"Lazy Mexican" myth debunked; A tribute to Mexican activism.
A common excuse that I hear for opposing increased immigration is that these immigrants should work for change in their own countries. But that is a naive argument based on the faulty assumption that other countries are the same as ours. But the fact of the matter is, stuff we take for granted, like freedom of assembly, the right to petition the government, the right to oppose oppressive policies, or standing up for minority rights, will get you shot in places like Mexico or the Dominican Republic.
But the fact is, despite the risk of being arrested or shot, Mexicans are actively working for change in their own country, just like they are here. Listed below are some examples of Mexican activism at work.
Those who claim that Mexicans are too lazy to work for change within their own country completely ignore the Zapatistas, who have broken away from the rest of the Mexican state and set up their own autonomous region despite interference from the Mexican government. They have championed the cause of indigenous peoples, who have been victims of massive discrimination over the years. Furthermore, they have also opposed NAFTA and the other free trade agreements that have driven down the standard of living for workers on both sides of the border.
The Zapatistas are a grassroots oriented group with supporters from all over the globe. They have created their own communities. One of the unique features of their law is their belief in the right of the people to rise up against them if they should ever be unjust. The only government which has this written in is our own government, which has written the right to bear arms into the Constitution as a safeguard against governmental interference.
We are the zapatistas of the EZLN, although we are also called "neo-zapatistas." Now, we, the zapatistas of the EZLN, rose up in arms in January of 1994 because we saw how widespread had become the evil wrought by the powerful who only humiliated us, stole from us, imprisoned us and killed us, and no one was saying anything or doing anything. That is why we said "Ya Basta!," that no longer were we going to allow them to make us inferior or to treat us worse than animals. And then we also said we wanted democracy, liberty and justice for all Mexicans although we were concentrated on the Indian peoples. Because it so happened that we, the EZLN, were almost all only indigenous from here in Chiapas, but we did not want to struggle just for own good, or just for the good of the indigenous of Chiapas, or just for the good of the Indian peoples of Mexico. We wanted to fight along with everyone who was humble and simple like ourselves and who was in great need and who suffered from exploitation and thievery by the rich and their bad governments here, in our Mexico, and in other countries in the world.
Their ultimate aim is to overthrow the Mexican government, which they see as corrupt, just as we do. The Mexican economy has one of the highest GNP's of Latin America. But despite that, they have even more of a wealth inequality than we do; the Zapatistas repeatedly call attention to that fact:
In an event that filled downtown San Cristóbal the night of January 1, twelve years after the EZLN occupied the city without resistance, the great support (as well as interest and curiosity) that the Zapatistas provoke was very visible. The support is understandable, if one considers their objectives: weaving together a network of all the anti-capitalist and anti-neoliberal struggles that exist in Mexico; creating a new Constitution; and, especially, inventing a new way of doing politics that includes ethics, something completely forgotten by today's politicians.
The call of the Other Campaign is directed to the political and social forces that do not seek power via elections, but wish rather to "organize society from below." In the comandantes' speeches, popular demands old and new mixed together and gathered strength.
Comandante Tacho denounced the situation of desperate agony in rural Mexico. "The Free Trade Agreement a the plan to destroy the Mexican countryside and allow the introduction of genetically modified products and seeds into our soil. And in order for this to be legal, they changed Article 27 of the Constitution. In order for our lands to be legally taken and for us to once again become servants for the big landowners, they are pushing forward a land privatization program through `PROCEDE' (Program for the Certification of Communal Land Rights)."
Of course, the Zapatistas are hardly the only group of people working for change. Here is a snapshot of some of the other people working for change in Mexico:
Thousands of centrist Mexicans protesting against hurricane relief mismanagement:
Their hurricane relief plan is almost as bad as ours. And Mexican farmers in Chiapas are not happy:
The Mexican farmers "are effectively being stripped of their lands," Sen. Jose Antonio Aguilar Bodegas told journalists here in Chiapas, saying that roughly 250 hectares (617 acres) had been affected by the river's shift.
"Those lands belong to Chiapan farmers who now not only can't have access to them, but there are armed people, not from the (Guatemalan) government, rather private citizens, who are trying to take control of them," the lawmaker said.
The secretary of public safety in Chiapas, Horacio Shroeder Bejarano, said the state government is still waiting for the National Water Commission to begin cleaning debris from the Suchiate and returning the river to its original channel.
Mexico's foreign ministry said last October that Stan did not shift the river's course, but the ejido farmers dispute that finding.
Elsewhere in Chiapas, angry residents blocked highways to pressure the federal government into speeding-up storm recovery efforts in the region.
In a letter to Mexican President Vicente Fox, the peasants complained that those managing the recovery projects "do not take into account these areas, very marginalized since years earlier." Some 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of farmland in Chiapas was damaged by Stan-related flooding and mudslides, threatening the livelihoods of more than 100,000 people.
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans protesting violent crime and corruption:
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans wearing white staged a silent march through the heart of their nation's capital Sunday to protest kidnappings, violent crimes and the failures of law enforcement to curb them.
The march was the largest here in recent history, completely filling Mexico City's central plaza and packing surrounding streets.
As protesters crossed the city, they did not chant or cheer but instead shared stories of how many people had been victims of violent crime. Marchers wore black ribbons in memory of victims killed during kidnappings and robberies, with some wearing T-shirts or carrying signs with images of the dead.
In a similar manner, the Senators ignored the second paragraph of the Cocopa Initiative, which states: "The Indigenous communities, as public right entities, and the municipalities that acknowledge their pertaining to a given Indigenous people, shall have the right to free association in order to coordinate their actions." In contrast the Mexican Senate dictates that only the state legislatures have the ability to establish the terms of free determination and autonomy, as well as the rules for recognizing Indigenous communities as public interest entities. This eliminates in one blow the possibility of including the possibility of including in the Carta Magna the criteria, mechanisms and forms that can make autonomy possible and efficient in the actual daily life.
In the absence of constitutional mechanisms that enable free determination and autonomy, Indigenous rights are being mutilated. Without constitutional recognition of the Indigenous community and municipality, and without the possibilities of their association - rights proposed in the Cocopa Initiative- the reconstruction and development of the Indigenous peoples will remain only in speeches, instead of being part of an actual construction enterprise. As long as the territorial rights of our peoples continue to be nullified, their potential for sustainable growth with identity will be too far away, as far away as we are from peace today. If this is so, then the much desired constitutional reform on Indigenous rights is being cancelled, like in former times. What we got is not a reform that truly benefits the Indigenous peoples, but only a set of limited declarations that will have no positive impact on the life of our peoples. This truth must be known by the civil society. We therefore ask the Chamber of Deputies to assume a responsible attitude and seriously retake the Cocopa Initiative. Like their predecessors they will be accountable to History.
Ms. Magazine profiles a rarely-published, but highly influential feminist magazine:
Although it doesn't aim at a wide audience, its pages do reflect activists' concerns, and Lamas insists it remains "a tool for struggle and a space for reflection."
Mexican feminism, she feels, has difficulties with intellectual debate, because constant activism leaves little space for such reflection; there's almost no discussion in print, no reports or personal accounts. The journal's main success has been in offering the kind of writing that helps generate serious thought.
"Since we began," explains Lamas, "we've tried to represent two main movement currents: a `cultural feminism,' giving priority to the transformation of daily life, and a `political feminism,' connected to realpolitik. Since in Mexico geopolitical considerations are significant, much of the translated texts and research comes from the United States and Great Britain. ... The work of Chicanas has been interesting and useful."
Debate Feminista has changed surprisingly little over the years, she adds, "because our issues remain the same: reproductive rights, racism, homophobia... Only through public debate can we change stereotypes and introduce a new paradigm allowing us to rethink life and widen the margins of power. It's necessary to debate within the movement as a step to sparking public debate. We believe strongly that `the personal is political' is still true."
Yet there is no doubt that the underlying concern was that popular anger over the government's actions would prove uncontrollable. On Sunday April 24, 1.2 million Mexican citizens had mobilized in a massive "March of Silence" to repudiate the government's attempt to prosecute the Mexico City mayor. The demonstrators walked the 6 kilometers (3.5 miles) between the Archeological Museum and the historic Zocalo Square, the city's political center.
Workers, peasants, students and middle class people from as far away as Oaxaca in southern Mexico participated in what was the largest political protest ever in Mexico City. The turnout exceeded by far the predictions of up to 300,000 made by its organizers in Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). In attendance were former supporters of President Vicente Fox and of his National Action Party (PAN) and of the Revolutionary Institutionalist Party (PRI) as well as trade union contingents, such as nuclear power workers, petroleum workers, electricians, and government employees.
Isidro Baldenegro Lopez, an environmental activist, jailed on trumped-up charges:
Mexico 's rate of deforestation is second only to that of Indonesia. From 1993 to 2000, forest coverage in Mexico declined almost 3 million acres each year. Misguided enterprises have cut or burned more than half of the country's woodlands--and not for any significant contribution to the formal economy. Meanwhile, threats and rights abuses are the steady fare for community activists who try to reverse the trend.
Baldenegro, 38, was jailed on trumped-up weapons charges for his successful role in mobilizing indigenous and other community members of the Western Sierra Madre against the mounting destruction of old-growth forests. The illegal logging there in Chihuahua state is undertaken for the purpose of narcotics plantations and drug money laundering.
The violence engendered by this longstanding plight is eroding Tarahumara and other indigenous, land-based cultures. Ingrained corruption fosters it. And Baldenegro learned about its devastating results at a young age, when his father was murdered in 1986 in the decades-old conflict with local crime bosses known as the Fontes Cartel.
Beginning in March 2003, he led a peaceful civil disobedience and court case joined by other family members of victims of the Fontes Cartel, which is sacrificing lives and the biodiversity of the Copper Canyon area in northern Mexico to the cause of crime.
Sergio Aguayo Quezada, an influential professor and writer, on the arrogance of the US:
If their shift to the left stands out so much, it is because the US is moving towards a new manifest destiny which announces, with enormous arrogance, its claim to be the guarantor of world peace and democracy, and to have the right to decide when and how to use troops or torture - in sum, to be the ultimate judge who distinguishes the good from the bad.
Peter Hakim synthesises that attitude in a new essay ("Is Washington Losing Latin America?" (Foreign Affairs, January-February 2006) about the US's deteriorated relations with other countries within the western hemisphere: Washington "rarely consults with others, reluctantly compromises, and reacts badly when others criticize or oppose its actions".
The US rightwing tilt is structural. It stems from an uncontrollable advance of the conservative right that departs from universally accepted principles.
So, despite the fact that Mexico does not have the freedoms that we have here, their people involve themselves in the political process much more than we do here. They do so with great energy and passion, some of which the Democratic Party could use a lot more of. It is a right-wing myth that they are somehow too lazy to work for change in Mexico. In fact, the Mexicans who come here send money to their friends and relatives back home so they can do just that.