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| Sam Quinones at the Graduate School of Journalism |
The Unnoticed Moments
of Mexico's Transition
Ivan Carvalho, Graduate
School of Journalism
On October 31st, journalist
and author Sam Quinones spoke before a group of 50 students
and faculty at North Gate Hall. In his talk, "Telethons,
Talk Shows, and Dead Dinosaurs: The Unnoticed Moments of
Mexico's Transition to Democracy," he highlighted some of
the changes in Mexican society that contributed to the loss
of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional in the July 2000
presidential election.
Quinones
argued that while many observers have cited Vicente Fox's
presidency as the beginning of a new era, really Mexico has
long been undergoing a transformation. "By the end of my
first year [as a journalist in Mexico] in 1994 I felt I was
watching history in the making," said Quinones, 42. He stressed
that this history was not defined by a single dramatic event,
like the fall of the Berlin Wall, but was rather a gradual
loosening of the PRI's grip on power.
Many important
moments in Mexico's transition to democracy did not generate
headlines, especially in the American media, Quinones said.
In his view, the U.S. press typically focused on a handful
of Mexican issues: for example drug trafficking, immigration,
and trade relations. Quinones drew upon his seven years as
a freelance writer in Mexico to offer what he perceives to
be some of Mexico's pivotal transitional moments.
First,
Quinones described the 1997 rise of telethons, fundraisers
led by company and charity workers for causes such as helping
handicapped children. He stated that these telethons were
a challenge to the PRI's traditional role as the sole provider
of Mexican public services.
 Sam
Quinones |
Another
of Quinones' examples was the emergence of political talk
shows. Quinones explained that in 1995 former president Ernesto
Zedillo decided to lower restrictions on the media. Soon
after, Quinones noted, there was an increase of dissent on
the airwaves. In particular, radio shows started playing
Los Tigres del Norte's, "El Circo," a song that criticized
Carlos Salinas de Gortari, a former PRI president who had
been linked to a corruption case. It was an instant hit and
was accompanied by a cottage industry of paraphernalia including
caricature masks of Salinas. Quinones said that this overt
criticism of the PRI was a sign, however small, that Mexican
society was changing.
Quinones
also mentioned the shift in plot lines of the country's wildly
popular soap operas, telenovelas. He explained that the one
party state had long used them as a propaganda tool--portraying
a world focused exclusively on Cinderella stories that had
little to do with the social reality of most Mexicans. But
in 1996 stories concerning the drug cartels, migrant workers,
and even political corruption began to emerge. This was important
because it offered people a glimpse of real life problems
and raised questions about whether the PRI was addressing
them.
Quinones
also discussed some of the keys to the PRI's longevity in
governing Mexico. The party was able to survive, he argued,
because unlike other one party regimes it did not rely on
a core ideology. Rather, it sought to buy off or co-opt interest
groups. "The PRI was like Tammany Hall but on a national
scale," said Quinones, referring to the corrupt Democratic
political machine that ran Manhattan in the late 1800s and
early 1900s. Often, he said, the PRI looked the other way
so long as people kept voting for it. As an example he told
the story of a cult town, Nueva Jerusalem, run by an ex-communicated
priest who claimed to have contact with the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The town was permitted to exist outside of Mexican law, he
said, because the villagers consistently voted overwhelmingly
for the PRI.
Quinones
also touched on Mexico's impressive run in the 1998 World
Cup soccer tournament in France. "Before there was an intense
fatalism in society," he said, observing that many people
believed that the outcomes of events, political or athletic,
were predetermined. But with the national team's solid showing,
Quinones detected a change in people's outlook. This was
recognized by the Vicente Fox campaign, Quinones said, in
their adoption of the slogan of the national team: "si se
puede."
In the
question and answer session Quinones reiterated the importance
of Ernesto Zedillo's loosening of media controls in the mid-1990s.
He also suggested that former Mexico City mayor and presidential
candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas had the same problem as the
PRI of not being able to update his platform to address the
changing times.
 Sam
Quinones |
Further
description of Quinones' experiences as a writer in Mexico
can be found in his recently published book, True Tales
from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino,
and the Bronx (University of New Mexico Press). For more
information on Sam Quinones, visit samquinones.com.
