GACETA YALE-MÉXICO PUBLICACIÓN DE LA COMUNIDAD DE ALUMNOS Y EX ALUMNOS MEXICANOS DE YALE
Otoño de 2008 – Volumen 3, Número 2
CONTENIDO EDITORIAL
3
MÉXICO EN YALE
3
YALE EN MÉXICO
5
ARTÍCULOS
8
Efrén Olivares: Implementing the ProCeDe
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Ruth Ditlmann y Paul Lagunes: Elm City Resident Card Experiment: An Executive Report
13
Catherine Cheney: Immigration’s Two-Sided Border
15
Pablo Landa Ruiloba: What I Learned at Work
16
Salvador Joel Núñez Gastélum: Jaguar
19
Autores varios: México a cien años de la revolución: Un breve recuento
24
Lucía Mijares: Altar de día de muertos en Yale
25
Si desea suscribirse o cancelar su suscripción a esta gaceta, recibirla en una cuenta de correo electrónico diferente, o enviar sugerencias o comentarios, diríjase a
[email protected]. Las opiniones expresadas en esta gaceta son responsabilidad de sus autores y no representan las de ninguna institución. El editor de esta gaceta es Pablo Landa Ruiloba.
Gaceta Yale-México, otoño de 2008
EDITORIAL Este quinto número de la Gaceta Yale-México incluye dos artículos de corte académico, un artículo de opinión, una reflexión sobre la vida académica y el trabajo profesional, un cuento y dos reseñas sobre eventos realizados por estudiantes mexicanos de Yale en fechas recientes. Una vez más, la diversidad de textos recibidos para su publicación es evidencia de la diversidad de la comunidad de alumnos y ex alumnos mexicanos de Yale. Si bien hace unos años la gran mayoría de los mexicanos en Yale cursaban programas de economía y administación, hoy hay mexicanos en buena parte de las escuelas y especialidades de la universidad. El primero de los artículos académicos, de Efrén Olivares, es un capítulo de uno más extenso, en el cual el autor analiza la historia de la reforma agraria en México con relación a los derechos indígenas. En el fragmento seleccionado, Olivares describe la implementación del ProCeDe (Programa de Certificación de Derechos Ejidales y Titulación de Solares Urbanos) en poblaciones indígenas entre 1993 y 2006. El segundo artículo, escrito por Ruth Ditlmann y Paul Lagunes, es el resumen ejecutivo de un estudio sobre las credenciales de identificación que otorga el gobierno de New Haven a sus habitantes, sin importar su estatus migratorio. Este trabajo es parte de un proyecto más amplio de promoción de las credenciales, en el cual han estado involucrados muchos de los estudiantes mexicanos en Yale. El número anterior de esta Gaceta incluye una discusión más amplia de este proyecto. La editorial de Catherine Cheney, estudiante del Yale College, apareció en el Yale Daily News en agosto del año en curso. Cheney reflexiona sobre la complejidad de la migración entre México y Estados Unidos. Sus opiniones se derivan de su trabajo como becaria en un periódico de Los Ángeles, así como de un proyecto de investigación sobre microcréditos en comunidades rurales que realizó este verano en México. En la sección “Yale en México”, destacan las notas sobre la visita a México de João Aleixo, de la Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales de Yale, en la que habló a la prensa sobre los esfuerzos de la universidad para fortalecer sus vínculos con otras universidades y para atraer a más mexicanos. Como parte de estos esfuerzos, en marzo de 2009 se realizará una nueva edición de la Semana de Yale en México, la cual será organizada conjuntamente por la universidad y el Yale Club de México. Agradecemos a Adrián de la Garza, Gerado Giacomán y Sebastián Serra, quienes participaron en la selección de los artículos y ofrecieron sus observaciones a un borrador de este número de la Gaceta. Esta publicación es el resultado de nuestro trabajo en colaboración durante las últimas semanas. Esperamos sus comentarios, sugerencias y artículos, así como la distribución de esta publicación entre sus amigos y compañeros de Yale. Si no recibió esta Gaceta personalmente, envíe un correo a
[email protected] y lo agregaremos a nuestra base de datos. —El editor
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Gaceta Yale-México, otoño de 2008
MÉXICO EN YALE MAYO - Al concluir el año escolar 2007-2008 el Yale Mexican Student Organization (YMSO) eligió a su nueva mesa directiva, la cual quedo conformada de la sigiuiente manera: Yale College: Sebastián Serra, presidente, Sofía Ortiz, vicepresidenta y Arturo Zindel, tesorero.
15. Por primera vez desde su fundación, YMSO
Postgrados y escuelas profesionales: Juan Rebolledo, presidente, Roger Torres, secretario, Jorge Hinojosa, relaciones públicas y Adrián de la Garza, tesorero.
organizó la ceremonia del Grito de la Independencia junto con estudiantes de otros países que celebran su independencia en la misma fecha, entre los cuales se encuentran Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua y Costa Rica. La celebración se llevó a cabo en Old Campus.
- Dos estudiantes del Colegio de México fueron
elegidos como Fox Fellows para el ciclo escolar 2008-2009, durante el cual realizarán proyectos de investigación en Yale. José Moreno Chávez, estudiará la devoción católica en la ciudad de México entre 1880 y 1925, y Lizbeth Leyva Marín, estudiará la competencia entre China y México por el mercado de los Estados Unidos (FOX).
20. Por tercer año consecutivo, YMSO celebró la independencia de México con una fiesta en el bar Anna Liffey’s de New Haven. El evento, coordinado por Juan Rebolledo y Adrián de la Garza, fue un gran éxito.
29. El Yale University Press publicó el libro, War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.Mexican War, escrito por Brian DeLay, profesor asistente de historia en la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder (YUP).
AGOSTO 18. El Yale University Press publicó el libro, Fugitive Landscapes: The Forgotten History of the U.S.Mexico Borderlands, escrito por Samuel Truett profesor asociado de historia en la Universidad de Nuevo México (YUP).
OCTUBRE 7. Miembros del Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), capítulo Yale, y otros estudiantes de Yale realizaron una manifestación en el New Haven Green para protestar contra la “retórica racista” de quienes se oponen a las credenciales de identidad que otorga la ciudad a sus habitantes, sin importar su situación migratoria (CASA).
25. El Yale University Press publicó el libro, Seeing Mexico Photographed: The Work of Horne, Casasola, Modotti, and Álvarez Bravo, obra de Leonard Folgarait, professor de historia del arte de la Universidad de Vanderbilt en Nashville (YUP).
SEPTIEMBRE
23. El periodista Ted Conover impartió una
8. El Yale University Press publicó el libro Border-
plática en Branford College. Conover es autor del libro, Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders with America’s Illegal Migrants, en el cual narra sus experiencias entre inmigrantes mexicanos que regresan a México de los Estados Unidos. Durante su presentación, el periodista leyó selecciones de este libro (YDN).
town: The Odyssey of an American Place, con fotografías de Jeffrey Gusky de la frontera entre México y los Estados Unidos, principalmente del pueblo Roma, Texas, y con textos de Benjamin Heber Johnson, profesor de historia de la Southern Methodist University (YUP). 3
Gaceta Yale-México, otoño de 2008
la realizó en México, curada por el museo de arte de Princeton (YUP).
NOVIEMBRE 2. YMSO, con el apoyo del departamento de Ethnicity Race and Migration de la Universidad y el Latin American Student Organization (LASO) instaló un altar de muertos en Beineke Plaza. En la sección final de esta Gaceta se incluyen fotografías del altar y una reseña más amplia.
13. Se llevó a cabo la conferencia Mexico: 100 Years After the Revolution, en la que participaron como ponentes los profesores Javier Garciadiego del Colegio de México, Fernando PérezCorrea de la UNAM, Pablo Piccato de Columbia University y Noel Maurer de Harvard University. El evento fue organizado por YMSO, con Juán Rebolledo, del departamento de ciencias políticas, a la cabeza. Más adelante en este número de la Gaceta aparece una breve reseña del evento.
23. Betita Martínez, activista chicana y autora del libro 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures dio una charla en Ezra Stiles College, tras la cual sostuvo una conversación con estudiantes (CASA).
24. Daniela Spenser, del Centro de Investiga-
ciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) de la ciudad de México, presentó la plática, “Vicente Lombardo Toledano, a Combatant in the Labor Cold War”, como parte de la serie de ponencias organizadas por el Council of Latin American and Iberian Studies para el otoño de 2008 (CLAIS).
FUENTES: CASA: La Casa Cultural: http://www.yale.edu/lacasa/ CLAIS: Council for Latin American and Iberian Studies: www.yale.edu/macmillan/lais FOX: The Fox International Fellowships: http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/fif/
- El Yale University Press publicó el libro Félix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist, con textos de Maria E. Moreyra Garlock and David P. Billington, profesores de diseño estructural en Princeton. El libro es el catálogo de una exposición sobre la obra del arquitecto e ingeniero Félix Candela, la mayor parte de la cual
YDN. Yale Daily News: www.yaledailynews.com YUP: Yale University Press: www.yale.edu/yup
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Gaceta Yale-México, otoño de 2008
YALE EN MÉXICO
siente agobiada por la vida ha encontrado consuelo en una oración corta que empieza así: “Dios concédeme la serenidad para aceptar las cosas que no puedo cambiar”.
MAYO
Ahora la “Oración de la Serenidad” está a punto de sufrir una controversia sobre su autoría que es probable que sea todo menos serena.
27. “Yale lo honra”, Reforma.
Durante más de 70 años, se pensó que el autor de la oración era el teólogo protestante estadounidense Reinhold Niebuhr, una de las figuras más destacadas del cristianismo moderno… Ahora, Fred R. Shapiro, conferencista y director asociado de la biblioteca de la Facultad de Leyes de la Universidad de Yale, usando nuevas bases de datos de documentos archivados, ha encontrado recortes de periódicos y un libro que datan de hasta 1936 que citan versiones muy parecidas a la oración… Un artículo sobre el misterio de la oración, escrito por Shapiro, será publicado la próxima semana en el Yale Alumni Magazine. Al artículo le seguirá una refutación de Sifton.
La Universidad de Yale le otorgó ayer al ex Beatle el grado honorario de Doctor en Música. Según la Universidad, el artista, de 65 años, despertó a toda una generación al imprimirle un sonido fresco al rock y al R&B.
JUNIO 31. “Subsidios agudizan crisis de alimentos”, El Universal.
Ernesto Zedillo, ex presidente de México, consideró que los subsidios aprobados por Estados Unidos a la industria agropecuaria son un error, porque propiciarán mayores precios en los alimentos básicos e impiden la continuidad del proceso de globalización.
SEPTIEMBRE 1. “Con un clic entra a ‘clases’ en Yale”, El
En su participación en el Foro Mundial de Negocios Expomanagement 2008, Zedillo consideró que el hecho de que países desarrollados destinen subsidios al sector agropecuario, evitan que continúe el proceso de globalización y por ende, se detenga el encarecimiento de los alimentos.
Norte. Sentado sobre el escritorio con las piernas cruzadas, dejando ver sus Converse azules, Shelley Kagan comenzó su clase de filosofía sobre la muerte en la Universidad de Yale. Pero después de ofrecer su cátedra sobre la naturaleza de la muerte, lo que sucede cuando se muere y si los humanos tienen alma, no sólo sus estudiantes lo escucharon en ese momento, pues desde el 2007 cualquiera en el mundo que haga clic en la página de la institución puede “sentarse” en el salón de Kagan.
Zedillo, quien ahora labora como docente y director del Centro de Estudios para la Globalización de la Universidad de Yale, en EU, afirmó también que las presiones inflacionarias harán que la tarea de crecimiento económico sea más difícil para la región de América Latina. Las tasas de interés no bajarán, por el contrario, mostrarán tendencias alcistas debido a las presiones inflacionarias de la economía.
Esto es gracias al proyecto Open Yale Courses con el que la universidad, con acentuación en las artes liberales, desea llegar a todos los rincones del planeta donde exista una computadora y un profesor, un estudiante o una persona que desee conocer más… “Queremos darle especial énfasis a lo que llamamos Open Yale Courses, una serie de clases de nivel profesional que son enseñadas por maestros distinguidos de la universidad”, explicó João C. Aleixo, secretario asistente de la Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales de Yale.
JULIO 13. “Enfrenta oración polémica en EU”, El Norte. Generaciones de alcohólicos en recuperación, soldados, padres cansados, trabajadores explotados y prácticamente cualquier persona que se
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“Éstos son cursos de un semestre regular del principio al final. El curso entero es grabado, filmado y subido a internet con audio, transcripciones, la agenda de la clase y la tarea. Todo está en el sitio de Yale”.
asesores a Luis Madrazo Lajous, en sustitución de Manuel Lobato Osorio, quien ahora se desempeñará como nuevo Titular de la Unidad de Seguros, Pensiones y Seguridad Social. Madrazo se desempeñó hasta ayer como Director General Adjunto de Pensiones y Seguridad Social en la propia Secretaría de Hacienda.
6. “Más receptivas al llanto de bebés madres de parto natural”. El Universal.
Es licenciado en Economía por el Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) y Doctor en la misma disciplina por la Universidad de Yale, informó la Secretaría de Hacienda en un comunicado.
Las madres que dan a luz mediante un parto natural son significativamente más receptivas a los llantos de su bebé que las que se someten a una cesárea, según un estudio realizado por la Universidad estadounidense de Yale. Así lo sugieren las resonancias magnéticas del cerebro hechas a las madres entre dos y cuatro semanas después del parto por los científicos del "Child Study Centre" (centro de estudios infantiles) de Yale.
OCTUBRE 7. “Encabeza Zedillo reformas al BM”, Reforma. El presidente del Banco Mundial (BM), Robert Zoellick, anunció el nombramiento del ex Presidente mexicano Ernesto Zedillo como jefe de una comisión para modernizar la gestión de la institución.
9. “Entregan premios en nanociencias, astrofísica e investigación cerebral”, Milenio.
“El Banco Mundial también necesita reformas”, dijo al informar el nombramiento.
Siete científicos de Europa, América del Norte y Japón recibieron hoy el nuevo premio Kavli creado en Noruega por sus trabajos en astrofísica, nanociencias e investigación cerebral… El premio para la investigación cerebral fue para Pasko Rakic, de Estados Unidos, nacido en la ex Yugoslavia, Thomas Jessell, de Estados Unidos, y el sueco Sten Grillner. Juntos, los tres investigadores descifraron los mecanismos básicos del desarrollo y función de las redes celulares en el cerebro y en la médula espinal, indicó el jurado.
Zedillo, de 56 años de edad, preside en la actualidad el Centro de Estudios sobre la Mundialización de la universidad estadounidense de Yale y sería el encargado de realizar la reforma que desde hace varios años se pide en el organismo internacional, fundado en 1944. Ante analistas financieros, y a unos días de la tradicional asamblea anual del BM y el Fondo Monetario Internacional, propuso también reformar al G7, que reúne a las siete economías más industrializadas del orbe, para incluir también a los países emergentes más importantes, entre los que se contarían México y Brasil.
Rakic, de la Universidad de Yale, mostró cómo en el cerebro embrionario las células nerviosas se ordenan incluso en el circuito complejo de la corteza cerebral. Jessell, de la Universidad de Columbia, había descifrado las señales químicas que producen las distintas variedades de células cerebrales. Grillner, del Instituto Karolinska, mostró como las redes nerviosas de la médula espinal generan órdenes de movimiento para, por ejemplo, la locomoción.
9. “Ineficaz rescate financiero de EU: Michael Reisman”, Milenio.
Expansión.
Tras participar en los diálogos sobre la justicia internacional, Michael Reisman, catedrático de la Universidad de Yale, consideró que el rescate financiero de los Estados Unidos es una medida “ineficaz”.
El secretario de Hacienda, Agustín Carstens, nombró ayer como su nuevo coordinador de
Al tocar el tema de la inversión extranjera ante estudiantes, docentes y jueces, agregó que la
23. “Nuevo jefe de asesores en SHCP”, CNN-
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Gaceta Yale-México, otoño de 2008
crisis financiera que se vive a nivel mundial puede ser una proletarización global.
18. “Yale buscará talentos en universidades
“En cada país hay una demanda cada vez más intensiva al desarrollo, en el mejoramiento de las oportunidades de la vida”, opinó.
La Universidad de Yale de Estados Unidos inició un proceso en busca de jóvenes con talento en México, preferentemente en escuelas públicas, a fin de llevarlos a estudiar licenciaturas.
públicas de México”, La Jornada.
“Creo que es un esfuerzo, tal vez, inefectivo de la gestión, para remediar un problema, es verdad que hay gente que piensa que lo que ocurre en el mercado es algo natural”, mencionó.
Como parte de su gira por México, João Aleixo, secretario adjunto de la Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales de esa institución, ofreció una breve rueda de prensa para explicar el programa.
14. “Reconocen estudios sobre la globali-
Aseguró que, para Yale, México es una nación estratégica, pues se trata del país de origen de la mayoría de estudiantes extranjeros de esa universidad, ya que actualmente hay 32 mexicanos ahí, de los cuales 11 estudian licenciaturas y el resto especialidades.
zación”, Reforma.
El estadounidense Paul Krugman fue nombrado Premio Nobel de Economía por sus trabajos que ayudaron a esclarecer por qué el comercio es dominado por países que comercian productos parecidos.
João Aleixo señaló que muchos de esos estudiantes provienen de escuelas privadas, pero ahora Yale quiere encontrar a jóvenes mexicanos realmente brillantes que no se acercan porque carecen de recursos.
“Es profundamente gratificante. Hay tanta conmoción que realmente no sé qué pensar”, dijo el también profesor de economía de la Universidad de Princeton y columnista de The New York Times, luego de conocer la noticia… Estudios: Licenciado en Economía por la Universidad de Yale (1974). En 1977 obtiene el grado de doctor por el Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts (MIT).
“Nosotros buscamos muchachos con talento y no nos importa la situación financiera de sus padres”, ya que en este caso la universidad cubriría todos los gastos.
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however, there was no free and informed consent as a result of misinformation, outright deception and, most importantly, the government’s goal of certifying every ejido, which was necessary in order to fully achieve Program’s broader objectives.
ARTÍCULOS DERECHO
Implementing the ProCeDe
The first instance of misinformation surrounding the ProCeDe pertains to agricultural subsidies, specifically Procampo and Oportunidades. Procampo, the Program for Direct Assistance in Agriculture provides farmers with a cash subsidy for each hectare that they work.3 On average, each farmer receives just under $100 USD per hectare per year.4 Administered by the Ministry of Social Development, Oportunidades is designed to improve education, health and nutrition in poor rural communities.5 The government grants cash subsidies to poor female headsof-households in the amount of approximately $50 USD per month, depending on the number, age, and school year of their children. Although the ProCeDe was legally and administratively unrelated to Procampo and Oportunidades, these two subsidies were repeatedly conditioned on its adoption.6 Similarly, Agrarian Visitors7 often threatened ejidatarios who were already
(Selectio ns from the pape r, Agrarian Reform and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Mexico: Reaping What You Sow) Efrén Olivares
El Programa de Certifícación de Derechos Ejidales y Titulación de Solares Urbanos (ProCeDe) se implementó en el agro mexicano de 1993 a 2006. Se diseñó con el propósito de darle certeza jurídica a la tenencia de la tierra, pero su implementación enfrentó muchos y difíciles retos en la práctica. Uno de ellos fue el de adaptarse a los usos y costumbres de las comunidades indígenas, quienes han habitado estas tierras por siglos. Las metas del ProCeDe no siempre fueron las más idóneas para acoplarse a las formas de organización social indígena. A continuación ofrecemos un fragmento de un artículo sobre esta dinámica, el cual está disponible con el autor.
is a voluntary program”, Nov. 22, 2007; see also the PA’s official website, at: http://www.pa.gob.mx/ Procede/info_procede.htm#defini cion (last visited Feb. 24, 2008). 3 Ministry Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishing and Foods, SAGARPA, official website of Assistance and Services for Agricultural Commercialization, ASERCA, at: http://www.aserca.gob.mx/artm an/publish/article_183.asp (last visited Feb. 26, 2008). 4 Id. 5 Ministry of Social Development, Oportunidades, at: http://www.oportunidades.gob.mx/htmls/quienes_s omos.html (last visited Feb. 26, 2008). 6 See, e.g, Beitenmann, Helga, The Article 27 Reforms and the Promise of Local Democratization in Central Veracruz, in Wayne A. Cornelius & David Myhre, Introduction: Impetus for Reforming the Ejido Sector, in THE TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL MEXICO: REFORMING THE EJIDO S ECTOR 4-10 (Wayne A. Cornelius & David Myhre eds., University of California–San Diego 1998)., at 117; Guillermo Zepeda, TRANSFORMACIÓN AGRARIA:
The 1992 Agrarian Act designed the ProCeDe (Program for the Certification of Ejido Rights and Titling of Urban Lots) as a completely free and voluntary program.1 Ejidos had the choice of opting-in to the program only pursuant to Ejido Assembly authorization. Looking solely at the letter of the law, there was no risk of trampling on indigenous peoples’ rights.2 In practice, 1
Ley Agraria [Agrarian Act], Art. 56, Diario Oficial de la Federación [D.O.], 26 de Febrero de 1992 (Mex.), at Art. 56; Reglamento de la Ley Agraria en material de certificación de derechos ejidales y titulación de solares [Regulations for the Certification of Ejido Rights and the Titling of Lots under the Agrarian Law], Preamble, Diario Oficial de la Federación [D.O.], 6 de enero de 1993 (Mex.). 2 In an interview, Eng. Rufino Alfredo Rosales Suárez, Undersecretary of the Agrarian Bureau in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, emphasized that with the Program “[you] do not injure any interests whatsoever, because it
LOS DERECHOS DE PROPIEDAD EN EL CAMPO MEXICANO BAJO EL NUEVO MARCO CONSTITUCIONAL 60-89 (Grupo
Editorial Porrúa 2000), at 154. 7 “Visitadores Agrarios,” or Agrarian Visitors, are the representatives of the PA that first visit the ejidos and introduce the ProCeDe.
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receiving the subsidies with terminating them unless they adopted the ProCeDe.8
tions were that the ejido had to adopt every phase of the ProCeDe, including designation of individual parcels (i.e., that the ejido could not choose partial implementation),12 and that their previous ejido documentation would not be valid if they declined to adopt the ProCeDe.13 As would be expected, PA authorities deny these allegations, insisting that the Program is completely voluntary.14 However, a publication by an Agrarian Visitor himself is impressively candid and revealing. He recounts the ways in which the PA “created awareness” in the communities about the benefits of the ProCeDe: by offering a free meal after an ejido’s informational Assembly, and, at the Acatepec ejido, “an evening of drinks [was] organized for the representatives, and the good looks of a part-time female agrarian visitor” achieved the regularization of the ejido’s 74,000 hectares.15 Agrarian Visitors were not merely “creating awareness” in the ejidos; they were out to convince ejidatarios to adopt the Program, contravening the law’s provisions that ejidos had the freedom to decline it, and disregarding the particular circumstances of indigenous communities.
The most alarming evidence of deception regarding these agricultural subsidies arose during the interview with Juan Hernández Domínguez.9 As the Municipal Secretary, he acts as a sort of Vice Mayor of San Juan Cancuc, a tseltal community in the Highlands of Chiapas. When asked about what had been the benefits of the ProCeDe, he candidly responded that A: All the assistance we request from the different levels of federal and state government, it’s requested based on that, it’s a prerequisite. Q: What is? A: They ask for the proof, the Certificate of Agrarian Right [sic]. Those who did not enter into it are regretting it now… Q: The Program is a prerequisite to receive government programs? A: That’s right.”
This reflects the pervasiveness and seriousness of the misinformation and deception surrounding the ProCeDe. Mr. Hernández was speaking as a government official, but he is also as a member of a tseltal community. He was a victim of deception and an agent of misinformation.
Moreover, the PA awarded bonuses to Agrarian Visitors based on the number of hectares they Solares Urbanos (ProCeDe): una experienia, 4 ESTUDIOS AGRARIOS 143 (1996) (Mex.); Francisco Hugo Santiago Ramírez, Apuntes y testimonios sobre la operación del ProCeDe, in, 33 ESTUDIOS AGRARIOS 37 (2006) (Mex.); Moisés Flores Hernández, Veinte mil leguas de viaje de un visitador agrario, 34 ESTUDIOS AGRARIOS 81 (2007) (Mex.). 12 Impact of the ProCeDe, at 19; La Política Agraria y los Derechos Indígenas en Chiapas, México, report presented before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at its 126th Session, Centro de Derechos Indígenas, A.C., et al., October 2006, at 29 [hereinafter Agrarian Policy and Indigenous Rights], at 23. 13 Impact of the ProCeDe, at 48. 14 Interview with Eng. Rufino Alfredo Rosales Suárez, Undersecretary of the Agrarian Bureau in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Nov. 22, 2007. 15 Santiago Ramírez, supra note 11, at 69 (“regularization in the Acatepec community was achieved in an evening of drinks organized by the director from Tlapa for the representatives, and the beauty of a part time female [agrarian] visitor achieved the acceptance of regularization for that agrarian entity, 74,000 hectares that are not inconsiderable at all, right?” He also mentions that Agrarian Visitors often worked without mentioning the ProCeDe by name, as that would automatically generate hesitation, at 58.
There is evidence to support the position that Agrarian Visitors also manipulated information.10 Agrarian Visitors were the ProCeDe’s human face; they initially explained the Program to the ejidatarios and promoted it before the Ejido Assembly.11 Among their misrepresenta8
Miguel Ángel García Aguirre et al., El Impacto del Programa de Certificación de Derechos Ejidales y Titulación de Solares (PROCEDE) sobre los Recursos Naturales, la Vida Comunitaria y el Tejido Social de Comunidades Indígenas Tseltales en la Región Selva Norte de Chiapas 16 (FORO para el Desarrollo Sustentable, A.C. & Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, A.C. 2006) (Mex.) [hereinafter Impact of the PROCEDE][on file with author], at 45, 49. 9 Interview with Juan Hernández Domínguez, Municipal Secretary of San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas, Nov. 23, 2007. 10 While there are numerous accounts and anecdotes of Agrarian Visitors lying and misrepresenting what the ProCeDe is or requires, the following is a compilation of instances that have been documented. 11 See Eduardo Alviso Rentería et al., El Programa de Certificación de Derecho Ejidales y Titulación de
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certified, and it also set yearly goals in terms of hectares to be certified.16 In 2005, for instance, the national goal was 8,000,000 hectares, with 1,000,000 of them coming from Chiapas alone.17 If the Program was voluntary and the ejidos could freely choose not to adopt it, why were there bonuses? Why set yearly hectare goals, if it was an optional program? The answers to these questions go to the core of the reality of the ProCeDe. The agrarian authorities had an agenda: to certify every hectare of every ejido. The Program was optional on paper, but in practice it was forced onto many ejidos and communities.18
Agrarian Act fails to take this local custom into account. To make matters worse, if the quorum was not met at the first Assembly, a second one required only 50% plus one—and still a twothirds majority to pass a resolution—so that an ejido could legally approve the ProCeDe with the support of less than 35% of the ejidatarios. In some cases, “assent was given by an authentic absolute minority of ejidatarios—nonetheless legal.”21 This and other technical loopholes22 helped achieve the objective of certifying as many ejidos as possible. Although the PA never acknowledged this objective in so many words, the 2005 interview with the Secretary of Agrarian Reform provides insights into the Program’s ultimate objectives. Mr. Salazar described the World Bank-funded “Young Entrepreneurs” project, which provides financial assistance for the sons of ejidatarios to purchase the land from their parents.23 That program has two goals: to provide young, unemployed, landless peasants with land that they can work, while at the same time generating retirement funds for older ejidatarios who cannot work the land anymore. The project seeks to address the lack of mobility and low productivity of many ejido lands. Young Entrepreneurs, however, presupposes that the ejido lands can be sold in the first place. Currently, even after certification, ejido lands remain inalienable. The next step after certification, Dominio Pleno (“Plenary Dominion” or fee-simple), would be necessary
The Agrarian Act has some loopholes that facilitated certification in places where the ProCeDe encountered resistance. Article 26 required a quorum of 75% plus one ejidatario in the Information and Assent Assembly, which is where the ejido initially decides whether to adopt the ProCeDe. Of that 75%, a two-thirds majority was necessary to approve any resolution.19 Two thirds of 75% is 50%. With the support of only half the ejidatarios, the ProCeDe could be adopted. One would think that the ejidatarios who opposed the ProCeDe would certainly be at the Assembly to voice their disagreement. However, in many indigenous communities, it is common practice not to attend an Assembly if one disagrees with the topic being discussed, as a way of rejecting the resolution(s) adopted.20 The 16
Santiago Ramírez, Francisco Hugo Santiago Ramírez, Apuntes y testimonios sobre la operación del ProCeDe, in, 33 ESTUDIOS AGRARIOS 37 (2006) (Mex.), at 57. Miguel Ángel García Aguirre noted that the PA also fired some Agrarian Visitors for failing to meet minimum certification quotas. 17 Id., at 41, 56. 18 E.g., Hermann Bellinghausen, Priístas amagan a bases zaptistas que no aceptaron fondos del Procede, LA JORNADA (Mex.), Feb. 11, 2003, available at http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2003 /02/11/008n2pol.php?origen=politica.html (recounting violent threats by groups affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party against ejidos that refused to adopt the ProCeDe). 19 Ley Agraria, Art. 56, Diario Oficial de la Federación [D.O.], 26 de Febrero de 1992 (Mex.) [hereinafter Agrarian Act], at Art. 27. 20 GUILLERMO ZEPEDA, TRANSFORMACIÓN AGRARIA:
Cameras Myers, lawyer at the Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Nov. 23, 2007. 21 Alviso Rentería, supra note 11, at 145. 22 For example, the previous Feral Agrarian Reform Act required all the attendees to an Assembly to sign the Assembly’s Attendance Record (Acta de Asamblea). The new Agrarian Law, Art. 31, made this signing optional, so that now it is harder to prevent fraudulent Assembly records. Similarly, the new Agrarian Law makes inclusion of the spouse in the “List of Successors” (i.e., the ejidatario’s will) optional, so that now many women are left with nothing upon their husband’s death, for the men often choose to inherit their ejido rights to their eldest male son. See Art. 17; Interview with Mariel Cameras Myers. 23 The World Bank funded $100 million USD for this project. The Department of Agrarian Reform offers financing up to $25,000 USD, and an additional subsidy of $5,000 USD to each interested ejidatario for this purpose.
LOS DERECHOS DE PROPIEDAD EN EL CAMPO MEXICANO BAJO EL NUEVO MARCO CONSTITUCIONAL 60-89 (Grupo
Editorial Porrúa 2000), at 184; Interview with Mariel
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before this project can be implemented. Thus, the objective of the ProCeDe was indeed to provide legal certainty, but only as a necessary means to its ultimate goal, “incorporating land into the market.”24
water or firewood sites, now charge other community members to access them.26 An ejidatario explained that “now many neighbors can’t get firewood, because the mountains were also parceled; now they can’t go to the mountain, because someone owns it.”27 As a matter of law, this is not true.28 The certification did not change the existing property regime; it merely certified existing rights, but the issuing of individual certificates created the perception of individual land ownership.29 Individual land ownership, as described earlier, often comes in direct conflict with the indigenous communities’ traditions of holding and working the land collectively.30
Viewing the ProCeDe in light of these underlying government objectives, it is difficult to disaggregate agrarian policy on the books from agrarian policy as implemented on the ground. On the books, the Program was voluntary; on the ground, the Agrarian Visitors manipulated information to effectually coerce or deceive ejidatarios into adopting it. These would ordinarily be two distinct analytical problems, but given the underlying policy goals, the implementation had to take place the way it did, with bonuses and yearly goals, obtaining Assembly authorization by any means necessary. The problem goes beyond the bad implementation of a well-designed program: it is about a Program the ultimate objective of which (i.e., to give legal certainty to land ownership in order to make it alienable) created incentives for the implementation practices described above. The Young Entrepreneurs project is a perfect illustration of this phenomenon. The implementation had to strive to certify as many hectares as possible, the law’s assurances of voluntariness notwithstanding.
Some NGOs also contributed to this phenomenon. Their anti-ProCeDe campaign was misguided and too late: they opposed the Program “because it privatize[d] the land” at a time when most ejidos had already adopted it. Thinking that the ProCeDe would be harmful for the indigenous communities because it would individualize land ownership, their strategy was to “tell people ‘say No to the ProCeDe’ because it privatizes, instead of telling them that it did not privatize.”31 In this way, they contributed to the resulting “psychological privatization,” which now threatens the collective cohesion of many indigenous communities.32
For many, the ProCeDe damaged the social fabric of indigenous communities in irreparable ways. The Program’s emphasis on individual certification fractured the communities’ collective character. By granting individual parcel certificates with individual maps, the ProCeDe “psychologically privatized” the land.25 While before the community had only one certificate and one map for the entire ejido, now each ejidatario received his or her own individual one. Ejidatarios whose newly certified parcels are located in former areas of common use, such as
The government of Mexico has given formal legal recognition to the indigenous peoples of
26
Impact of the ProCeDe, at 55; interview with Miguel Ángel García Aguirre, Director of Maderas del Pueblo, A.C., Nov. 24, 2007. 27 Impact of the ProCeDe, at 55. 28 Art. 59 of the Agrarian Act prohibits the designation of tropical jungles and rainforests as parcels. 29 interview with Miguel Ángel García Aguirre. 30 Alfredo Ramírez Gómez, Las comunidades indígenas: entre la Ley Indígena y la Ley Agraria. Avances del PROCEDE en comunidades del Valle de Oaxaca 19962001, 18 ESTUDIOS AGRARIOS 147, 155 (2001) (Mex.)., at 155-56. 31 Interview with Itzel Silva Monroy. 32 Id.; see also Impact of the ProCeDe. Interestingly, of the ejidos analyzed in Impact of the ProCeDe, those where the majority of ejidatarios belonged to Protestant religions accepted the ProCeDe more easily than those that did not. The author hypothesizes that this “appears to be so due to the fact that said religion [sic] preaches and promotes individualism in all aspects of life.”
24
I lorencio Salazar Adame, Secretary of Agrarian Reform. Interview with Radio Formula’s “Fórmula Financiera” October 6, 2005, available at: http://www.teleformula.com.mx/audiovideo/video.asp?I dvideo =9829 (last visited January 16, 2008). 25 Interview with Itzel Silva Monroy, lawyer at the Center for Human Rights Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Nov. 23, 2007 (individual parcel holders charge other community members to access water or firewood if these are located within their newly certified parcel, although they have no legal right to do so).
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the country. Article 4 of the Mexican Constitution reads:
self-determination, because their lands are at stake. The right to self-determination need not imply territorial secession or total political autonomy.39 Self-determination’s fundamental tenet is the recognition of an agent’s moral and legal capability to freely decide its own existence and future.40 In the context of indigenous peoples, self-determination is manifested in the ability to decide, at least, the internal organization of their land and territory.41 If indigenous peoples are not allowed to decide by themselves what to do with their land, “[they] cannot ensure the collective future of [their] peoples.”42 In its failure to give legal recognition to indigenous uses and customs regarding the land, the agrarian regulations trampled upon the indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination.
The Mexican Nation has a multicultural composition originally based on its indigenous peoples. The law shall protect and promote the development of their tongues, cultures, uses, customs, resources and specific forms of social organization, and shall guarantee their members effective access to the State’s jurisdiction. In agrarian trials and proceedings, their legal practices and costumes shall be taken into account according to the terms prescribed by law.33
Despite these precepts, the ProCeDe failed to provide specific protections to indigenous peoples.34 In particular, it did not legally recognize local indigenous uses and customs. As we saw earlier, failure to recognize traditional ways of expressing disapproval of a communal policy (e.g., by not attending the Ejido Assembly) often resulted in the loss of land as the ejido adopted the ProCeDe without the consent—indeed, without the presence—of some of its members.35 Later, if the affected ejidatarios tried to challenge procedural irregularities in the Agrarian Tribunals, there was no one who could testify to having witnessed the irregularity, for they had not been present.36 Another recurrent irregularity was to convert the parcels of those ejidatarios who refused to join to ProCeDe, and who were not present at the Assembly, into areas of common use, thereby effectively dispossessing them of their lands.37 In various instances, locally known boundaries, often based on natural landmarks and passed on from generation to generation, were overridden by the Program’s satellite-based measuring technologies, in yet another rejection of traditional uses and costumes.38
Efrén Olivares egresó del Yale Law School en mayo de 2008. Actualmente trabaja como asociado en el área de arbitraje internacional del bufete Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP, en Houston.
39
De la Peña, Guillermo ¿Un concepto operativo de “lo indio”? (An operative concept of “Indian”?) in ESTADO DEL DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO Y SOCIAL DE LOS PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS DE MÉXICO , 1996-1997, Instituto Nacional
Indigenista, at 25, at 466. 40 FRANCISCO LÓPEZ BÁRCENAS, AUTONOMÍA Y DERECHOS INDÍGENAS EN MÉXICO 14-32 (Conaculta 2002), at 36. 41 The ejido of San Jerónimo, in the Sierra Norte of Chiapas, is a success story in this respect. The ejido adopted the ProCeDe up to Phase 1 (i.e., external delimitation), and it also adopted Internal Governance Rules. These rules establish, inter alia, that “lands for individual usufruct, according to uses and customs, shall not be sold, gifted, foreclosed, or mortgaged to third parties”, Impact of the Procede, at 46. 42 Filiberto Díaz Gómez, Pueblo, territorio y libre determinación indígena, in EFECTOS DE LAS REFORMAS
These irregularities reflect one of the central points of this paper: the implementation of the ProCeDe implicated indigenous peoples’ right to 33
Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [Const.], as amended, Art. 27, Diario Oficial de la Federación [D.O.], 5 de Febrero de 1917 (Mex.), at Art. 4. 34 Language issues apparently did not present a problem; Agrarian Visitors brought interpreters and translators when necessary. 35 Agriarian Policy and Indigenous Rights, at 23. 36 Interview with Itzel Silva Monroy. 37 Id at Annex 2.1; interview with Miguel Angel García. 38 Id.
AL AGRO Y LOS DERECHOS DE LOS PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS EN MÉXICO 219, 223 (Universidad Autónoma
Metropolitana 1995), at 224.
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and immigration status, into New Haven’s civic life (O’Leary 2007). As New Haven’s Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. explains, “The card’s most important function [...] is to recognize all of the people who live in New Haven....” The other goal was linked to public safety. The immigrant community of New Haven is highly vulnerable to crime. As evidence of this, there are a number of reported house break-ins. Also, on October of 2006 Manuel Santiago, a 36-year-old Mexico native, was robbed and murdered after cashing a paycheck. From the City’s perspective, Mr. Santiago’s death and a number of other crimes directed against immigrants could have been prevented had he owned a bank account with direct-deposit. Thus the Mayor’s Office sought to create an ID that banks could accept as valid in the process of opening a checking account.
POLÍTICA
Elm City Resident Card Experiment: An Executive Report Ruth Ditlmann and Paul Lagunes
On June 6th of 2007 the New Haven Board of Aldermen approved the provision of the Elm City Resident Card with a nearly unanimous vote. The first of its kind in the nation, the Resident Card is a form of official municipal identification that is available to all residents of New Haven regardless of their age or immigration status. A year after its inception, the program’s impact is evident. More than 5,700 cards have been issued, the city of San Francisco has modeled their own municipal ID program on New Haven’s, and participants in a focus group which took place on February 24, 2008 recognized the Resident Card’s utility.
Of the two objectives described above, the present study honed in on the first, which has to do with the integration of marginalized residents in regular community life. After seven months of preparation, Ruth Ditlmann (Ph.D. Student — Yale University, Psychology Department) and Paul Lagunes (Ph.D. Student — Yale University, Political Science Department) ran a field experiment to test whether, compared to the alternative of a non-government issued ID, a municipal ID helps its owner partake in common day- today practices, such as making store purchases with personal checks. The study involved recruiting six adult males that were matched on a number of key characteristics, except for race. Three of them were Latino and the other three were White. The process of preparing each participant for the study took a total of nine days. Once they mastered the study’s script and methodology, the participants visited a total of 252 stores in four locations—Downtown New Haven, Milford Mall, Trumbull Mall and Meriden Mall, to be exact—with the intent of making $10.00 purchases of gift certificates while paying with a personal check.! If asked to present an ID, the experiment’s participants randomly presented their Municipal ID or a non-government issued ID (see Appendix for samples of each). The latter was a picture identification card issued for
Presenting the Elm City Resident Card
Two main goals drove City Hall’s move to create the Elm City Resident Card. One of those goals was to integrate all residents, regardless of age
Gift certificates were bought as a means to homogenize the items being purchased across all stores. !
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$40.00 by Ameracard Enterprises, which is stationed in Stamford, CT and has ten branch offices in New Haven.! Throughout the experiment both cards were presented an almost equal number of times. To be precise, the study’s participants presented the Elm City Resident Card 47 percent of the time and the Ameracard 53 percent of the time.!!
was asked for an ID 94 times and out of 107 trial purchases a White male was asked for an ID 80 times. In other words, Latino males were asked to present an ID 85 percent of the time, while White males were asked to present one 75 percent of the time. •
Second, overall, store cashiers accepted the Elm City Resident Card more often than the Ameracard as a valid form of identification. The Elm City Resident Card was accepted 73 percent of the time, while Ameracard, which was often confused with a state identification card, was accepted 64 percent of the time. Similarly, when observing the time of the cashier-customer interactions, the Ameracard caused longer interactions that did not end with the purchase of a gift certificate.
•
Third, the Elm City Resident Card and the Ameracard were accepted at an almost equal rate for Latinos. A Latino’s Ameracard was accepted 73 percent of the time, while his Elm City Resident Card was accepted 68 percent of the time.
•
Fourth, the Elm City Resident Card was accepted at a roughly equal rate in Downtown New Haven (75 percent of the time) and the surrounding shopping malls (73 percent of the time).
•
Fifth, based on a qualitative assessment, the Ameracard caused more complications for its holder than the Elm City Resident Card. Overall, participants were more often asked to explain the Ameracard than the Elm City Resident Card. Also, an automated check verifying company flagged one of the participant’s Ameracard as an invalid form of ID. From that point forward he was unable to make purchases with that card. Furthermore, the Ameracard caused enough suspicion that one cashier at Meriden Mall contacted security.
Presenting the Ameracard.
STUDY’S FINDINGS!!! •
First, Latino participants were asked for an ID more often than their White counterparts. Out of 111 trial purchases a Latino
To obtain an Ameracard one must not only pay the $40.00 fee, but also fill out a form, have a picture taken, and provide a copy of a national or international form of photo ID. The card is the same color as a state-ID and reads “CONNECTICUT” in large bold letters. The reverse has a magnetic strip and a statement that reads: “NOT AN OFFICIAL IDENTIFICATION CARD.” !! It is worth noting that our participants were closely monitored as a means to verify that they were performing as expected. A research assistant who was unknown to the participants secretly observed fifteen percent of the store interactions (that is, 37 out of the 252 store visits). !!! All findings presented in this report are statistically significant. !
CONCLUSION The value to our experiment is that it tests our main research question—that is, “To what extent does a municipal ID help its owner partake in common day-to-day practices”—in a real
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world environment. In fact, our study’s design mirrored an increasingly common practice. As a local newspaper article reports, a year after the program’s inception undocumented immigrants are trying to use their Elm City Resident Card to make purchases with personal checks at local Wal-Mart stores (Zapana 2008).
POLÍTICA
Immigration’s Two-Sided Border Catherine Cheney
We find that Latinos are in real need of an identification card. In 8 out of 10 store visits our Latino participants were asked for an ID in response to trying to make a small gift certificate purchase with a personal check. We also discover that the Elm City Resident Card receives greater acceptance than its existing alternative, the Ameracard.
Interning for a Los Angeles newspaper in the first six weeks of summer, I sought stories relevant to the communities I covered. Some of these articles inevitably related to immigration. Immigration is a complex issue, and I began my work at the newspaper with only a basic understanding of it. But reporting in Los Angeles and working in Latin America throughout the remainder of my summer gave me a stronger foundation for understanding the intricacies of the topic.
Now, though it is true that the Elm City Resident Card was accepted at an almost equal rate than the Ameracard for Latinos, it is still a preferable ID for this minority group. The reasons for this are that the Elm City Resident Card is thirty dollars cheaper, attracts less suspicion and can be used to open a bank account. Without this last feature, check writing itself would, more often than not, be impossible for a Latino male.
In Los Angeles, I spent time with immigrants from Central and South America who described the difficulty of crossing the southern border of Mexico, where all undocumented immigrants are considered criminals.
Thus, in sum, we conclude that the Elm City Resident Card, as a municipal identification card, has helped its owners partake in daily life.
At a church in south Los Angeles, I met several Guatemalan families who left their children behind to pursue what they thought would be a better life in the United States.
This report was prepared with information from the following sources:
In Mexico City, I met with Manuel Nungaray, the head of North American relations for the Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs.
DeStefano, John. “‘Elm City Resident Card’ Helps All Residents Access City Services and More in New Haven.” U.S. Mayor Newspaper, 2007.
“Immigration is a bilateral theme that should be solved with agreements and cooperation rather than a wall,” he said, referring to the fence construction along the southern border of the United States.
O'Leary, Mary E. “Residents can apply July 24 for Elm City ID.” New Haven Register, 2007: 1. Zapana, Victor. “1 year later, ID card a mixed bag.” New Haven Register, June 8, 2008 2008.
Nungaray, whose three brothers immigrated to the United States, said this physical barrier will not stop immigrants from crossing the border despite its huge cost to taxpayers and to diplomacy.
Ruth Ditlmann es estudiante en el programa de doctorado en psicología en Yale. Paul Lagunes es estudiante en el programa de doctorado en cuencias políticas en Yale.
Later, I drove to the California-Mexico border to see the completed project: two rows of steel fences and stadium lights extending across the border and into the ocean. As an intern with the World Council of Credit Unions development program, I gained more 15
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insight into what leads people to cross these borders. I gathered print, photo and video testimonies of people in rural communities of Veracruz and Puebla.
But he also said that loans and savings give him the security to make it through rough seasons so that he can remain in Mexico with his wife. I returned to the United States with 18 hours of footage, hundreds of pictures and three notebooks filled with quotes and observations.
Mexican credit unions use a model created by the World Council to bring small loans and savings education to isolated, low-income communities, creating possibilities for people who traditionally receive no financial support.
I still have much to learn about immigration, but I am at least equipped with a deep understanding of how complex it is, and convinced that true understanding can only come from seeing the other side of the story on the other side of the border.
I met a 22-year-old named Claudia Apala Pacheco who lives in San Andres Tenejapan, a small village in the state of Veracruz, with her 6year-old daughter. “My husband left Mexico when I was three months pregnant,” she said. “He said he would come back, but now he says he will not.”
Este artículo fue publicado en el Yale Daily News el 29 de agosto de 2008. Catherine Cheney es estudiante de tercer año en el Yale College. Es miembro de la mesa directiva del Yale Daily News y editora de la sección de video de este periódico.
Pacheco is one of many women in this region left behind by their husbands. Every week, a van pulls into the nearby town of Tequila, luring workers with the promise of better opportunities across the border. Men from the area pay coyotes — human smugglers — in hopes of safe passage to Alabama, where better-paying jobs await them.
REFLEXIÓN
Many men leave their families behind, promising to come back, although they often choose not to take the return trip. Some dutifully send money over the border to support their families while others stop sending money altogether, leaving their families to fend for themselves.
What I Learned at Work Pablo Landa Ruiloba
Pacheco and her daughter gave me a tour of their future home, which is now under construction. As the child traced her small fingers across the stucco walls and danced barefoot on the dirt floor, Pacheco said that the existence of this home is only possible now that she has access to credit and financial services.
I graduated from college in 2005 with a degree in anthropology. I moved to Mexico for a period of three years, before returning to the United States to pursue a PhD, also in anthropology. My interests are primarily academic, but I am also attracted to public policy. During my time in Mexico I worked in a consulting firm that specializes in education. Although this firm works for both public and private clients, I was only involved in projects for the government, and thus had the privilege of learning first-hand about the workings of politics and public education in my home country.
Filerion Garcia Ortiz, a coffee farmer in Texcochco, demonstrated how microfinance can encourage people to work through economic hardship rather than cross the border in pursuit of what they hear is a better life. Ortiz explained that moving to the United States, where his brother has improved his financial situation, is tempting when he is having a rough season at his farm.
My work in Mexico was interesting both as a taste of “the real world” (the way students and academics often refer to productive activities that lie beyond their scope) and as an extremely enriching learning experience. As I readjust to 16
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the “unreal” world of academia, I thought it would be convenient to recapitulate what I learned over the past years. In this article I have condensed my experiences into five broad (and very loosely related) lessons.!
change—but they were not excited to be bashed in public. While they would have probably been glad to change along the lines proposed by Fox, they were turned off when they became the victims of his rhetoric. By placing himself on the high ground of business-like efficiency and integrity, Fox alienated those who should have been his allies.
I believe these lessons will play an important role in my future academic pursuits. In a way, I decided to put them down on paper to make sure I keep them in mind. I am glad I got to work on projects that have direct and immediate implications on the ways in which people live their everyday lives. This encourages me to aspire to make my academic work relevant beyond journals and university seminars.
When I left my job some months ago, I had a long talk with my boss in which we discussed my experience in his firm. In the course of this conversation he gave me the following piece of advice: “You should not be afraid to engage in politicking. It is not undignified to do it when your aims are legitimate. That’s how the public sector works, and not doing it means impairing your capacity to get things done.” He was by no means being cynical.
1. Politicking is not a bad thing. This idea is “anthropological” in its inspiration: when working for and with public servants, it is essential to use their methods and speak their language. In short, it is important to build rapport with them. One time, on the occasion of a conference on upper secondary education in Mexico, a professor from a private university delivered a lecture in which he insisted that the public sector was bankrupt (without using these exact words, but the audience got the point). His opinions stemmed from the pro-business philosophy of his institution and, in many ways, he was right. In fact, the point of the conference was to identify deficiencies in public education. Yet he had expected that his well-studied opinions would make bureaucrats nod along. However much they might have agreed with him, his strategy failed, and many left the lecture hall to get some coffee or have a smoke.
2. Jargon and bibliographic references are dangerous weapons. I often had to present and discuss education policy documents with public school teachers. Work sessions sometimes turned into excruciating debates on the wording of a phrase or the use of a particular word. Debates were rarely centered on meaningful issues. More often, people looked for the references in the documents in question and asked why we had decided to “adopt” the position of a particular “school of thought” rather than another one. Many condemned anything that cited what they believed were “the wrong references,” without giving consideration to the actual arguments. Those who operated in this manner were often wellread intellectuals, and it was perhaps their preparation that led them to make such a superficial assessment of the documents we were discussing. It also gave them the authority to do so.
This insight is particularly relevant in Mexican politics. The case of former president Vicente Fox is illuminating. He was elected under a strongly reformist platform. Mexicans had longed for a straight-talking politician to come along. We could go as far as saying that even public servants were excited at the prospect of
Similarly, when the documents discussed did not have bibliographic references, this was immediately pointed out. Many of the teachers who participated in the discussions thought that ideas could not be valid without them, however clearly and directly they were articulated. In a way, the absence of references stripped our interlocutors from their formulaic powers. I realize this assessment of some of my discussions during my work as a consultant is harsh. I wonder, how-
I am particularly indebted for the “insights” in this article to Carlos Mancera, one of the principals of firm where I worked. I believe Mr. Mancera is the prototype of the “educated man” as he described him to me once, paraphrasing Aristotle, “The distinction of an educated man is the ability to evaluate an argument fairly without necessarily being a specialist in the field in question.” !
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ever, how often the same criticism applies to the dynamics of high-academics in which we engage in universities around the world. I hope I never loose sight of Kant’s famous demand, “Have courage to use your own reason!”
4. “Simple” and concise texts are often effective texts. Oftentimes, a good text is one that restates the obvious with clarity and purpose. This is, I suppose, what consultants are often hired to do. During my first months in my job I often tried to solve a complex issue in one sitting, and was dismayed when my lengthy documents ended up in a one-page summary that, to me, appeared to lack substance. Yet these one-page documents managed to convey essential ideas that would have been lost in a more elaborate presentation. While in my academic work I had often sought to tackle all possible answers to a question systematically, I soon discovered the almost-blissful feeling of producing one good question to move forward in a particular situation.
3. The traditional objects of education are as relevant today as ever. This idea is related to the previous one. Often, when discussing how to improve high school education in Mexico, people insisted on placing a stronger emphasis on skills such as the use of new technologies. While this is undoubtedly important, it makes no sense to privilege it over reading and writing skills, or over basic mathematical and scientific literacy. Rather, it can be expected that if students acquire more basic skills first, those that have been the traditional object of education, they will most likely have no trouble with computers later on.
Texts are written to communicate with others. The best texts are those that do this best: they have short sentences that express complete ideas, use ordinary terms and do so consistently, and do not deviate from their specific purpose, however menial this purpose might seem. Many successful academics do not do this. Many academics who have changed the way we live and think do not do this. I do not mean to say their work is meaningless. I mean to say that their work is confined to a readership of specialists. In my specific field, anthropology, I consider inaccessible texts to be somewhat unfair. Anthropologists write about people and their ordinary lives. It seems unacceptable to write about topics so immediate in an ethereal manner.
Another common position of my interlocutors during my work was that memorization had to be ruled out as a pedagogical strategy. This view is supported by constructivist theories of education with which I sympathize. Taken at face value, however, it fails to recognize that memory is one of the attributes of understanding, and that some legitimate learning objects, such as political geography and certain aspects of mathematics, benefit from rote memorization. The eradication of memorization in classrooms under the banner of reform could lead to the worst of all possible scenarios, where students neither acquire “unprocessed” information nor do they develop more complex thinking skills.
On the flipside of these ideas is the fact that Power Point presentations, the most popular medium in the consulting world, are often used to hide the gaps in an argument behind colorful graphics. Written texts with cogent sentences and paragraphs, however simple, are always more rigorous than presentations—writing forces you to work-through and articulate ideas better than anything else. In the beginning I was somewhat surprised that my boss chose to present our work to our clients by reading complete documents out-loud in meetings, while everybody followed them in printed-out copies. Yet this strategy allowed us to get our points across with remarkable effectiveness.
In a similar sense, in the many discussions with teachers in which I participated, when a particular reference was cited, it was sometimes discredited with the argument that “someone” had already contested it in a more recent study. Under this logic, we should only read what has been recently published, because the older stuff is doomed by its use of “obsolete” terms and ideas. This can lead people to not read even what is being discredited by the contemporary literature, and thus instill a tyranny of the present that assumes that intellectual history is a linear process where ideas are constantly and invariably being improved.
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5. Unfinished projects can be successful projects.
dark. Bruno tried to return to sleep. He tossed and turned on the muggy, sticky sheets until he tore the mosquito net off the right corner of the four-poster bed and felt the net slowly dangle down onto his face. Bruno grumbled his way out from the cotton mesh that now hung tilted from the remaining three posters and turned his lanky, broad-shouldered body sideways, pressing it against the left side of the bed. The small ulcer on his heel stung when he rested his legs sideways, one on top of the other. He closed his eyes, but he only rested—unable to sleep with the jungle’s buzzing, chirping, and croaking that wove itching static under his heavy eyelids.
A somewhat more conceptual corollary of the last point is that, in the process of carrying out a project with specific objectives, oftentimes these are not reached, and yet this does not mean that the work was useless. A well-articulated project brings benefits along the way; each of the “small” documents that are written to get closer to the expected goal can be meaningful and “productive” in itself if the project is organized into significant steps. On the other hand, if the project is very ambitious and requires that all of its components be carried out to produce change, it is likely to lead to a disappointment.
When he heard Darío stepping his way over to wake him, he wrapped his heel in gauze and quickly stood up to follow him out. They silently walked to meet Esteban in the darkness of the timid new dawn. The thick canopy diffused the first hints of early daylight and railed the water down from the hidden clouds above. Not only did he not take his insulin-shot, but he also did not eat breakfast, and his body quickly felt hollow, yellow, and heavy. It was a dangerous break from his highly regular diet. Bruno concentrated on firm steps, unwilling to let hypoglycemia get the best of the thirty-two-year-old body that had grown used to outrunning defenders on the soccer field—he walked quietly and obdurately. Occasionally Darío would share humorous anecdotes with him about Bruno’s father, Raúl. Bruno only nodded, listening instead to the rain that flowed through him. The soft echoes of dripping water relayed down his body in disordered pitter-patting beats. Drops plopped down from heavy canopy tops, slipping down oily vines, coming off weakened leaves that slanted and pointed into the path that cut through the jungle. The diving drops accumulated in a pool on top of his damp hat, peaking from the rim, sliding back onto his forehead, dribbling down his face, and clustering on his chin until the next traveling drop bumped the old one out of place, plummeting to the ground in a culminating, barely audible plop. Bruno Díaz’s eyes looked up from the sprinkled concentric waves that propagated on the many puddles along the rocky trail and kept pulling his heavy, steel-tipped boots out of the mud. He was a tall, dark-skinned man with penetrating brown eyes that drew momentum from his thick furrowed brows. Only he
This is very significant when working for the public sector, where projects depend on specific administrations and the interests of specific administrators. Out of four projects I worked on, three were cancelled before they arrived at their final results, and one remains in the process of being implemented, with a long road ahead. One of the projects that did not meet its final objectives was the creation of an online information system for a government agency. Some six months after we began working, the person we had been working for left her office, and her successor did not consider our work to be a priority. The new administration benefited, however, from knowing what information was available in the agency, where it could be found, and what its deficiencies were. Perhaps a welldesigned academic project can also have meaningful outcomes along the way to its completion. Pablo Landa se graduó del Yale College en 2005. Actualmente es estudiante de antropología en Princeton.
CUENTO
Jaguar Salvador Joel Núñez Gastélum It was raining when Bruno’s buried grief pushed through his dreams and awoke him. The horribly hot and humid air clung to his sallow face in the 19
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made his squinting, a reaction to the occasional blurred vision of juvenile diabetes, a mark of strong character. Bruno arrogantly kept Darío’s pace, not once complaining of his heel’s discomfort or his body’s fatigue. He only clenched his pronounced jaw and frequently inquired about how much time remained—like an 8-year-old boy in the backseat of a Raúl Díaz’s car traversing the narrow, winding roads along southern Mexico’s rugged terrain.
Bruno struggled to digest his memories as the sun came up and its rays silently stirred an unknown sense of melancholy. For the first time in years, when he tried to remember his father’s face, he couldn’t. At times, he thought he remembered his dark eyes, but his carbon-black stare quickly faded into darkness. The image was gone within only a few moments. He heard Raúl’s deep, raspy storytelling voice. He could only remember stories—still hearing the whispering myths of jaguars, eagles, crocodiles, and serpents echoing in the back of his mind, underneath the jaw he tightly clenched below his ear. Bruno remembered these power animals from the Maya stelae of Chichen-Itza and the Olmec thrones of La Venta. Bruno remembered idolizing the jaguar, wanting to reside in the underworld and rule the night. He used to think it was exciting. But, he never counted down to the next equinox or eclipse like he was taught, forgetting the surprises of the planet’s cycles. He never picked up the Popol Vuh, the books of Chilam Balam, or the Codex Chimalpopoca. And he never sought the fresh, vibrant air of the forest. Those were things a thoughtless archeologist would do before abandoning his children and wife for a lesser life with a Maya woman he claimed to love.
“How much longer? Are we there yet?” Bruno asked. “Five minutes from the next ceibo tree,” Darío said. Bruno had become estranged from the forest he and his Dad once used to explore so regularly. But the smell of mud and wet leaves on the ground began to exhume the memories he had long decided to forget. The forest was perfumed with the memory of stories that young Bruno would once listen to with a dropped jaw… “Look up,” his father once told him. “You see the moon?” “Yes,” Bruno answered. “That is not only the moon, son. According to the myth in the Popol Vuh,” Raúl explained, “the hero twins fought the evil lords of Xibalba for a long time to restore balance and peace to their people. Their names were Xbalanque, Jaguar-Sun, and Hunahpu, One-Blowgunner.”
But it was better that way, he thought. That way, once the lot of land was sold, he would rid himself of the responsibility as his depository, and his father would be nothing more than the occasional whisper of a memory. Bruno yearned to return to Wall Street, where he could bury his roots under investments pushing new option strategies that could be pitched as tax shelters. He and Darío walked passed the ceibo when the sun finally penetrated the canopy with bright glimmers. The majestic tree’s thick roots came out from the green trunk high above the ground and spread out like small slanted walls, dividing the path ahead. Bruno climbed over the roots, careful not to drop the peeking Divina densa leaves that were brimming from his backpack.
“Why did they fight demons?” Bruno asked. “They didn’t want to, Bruno, but they were the only ones powerful enough to try. They had a responsibility to fight, son. Someday you’ll learn, son, that sometimes in life you must do things you do not want to. The strong twins did not give up, son, and they won. When the twins finished they departed Xibalba and climbed back up to the surface of the Earth. But they did not stop there, they continued climbing straight on up into the sky: one became the Sun and the other became the Moon. They now look over us along our ancestors, son. They come out during the night, and others, during day. They watch over us, son.”
He kept following Darío to Esteban’s hut. The trail became much steeper after passing the tree, and their perspired sweat mixed with the cool rain droplets that already clung on to their warm foreheads, refusing to slip. The dense foliage began invading the last few steps on the old
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trail—few people visited Esteban. His boots pressed against the low-growing shrubs that cluttered the path and he held his hands out for the broken branches that flicked back from Darío’s chopping. He stood behind Darío, waiting for him to clear path with his machete, when he heard the sudden rustling of leaves in the surrounding bushes. Stepping into the jungle, away from the faint trail that quickly blended into the background, he searched for something lurking behind them. He didn’t see anything, but he knew that it could be easily hiding somewhere between the so many odd looking trees and bushes, vines and shrubs that he walked by— trees with thick, finger-sized thorns that covered massive trunks stretching up into the lofty sky, entangled vines covered in lichen that grew from the ground up, bright wide leaves that hogged any trace of light, and curling branches, maybe trunks, that twisted up and down along the ground with no direction, beginning, or end.
sporadically to reveal black eyes with hidden irises that contained a glint of mischief, but also something a little frightening. Esteban stood in the center of his house, in front of a large black kettle with water, boiling under the fire. Esteban looked at Bruno with a deep and perplexed stare, then turned to Darío. “He is not Raúl Díaz,” Esteban said curtly. “It is his son. Raúl is dead, my friend, it is he who is left,” Darío answered. “Let’s see,” Esteban said after wheezing an old grunt. Bruno reached into his backpack and pulled out a tumble of many, small, thick, milky white compound leaves with blue radial midribs, covered with thin green hairs along its entire oily body. They made a velcro-ripping sound as Bruno handed Esteban each leaf, one by one. He looked at each, carefully running his fingers along the surface, then fanning the air in front of him and slightly raising his flaring nostrils in search of any trace of scent. Esteban turned to Bruno with a disappointed look. The leaves from the Divina densa shrub had turned dry, not only because of the voyage, but because Raúl’s lot had not been cared for since he went missing 6 months ago. When Bruno was summoned for the proceedings, after he was pronounced dead, he learned of his land but wanted nothing of it. Bruno only changed his mind when Darío told him of the land’s value. Bruno wanted his money’s worth from a man whom he judged had given him nothing; the quicker, the better. He wanted to sell the land and the Divina densa growing on it, but nobody believed him when Bruno told others how the ugly diabetic sores that had festered between the toes of the Maya would disappear in a matter of days after using the Divina densa decoction. He was forced to return to Mexico, where he had not dared to step since his confused adolescence. He collected the plants, brought them home to New York, and had them analyzed in the lab. But the Divina densa extraction had no effect on the insulin-producing beta cells in the islets of Langerhans. This poisonous plant was thought long eradicated by the Spanish and nobody wanted a land ridden with a pestering shrub, whose hidden magic was thought a rumor at best. But Darío knew of people like Esteban
“Let’s go,” Darío shouted. Bruno returned to the path and made the last steps up the trail, but he was unable to rid himself from the eerie feeling of being followed. He knew it was watching. He cautiously stepped on the slippery rocks, preferring muddy puddles to anchor his boots, and climbed his way over the hill. His last steps cleared in front of the shaman’s house at the summit. The sky began to run out of water. When Bruno took a few steps closer, he saw a steady stream of smoke rising from the corner of the thatched roof on the clay-covered wooden roundhouse, flowing in parallel with the water he heard carrying heavy fluvial waters downstream. When they stepped in, Esteban was already wearing a ceremonial costume: a brown cotton tunic that covered him from shoulders to waist, a colorful red headdress, and a magnificent jaguar tooth necklace. It was unusual to see someone like Esteban in the traditional garb. Bruno had grown used to seeing the Lacandon Maya comfortably wearing discarded T-shirts, jeans, and worn-out sneakers. But Esteban was frozen in time. He was a striking man, about 90, with a broad, dark brown face, an aquiline nose, a protruding lower lip, and a long, slanted forehead—proof of cranial deformation that only the ancient elite withstood from early infancy. His heavy eyelids opened
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who kept the priceless secret of its power: a cure to the sugar sickness. When Darío told him that the Lacandon Maya made their potion from four plants, and not one, Bruno insisted in meeting Esteban to learn of the synergistic healing process, and give one last try to find any value to his bequeathed land.
would be safe. Esteban poured the crushed, juicy sauce into the bubbling water and began to stir—the potion began drawing power from its environment through the binary cosmic dynamic of the atl-tlachinolli: water and fire. Esteban continued to stir silently and patiently while Bruno rested on the floor and Darío was out collecting more firewood. After murmuring a few prayers on the smoking fire, he dipped a small brown calabash cup into the mystical brew. Then he held it over his head and began singing slow, rhythmic incantations that gently attuned their brain waves’ frequency, amplitude, and phase: “Hey-yah-hey-yah-hey-yah-hey-yah!” After his hypnotic words, he downed the potion in a single draught.
“These leaves are dying,” Esteban told them, “they might be no good. When you return to your field you must pick white rose petals, as many as you can, and soak them in water. Water the land with it two times a day, at sunrise and sunset.” “I’ll make sure that they do so, Esteban,” Bruno politely assured him. “You must do it. There is no ‘they’. The Divina densa is tied to you.”
“It is ready. It is good,” Esteban said. Esteban passed it to Bruno and continued to chant. Darío stood in the corner silently observing. The calabash had been refilled to the brim with a thick, green brew. Bruno drank the bitter potion despite the nausea welling up inside. It tasted like spicy sludge from the bottom of a stagnant ditch inside a cave. The shaman then shared some of the brew with Darío to unify the ceremony. The three of them sat on the floor. Esteban continued to chant. Bruno slowly drifted off into a peaceful trance. He was floating, with a few wisps of clouds above him, and felt he felt the shaman’s audible emanations permeate his body on the floor. Time stopped; it disappeared when Bruno wrapped himself in the mantle of the shaman’s rhythm.
Bruno thought Esteban knew he only wanted to learn how to prepare the remedy to treat himself and make some money in the process. He had no intention of keeping his father’s land. He had no interest in nurturing its produce; he just wanted to sell it as soon as possible so that he could return home to Wall Street, far from memories bubbling beneath the earthy surface of his conscious. Esteban immediately noticed that Bruno was affronted by his tone, unwilling to take orders from a half-naked man he barely knew. Bruno’s flaring eyes prefigured a quarrel precariously hanging off the tip of his tongue, when the crackling of dried leaves outside interrupted his gaping mouth. He stopped himself halfway, turned his head in curiosity, and slowly walked outside lifting his hand to excuse himself with his pointed index, sure that he would find whoever or whatever had been following him. He stepped outside, but saw nothing.
When the chanting ceased, Bruno opened his eyes to find Esteban refilling the calabash for a second round, praying over it, and drinking it down once more. When he passed it to Bruno, he noticed that the calabash’s surface was no longer green—it was a dancing mixture of whites, greens, browns, reds, and yellows. The brew’s thick, bubbling surface moved as well, morphing as his eyes involuntarily picked a new hue as a foreground. He closed his eyes, unable to focus his blurry sight, and drank it again. Bruno impatiently waited for Esteban to stop his chanting, knowing that the superfluous display was nothing more than worthless superstition; whatever the chemical brew, it had been ingested. He was now only a passive spectator in a biochemical chain of events.
Esteban smirked and calmly urged him back in after hearing the gracefully silent steps hiding between the trees. He decided to immediately begin preparing the potion. The shaman took out twelve ripe rose hip fruits, fifty-two wild basil leaves, thirteen pink Datura flowers known as the Angel’s Trumpet, and two hundred and sixty Divina densa leaves to crush in his metate. Bruno’s camera flashed and his hand scribbled, documenting the recipe for reproduction. Esteban looked at him annoyed for a moment and then calmly continued, knowing that his secret
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The growing urge to urinate became unbearable. Bruno stood up and stumbled out of the hut. Darío and Esteban stayed inside, chanting. Unlike the roofed hut, it was now bright outside. He dizzily squinted through the abrupt brightness he met as he stretched his arm to lean on a nearby tree and desperately tried to push his urine out. Yet, he was unable to get a single drop, regardless of how strong he pushed and waited. He pinched his nose over his eyelids and tried to regain focus, but his urge slowly languished and was replaced by pain. His bursting bladder was soon confused with a hungry sting from inside his abdomen. Bruno tried to walk back in, but Esteban and Darío broke in a cacophonous array of caustic incoherent voices that threw him off balance. They were not words, but the broken and stretched sounds of consonants. They pierced into his eardrums. He wanted to rest, but was unwilling to go back inside. He began walking down the trail with forcefully overweening steps, away from the stinging sounds of clacking human voices. He pushed through the recently chopped leaves and vines on his way down the path, back to his bed, and the entangled barrier of aged memories that had been left petrified inside his mind crawled back up from the ground with every step. Images percolated out from his consciousness— faces, dancing lights, and even the shimmering contour of deep raspy voices.
the sky that had been glaring at him grew darker. Bruno looked up, frantically searching for the sun in the sky and saw its rays slowly waning into the dark orb of a full solar eclipse. The black sun glowed in the sky. And so, in the unexpected dark of day, he wept. His tears beckoned the sound of flowing water from a nearby, unnoticed river. Extremely thirsty, he crawled towards it, unable to see more than a couple of feet in front of him, and dipped his head into the soothing water. The cool stream gently stroked his hair downstream. He cupped his hands into the river and drank as many handfuls as he could. Then Bruno heard the familiar rustling of leaves for the third time, and without time to react he turned to stare a jaguar face-to-face, only a whisker away from its nose. Its large, strong canines were glinting in front of him, and the smooth spotted fur that covered its massive musculature glowed in the dark. The jaguar’s strong jaws and small ears made its head look as round as the full moon. While the two incandescent coals were fixed on Bruno, the black pupils grew larger and larger, staring with equal parts of power, disdain, curiosity, concern, and kindness. Bruno was terrified. Its mighty paws could easily pierce his skull, but the jaguar stood there only coughing deep hoarse grunts and looking him right in the eye. The roars faded and, slowly, Bruno became engrossed by the jaguar’s familiar, vigorous, and vigilant eyes that cut through the dark. Everything disappeared but that jaguar’s deep stare, clearing his mind back to the days of his innocence. Back when his father was a god-like figure of virtue, knowledge, and strength. Bruno knew he would die faced with the spotted lord of the underworld. Already tasting his own death, he realized that only mortal beings walked the earth, earning their way into humanity through their vices as well as their virtues. Bruno thought of his own faults. He thought of the unborn child he urged that teenaged girl not to have before leaving the country in search of a life of luxury. He thought of his humanity teeming with laughter, warm blood, and tears. Now he did not know if he would ever have a child of his own that he would let win on the field, scoring goal after goal with his outrunning little steps. He closed his eyes and heard his child calling him Dad in his head. Bruno saw his son forever for-
Bruno’s steps burned on the way down, his heels scorching hot. Only when the ground began to hiss on top of the liquid hot magma moving beneath him did he realize that the hill had been a concealed volcano all along. Everything was melting—he began to run. The mixed foliage of the morning had turned into biting, green air that he desperately forced through with his forearms over his face. Running out of air, and afraid to melt, he continued to run desperately away from the heat. In his frantic sprint, a woody claw jerked his feet down and he fell face down on the floor. The ground was surprisingly cool. The fall had made him sick and he began vomiting. He turned around, unable to regain his feet, and sank into the muddy ground, rising up only to retch over to his side. He did not know how long he lay in the mud, inert, languid, and aching. He closed his eyes, waiting for someone to find him or to recover his strength. Yet, slowly, 23
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getting his own face and Bruno’s head dropped to the floor.
Pérez Correa de la UNAM, y el Dr. Pablo Piccato de Columbia hablaron ante aproximadamente sesenta personas, entre ellas estudiantes de pregrado, candidatos a maestría y doctorado de los departamentos de economía, sociología y ciencias políticas, estudiantes del Yale Law School y del School of Management, así como diversos profesores. El moderador del panel fue Gilbert Joseph, profesor de historia mexicana en Yale.
* * * It was raining when the buzzing, chirping, and croaking outside the cabin woke Bruno. He lazily stretched his legs out from the mattress, tearing the mosquito net off the right corner of the four-poster bed, and then felt the net slowly dangle down onto his face. He let the mesh cover his face. A cool breeze swirled in his room, inviting his hair out the window, under the moonlight. The window, nothing more than a rectangular hole carved out from the thick concrete wall, framed the full moon inside the bedroom. The moonlight hit from an angle, laying its slanted glow diagonally along the girth of the window’s inside. The moon’s face stood as an unforgettably fresh portrait, a lit shadow-box on his wall. He comfortably rested his feet, one on top of the other. Then Bruno sunk his head on the pillow, calmly falling asleep. Salvador Núñez estudió ingeniería biomédica en el Yale College, de donde egresó en mayo de 2008. Actualmente vive en Dallas, Texas.
Noel Maurer enfatizó que a partir de los años ochenta inició una segunda revolución en México que tiene poco que ver con la Revolución de 1910. Desde entonces ha habido cambios importantes en el país como un incremento significativo en la participación laboral de la mujer, una reducción drástica en las tasas de fertilidad, un aumento constante y no visto antes en los niveles de educación del país, entre otros. El Dr. Maurer sugirió que la apertura en los medios de comunicación en años recientes también forma parte de este proceso.
RESEÑA
México a cien años de la Revolución: Un breve recuento Adrián de la Garza, Pablo Landa, Tatiana Neumann, Sebastián Serra y Sinaia Urrusti
Javier Garciadiego concordó con esta postura y destacó además cómo los principales temas de la Revolución se solucionaron relativamente pronto. Por ejemplo, la dictadura de Porfirio Díaz se había disuelto ya en 1911, mucho antes de la expansión del movimiento armado a lo largo y ancho del país. Otros problemas, como las protestas de la incipiente clase obrera y los conflic-
El 13 de noviembre, el Yale Mexican Student Organization (YMSO) realizó un panel, con el apoyo del Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, La Casa Cultural y el departamento de ciencias políticas de la universidad. Los panelistas, el Dr. Noel Maurer de Harvard, el Dr. Javier Garciadiego del Colegio de México, el Dr. Fernando
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tos agrarios, sólo se solucionaron hacia finales de los años treinta. Sin embargo, en su mayoría, los objetivos de la Revolución de 1910 se alcanzaron en un lapso relativamente breve, lo cual nos obliga en el siglo 21 a concentrarnos en otros problemas, como la división de poderes y la desigualdad social.
volución fue la apertura de espacios públicos para el debate. Uno de los hechos que marcó dicha apertura fue una entrevista que realizó el periodista estadounidense James Creelman a Porfirio Díaz unos años antes de que estallara el conflicto. En este encuentro, Díaz mencionó que creía que el país había por fin alcanzado una madurez social y construido una clase media suficientemente fuerte para sostener un gobierno democrático. En México, estos comentarios crearon gran agitación, y se tomaron como una invitación para publicar notas y propuestas sobre el futuro político del país. Esto, junto con la propia Revolución, creó un foro activo para el debate de asuntos públicos. Aunque durante el régimen del PRI hubo una represión, a veces silenciosa y a veces explícita, de la opinión pública, el Dr. Piccato consideró que el intenso debate que existe ahora en el país puede considerarse como un legado de la Revolución Mexicana.
Este último tema fue abordado por Fernando Pérez Correa. En 1910, la mayor parte del país era pobre o parte de la clase media. El Dr. Pérez Correa comentó, sin embargo, que la desigualdad no era en sí misma uno de los problemas que la clase media de principios del siglo 20 intentaba resolver. No obstante, sí es uno de los temas que la clase media de nuestros tiempos pide que se atienda. Así, aunque los asuntos que enfrenta México hoy son muy distintos a los de 1910, los actores principales que exigen sus derechos pertenecen a un mismo grupo social. Una observación interesante que realizó el Dr. Garciadiego fue que frecuentemente se ve a la Revolución de forma maniquea: o bien como un evento que debemos celebrar o como uno que no queda más que lamentar. Su visión no admite esta disyuntiva: la Revolución Mexicana simplemente fue, y debe entenderse como un evento que, para bien o para mal, forma parte de nuestra historia. Así, el Dr. Garciadiego enfatizó que, al igual que el resto de los movimientos revolucionarios a lo largo de la historia del hombre, el movimiento revolucionario mexicano acabó con muchos problemas, como el caudillismo, al mismo tiempo que generó y agudizó otros, como el de la desigualdad social discutida por el Dr. Pérez Correa. El balance, sin embargo, parece ser positivo.
El panel dio lugar a una productiva discusión entre los estudiantes sobre el pasado y el futuro de México y, de esta manera, contribuyó a afianzar la presencia de México en Yale, lo cual es uno de los objetivos de YMSO y del Yale Club de México. Los autores son miembros del Yale Mexican Student Organization.
RESEÑA
Altar de día de muertos en Yale
Por un lado, los estados del norte y Morelos, los cuales iniciaron la Revolución, parecen haber alcanzado los objetivos del movimiento armado de 1910 y atacan ahora los problemas asociados con la revolución del siglo 21. Por otro lado, estados como Oaxaca y Chiapas, a los cuales se les “impuso” la Revolución o la adoptaron relativamente tarde, no han podido resolver muchos de los conflictos que afectaban al país a principios del siglo 20. Estudiar la Revolución Mexicana más a fondo nos permitirá entender mejor sus éxitos y sus fracasos.
Fotografías de Lucía Mijares Para celebrar el día de muertos, el Yale Mexican Student Organization (YMSO), con el apoyo del departamente de Ethnicity Race and Migration y la Organización de estudiantes latinoamericanos de la universidad, instaló un altar en Beinecke Plaza. Sofía Ortíz y Eileen Uribe-Querol estuvieron a cargo del diseño del altar. Como se puede obser-
Tomando otra perspectiva, Pablo Piccato comentó que uno de los mayores logros de la Re25
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var en las fotografías, en el piso se trazó un cuadrado dividido en cuatro secciones, en cada una de las cuales se colocaron ofrendas y decoraciones alusivas a los cuatro elementos identificados por las culturas prehispánicas: agua, fuego, aire y tierra. En un pequeño biombo se colocaron imágenes inspiradas en las que ilustran los códices aztecas.
El altar no fue concebido para honrar a una persona en particular. El objetivo fue más bien compartir con el resto de los estudiantes de la universidad la tradición de día de muertos. El 2 de noviembre, un buen número de personas se detuvo a ver el altar, tomar chocolate caliente y comer pan de muerto.
En esta última fotografía aparecen de izquierda a derecha, Juan Rebolledo, Jorge Hinojosa, Camila García, Adrián de la Garza, Sinaia Urrusti, Ireri Chávez, Gerardo Giacomán, Lissy Giacomán y Lucía Mijares, todos ellos miembros de YMSO. Lucía Mijares es estudiante de segundo año en el Yale College.
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