A New Mexican Revolution?

During the early eighties, I lived in Mexico City. I worked for the a television network, the largest media conglomerate in Mexico at the time. I fell in love with the city and it’s people. Mexico City is like Hollywood, New York Paris and Washington, DC all rolled into one, with no parking and wall to wall pollution. It is like no other city on earth and even though it has monumental problems, it’s still an incredible place.

The reason I left was two-fold. One, my partner at the time lived in Texas and commuting was really putting a strain on our relationship. Two, I saw the incredible poverty and inequity in a frantic economy that left millions to live in cardboard shacks with no water, sewers or electricity. All this in the world’s biggest city in what was touted as a burgeoning first world country.

The truth of Mexico is less romantic than the images we see in tourist publications. If you are well off in Mexico, life is pretty good. You have access to cultural institutions, world class cusine, fabulous housing and all the luxuries life can offer. If you are poor in Mexico, it's a different story.

Every upper class house has a second family living there, they live out back and take care of the house and grounds. They are called housekeepers or gardeners, but they are almost indentured servants who owe the very roof over their head to the houses owner. We even had them at our offices, living in a small building behind the main office.

If you are rich, and there are those who are fabulously wealthy in Mexico, you live like royalty. You never get a traffic ticket, police bribe easily. You drive 8-cylinder gas guzzling cars that are illegal to import, but for the rich nothing is forbidden. And politics? Well, as long as you support the government, at that time the PRI, you could do no wrong.

I found myself on pins and needles waiting for the next revolution that I was sure to come any day. That was over 20 years ago and today it looks like that revolution might just happen. The recent highly disputer election is threatening to wake Mexico from it’s slumber and unleash the millions of ordinary folks who are being used by the corrupt system.

According to an article in Truthout, presidential candidate "Lopez Obrador vowed to defend Mexico's democracy by transforming the country's institutions, which he said have always been subjugated by "money and power." He urged supporters to keep the acts of civil disobedience he began on July 30 peaceful." They are starting to turn ugly, and that will bear watching.

I am torn by all this. On one had I want to cheer on the protests, but on the other hand I know they could tear the country apart. I only pray the Mexico can work through this rough patch and become a true democracy. They have the potential for real greatness, and I will always love the land and people living to my state’s south.