Mexico has a wide variety of religious denominations, comprising catholic and various protestant groups, and many other non-Christian organizations, many of them practicing their religion. Nevertheless, religious discourse is legally exempt from the pubic space. But it could now re-infuse the streets with its mythological mantle if the constitution’s 24th article is finally modified at the hands of the Senate, which is under pressure by the president himself. A lower house of congress has avidly conspired in favour of renegotiating religious liberties – and certainly powers - for all belief-based institutions, as well. This could potentially open the door for religious institutions to be able to possess and utilize media outlets. They will also be empowered to peddle their mostly anachronic world-views in public schools, thus exposing children with an already low level of education to a vertical onslaught of values from which there is no rational escape.
President Felipe Calderon is supporting the change as a logical move - purportedly of reinvesting his position with some kind of legitimate authority - as he is faced with a debacle of public perception, due to the prolonged drug war that has taken its toll on Mexican society. His need of authority is more critical than ever, as the armed forces seize terrain by the day, in every sense. But instead of working to transform the country into an educated and rational law abiding society, the government has unleashed a de facto struggle for power, on one hand, and for hearts and minds, on the other.
But, besides legitimizing religious discourse and seeking authority, what the state is trying to do is to establish some sense of a functioning community. This because Mexico’s national identity has not crystallized hitherto, partly because of its uncompetitive public education and extreme economic and cultural inequalities. It has not cemented because the community itself that functions as the base for national identity is ripped apart, due to these harsh social divisions.
It all dates back to post independence Mexico, where political and postcolonial discourse was claiming that the emerging ‘mestizo’ make-up of the population would be the main ingredient for the country’s lurch towards modernity. But in practice this never happened, as various elites with different ethnic backgrounds took control of the destiny of millions of mestizos and other indigenous populations. The church would gradually exit from the arena of political power, but it never lost its appeal, as it remained very plausibly as the only unifying force underlying a struggling state. Moreover, modern public education was never meant to ‘fully educate’, as elites knew that a real democracy could curtail their power over those same people they represented. The 20th century saw the emergence and consolidation of an industrial and semi-modern society, with an emerging middle-class, but it nevertheless was a smokescreen for an ailing sense of community. Not everyone mobilized. And whilst grudges and grievances were kept asunder (by a manipulated media), ultimately the chasm between groups grew alarmingly wider.
Today the information age has effectively exposed enormous webs of corruption and cronyism everywhere. But it has also opened up alternate channels of communication and power. Neo-liberalism has been revealed as an unjust economic system as a failed project, and the people are now rebelling. In this sense,the all- out war versus evil drug dealers is just a palliative for a very complex social situation. This may not look like an insurgency or revolution, but illegitimate social mobility is the order of the day.
I reckon that the calculus of pulling Mexico back to a state of mythological resonance could coincide with the covert idea of building up a sense of community, regardless of the gigantic step backwards in terms of the feasibility of becoming a rational and law abiding society. Juarez would be appalled.
Juan Carlos Guerra lives in Monterrey, Nuevo León. He holds a degree in International Relations and has a Master in Sociology from the University of Essex. His research interests hinge around social themes like religion, politics, and social change. Recently he published El asceta moderno (The Modern Ascetic), which deals with the current ecological crisis and peaceful alternatives to tackle it. Juan Carlos also has a radio show in which he discusses global issues, 'Global-es' at Radio UDEM in Monterrey.
