Face of Mexican fascism, oh yes. And I hear there's a secret prison camp out in the country there, too, would like to know more about. The Oaxaca/APPO reps have an outpost tent sith literature in Mex DF that I saw the other day, very small, but it was surrounded by riot police in full gear poised to attack. Looking like Nazguls of course; nothing was going on but they had their shields up and everything.

Nez:
I'm sure it's just serendipity that Bushco/USMSM has done such a thorough job of demonizing Mexicans as being murderous narco trafficers, gang bangers, lazy peons, corrupt officials or the unwashed millions in their "BorderSprint"(TM) Nikes, just waiting for a chance to become one of the "illegals".

Actually, since we, as Americans have been made well aware of Mexico's shortcomings (since 1836, at least) and their criminal desire to somehow re-conquer Texas, NM, Arizona & California (land we righteously stole from them), why would we give a rat's patootie about some more of them getting beat up or killed?

Why don't you just post more stuff about Mexican Quizeen and leave the ugly stuff alone? okay?

I have heard gringos atually say they were afraid to go to Tijuana here in San Diego. So thoroughly Mexico and Mexicans have been demonized that some residents of this county are afraid of their nieghbors.
Fear is a way to control the message, if we are all fearful then of course the administration can get away with all kinds of crap, oh wait they already do.
Yesterday on the news some people from Oaxaca were shown protesting the vile war against the people in Oaxaca, they were shown to be ineffectual and rather limited. It was not a positive perspective.
If the news is limited and controlled then we never really know how the rest of the world is suffering, perhaps we need a reality check.

I'm sure it's just serendipity that Bushco/USMSM has done such a thorough job of demonizing Mexicans as being murderous narco trafficers, gang bangers, lazy peons, corrupt officials or the unwashed millions in their "BorderSprint"(TM) Nikes, just waiting for a chance to become one of the "illegals".

Funny, I had the same thought.

Let there be no mistake about it: this is not just a contest between a tyrannical, hated governor and the majority of the population in the state. It is a struggle of the majority of the Oaxacan peoples to gain control of their social lives, to end the exploitation of all the natural resources of the state by the forces of global capitalism and the local and national power elites embedded in and allied to that structure.

This can't be stressed enough.

I have definitely heard a lot of Mexico-is-dangerous-for-white-people propaganda on top of the Mexicans-are-dangerous-for-white-people-in-the-U.S. propaganda. Things like how you better take a lot of cash with you if you ever drive across the border, since your only chance of not disappearing into a Mexican jail for eternity, should you get pulled over, is to bribe the cops down there. Rich irony, considering what is happening to people on this side of the border...

I have this hope that the current era will end up being somewhat like part of what happened in the 60's, when resistance to colonialism and oppression around the world inspired and reinforced itself in so many places.

(I don't so much miss the bulk of the 1960's, but world revolution was a kick ass part of it.)

I have been to Oaxaca City several times, though not for a while, and am thinking about going back sometime this year.

I only have a very little hope for educating the American public about Mexico. The problem (well, along with racism) starts in the very beginning, in school systems. There is no respect taught for the complexity of any of our neighboring countries.

i am really wary of using george salzman as a source for what is happening in oaxaca. as i am sure is not uncommon all over the world, there are gringos living in oaxaca, and have lived there for 20 or 30 years who either cannot understand, or refuse to understand what is really going on around them. generally they keep to themselves within the expat community and do not interact with mexicans. what comes of this is an incendiary politics whereby imagined promises of social change long abandoned in north america (within the expat´s sphere of reference) are happening on their doorsteps. how exciting. how novel. how revolutionary.

ufff. me molesta tanto.

what is happening in oaxaca is tremendously complicated, that (según yo) no opinion can be made as of yet. this is not a case of zapatistas being united. this is a state made up of 18 cultural groups, over 90 dialects, 570 municipalities, 2 political systems, 3 land ownership systems, et cetera. and, like everything it ultimately comes down to money. the leaders on both sides are fighting for control of money.

i include some of a discussion with mi esposo (a oaxaqueño, currently in oaxaca)

es que hay unos gringos que escriben articulos por periodicos aqui
primero no entienden español segundo todos estan viejos hippies que buscan la revolucion imaginaria todos quieren vivir en cuba y ser amigos de fidel
josemaria: me di cuenta ya lo empece a leer. se proyectan
Yo: si asi es.
josemaria: y respecto al articulo, esta chido que informen pero, o unico que estan haciendo es una nota roja para un periodico sensacionalista lo que me enojo mucho fue cuando dijo que la situacion es peligrosa para muchos oaxacaquenos y cuando hablo otra vez de los muertos. se murieron el año pasado
todos van a leer este articulo y pensar que es una zona de guerra y que casi todos los oaxaqueños se mueren diario
josemaria: lo unicvo que van a hacer es atrar a los extranjeros radicales que creen en responder con violencia y a asustar al turismo
Yo: y cuando dijo, "es una lucha de la mayoria de la gente de oaxaca"
lo que recuerdo es que la mayoria no importa la lucha, solo que pierden dinero,y que como pinochet, y hitler, y otros demonios siempre hay muchos que lo apoyan
josemaria: sip' mira, respecto a los muertos, se supone que el dia de la guelaguetza popuar, hubo enfrentamioento en el cerro de fortin, y se dice que murio un profesor y un plomero que estab en el auditorio gueaguetza arreglando quien sabe que
pero eso es lo que se dice
tu sabes que por parte del moviemiento antigubernamental, siempre van a exagerar las cosa tambien yo no dudo que los policias sean unos perros hijos de puta
Yo: si recuerdo despues del 25 de noviembre
todos hablaban de los muertos y la sangre sobre la escalera de santo domingo
josemaria: pero eso ya fue y yo n se que tan cierto fue
ademas hace 15 dias cuando se hizo la guelaguetza popular, las delegaciones que iban a baiar, fueron al cerro del fortin,y no fueron por que quisieran el espcio para hacer la guelaguetza, fueron por que querian retar al gobierno
Yo: imagino
hablaste con b sobre el tema? el y m participaron en las marchas pero decidieron que fue todo un achingada me dijo b que volvio muy cabronado cuando entendio que los de la appo tambien fueron iguales que los priistas
josemaria: exacto
siempre es asi
yo estoy de acuedo en la libertad, pero no estoy de acuerdo en a estupidez de seguir a alguien mas ciegamente
todo es politica

Well, that's why I appreciate a voice like yours, ana. We're very far away from you here, as close as we live, in reality. So many news filters and agendas come between us. I very much value you giving any input here, or even emailing me with anything. Interpretation, correction, input. And as always I read your blog.

But realize, please. That even the people uniting for what they believe in; in the streets, with each other—even if it is not as simple and idealized as I or others might paint it, it is still revolutionary and inspiring compared to what goes on here.

oh yes, compared to canada where i am now, things are increadibly energizing and uplifting.

es que los pinches gringos ... pues no hay nada decir.

i will come back to read your husband's convo. i am not very expert at mi español, so it's slower going for me than english. i thank you for putting it down.

and i'm trying to keep track of you. i know you went to canada because i read the whole hairy episode at customs. grrrrr. so you are still there. and tu esposo is in oaxaca. okay! got it. :)

i hear you on los pinches gringos...not to unnecessarily slam canada. but i read a lot about the attitudes re mexico there.

y sí - Oaxaca is energizing! and i focus on that because i need it. half the time i feel i live in a land of cardboard spirit. a TV society.

jaja. the blog doesn´t even skim the surface to explain my life, as i´m sure you understand.

yes.

A pinche gringa myself, I have been to protests in the US and Mexico. There is something different about each. This is going to sound really strange, but in the US I feel like the power in numbers thing really works, and in Mexico the very few in charge turn a blind eye and nothing changes. There are protests in the city where I live every week, yet nothing ever comes of them. There is a strong "do-it-yourself" protest ethic here, but for not much good. People take time off of their crappy jobs to protest or build plantones, but to no result but a lost job and less food on the table for their families.
However, I'll draw your attention to a protest I was involved at in my state of Michigan at a Secretary of State's office (DMV). We were fighting to keep the right for all immigrants to obtain legal drivers licenses (it IS still legal in Michigan, though now people without soc sec numbers have to sign a paper stating they don't have a number and who knows what happens to that list of folks). We went to the Secretary of State's house and DMV offices in two cities, including the state capital. We were people from all walks of life - black, white and latino - documented and undocumented. We were keeping our concerns in the ears and eyes of those who had choices, and it worked. In Michigan undocumented immigrants can still drive legally. I actually cried at the event. An anglo white person asked me why I was there and I couldn't answer, I just started to cry.

I have been to plantones here in Mexico, sometimes overnight. Plantones that have been here for years, and some just weeks. Nothing happens.
Nezua, you like to talk about the revolutionary atmosphere in Mexico... it's true, the Zapatista movement is exciting to an extent, there are other groups fighting, there is an air of people wanting change, but there's that same air in the US if you are in the right community.

It's easy to romanticize plights and give them more credit than they warrant.

(I have a photo of my not yet one year old son meeting his tocallo Marcos last month... it's a thing of beauty.)

well, i romanticize just about everything, so let's be fair! :) and i certainly disagree that i am giving the people of Mexico's plight "more credit than warranted," or the zapatistas, or hutto, or any of the other issues i write about. i give them the credit they deserve. especially when you consider i am framing them, often, in terms of historical terms (or i do my best by what i know, going by the books i have and what i read online, and yes true they are intermediary sources), not just "today's events" and not just dryly comparing them against our own protests...i have to say i love your story about michigan, it is inspiring. but that phrase about what plights deserve credit...it really is a bit condescending, and frankly, offensive. after all, its so relative, and subjective, and who is the judge of that, anyway? of what is warranted, how much "credit" given to a "plight?"

not enough changes in mexico for those who need them, and not enough here, as far as i am concerned. i, too, believe in power of numbers. but if it does, indeed, work, then we need more of it here. because look at the mess we are in in so many areas. why did we not mobilize enough against the iraq war? or for Katrina's people? or the town they lived/live in? why are people still using cell phones when we all know they are tapped? why are so many poor going hungry here? we have the numbers to end those things...if ending them matters to us. i guess it's the acceptance of so much here that begins to get under my skin. but you are right, mexico is not ideal. i would submit that my romanticizing it has less to do with its superiority over our organizing or protest efforts, and more to do with me aligning myself with my roots. but you probably know that.

i'll have to wait until i'm in mexico to have more experience there, like you, so i can give my point of view from firsthand living. it may be like yours, it may not. but like you, i do think we have to keep hope, and put our voices and our hearts out there.

and it does my heart good to heart your stories. thank you.