Translated by Joel Cloke
Going back to Mexico fills me with life and, for some reason, I always think I’m going to see big changes. But I’m almost always left waiting.
I have my routine for going back. My first stop, a lot of times, is to buy some corn churrumais [fried donut sticks] with lemon and chile-or to eat some tacos al pastor [soft tacos]. That brings me back to my childhood and to the country that I left. I left Mexico 33 years ago but Mexico hasn’t left me.
The more time I spend outside of Mexico the more I appreciate what I left. During my last visit I saw piles of families, hand in hand, strolling, showing each other signs of affection. Mexican kids are some of the most spoiled and kissed kids in the world. I fell into lengthy dinners, without any rush and staying around the table to chat, as if there was nothing else more important to do. Dinner in Mexico is a ritual where the soul and mouth intertwine like noodle soup.
What I like most about Mexico are its intangible things, those things that cannot be touched but fill you up inside. I’ve never felt alone in Mexico. Whereas, life in the United States can be very lonely for immigrants, above all during Christmas and holidays.
I like Mexican parties that break the routine-they don’t them call "reventones" ["blow-outs"] for nothing- and the use of humour (memes, cartoons, puns) to balance out our inequalities for a moment. Criticizing, yes, is a way of loving Mexico.
I admire that healthy and clear distance that a Mexican holds from their leaders and their bosses. They don’t believe them at all. We used to doubt the Aztec tlatoani [chief] and the Spanish viceroys. Today we doubt the President and the mirreyes [king look-a-likes] (that little group of rich and arrogant people that hang over the rest of the country).
After so many six-year presidential terms full of abuse, scandals and tricks, Mexico has become a country of skeptical people. It seems healthy to me; every change starts by being suspicious of the authority, of the learned traditions and behaviours.
But, is the change coming? “Nothing happens in Mexico”, a friend said to me who settled down in the country a few years ago and is a foreign correspondent. I understand why he says it. More than 98 percent of crimes go unpunished, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. But things are happening in Mexico.
Things are happening-to rob a phrase from Colombian journalist Julio Sánchez Cristo-when lots of Mexicano no longer believe their President, Enrique Peña Nieto, and they say it in the street and on social media. How can he be believed when he and his wife bought a 7 million dollar house from a government contractor?
Thanks to the Panama papers, now we know that that contractor, Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantú, owner of the Higa group, sent 100 million dollars of his fortune to a tax haven just after the investigation of the Mexican "White House2 started. (Is there something to be investigated there, don Virgilio? [Virgilio Andrade, Secretary of Public Administration, who cleared Peña Nieto of any conflict of interest in his wife's purchase of the "White House"]).
Things happen in Mexico when-with a daily roll call-we can’t forget the 43 teenagers from Ayotzinapa that twice the government wanted to make disappear. How can the positive be stressed when there have been 52 thousand violent deaths in the last three years and Peña Nieto’s six-year presidential term could be the most violent one in our modern history? I’m watching the reports and protests of many outraged and frustrated Mexicans with hope. The message is clear: we’re not going to give in.
Some used to believe that this anger and frustration would become a peaceful civic rebellion, that it would make high up government officials give up and it would give the country a change of direction. For example, the first prime minister of Iceland left his position because of accusations and corruption after the Panama papers were published. But in Mexico everything stays the same. No one has left their jobs after the complaints against the White House, or El Chapo’s escape, or the killings in Ayotzinapa and Tlatlaya.
There are big changes in Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil y Venezuela. And millions of Mexicans ask themselves: when is it our turn? Maybe our strength lies more in resisting than demanding. Why not accept the creation of an International Commission against Impunity in Mexico, a dependent of the UN, the same as what they did in Guatemala? It would be a good first step.
Yes, I already know. In Mexico there’s always the feeling that something’s about to burst...but nothing pops. But the old and corrupt will not die out. That’s why for several springs we have waited for the Mexican spring. Spanish original
*Jorge Ramos Ávalos is a journalist and author. Born in Mexico, he is a naturalized U.S. citizen, based in Miami, Florida. He anchors the Univision news television program, Noticiero Univision; hosts the Univision Sunday-morning, political news program, Al Punto; and the Fusion TV English-language program, America with Jorge Ramos. @jorgeramosnews