.

92

Abeautiful lady, whose almond-shaped eyesand wrap-around costume announce herbirth in a far-off land; exotic figures that

project their shadows on a white curtain; a tinyarmy in perfect formation; a circus, complete withfierce lion and brave lion-tamer; the “Catrina” ona bicycle; and many other figures that have beenthe delight of children of several generations andcountries: this is what the Museo Nacional delTítere (National Puppet Museum) holds. Itslocation in the city of Huamantla in the state ofTlaxcala is not arbitrary: it was there that formore than 100 years the country’s most extra-ordinary puppets were created.

THE REASONS

The museum, unique inMexico and LatinAmer-ica, was born in August 1991 to honor the mostfamous, illustrious company of puppeteers inthe history of our country, “La Compañía deAutó-matas de los Hermanos Rosete Aranda” (TheRosete Aranda Brothers’ Company of Automo-tons). They were not the first to make puppetsin Mexico; but, for more than 100 years, differ-ent members of this family delighted thousandsof Mexicans with their figures’ expressive facesand bodies animated with as many strings asneeded to create the most audacious movement.

The National Puppet Museum

Photos

byDanielM

unguía

England’s famous Punch and Judy.

93

M U S E U M S

The Aranda brothers and sister (Julián, Herme-negildo, Ventura and María de la Luz) learnedthe art of puppet-making from an Italian pup-pet master living in Huamantla around 1830.In 1835, they founded the National Companyof Automotons with puppets they had made.After the first two brothers died, Ventura andMaría de la Luz, together with the latter’s hus-band, Antonio Rosete, continued performing,first in a corral and then in the city’s first theater.More than four generations continued and per-fected the family’s puppeteering tradition, turn-ing their company into Mexico’s most famous,a favorite of children and adults, of poets andwriters, whose tours included Mexico City,several other cities throughout the country, theUnited States and Central America. If anythingdistinguished the Rosete Aranda performances,it was the immense variety of puppets in eachshow, whether in their classical repertory, opera,zarzuela, or a circus, a palenque,1 a bullfight, orthe commemoration of the September 16 Inde-pendence Day parade, performing with realscenery and accompanied by orchestra music.In their heyday, the Rosete Arandas had a

collection of more than 5,000 wooden pieces,whose expressive faces and detailed costumesmade them worthy of everyone’s admiration.Somemarionettes had up to 19 strings that, whenably handled, made their movements preciseand meticulous. The theater that could be dis-assembled, with its three bridges for handling

the puppets, gave the performances depth andmade it possible to have a great many mari-onettes on stage at the same time. The compa-ny also had its own printing press that pro-duced its tickets, programs and the dialogueused in its acts, sold for only six cents. One ofthe most famous, “The Speech of Vale Co-yote,” was the inspiration for actor MarioMoreno to develop his character “Cantinflas.” Inthe early 1940s, more than 100 years after itsfoundation, the company closed its doors. Later,the puppets were sold to collectors and muse-ums. However, some have been recovered andare on display at the museum together with orig-inal scenery, trunks, programs, tickets and othermemorabilia of their golden age. Among themost valuable puppet characters in the museumcollection are Vale Coyote, Doña Pascarroncitaand Pilluelo Dinamita, although they are not ondisplay. Madame Gloppier, Mr. Bell (named inhonor of a famous English clown who settled inMexico) and Mr. Orrins, the last two indis-pensable characters from the Rosete Arandacast, are on display, however.

THE ROOMS

The museum has eight permanent exhibitionrooms that show puppets from around the world.Each room has a description of the puppets’maincharacteristics, the way they are handled and

Room 1. Shadow puppets from faraway lands.


94

the use they were given, whether religious, edu-cational or recreational. Room 1 shows puppetsfromAsia and Indonesia, with their centuries ofpuppeteering tradition. Some figures are madeof leather or parchment and are to be used asshadow puppets; and there are other tri-dimen-sional and flat puppets. Room 2 boasts represen-tatives of the history of puppeteering in theWest;outstanding among them are ancient Europeanpuppets like Maccus and Neuropastas, datingfrom the third century before Christ, and repro-ductions of England’s famous Punch and Judy.A display shows engravings and brief texts aboutpuppets from around the world and, across fromit is a map that at a touch of a button shows thecountry they are from. Clay figures with move-able parts found in Cacaxtla are part of the col-lection in Room 3. Rooms 4, 5 and 6 pay homageto the different stages of the Rosete Aranda com-pany. Room 7 holds a small collection of puppets

Doña Pascarroncita still wears her original costume.

Rooms 4 and 5 exhibit the creations of the Rosete Aranda family.

In their heyday, the Rosete Arandas had a collectionof more than 5,000 wooden pieces, whose expressive facesand detailed costumes made them worthy of admiration.

Museums

95

used in what were called the CulturalMissions, which traveled throughout the coun-try teaching people to read in the 1930s. Room 8is dedicated to the golden age of MexicanGuignol Theater, while the temporary exhibitionin Room 9 shows both marionettes and handpuppets created by Donald Codry, an Americanborn in the early twentieth century who knewand loved Mexico’s indigenous cultures andtheir folk expressions, like masks.

SERVICES

The museum offers guided tours to schools andgroups that request them; each tour ends with apuppet show. It also offers lectures, a documen-tation center and a library specialized in puppettheaters, advisory services, workshops for makingand handling puppets, as well as puppet shows.In August, Huamantla celebrates the interna-tional festival of puppet theater, with the partic-ipation of puppeteers from the world over. Themuseum will shortly offer a virtual tour throughamulti-media package that will give a general ideain color images of the content of its nine roomsand data about the different puppets either ondisplay or in its warehouses.

Elsie MontielEditor

NOTE

1 In Mexico, a palenque is a musical sporting event that in-cludes singers of ranchera songs, cockfights and betting.[Translator’s Note.]

Mr. Orrins, an indispensable character in the Rosete Aranda cast.

The entrance to the museum.

MUSEO NACIONAL DEL TÍTERE(NATIONAL PUPPET MUSEUM)PARQUE JUÁREZ 15, CENTRO

HUAMANTLA, TLAXCALAOPEN TUESDAY TO SATURDAY

10 A.M. TO 2 P.M. AND 4 P.M. TO 6 P.M.

For further information contact:Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte, CISAN,

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Torre de Humanidades II, piso 9, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510,México, D.F. Tel. 5623-0015; fax: 5623-0014; e-mail: [email protected]

CISANp u b l i c a t i o n s

La globalización y susmanifestaciones enAmérica del Norte

Mónica Gambrill, comp.

In light of the importance ofglobalization today, scholarsfrom different countries havecontributed articles to this bookabout issues that it affects: theeconomy, political power, NAFTA,the labor market, drug trafficking,the environment, the judicial branchof government andcultural industries.

El nuevo norteamericano: inte-gración continental, cultura e

identidad nacional

Lawrence Douglas Taylor

This book examines theimplications of NAFTA and

hemispheric integration for the cul-tural interaction among Canada, the

United States and Mexico. It alsoponders the demands and effectson these three countries whosefuture holds similar or greater

challenges in the field of culturalunification.

Las relaciones de México conEstados Unidos y Canadá: unamirada al nuevo milenio

Rosío Vargas Suárez,Remedios Gómez Arnau andJulián Castro Rea, compilers

This work seeks to answer some ofthe most frequently asked questionsabout the future of the threecountries’ relations by delving intoboth current and historical issues:trade integration, drug trafficking andmigration, as well as other topicsmore recently included on theagenda like human rights, democracyand national security.

Globalidad y conflicto.Estados Unidos y la crisis del

11 de septiembre

José Luis Valdés Ugalde andDiego Valadés, comp.

The events of September 11,2001 have prompted the con-

cepts of security and globalizationto be posed in different ways andhave given them new meaning.This book is the first Spanish-lan-

guage academic publication inwhich specialists from different

fields analyze these issues.

Forthcoming:Las políticas exteriores de Estados Unidos, Canadá y México en el umbral del siglo XXI.Desde el sur. Visiones sobre Estados Unidos y Canadá desde América Latina, vols. 2 y 3.

East Los Angeles. Historia de un barrio.

Límites sociopolíticosy fronteras culturales enAmérica del Norte

Barbara A. Driscoll, ClaireJoysmith, Elaine Levine,Antonio Rivera and MónicaVerea, compilers.

A multidisciplinary group ofMexican and foreignspecialists study thegrowing presenceof the Latino communityin the economic, political,social and cultural life of theUnited States.

El color de la tierra.Las minorías en México

y Estados Unidos

Barbara Driscoll de Alvarado andPaz Consuelo Márquez-Padilla,

compilers.

This work looks at diversity fromdifferent perspectives: in particular,it deals with the construction ofthe Afro-American identity andthe struggles of this group, the

implementation of public policiesin support of minority groups andthe obstacles to their equal inte-

gration into all facets of life inMexico and the U.S.

CISANp u b l i c a t i o n s

Los nuevos pobresde Estados Unidos:los hispanos

Elaine Levine

Since the 1980s, Hispanicsin the United States,compared with other groups,have dropped backsocio-economically in threeoverall areas: the labormarket, the educationalsystem and social security. Thisbook looks at andanalyzes this deterioration andits underlying causes.

Desde el Sur. Visiones deEstados Unidos y Canadádesde América Latina a

principios del siglo XXI, vol. 1

Paz Consuelo Márquez Padilla,Germán Pérez Fernández del Castillo

and Remedios Gómez Arnau,compilers

In this volume, Latin Americanspecialists bring their own perspec-tive to a broad spectrum of theoreti-

cal, political, social, economic andcultural issues in the United States,including federalism, foreign policy,national defense and security, theenvironment and the impact of

globalization.

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P O L I T I C SL I T E R A T U R E

Women Writers of TierraAdentro Publishers

Part II

Graciela Martínez Zalce*

Among the many short story collections published bythe Fondo Editorial TierraAdentro (Inland PublishingFund), which seeks to promote the best young men

and women writers of Mexico today, some are noticeably theproduct of a workshop. Almost all of them are fresh, althoughthe desire to surprise the reader with an unexpected endinginmany cases subtracts from their effectiveness. Nevertheless,among those that maintain a constant level of quality is Pre-fiero los funerales (I Prefer Funerals) by Yucatan native Caro-lina Luna. Despite its being her first effort, her writing showsmaturity. Something in the ambiance of some of this collec-tion’s stories evokes echoes of two mid-twentieth-centurywriters, Juan García Ponce and Inés Arredondo.1

Prefiero los funerales has seven stories, among them thetitle story, in which the author uses irony (a device she usesthroughout) to refer to her pious mother’s custom of alwayskeeping up with the pain and troubles of relatives, friends andeven acquaintances and taking her along to hospitals, funer-als and burials. The stories vary in length and topic: some arevery brief like the title story or “Secreto a voces” (Well-KnownSecret) that narrates the tiring, frustrating routine of a house-wife and mother whose worst nightmare is reality itself.Others are very long like “Isolina,” which tells a story withina story —Isolina’s— using italics, or “Vecinos” (Neighbors),which in eight chapters tells us the story of a love trianglebetween the narrator and a neighbor couple. Reality mixeswith dreams, fantasy; the everyday life of the main charactersis invaded by daydreams or wishes. The seven stories have aleitmotif: the presence of the body, whether a cadaver, centralto “Prefiero los funerales,” the yearned-for object in “Labúsqueda” (The Search), or the desired, attained, utilizedobject in “Vecinos” and “La avidez” (Avidity), a tale in whichthe characters’ traditional roles are reversed, with the womangoing out to hunt, seduce and then throw away her prey.

In part one of this article (Voices of Mexico no. 60), I point-ed out that poetry was the genre most favored by TierraAdentroauthors. La más mía (The Most Mine) by Cristina Rivera-Garza is an exception example in several ways. First, the authoris known for her non-autobiographical, historical novels, sothis Tierra Adentro volume is an exception. In the secondplace, in the context of the collection, the narrative poem isalso outstanding for its quality, for the intensity that it managesto transmit through a structure in which the cold descriptionsof a hospital alternate with the intimate demands of thepoetic voice to the dying mother. Of all of Rivera’s work, Lamás mía is the best written. It tells the story of the illness anddeath of the poet’s mother in a lyrical voice that builds imagesof the terrible cruelty of the diagnosis, the desolation of publichospital waiting rooms, the interminable monologue-like dia-logues carried on with the unconscious terminally ill.Precise words, complaints, pain; inLa más mía, a voice com-

plains while the reader does not know if anyone listens; love,loss of love, lack of recognition; La más mía, the most mine,ends up being the least hers because the narrator is someonethe mother either does not recognize or recognizes and hasnot wanted to accept. That is why this beautiful, moving poemis so hard to read, because as readers we situate ourselves asspectators in an intimacy that was not desired but imposed byillness, an intimacy betweenmother and daughter, between thedying and the onewhohas lived in her shadow, between shewhois no longer there and the one who has come to settle accountsand say good-bye.These two examples confirm that women’s literary pro-

duction in Mexico goes beyond any publishing or publicityfad.

NOTE

1 Two of the twentieth century’s most important Mexican writers, JuanGarcía Ponce is from Mérida, Yucatán, and Inés Arredondo, from Sinaloa(Editor’s Note).* Researcher at CISAN.

99

And death and I meet so very often.Diane Wakoski

Idon’t know. Maybe the thing is that my familyis large or it’s just that people die all the time.Andit seems that with my adolescence, I acquired a

right I hadn’t sought: the right to go back and forthwith my mother on visits to hospitals, funeral parlorsand burials.

Funerals are less bothersome: there’s coffee andguilt acknowledged. But the hospitals...

Maybe it’s that today I’m upset and that makes itimpossible for me to stop crying. This week I havealready visited I-don’t-know-whose daughter withleukemia and dealt withAunt Bertha’s liver transplant.The first clinic wasn’t bad; the second sold inediblehero sandwiches.

I don’t like crying uncontrollably although, frankly,I have my reasons for being like this, being furious;this is my mother’s second suicide attempt in less thana year. The next time, we’ll see who calls the doctor,because I won’t.

It was better when Daddy was alive. He neverlet Mom take me to her do’s. We used to stay homewatching movies. We liked the ones about psychot-ic murderers a lot.

We both used to try to guess how they would killthe next victim. I suspect that Daddy cheated in thegame and had already seen all the movies becausehe always won.

The day Daddy died my mother was happy. Imean, not happy-happy, but more like fulfilled onthe one hand and sad on the other. Her life wasconsoling the relatives of the ill, the wounded, the

I Prefer Funeralsby Carolina Luna


100

dead, and that day, everyone returned the favor rightaway. Not even at the parties my Daddy gave did Isee as many people as at his burial. Even though mostof the people were Mom’s acquaintances.

Sometimes at night I hear her come into my room.She takes my pulse, checks my breathing, sighs andleaves.

Most people would have a bad feeling about herattitude —somehow I’m her only chance of beingconsoled again— but I’m healthy. Thanks to her, nodisease threatens me. I know that the sigh is of reliefand that’s why I’m confident.

Maybe Mom would have preferred that I callsomebody to put her in the hospital, but who knows?Since the last time we avoided the issue, I didn’twant to risk it. I don’t know how to organize thesethings. The truth is, they bore me; I’m not like her.I go with her on her rounds more out of habit thanbecause I like it. I repeat, given the choice, I preferfunerals. Also, I look good in black and Mom does-n’t mind if I dress in style as long as I pick black. Itwas my cousin who told me that I look good in black,at his father’s wake. We went into the back of thelittle house, and I consoled him in my own way, togood results.

My arms hurt. Mom is thin, but I think peopleweigh more when they’re asleep. There was nothingfor it: I had to carry her and wait for the ambulanceto arrive. Also, the neighbors...

Jorge is taking a long time. He is the doctor inthe family. Mom always torments him with imagi-nary diseases and he tolerates her. I say they’re imag-

inary because my mother has only needed hospi-talization when she has tried to kill herself. Poorthing: that must be frustrating.

Finally Jorge comes in with a bad expression onhis face.

“I think this time she’s gone too far,” he says to me.I’m quiet. I stop crying.“I couldn’t do anything,” he apologizes.Surprise confuses me. What was I going to do

without her? That is, I don’t know how to organizethese things and I hate strangers hugging and deposit-ing slobbering kisses on me, with their moist faces,their black clothes that smell of mothballs. And thewhole business of the funeral parlor: telephone calls,flowers. My god, the obituaries!1

“Do you want to go in and see her?”I answer that I don’t, and, not paying any attention

to something he’s trying to tell me, I move towardthe exit. Then I decide to escape, run away, and comeback in three days when everything’s over.

NOTES

1 In Mexico, tradition dictates that condolences be expressedin paid advertisements in the newspapers called “esquelas”.The closest approximation in English would be “obituaries”.[Translator’s Note.]

SHORT STORY TAKEN FROM CAROLINA LUNA’S BOOK PREFIERO LOS FUNERALES

(MEXICO CITY: FONDO EDITORIAL TIERRA ADENTRO, 1996), PP. 9-11.

101

The Searchby Carolina Luna

In homage to Kansas,for vindicating me in uncertain hope.

Sometimes, when I smoke marijuana, I cansee all of her: she appears —as always whenI manage to visualize her face— dressed as

Pierrot. The straight hair pulled back into a longpony-tail, sturdy and shining; the very white facewith a black stylized drop, held on her cheek; theeyebrows, lines of fine pencil marking an expres-sion of sad questioning or absurd doubt in a neu-tral expression.

Thus, her image, like a razor’s edge, rips the dark-ness of my closed eyelids. I could say that I almostfeel the odor given off by her skin beneath the whitesilk of the murmuring suit.

My friends say she doesn’t exist, that it is the to-tally imbecilic excuse I give so I don’t have to get in-volved with anyone, that maybe I’m in the closet andwhat I see is a transvestite and I wear black leatherto attract faggots.

I say let them think what they want. At bottomthey’re pissed because I get more women than theydo when that’s where it’s at. And faggots never daredress like that because they’re afraid to, and theydon’t have the wherewithal. They never think that

women like it; or maybe they don’t have a good rea-son to do it like I do, since I dress for her and everytime I see myself in the mirror before going outwith the jeans or the leather tight around me hold-ing me in, I think of her hands and her thighs be-tween mine.

They say I really am jacking off big time. Well, sowhat? Who is it hurting? José, who’s a better buddy,doesn’t take me seriously, but at least he doesn’t fuckwith me. Condescendingly, he listens to my delusions.He knows I don’t need to smoke to see her.

The other day while I was shaving, I could swearthat I saw her in the mirror, sitting on the edge of thebed, waiting. But, when I turned around, she was gone.

José has been with me several times when I thinkI’ve seen her in the street, always turning a corner,just the quick flash of her hair at night, the unmis-takable silence of her footsteps.

Sometimes I only feel her there: José and I exchangelooks with tacit agreement and cut short our friendsor whoever we’re with; I start up the motorbike andwe go looking for her. He wants to meet her too.I’ve told him that she is very unhappy. I know it. Inmy dreams I make her despair my own: I have seenher in the sea, scratching the water on the surface;or huddled in a corner of an enormous room, sur-


102

rounded by invisible rats. I have seen her bleedingto death with her wrists held up damning the sky:her hands of crystal, like trees, are born in the centerof my body, reverberating, infinite, like the echo ofher scream.

One dream especially obsesses me since it is theonly one where I can participate. With her back tome, I see her at the end of a melancholic hallway,looking at the afternoon, one of her hands on theglass of a large window. I go toward her slowly; I arrive,put out my hand and call her over her shoulder. In-variably, when she turns her head, I wake up.

I have never been able to see her face without themake-up of the costume. Her hair hides it. Besidesbeing an obstacle, it is also the object of confusion.If I see someone on the street with hair like hers,I go up to her and call to her from the back; she turnsto look at me... and nothing. Nothing happens. Itmight sound stupid, but I’m convinced that whenI touch her, I will know her name. I will know that it’sshe. I only need a touch, a visual contact and I’ll becertain.

Time is short. She also hallucinates silhouettes,faces in shadow. But her desperation is greater be-cause she doesn’t manage to fill the vacuum withthe search. She doesn’t have faith. Perhaps she has-n’t been as close to me as I have been to her; per-haps, deadened by routine, she doesn’t perceive theintensity of my desire; perhaps...

Little faith, unnecessary, anachronistic idealism.Sometimes, also, when I smoke, the blackness in-habits my brain. Then I open my eyes and allow othersensations, different from her absence, to attack me.And then I open a couple of beers, sing boleros,weep and feel that no particle of my body, that nobreath of my immateriality makes any sense. That’swhy when she’s not there, I prefer not to do any-thing. It’s better to sleep: I work asleep, just like Ieat asleep, I sleep asleep.

Depression, they call it. This incites José into lug-ging me like a package to the theater tonight.

“What better place,” he smiles, “to find a Pier-rot, of whatever sex?”

And I agree, with that minuscule, disagreeable,boring worm of the depressed, hope, crawling upmy chest. A couple of heads of straight hair among

those present and, of course, the cocktail party afterthe opening, finally convince me.

The play trundles on; it doesn’t interest me.But it was sufficient for the recognizable figureto appear to get me on my feet from a sudden rushof adrenaline: the white mask of feigned darkweeping looked at me even before I stood up.

Muttering and my friend’s hand brought meback down to my seat.

“She saw me!”“Shhh!” says José.I lower my voice. “It’s her. She looked at me!”I see her frown.“It’s part of the play. She has to look at the audi-

ence.”“But...”“Wait for the party, would you?”The waiting: unknown arrhythmia. I’m in a cold

sweat.It’s even worse when the play is over and a few

minutes later I see the actors gradually come out.José greets and talks to some acquaintances. I try todo the same. A straight-haired blonde watches me.I cannot manage to be perceptive. I sweep the roomwith my glance; I see Pierrot and, at that moment...I don’t know what to do. José sends me a question-ing look; I don’t know if I’m pale or flag red becausewaves of blood seesaw up and down my face.

“Be right back,” I say and I advance three stepstoward the ghost. That’s as far as I go, and then I’mparalyzed again. I turn back to look at José: a bitannoyed by my indecision, he encourages me to con-tinue. With her back to me, Pierrot talks to two peo-ple; one of them has already seen me and is observ-ing, perplexed, rather discretely.

The waiter passes and I take a moist glass. I wantto dry my hands on the black leather pants and can’tmanage it.

“Is this attitude normal in me?” I think. No. Isit the signal. Yes.

I walk, decided, or resolved to meet with anoth-er disappointment.

As naturally as possible, extremely agitated, in atotal paradox, I put the index, middle and ring fin-gers of my left hand on Pierrot’s shoulder when, atthe same time my lips open to say,

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“Ana,” and the ghost turns around.Knowing. They say that knowledge is pain.When we looked at each other, we knew.She tries to say something but can’t. I watch her

go dumb, or is it that suddenly everything around mebecame a concrete silence.

I think I take seconds to react, another few inintroducing myself, putting down the drink, askingpermission and taking her hand so vigorously thatshe murmurs a soft cry. I cannot, I repeat to myself,cannot, under any circumstances and despite every-thing, lose her now.

At the motorbike, she refuses to get on.“Please,” I beg. She looks at the ground, avoid-

ing my eyes. “Please, Ana.”She finally gets on. The weight of her body on

the machine is barely perceptible. Her hands... thetimes I had imagined the warmth of her fingers onmy waist.

I won’t stop until I get to the beach.I start up and accelerate. Again, time is short, but

in a different way.At some point on the way she comes closer to

me and her breasts brush my back. Contradictorysense of reality-unreality. Quiet and movement.The oncoming lights on the highway when we leavethe city force me to stay sober.

I park near the sea. I don’t move so as to not stopfeeling her body holding mine; I don’t even want tobreathe. The sea, full of night, bursts phosphores-cences on its edge.

She loosens her hold a little. The odor of her bodyunder the perfumed fabric comes to me mixed withthe breeze.

Her voice comes as though it was again faceless;the timbre, only slightly lower than I remembered.

“Nobody really knew why you left that after-noon. Everyone thought that it had just been toomuch for you.” Silence. “Only Emilia, because shesaw me trying to get the stains out of the sheets.Only she. Her age and my guilt gave her the rightto slap me. You would have been far away by then.”

I lower my head.“I’m sorry.”“She said something. She said, ‘It’s no good run-

ning away. You’re damned.’ ”

Ana’s voice becomes inaudible. Then, she letsgo of me and walks to the sea. I follow her. I watchher untie her hair. I never imagined such agony onseeing the image yearned for for years.

Nevertheless, together with Ana I recover mymeaning, my place on this surface plagued witharbitrary reliefs. Next to her I assume myself in lifeand in pain with no rebellion, since in them we gaveourselves a beginning.

The high moon shines on the mask more belovedby me than by anyone. And Ana’s features, almostdivined, when she turns her head to look at me withher black weeping, sparkling with translucent tears,are the most venerated features in my memory.

“I have dreamed about you, Bernardo. I haven’tslept in peace a single day.”

“And I? What can I say?” I respond, faithful toa sudden irony for myself alone.

She murmurs, “I can’t,” two or three times beforeI can bite her lips, lick her mouth, quiet my hand-s’ eagerness for her body.

Afterwards, I hear us in the anxiousness of feel-ing ourselves.

The reflection of her light hairs reminds me ofthat afternoon, yellow and cold, when, hours afterour mother’s burial, amidst the weeping of what wasstill stupefaction, we made love while I rememberedDust in the Wind by Kansas. I was 15 and somethingordered me, telling me I had to leave. Something thatwas not her pale body, surprised and almost ado-lescent. Perhaps her eyes, perhaps the weeping re-pressed in her pupils, her tear ducts dry...

That same contradictory voice today tells me asAna moans under my weight that in her belly I findanswers, from her answers, balms; and the secretdaily life we choose to live will definitively relieve theemptiness of feeling ourselves —or knowing our-selves— to be apart, even if we are damned.

SHORT STORY TAKEN FROM CAROLINA LUNA’SBOOK PREFIERO LOS FUNERALES (MEXICO

CITY: FONDO EDITORIAL TIERRA ADENTRO,1996), PP. 12-18.

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4

[Now is the time to speak]

The most mine is prostrate inside her body.Beneath the vault of her craniumin the magnificent flower, gelatinous and rosaceous,,

of her brainwith the exact symmetry of its left side

and its right sideat the root of the solitary stem, perfect and verticalwhere the veins tangle together and the tips

of the system of nerves explodemy mother is a petal inside the box of her body.The giver of life

the above all other things giver of this lifefell inside herself.

Now is the time to speak.

There are the days, the many days and years past,in the beginning, when I didn’t love you.

The days when growing into a woman was a senselessand malignant judgment.

The days when your strength as a woman only increasedmy weakness as a woman.

The days and the many years when your worldof knickknacks and smiles and precise times

could offer me nothing to drive awaythe boredom of growing into a woman.

The Most MineFragments*

by Cristina Rivera Garzatranslated by Jen Hofer

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Then followed the many years and the ever so many daysbeneath the face of damage.

Because in order to bend to your world without angles,to your world of tides and spume

to the world in which the ultimate and lifelongsentence was to grow into a woman

I had to find the tiny mechanismof the splinter in the palm of your hand

the exact fracture in your Achilles heeland all the other heels of all your feet

salt fist that makes your eyes blinkfrom blazing.

Within the days when the damage was a pinpoint of lightthat could arouse the innocent to sleeplessness

are the hours, the infinite hoursof the strategic promiscuity of bodies

are the nights when this war between you and meforced open the sexes of menand of women

intertwined on beds of alcoholand amphetamines

on the vast and acrid surface of armsthat open only to close.

There are the dawns that chainedeach of my extremitiesand each of yours.

The months of flight toward the Pacific and speedand the unpeopled esplanade of cocaine

where hurry went flying with wings of limeamong reality’s grey monuments.

There are the many seconds shadedby the bruises poetry makes.

And when the damage finished manufacturingmy solitude of a woman my own

my armor of a woman only my ownI returned home to meet you.I had come from the treadmill, from days and more days

without bathing or foodescaping the wheel of fortune and the wheel

of misfortune.Then began other days, many days

and more years and morein which I loved you as if I’d never known you

before.With furywith the discretion fear and shyness provokeI hurled the animal of my love against your round table

set for eightagainst your curtainless windows and the incessant

heat left on in your surroundingsagainst your strength as a woman above all other things

that are implacable and dissimilar.

There are the days and the many years when that animaldiscovered calm within your hands.

And my solitude as a woman and my armor as a womancould be weak

and could escape in their defenselessnessfrom their solitude and their armorto be blood of your bloodbread of your breadbody of your body within which you’re insideas much mine as yours and more mine than yours

in these many days, some monthswe’ve spent prostrate before the flower, gelatinous

and rosaceousthe nuclear flowerthe imperfect flower of our brain.


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8

[The man who was the devil of desire]

The man you dreamed up for me arrived with the wrongskin, which was red

arrived giving off the indistinguishable smellof the sulphur of his land beneath this land

arrived with his goat’s hooves and his blindman’s eyes.

The man I feared from before he existedwas your desire

and he was my nightmare.He was going to open my knees and yank from my sex

the son you wanted.He was going to tighten my bridle and tame my

anxieties with the discipline of lovewith the bitter obedience of love.The man you desired for me

was more powerful than I was.

He was going to romp in my bed and drink my bloodnight after night and during the day.

He was going to endow me with the paleness and theweakness and the prudence

of what is sweet and is dead.

He was going to unfold me like a map and plantthe flags of his conquest on my breasts

on my navel, inside my sexand on all my bones.

He was going to take me to his house and build mea world like yours.

But the man who was the devil of desirewho you wanted for me

here inside my sexmastering me with pleasure and shutting me up

with the damp tongue of his kisseshad to measure his strength against mine.He had to give me his blood night after night

and during the day.He had to feel the pole of my flags

on his eyes, his arms, his sex.He had to recognize himself pale and weak and prudent

like something that is loved and sweet and is dead.He had to live in the house I built.And just like me before he existed in me

he feared me and he cursed meand he cursed love, the ferocious discipline of lovethe injustice and inequality of all love.

Then

without knowingwithout even noticing itshe arrived, the woman you never dreamed up for me.

* FRAGMENTS TAKEN FROM CRISTINA RIVERA GARZA’S BOOK OF POETRY, LA MÁS MÍA

(THE MOST MINE) (MEXICO CITY: FONDO EDITORIAL TIERRA ADENTRO/CONACULTA, 1998).

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I N M E M O R I A M

Guillermo Floris Margadant was born in TheHague, Holland, in February 1924. Hisfather, mathematician by profession and

philologist by choice, was, according to his son, “atypical Privatgelehrter, a scholar without an official job,happily dedicated to his own research.” Margadantdied in Toluca, in the State ofMexico, inMarch2002,professor emeritus of the NationalAutonomous Uni-versity of Mexico. He had received innumerable hon-ors, prizes and decorations as the result of being, likehis father, a scholar happily dedicated to research andteaching, except, in his case, with the highest possibleuniversity position and multiple acknowledgments. To

whatwas all this owed?Tohavingproduced a broad andconstant body of work, to having had a professionalattitude that coincided with the motto on his Ex Li-bris: “It is the task that preserves our vitality.” Andby God, Guillermo F. Margadant —attacks of goutand other physical ailments notwithstanding— was anexample of vitality in the human endeavor as long ashe lived.And also an example of intelligence, a senseof humor and dedication to the intellectual tasks hecarried out day to day, supporting himself with a canetoward the end, and always in a dozen languages (“lit-tle windows to the world” he called them) that allowedhim to delve into a multitude of branches of humanknowledge, his instruments for satisfying his insa-tiable curiosity for understanding the cosmos.

Guillermo Floris MargadantLaw Scholar

Beatriz Bernal*

* Professor at the Complutense University in Madrid.

Phot

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I met Margadant 36 years ago. I was his studentin the courses on Roman law for teachers at theUNAM Law School in 1965. From that time on Ishared with him different types of relationships.From being his student, I went to being his collab-orator, then an editor of some of his works, a co-author of others, a joint lecturer and organizer ofcolloquia, symposia, seminars and congresses onthis side and that of the ocean, to having one of hislast books dedicated to me (Los sistemas jurídicoscontemporáneos [Contemporary Legal Systems]),and accompanying him on many academic andpleasure trips. And above all, I became a friend.That is why I write these lines dedicated to thework he, my teacher and friend, did at the UNAM

(both in the Law School and the Institute for LegalResearch) in the area of teaching and legal researchin general, andparticularly in the specialties ofRomanlaw, the history of law and comparative law.

In the field of Roman law, it is toMargadant thatwe owe themost important book published inMex-ico in the last half century:Derecho Romano Privado(Private Roman Law), first published in 1960 andreprintedmore than 25 times since then. I also think

Margadant has enriched the tradition of Romanlaw with two other outstanding works: El signifi-cado del derecho romano dentro de la enseñanza jurí-dica contemporánea (The Meaning of RomanLaw in Contemporary Legal Teaching), his doc-toral thesis, and Segunda vida del derecho romano(The Second Life of Roman Law). Both these vol-umes are dedicated to the reception of Romanlaw in the West. With regard to the history of law,he penned a Historia universal del derecho(Universal History of Law) and Historia del derechomexicano (History of Mexican Law), both ofwhich when published filled vacuums in theexisting literature on these topics in our country’slaw schools. He also wrote historical-legal mono-graphs, such as those dedicated to colonial lawand the relationship between state and Churchfrom the colonial period to the Salinas administra-tion. With regard to comparative law, his books onthe historical evolution of Japanese and Sovietlaw—the result of sabbaticals spent in those coun-tries— are fundamental. His last book, pub-lished posthumously, was about the law afterRussia’s 1991 revolution following the collapse

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El nuevo norteamericano: integración continental,cultura e identidad nacional (The New North American: Continental Integration,Culture and National Identity)Lawrence Douglas TaylorCISAN-UNAM/El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico City, 2001, 309 pp.

MEXICO AND CANADAIMPLICATIONS OF CONTINENTAL INTEGRATIONIN CULTURE AND IDENTITY

The implications and consequences of the North AmericanFree Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the region’s three countrieshave been widely examined from different angles. Amongthese studies, political and economic analyses have takenup considerable space while themes linked to culture andnational identity have been fairly marginal. This is particu-larly the case of Mexico.Of the three countries, Canada has paid most attention

to these issues. Both the Canadian government and civilsociety have shown persistent concern about the dangers ofthe process of cultural Americanization and economic con-tinentalization for their nation.In Mexico, this concern has received scant attention.

Both public officials linked to these issues and NAFTA nego-tiators expressed certain skepticism about the Canadianproposal to include cultural industries among the excep-

tions to the treaty. The apparent lack of interest by Mex icanofficials revealed a certain ignorance about the defense ofcultural industries and showed a dearth of sensitivity aboutan important issue —even though it was not a trade issue—as well as the existing discrepancies about the meaning ofcultural industries in each of the three countries.Mexico was the country least familiar with the idea and

treatment of culture as an industry and a good, while Ca n -ada demonstrated important experience in this area, basedin its historical struggle to preserve its national identity.Canada has a greater tradition in managing conflicts linkedto protecting culture and language, including cases of U.S.companies, like Time Warner in 1995 that came before theWorld Trade Organization tribunal in 1997.During the 1990-1992 NAFTA negotiations, the Mexican

representatives had other priorities and preferred not towear themselves out with a trilateral discussion about pro-tection of cultural industries. The Canadians, for their part,did unilaterally introduce an exception clause about theircultural industries, preserving the clause they had insertedin the 1988 bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the UnitedStates.Thinking of culture as an industry and as such negotiat-

ing it as part of a free trade agreement was uncommon andset a precedent, introducing an important discussion aboutthe effects that a free trade agreement can have on issuesapparently unrelated to trade and the economy. At thesame time, this precedent made it possible for other socialmatters, like the parallel agreements on labor and environ-mental questions, to become part of the NAFTA agenda andthat of future trade agreements, like the Free Trade Accordof the Americas (FTAA), currently being negotiated.The book El nuevo norteamericano: integración continen -

tal, cultura e identidad nacional (The New North Amer ican:Continental Integration, Culture and National Identity) byCanadian Lawrence Douglas Taylor, a researcher at theNorthern Border College in Tijuana, proposes precisely toanalyze this theme based on a detailed examination of thehistory of relations between Canada and the United States, onthe one hand, and Mexico and the United States, on the other.In contrast with other work published in Canada and

Mexico on this topic, Taylor’s book is a valuable effort to

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analyze the situation that stems from relations with theUnited States from a trilateral perspective. This makes itpossible to discover an important number of parallels andsimilarities between Mexico and Canada that were littleknown due to the lack of comparative historical studies thatseek to explain how these two countries have dealt with,negotiated with and resolved their proximity to the UnitedStates.Taylor focuses his analysis on demonstrating what dis-

tinguishes Canadians and Americans. Thanks to a detailedaccount of historical events, he manages to present a veryevocative vision about what he thinks are the main deter-minants of Canadian national identity: U.S. territorial ex -pansionism; economic integrationism; the America niza tionof Canadian society; and Quebec’s separatism. He dedicatesa good part of his efforts to the study of these phenomena.One of the most interesting topics is the analysis about

how through the years Canada and Mexico have buildmechanisms to resist their neighbor’s expansionism. This isparticularly important given the fact that Mexicans havealways tended to think that nineteenth-century U.S. expan -sionist actions vis-à-vis Mexico were unique. Taylor pointsout that Canada was also invaded by its neighbor from1775 to 1783 and was subjected to a war with the clear aimof annexation from 1812 to 1814. He also explains how sev-eral times Canada’s current territory was considered pay-ment in kind that first France and later England shouldmake to the United States as reparations for the various warsthey had carried out against it.Throughout the text, Taylor reiterates that the United

States has been the factor that has most contributed to theconsolidation of Canadian identity. Although its influencein the lives of Canadians is undeniable, I think that theauthor underestimates certain factors that in fact contradictthe idea that Canada is a nation whose unification is duepractically to the U.S. threat: “The resistance of Canadiansto the United States —a historic struggle that continueseven today— is what truly defines them culturally as a peo-ple.” (p. 228)In contrast with Taylor, who thinks that the central issue

that prompted the foundation of Canada in 1867 with theBritish North America Act was U.S. expansionism, I thinkit was not the only factor for political unification. Eventssuch as the cancellation of the 1854 Reciprocity Accord,the Manifesto of the Annexation of Montreal to the UnitedStates (1849) and Louis Riel’s rebellion in Manitoba (1869-

1870) alerted the populace of the British North Americancolonies about the danger in continuing to function as auto -nomous governments and economies in the New World, evenif they all belonged politically to the British Empire. Thedecision to organize as a dominion, without breaking withthe English homeland, was made by Canada’s foundingfathers, figures like George Brown, Alexander Galt andJohn Macdonald. The authors of the British North AmericaAct and the Canadian confederation naturally took intoconsideration the threats of U.S. expansionism, but theywere also profoundly motivated by economic necessities.The fact that several of the colonies —notably Quebec—considered relations with the United States more lucrativethan those with the rest of the colonies, leading them to fa -vorably consider a possible annexation of territory, undoubt -edly pushed the founding fathers to speed up discussionsabout unification. On the other hand, the U.S. Civil War(1861-1865), together with the 1854 commercial accord,had created a certain economic boom in the British colonies,who lost considerable economic advantages with the can-cellation of the accord and the end of the civil war and theloss of that market.In my opinion, while the 1867 unification was an act of

self-protection from annexation, it also clearly aimed atcatching U.S. interest and negotiating a free trade agreement.That agreement was not signed until 1911, although it wasnever put into practice because it was challenged by the Ca -nadian Parliament, and Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier’s gov -ernment was brought down, accused of negotiations theCanadian people violently disapproved of, a rejec tion that hasgone down in Americans’ historic memory as an insult.Taylor’s book, although it does not openly admit it, aims

implicitly to explain to a non-Canadian reader the reasonsand motivations Canadian society and different govern-ments have historically expressed about the reaffirmationof Canada’s identity. The author dedicates both the intro-duction and the first two chapters to this question. So, for111 pages, the reader discovers an innumerable list of facts,dates and details that allow him/her to understand morefully the roots of Canada’s —and also Mexico’s— fears withregard to its relations with the U.S.The analysis of Canada is more profound than that of

Mexico, which is limited to repeating the better knownepisodes of U.S. expansionism, particularly the annexationof Texas and the 1846-1847 war. I also think that the book’ssecond chapter would have been clearer if the author had

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111

included maps explaining the way the northern and south -ern U.S. borders were drawn and how that affected Mexicoand Canada.Although Taylor amply explains the origins of Canada’s

identity struggle with regard to Americanization, he doesnot go deeply into the contradiction that it has manifestedhistorically with regard to its relationship with the UnitedStates. While the defense of its identity has had a prominentplace in national concerns, it is also the case that the gov -ernment and a sizeable number of entrepreneurs, investorsand businessmen have always tended to favor economic andtrade relations with the United States.This has been repeated since 1867. However, there have

been exceptions, moments in which resistance movementsto Canada’s continentalization have surfaced. Among themis the period in the 1960s and 1970s known as “Canadia -nization,” which resulted in a process of the creation ofgreater awareness in Canadian society about the degreeof foreign alienation of its economy and natural resources.How ever, until today, as the book shows, an enormous di -cho tomy persists between public policies that support cul-tural and linguistic nationalism and a clear strategy of thepolitical and economic elites aimed at giving the head topro-continentalist positions.One of this book’s achievements is undoubtedly the

analysis of Mexico’s and Canada’s borders with the UnitedStates, particularly in the light of the important changessince September 11, 2001. The issue of border relations iseven more important given the fact that for the first timethere is a discussion about instrumenting a common bor-der policy within the so-called U.S. security perimeter.This book dedicates a large number of its pages to analyz-

ing Canada’s federal and provincial policies for protectingnational culture and identity. Nevertheless, despite the wealthof information in those chapters, it is surprising that theauthor makes no mention of one of the Ministry of ExternalAffairs and International Trade’s International CulturalRelations Bureau’s most important projects: the promotionof Canadian studies in the world as an instrument to reaf-firm Canadian identity from abroad.In this writer’s opinion, this deserves an important place

in the book, because the author did interview two of thebureau’s officials, Alan Dudoit and Jean Labrie (p. 175), butmakes no reference to its work, involving one of the mostimportant public projects aimed at contributing to Cana da’sidentity by forming a critical mass of foreign intellectuals

who could contribute to it. Professor Taylor does not men-tion the work of several Canadian foundations, either, like theBrofman Foundation, which for decades has been fundingacademic projects inside Canada that contribute to consol-idating Canadian identity, such as the Center for CanadianStudies at McGill University in Montreal. In short, the pre -servation of Canadian cultural industries and identity is anissue whose importance means it touches on different sec-tors of government and civil society.Lastly, although the book is a significant Spanish-language

contribution to the study of Canadian culture and identityand opens up important research sources that will undoubt-edly contribute to writing other works, at no time does theauthor define what the “new North American” of the title is.

Teresa Gutiérrez-HacesUNAM Institute for Economic Research

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111

included maps explaining the way the northern and south-ern U.S. borders were drawn and how that affected Mexicoand Canada.Although Taylor amply explains the origins of Canada’s

identity struggle with regard to Americanization, he doesnot go deeply into the contradiction that it has manifestedhistorically with regard to its relationship with the UnitedStates. While the defense of its identity has had a prominentplace in national concerns, it is also the case that the gov-ernment and a sizeable number of entrepreneurs, investorsand businessmen have always tended to favor economic andtrade relations with the United States.This has been repeated since 1867. However, there have

been exceptions, moments in which resistance movementsto Canada’s continentalization have surfaced. Among themis the period in the 1960s and 1970s known as “Canadia-nization,” which resulted in a process of the creation ofgreater awareness in Canadian society about the degreeof foreign alienation of its economy and natural resources.However, until today, as the book shows, an enormous di-chotomy persists between public policies that support cul-tural and linguistic nationalism and a clear strategy of thepolitical and economic elites aimed at giving the head topro-continentalist positions.One of this book’s achievements is undoubtedly the

analysis of Mexico’s and Canada’s borders with the UnitedStates, particularly in the light of the important changessince September 11, 2001. The issue of border relations iseven more important given the fact that for the first timethere is a discussion about instrumenting a common bor-der policy within the so-called U.S. security perimeter.This book dedicates a large number of its pages to analyz-

ing Canada’s federal and provincial policies for protectingnational culture and identity. Nevertheless, despite the wealthof information in those chapters, it is surprising that theauthor makes no mention of one of the Ministry of ExternalAffairs and International Trade’s International CulturalRelations Bureau’s most important projects: the promotionof Canadian studies in the world as an instrument to reaf-firm Canadian identity from abroad.In this writer’s opinion, this deserves an important place

in the book, because the author did interview two of thebureau’s officials, Alan Dudoit and Jean Labrie (p. 175), butmakes no reference to its work, involving one of the mostimportant public projects aimed at contributing to Canada’sidentity by forming a critical mass of foreign intellectuals

who could contribute to it. Professor Taylor does not men-tion the work of several Canadian foundations, either, like theBrofman Foundation, which for decades has been fundingacademic projects inside Canada that contribute to consol-idating Canadian identity, such as the Center for CanadianStudies at McGill University in Montreal. In short, the pre-servation of Canadian cultural industries and identity is anissue whose importance means it touches on different sec-tors of government and civil society.Lastly, although the book is a significant Spanish-language

contribution to the study of Canadian culture and identityand opens up important research sources that will undoubt-edly contribute to writing other works, at no time does theauthor define what the “new North American” of the title is.

Teresa Gutiérrez-HacesUNAM Institute for Economic Research

Bandidos, héroes y corruptoso nunca es bueno robar una miseria(Bandits, Heroes and the Corrupt,or It Is Never Good to Steal a Pittance)Juan Antonio RosadoEdiciones Coyoacán, Diálogo Abierto CollectionMexico City, 2001, 105 pp.

More than a century separates us from the pens ofthree men fundamental to Mexican letters: Igna-cio M. Altamirano, Manuel Payno and Luis G.


112

Inclán. Reading their work over the years has prompted theuse of a profusion of pen and ink but only occasionally dowe meet up with pro-active evaluations, free from easy par-allels and sterile reflection.In Bandidos, héroes y corruptos o nunca es bueno robar

una miseria (Bandits, Heroes and the Corrupt, or It Is NeverGood to Steal a Pittance), JuanAntonio Rosado presents uswith an interesting reading of three of these authors’ repre-sentative novels: El Zarco (Blue Eyes) by Altamirano, Losbandidos de Río Frío (The Bandits of Río Frío), by Payno,and Astucia, el jefe de los Hermanos de la Hoja o los Charroscontrabandistas de la rama (Astute, the Head of the Brothersof the Blade, or the Smuggler Horsemen of the Branch), byInclán. The young writer and academic —recipient of a“Young Creators” grant from the National Fund for Cultureand the Arts, classified by writer Adolfo Castañón as one ofthe generation of young essayists who seek to “season his-tory so their stories will be neither aesthetically nor intel-lectually insipid”— brings these novels face to face with theirown times and realities which, despite the historic distancethat separates us from them, have not lost their timelinessfor Mexico in the twenty-first century.In his essay’s three chapters, Juan Antonio, who argues

for eliminating old quarrels between history and literature,develops a reading that pays homage to three aspects: thesocial, the ideological and the mythical.At the beginning, Rosado says, “Studying the nineteenth-

century Mexican novel is more than attempting to betterunderstand the history of our literature; it also means ap-proaching our historical and social past from a viewpointinterested in characters and situations taken from real life.”That past is what makes way for the reading Rosado pro-

poses. “From Reality to the Novel” is the title of the essay’sfirst chapter. Here, Rosado presents Payno’s, Altamirano’sand Inclán’s works, which he says possess great social sen-sitivity in the historical context of nineteenth-century Mex-ico. They are novelists who wrote in the midst of a nationgoing through the paroxysms of social and political chaos.That historical reality is the leitmotif upon which the dif-ferent strands of their thinking, their ideals, denunciationsand criticisms are woven.That is how the young essayist puts it, and, in the third

chapter, entitled “Civilization and Barbarism,” he broadensthe literary spectrum under a lens that looks into the ideo-logical positions and social proposals linked to a nationalproject. With that, he discards the possibility of adopting a

position that isolates artistic expression from the exteriorworld. Our author observes, “Yearning for autonomy in artin all aspects may be the result of a non-thinking and evenunconscious attempt to mutilate it....It would definitely bean attack on the spirit of art itself, against heterogeneityand plurality; it would be to limit it to a mere aesthetic or‘aestheticizing’ function.”The second chapter -—which I have deliberately left

until the end— is entitled “The Generous Offended One.”The existence of a common horizon from which the threenovels make their start implies the existence of points ofconvergence inside them. One of these meeting points isthe figure of the bandit hero, a character who in his actionsbecomes an instrument of social demands. It is these socialbandoliers who became what they are because of injuriesthey received, who personify the ideological expectations,the concerns and the judgments that Altamirano, Paynoand Inclán expressed about their time. In them, thanks toa process of social mythmaking, the mechanisms of the herowho achieves justice, protection and order for the commu-nity, and social mechanisms that recognize and give validi-ty to the hero’s actions despite official condemnation, allcome together. They form the bridge between “reality andthe novel” and “civilization and barbarism.”Rosado’s thesis goes beyond anecdotal comparison and

the speculative games among forms. By centering on thesocial, ideological and mythical universe in which each ofthese three novels —or rather, as he calls them, modern na-tional epics— develops, he makes us look at nineteenth-century Mexico with new eyes.What are Altamirano’s, Payno’s and Inclán’s concerns in

a society wavering between chaos and order? What ideolo-gies oil the wheels of their criticisms, evaluations and pro-posals? How and on what basis is the idea of the social heroconstructed? With what shades of grey is the figure of thebandit portrayed?All these questions, previously shunted to one side in

favor of aesthetic evaluation and historical precisions, findan interesting voice in Bandidos, héroes y corruptos, an essayin which Juan Antonio Rosado paints the profiles of nine-teenth-century Mexico with the invariably passionate brush-es of letters.

Rafael Yaxal SánchezLiterary critic

Voices of Mexico issue 61

Documents

Transcript of Voices of Mexico issue 61