Adios again, Mexico


One of Mexico City’s many organ grinders grinds away on República de Guatemala.

It has been short but sweet, I suppose, but now it’s away from Mexico City I go once again. All in all, this trip has been both very useful and a lot more enjoyable than I was anticipating after having gotten a little over all those long hours spent working away in the National Library. I did get bothered again by the guy who says he’s from Zacatecas and needs money for the bus home many times, the most recent being today (and before that yesterday), but I steered clear of the clown in Chapultepec park who would yell and yell from miles away when he saw my ghostly white face in the distance to pull me up in front of a crowd for their amusement. So, yes, muy bien!


2003: The Dream of a Better Future

After a leisurely Saturday doing some shopping and visting a few museums, on Sunday I decided to see what was on at the movies. Turns out there was not much on, but when I read the description of the new Mexican film 2033, heavily hyped as Mexico’s first sci-fi feature film, I couldn’t resist: Mexico City in 2003, renamed Villaparaíso, has been taken over by a military government which maintained control by medicating the whole populace with a substance called Technapol and, worst of all, banned religion! The protagonist thus has to join with “the believers” (los creyentes) to fight this evil menace. Some right wing Catholic propaganda seemed fun, particularly as just this week the PRI and PRD voted on a constitutional amendment to include “secular” in the official description of the state while the Church’s party of choice, the PAN, used the Attorney General’s office to challenge the constitutionality of the Mexico City reforms permitting gay marriage. So I queued up and it didn’t disappoint.


First Mexican sci-fi film? What about Santo vs. la Invasión de los Marcianos?!?

I guess there is supposed to be some parallel being drawn in this film between the post-revolutionary governments’ anti-clerical measures during the 1920s and 1930s which led to the Cristero uprising. The premise, however, is quite clearly alluding to the present Mexican political situation. During the opening scenes the set-up is that the upcoming 2012 presidential elections are close and the results disputed which provokes widespread protests and unrest, rather like what happened in 2006. The only difference is that an opportunistic candidate with the initials PEC, rather close to those of head of the Mexico City government and likely PRD candidate in 2012, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, takes advantage of this situation to launch a military coup, outlaw religion, etc, etc. By now he has handed over power to a military general and in another opening scene we see a news broadcast mentioning that the last refinery of state-owned oil company PEMEX, which 2006 PRD candidate López Obrador led a movement to stop its privatization by the PAN president Calderón in 2008, had just been closed. Guess they should have privatized it after all…



If you really like your god paraphernalia, make sure you visit the Pasaje de la Catedral right behind the Cathedral which is full of shops that sell nothing but religious statues. They even watch over you from above the giant piñata!

As well as the blatant political messages of the religious references and general juxtaposition of the good Christians who are concerned with freedom and the welfare of others with the evil regime, the film is also a little racist. Almost everyone who is part of the regime is a güero as white as I am. When one of the evil whiteys ends up hooking up with “the believers” after noticing the Jesus fish with a crucifix tattoo on his arm, it turns out that Padre Miguel and the other Christians all possess a far more typically Mexican hue. As for the white people, not only do they enjoy kicking and shooting poor brown people on the street, particularly if they profess any religious sentiments, they also enjoy hunting them from helicopters for sport.


I knew it! I guess when he gets enough pesos in the little tin he can come back, repay the debts and all will be forgiven.

Why the name of Mexico City was changed by the regime is never made explicit, but I am aware of a lot of Hispanicist nationalist historians and writers over the years who have claimed Mexico’s true national origins lie in Spanish civilization and specifically Catholicism rather than the pre-hispanic origins favoured by postrevolutionary nationalism. Perhaps Mexico City not being Mexico anymore is a result of people like MEC or PEC allowing gay people to get married and women the right to have an abortion. Who knows. Oddly enough, many of those Hispanicists also spell the country as “Méjico”; it’s always a giveaway when you see that spelling! So, yes, more fun and games from the Catholic right. I’ve never really been anti-religion as such as I suppose we all have our own belief systems, but I think I would probably move from the agnostic to atheist column after the past five weeks in Mexico.


Bike Sunday at the Ángel de la Independencia. Although the weather has cleared up, some outlying parts of the city are still underwater as the drainage system failed during last week. You would never know that in this part of town, however.

Anyway, I guess there's not too much more to rant about and I really must pack and get to bed as the taxi comes at 5:45am. Heading off is all a little bittersweet as I have enjoyed the past 5 or so weeks and I wish I had more time to travel around the country outside of the MC. On the other hand, I would like to get stuck into actually writting this bloody PhD now I have all of this research done... at least that's my frame of mind at this point in time. First, though, it's off to see Mickey!

To finish off, here are a few night photos from the Torre Latino (as featured in the giant loop on the 2033 poster!) that I took on Saturday evening.




Looking toward the Zócalo