Independence from what?

By Chris Hershberger Esh, MCC’s Context Analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Mexico City. 

Today marks the start of Mexico’s war for independence from Spain in 1810.  The center square (the Zocalo) is packed with spectators watching the Independence Day parade, as they celebrate Mexico´s national history.

In order to make room for these crowds, however, another crowd had to be removed: teachers. They had been occupying the Zocalo since mid-August to protest President Enrique Peña Nieto’s education reform policies. They have marched and occasionally blocked traffic in streets around the city, and maintained a tent city in the large, historic square.

On Saturday, some 3,600 police descended on the Zocalo with tear gas, riot gear, water canons and helicopters. Some protests lobbed rocks at the police. Thirty people were arrested and dozens wounded. The square was cleared within 30 minutes, but soon afterwards the demonstrators set up a new occupation a few kilometers away.

By Sunday night, the square was ready for the traditional Grito de Dolores, which ceremonially marks Mexico’s cry for independence.  The ceremony is a loose reenactment of the night in 1810 that Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a local priest, ran to the church and rang the bell to gather poor people to revolt against the oppressive Spanish government.

This year, President Peña Nieto performed the call:

¡Mexicanos!
¡Vivan los héroes que nos dieron patria!
¡Víva Hidalgo!
¡Viva Morelos!
¡Viva Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez!
¡Viva Allende!
¡Vivan Aldama y Matamoros!
¡Viva la independencia nacional!
¡Viva México! ¡Viva México! ¡Viva México!

It strikes me as ironic. Governments (including my own, in the United States) love to praise the revolutionaries of the past, who dared to question the ruling authority of the time, while simultaneously using tear gas on the people today who do the same thing.

This is not an endorsement of the teachers’ position. The education reforms that became law last week don’t look terrible on paper, but it’s hard to know their true implications.

Regardless of the specific issue at hand, however, it bothers me when governments celebrate historic, symbolic resistance without paying attention to the living people marching in the streets today.