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Lumpenproletariat

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Lumpenproletariat

Tag Archives: Mexico

The People’s Oscars 2016: Cartel Land (2015)

02 Tue Feb 2016

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Fascism, Anti-War, Documentary Film, Latin America, México

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Dr. José Mireles, Grupo de Autodefensas, Kathryn Bigelow, Matthew Heineman, Mexico, Michoacán

Cartel_Land_posterLUMPENPROLETARIAT—Dubious politics abound in the motives driving the narrative agenda behind Matthew Heineman‘s Oscar-nominated Cartel Land.  And this, whilst ostensibly letting the vigilantes speak for themselves.  Cartel Land has no narrator whatsoever beyond the narration cobbled together by the filmmakers’ documentary footage.

To earn an Oscar nomination, Heineman insidiously paired a narrative of the Grupo de Autodefensas, or Self-Defense Group, in the Mexican state of Michoacán, which developed organically out of the people’s frustration with drug cartel tyranny, with the white supremacist border vigilante groups and militias.  But the two are very different things.  Yet, the filmmakers seem determined to conflate the two, almost as if justifying the agenda of white supremacist xenophobes by conflating them with the organic people’s resistance to drug cartels, which developed after some twelve years of drug cartel rule, replete with torture, beheadings, and terrorising of the public with the grisly carnage.  One involves xenophobia in a relatively orderly society.  The other involves a people’s revolt to a narco state.  Everywhere I looked illegals were taking construction jobs, said one border vigilante, featured as the solitary figurehead for the armed, anti-immigrant, self-appointed border troops dressed in military fatigues and armed with automatic rifles.

The filmmakers filmed, among other locations, in downtown Apatzingan, Michoacán, a central city in Michoacán’s central valley, known as tierra caliente, or hot land, a double entendre, connoting, both, the hot climate in the valley, and the heat resulting from drug cartel violence.  Although the filmmakers didn’t identify a memorial of the signing of the Constitution of Apatzingan, it is easily recognisable in the film.  (Your author recalls the last time he was down in Apatzingan back in 1998 on a trip to visit a grandmother.  Back then, although there was cartel activity, it hadn’t reached the chaotic level it would soon come to reach.)

The founder and initial leader of Michoacán’s Grupo de Autodefensas, or Self-Defense Group, Dr. José Mireles, a Michoacán-based physician who initially led the Autodefensas is followed by the camera crew to a swimming pool park outside of Apatzingan, which my family and friends would also visit.  It’s heartbreaking to see the city, from which one’s family hailed, become plagued with wanton violence.

Soon, after being shown to be a womaniser, Dr. Mireles is shown being taken by ambulance after a mysterious plane crash, as dissension within the anti-drug cartel group festered due to ideological differences, or apparently infiltration and sabotage.  Dr. Mireles, left with half his face paralysed, designated a man called “Papa Smurf” to be his substitute while he convalesces.  But “Papa Smurf”, who is shown later to be incapable of rallying community support, as Dr. Mireles had done.  Crowds at a public rally took “Papa Smurf” to task, complaining that some of the Defensas Ciudadanas, or Citizens Defense, had been abusing their powers, raiding innocent homes, and behaving inappropriately with the local women.  This was a less-than-happy crowd, which seemed unconvinced of the sincerity of Dr. Mireles’ leadership and the Autodefensa forces.  (Pitfalls abound; Ralph Nader once testified before the US Congress that one shouldn’t have to live like a saint to work in the public interest; one shouldn’t have to be celibate just to avoid being seduced and fall prey to designs of entrapment.)

Absent in all of this rather strange documentary is any type of narrative or analysis.  The only notable coverage of state officials is showing some news footage of politicians making empty promises, as the Autodefensa forces come to wrest control over half the state.  The next politician is Michoacán’s State Security Commissioner who comes to glad-hand “Papa Smurf” for his agreement to legitimate the Autodefensa group by becoming an appendage of the state, which soon seems to lead to a corruption of the group.  But no indication is made that any attempts were made by the filmmakers to directly contact state officials, or to question the politics behind the policies, which lead to drug prohibition and, then, cartels.

The footage captured by shadowing and trailing Dr. Mireles, the Autodefensa  forces, their rise and apparent fall, or cooptation, as well as of the towns of Michoacán and their initial solidarity against the barbarisms of the drug cartels is compelling.  But mutely intertwining the parallel story line of armed US-Mexico border vigilantes, Border Recon, making armed citizen arrests of migrants crossing the border conflates xenophobic immigrant scapegoating with sincere people’s anti-drug cartel efforts, which seek to restore the rule of law in a failed state.  But, then, this documentary film is executive produced by Kathryn Bigelow, a non-journalist mainly known for her works of fiction.

Messina

 

Cartel Land (2015)

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[Last modified 3 FEB 2016  02:09 PDT]

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Crossing the Border to Cananea (2011)

19 Sun Apr 2015

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Capitalism, collective bargaining, Documentary Film, Global Labour Movement, Globalisation, Latin America, México, Neoliberalism, Political Economy

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Calle 13, Cananea, Judy Ancel (labour educator), Karl Marx, labour, Los Mineros, Mexico

Institute for Labor Studies logoilsLUMPENPROLETARIAT—Workers of the world, unite!

“La tierra no se vende. Se trabaja y se defiende.” [1]

Messina

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http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/display/116939

Crossing the Border to Cananea (2011) [2]

[please click the Media Mill link above to view the 29-minute documentary]

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Parota006

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INSTITUTE FOR LABOR STUDIES—[excerpt from report-back] Crossing the Border to Cananea (2011).  Preface: UALE Delegation Studies the Cananea Strike

In May 2010, a group of ten labor educators, students, and activists spent four days in Cananea, Sonora to investigate the issues involved in a three‐year strike of copper miners against the multi‐national corporation, Grupo Mexico, which operates the Cananea mine. The tour was organized through the United Association of Labor Education (UALE) which had passed a solidarity resolution supporting the struggle of the miners and their families at its March 2010 Annual Meeting in San Diego. The Cananea chapter of the Women’s Front in Struggle for Worker Dignity in Mexico and the World, an organization of the Mexican Miners Union, hosted our delegation.  The leaders of Section 65 of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM), generally known as Los Mineros, welcomed us and met with us on several occasions.
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The delegation included four students, two filmmakers, a union political director, three labor studies professors, and a health, safety and environmental specialist. We wanted to find out how labor & community were faring in this 3‐year attack on the copper miners and their union, Los Mineros.  Were workers still standing strong?  How were families managing without paychecks?  How were communities and the city affected by the actions of Grupo Mexico?  Was there a viable place for outside assistance and solidarity?  This Report is our overall response to what we saw and learned.  We wrote it for workers, unions and communities that need to understand that in a global labor market, an injury to one is an injury to all!
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Our hosts, the Women’s Front, led by Maria Rosa Guayante Garcia, a large coalition of miners’ wives, sisters and family members, arranged for housing in their homes, most of our meals, and served as our guides, along with the leadership of District 65 of the Union.  In a frenetic 3‐day period, we learned the history of the struggle at Cananea; investigated first‐hand the conditions in the mine; and experienced first‐hand some of the heartless maneuvers of Grupo Mexico.  Water in homes was shut down for most of the day.  Electricity went on and off.  Clouds of polluted mine tailings followed us everywhere.  We talked to top union leaders as well as rank and file picketers.  We met with the mayor of Cananea, the lead doctor at the Ronquillo hospital, a teacher from the public schools, an injured miner, and local historians.  Secretary General of District 65, Sergio Tolano and strike leader Jesus Verdugo accompanied us on a 3‐hour walk through the mine.
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Learn more at the University of Missouri’s Institute for Labor Studies or at the University of Minnesota’s Media Mill.
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[1]  English translation from the Spanish: The land is not to be sold. It is to be worked and defended. (Your author first encountered this memorable phrase whilst strolling through the legendary San Jose Flea Market. It was emblazoned across an Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) t-shirt at a mom-and-pop stand of bootleg t-shirts.)

[2]  Embed function pending.

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YOUNGIST—As I was walking into the university in Bogotá, Colombia, where I work as an English Language Assistant, I saw twenty students gathered around big white posters discussing what to write in the thirty minutes they had left of their lunch break. I caught a glimpse of one of their boards and read, “No queremos los gringos aqui,” meaning, “We don’t want the Americans here.” In this instance, I was happy that my brown skin did not automatically identify me as a “gringo,” a term usually used in Latin America to refer to white Americans.

I heard that farmer protests had started a week before, on August 20. Blockades, food shortages, and sometimes violent protests erupted on the outskirts of Bogotá as many local farmers were on strike. But, as I had not seen these protests in the streets of Bogotá where I live, I did not really understand what was going on.

Later that day one of my students asked me, “Teacher, what do you think about the paro and TLC?”

The paro, or strike, began in large part due to the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) – the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) – and his question implied that the two were intimately related. As the American working at and being paid by the university, and by both the Colombian and U.S. governments, he (rightfully) expected me to know about my countries’ policies and have an opinion about it, but embarrassingly, I had no idea how to respond.

Learn more at The Youngist.

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Also learn more at:

  • “No borrarán la memoria de Zapata ni la lucha de Atenco“

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In the USA, it’s mainly Euroamericans that are monoglots, aren’t they?  -Messina

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[last modified 18:55 CDT 21 APR 2015]

[“La tierra no se vende” image from AguariosyPueblos.org]

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History of Mexican Song: David Záizar y Juan Záizar

01 Wed Apr 2015

Posted by ztnh in Free Speech, History of Mexican Song, Latin America, México, Music

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David Zaizar, Juan Zaizar, la cancion ranchera, Mexico

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—David Záizar (1930-1982) is a musical legend, alongside his duet-singing brother, Juan Zaizar (1933-1991).  The Brothers Záizar, or Los Hermanos Záizar, are known, at least around the Michoacán diaspora in California, for composing and interpreting classic songs, such as “Cruz de Olvido”, “Mi Terruño”, “Cielo Rojo”, “Mi Unico Camino”, “Mi Destino Fue Quererte”, “Paloma Negra”, and many more.

One commentator has remarked about the music of David Záizar:  “His songs are considered an integral part of the Mexican musical heritage and are comparable, for instance, to Woody Guthrie‘s (1912-1967) influence on American folk music.”  Less accolade and historical knowledge seems to register in the English-speaking world regarding Juan Záizar’s life and times, despite his being the primary composer of the duo.  The Záizar brothers performed as a duet since their teenage years.  They also went on to pursue solo careers, after achieving great success as a duo.  Contemporaries of legends of Mexican song, such as Pedro Infante (1917-1957), los hermanos Záizar achieved great fame in their own right throughout Mexico and, apparently, in other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, particularly Latin America.

David Záizar was known as the ‘king of the falsetto’, in his time.  Miguel Aceves Mejía (1915-2006) seemed to have been displaced as rey del falsete by David Záizar.  Aficionados of both giants of Mexican song formed rival camps and created some controversy over who was the true ‘king of the falsetto’.  David Záizar’s interpretation of “La Malagueña” (1960) is one example of some falsetto vocal stylings, perhaps reminiscent of German yodeling:

“La Malagueña” (1960)

With the advent of Pandora and such, we can get a good listen to the Miguel Aceves Mejia back-catalogue.  He’s a good singer.  But there’s no question who is the superior vocalist.  David Záizar manages to reach operatic levels of vocal ability, power, and subtlety, something for which few popular singers are known.  But David Záizar easily ranks in that category, alongside the operatic legends of Mexican song, Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete (1911-1953).  Sometimes vocal power was best conveyed in the softest crooning.  Consider the huapango “Cucurrucucú paloma“.

Pedro Infante, like the brothers Záizar, sang standards, such as el vals ranchero “Paloma Negra“, composed by Tomás Méndez (1926-1995) and made famous as a signature song of Lola Beltrán (1932-1996).  Memorably, the Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe-winning film Frida (2002), starring Salma Hayek (b. 1966), featured a particularly intense interpretation of the standard “Paloma Negra” by Chavela Vargas (1919-2012).

Of the brothers Záizar, it’s pretty safe to say David Záizar has always been like the John Lennon to Juan’s Paul McCartney, the slightly less popular one.  C’est la vie.  But what’s often forgotten is that that’s, probably, only because Juan Záizar (some three yours younger than his sibling, David) seems to have let his older brother take the lead in their duo.  Juan Záizar was an accomplished singer in his own right.  But his legacy seems most firmly rooted in his songwriting contributions.  Juan Záizar is understood to have been the primary composer of the duo.

The songs made famous as part of the canon of los hermanos Záizar continue to be covered by many contemporary musicians, such as Los Invasores de Nuevo León, who covered, for example, “Mi Destino Fue Quererte“.

Another song, of many, which still lives on today in the canon of Mexican standards, “No Volvere” is always a monster hit at weddings, birthdays, baptisms, quinceañeras, or other random parties.  Good times.  (Although, the new mafioso tough attitude nowadays among modern Mexican banda hipsters, which is enthralled with Mexican cartel culture, is unfortunate because it laces people’s interpretations of such classic songs with a lamentable belligerence.)  Everybody from Alicia Villareal (b. 1971) to Alejandro Fernández (b. 1971) have belted that one out, not to mention countless spirited friends and relations at sundry functions.  That song is seared into your (author’s) brain from many a saucy traditional Mexican soirees hosting convergences of multiple extended families.

-Messina

[last updated 21:18 CDT 14 APR 2015]

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