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As a portrait, New York Times correspondent Riding's picture of Mexico is surprisingly lacking in the individual portraits, or vignettes, one might expect from a reporter. Instead, Riding has provided about as good an overview of Mexico's history and current condition as is probably possible for an outsider to that country of masks, introversion, and mystery. Riding smoothly traces thedevelopment of the mestizo nation from the pre-Conquest Indian roots to the post-Conquest mixture that is Mexico's unique culture. He stresses the grafting of Catholicism and European autocracy onto the highly-centralized Aztec theocracy: a continuity symbolized in the physical and spiritual centrality of Mexico City (built on the site of the 14th-century Aztec city of Tenochtitlan). Now the world's largestcity, with a population threatening to double to 30 million by the end of the century, Mexico City encapsulates the country's problems and fascination. Riding reveals a system of order overlaid by ritual and appearance, and undergirded by corruption. Beset with enormous difference between rich and poor, between Mexico City (a ""magnet and monster"") and the hinterland, Mexico also hasunfathomable problems of pollution, public hygiene, transportation, and housing; the concept of a plan to resolve its difficulties is not one that sits well with a dogmatic, family-centered distrustfulness that permeates the popular consciousness or with the patronage that holds the political system together. The Mexican president, elected to a single six-year term, is in reality appointed by hispredecessor. Nevertheless, an elaborate election campaign is held and the outgoing president recedes from view while the new one ritualistically criticizes him, a system Riding likens to an Aztec sacrifice. Each new president takes office amid this purifying rite, dragging his retinue in with him. The office is enveloped in a myth of absolute power, but the power depends upon its not being used absolutely,which would destroy the system. Everyone is co-opted; the military (a locale of sanctioned corruption), labor leaders, political opposition, and intellectuals. All but the distant poor get something out of these arrangements--so Mexico, despite its social crisis, does not face a political one. Overly synthetic in portraying the whole rather than its parts, but enlightening and pleasurable.“Vecinos distantes” y análisis de confrontación política analizada por Alan Riding
Publicado el 21 de octubre de 2010de Observatorio de Medios UIA | Dejar un comentario

Programa del Agenda Pública

José Carreño: La corte suspendió el decreto presidencial del 2 de septiembre que suponía adelantar el tránsito a la televisión digital y que se completaba con el proyecto de repartir televisores en susúltimos dos años. Los medios siguen privilegiando los temas de la sucesión presidencial sobre los temas de hoy, la ley de ingresos se mantiene distante de la comprensión de la mayoría de la sociedad, Marcelo Ebrard y López Obrador tratan de convencer a la élite empresarial de Monterrey. Tenemos a Alan Riding y autor del libro “Vecinos distantes”.

Están con nosotros la maestra Gaby Warkentin y nosvisita Alan Riding. Carlos fuentes profetizó que el libro de “Vecinos distantes” iba a ser muy próximo a los mexicanos y tenemos el privilegio de estar frente al autor de este libro que algunos consideran clásico en nuestro país publicado hace un cuarto de siglo y lo compararemos con lo que sucede ahora mismo, ¿fue una foto instantánea o una fotografía duradera de los mexicanos?

Alan Riding:La relación entre estos dos países siempre va a ser muy compleja, siempre ha sido una relación asimétrica, los mexicanos miran hacia Estados Unidos y Estados Unidos mira hacia el mundo y México es una parte pequeña del mundo. En Washington sólo se puede tratar una crisis a la vez, a mi una vez en Honduras me dijeron que Honduras nunca sale en el New York Times y le dije que debía de estar...