Living within Many Mexicos

My wife, Jane, and I have been living in Mexico for nearly two years. We actively seek to experience and understand as much as possible about Mexico, its people, their culture and the challenges they face. We also want to communicate our developing understanding to friends in the United States. We are convinced that improved understanding of Mexico by U.S. citizens is important in order for there to be the best possible resolution of the many compleja y complicada issues that exist between these increasingly closely linked countries. This blog is one medium for our communication.

Mexico is a complex country, with many levels of history, from the Mesoamerican to the modern. This history lives on in the multifaceted social and cultural dynamics of Mexico today. I have been thinking about how I might best organize this complexity in order to talk about it. It occurred to me that the symbolism of the monolithic Aztec or Mexica Calendar Stone or Sun Stone might provide a vehicle to represent the many dimensions of Mexican life.

Five "Suns" or Worlds

The Aztec carving, usually called the Calendar Stone but more accurately called the Sun Stone, depicts, at its center, the Five Suns or worlds created in sequence by the gods of Mexica mythology. According to this myth, it took the gods five tries to succeed in producing creatures who could talk and thereby offer praise to their creators.

The whole stone is designed as a series of concentric rings. The outer ring is composed of two fire serpents, whose heads can be seen at the bottom. Their tails are at the top, with a date for creation in-between. Serpents symbolize the primal caos from which the gods create an ordered world and human beings to inhabit it.

Inside the serpent circle is a solar disc with rays marking the four cardinal directions of the created world, together with four intermediate points. Inside this is a circle of the twenty day signs for the divinatory calendar of 260 days, which is created by combining the twenty day names with thirteen numbers in rotation. The dates of this calendar were used to divine the fate of individuals, based on their birth date, and whether any particular day was auspicious or dangerous for actions to be taken. 

Within this circle, signs for four suns or successive eras of creation surround the Fifth Sun, that of the Aztec era. The outline around the five, together with two circles at the sides, form the sign of "ollin," representing "motion" or "cycle of time." The five worlds are named by the forces that brought them to an end:

1. Jaguar
2. Wind
3. Fire
4. Water
5. Sun

The World of Mexico as Composed of Five "Suns"

Mexican history is very alive in daily life. It occurred to me that the various eras of this history, and thus their continuing presence and impact in Mexico today, could be grouped into five mundos, worlds, all set within, and shaped by, the encircling "two serpents" of the medio ambiente, i. e. the Mexican environment: landscape and climate.

El medio ambiente - The foundation and setting for the development of any country is its environment. Mexico's paisaje, landscape, is dramatically varied, often rugged, at times severe and challenging. Mountains predominate, dividing the country into distinct and -- until recent times -- isolated segments. Desert, semi-arid high plains and humid, costal, tropical jungle complete the setting. There are no navigable rivers and only a small percentage of arable land.

As Mexico lies within or near the tropic latitudes, its climate is temperate to hot year-round, depending on altitude, with distinct wet (summer) and dry (winter) seasons. The sun is a very intense presence overhead much of the time. We live at an altitude of 7000 feet, in the temperate Eje Volcánico, the axis of volcanic mountains that stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic across the middle of Mexico. Extinct volcanos surround our town, Pátzcuaro. (See my post on the Geography of Mexico)

Los Cinco Mundos - the Five Worlds

Four eras or "worlds" precede - and continue to be manifested in - present-day Mexican life and identity. They are the eras of the Indigenous, Colonial Nueva España, la Lucha and PRI. I call the present era Global Mexico.

Pueblos indigenas - The millenia-old, corn-based Mesoamerican civilization is the historical and cultural root of Mexico. It´s descendientes still live in the rural pueblos (pueblo means "people" as well as "village.") with customs that display their ancient origens. Its architectural remains are part of the landscape, never far away. Pátzcuaro, meaning "the doorway to paradise", was one of the cities of the Purépecha nation. The Purépecha were contemporaries of the Aztecs who repelled the latter when they tried to conquer this area.

Purépecha pyramids sit a couple of miles from our house. Daily, I ride the combi vans to town with Purépecha men and women, at times in traditional dress,  who travel from the nearby pueblos to el Centro and el mercado, to sell their vegetables, tortillas and other products, as they have for centuries. The Purépecha are still proud that they defeated those chilangos from Mexico City.

Colonia de Nueva España - The Spanish conquered the Aztecs nearly five hundred years ago. Their colonia, Nueva España, lasted three hundred years. The colonial herencia of Spanish language, Catholic religion, architecture, social customs and political tradition surround us daily. Pátzcuaro was named a cuidad de Nueva España by King and Holy Roman Emperor Carlos V 475 years ago. It is a nationally designated Pueblo Mágico because of its colonial buildings, which surround the beautiful Plaza Grande, itself designed with the approval of the Spanish king. Catholic churches are ubiquitous, each with its patron saint fiesta. Y estóy aprendiendo hablar español poco mejor cada día.

La Lucha - Mexico´s nineteenth and early twentieth century history is one of violent battles to forge a nation in the modern world. The era begins with the War for Independencia (1810-1821), continues with many rebellions, then defeat at the hands of the United States (1845-46), the civil War of Reform (1857-60), the French Intervention (1862-67) and the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. The era comes to a brutal and drawn-out end with the Revolución, a civil war that began in 1910 and lasted into the 1920's.

These struggles still reverberate. Militant themes run strong, permeating political rhetoric, días de acciones cívicas and the naming of cities, plazas, streets and schools after the numerous héores of these struggles. For example, the smaller of the two main plazas in Pátzcuaro, commonly called Plaza Chica, is officially named in honor of Gertrudis Bocanegra. She was a criolla (a person of Spanish blood born in Nueva España) who supported the battle for Independencia from Spain. She lost both husband and son in the war and then was fusilada, shot by firing squad, in the Plaza Grande for her continuing financial support of the rebels.

This year, 2010, is the 200th anniversary of war for Independencia and the 100th anniversary of the Revolución; so there are many events in commemoration. A huge sign has been erected across the highway in front of our house, welcoming visitors to Pátzcuaro and marking the two anniversaries.

La era del PRI - El Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) ruled Mexico for seventy years after the Revolución. It maintained its one-party domination of government and political discourse through corporativismo, the co-opting of all possible political forces by dispensing patronage and guaranteed economic benefits (renta), la corrupción, and through coercion and violence.

As indicated by its name, the Institutional Revolutionary Party maintained a radical vocabulary and a policy of nationalist economic development. PRI kept the country virtually closed to imports in order to develop its own industrial and commercial base. The expropriation of foreign-owned oil production by President Lázaro Cárdenas in the 1930's is still an emotional high-point for Mexican's much-sought sense of sovereignty over their world.

PRI's control ended in 2000 with the election to the presidency of Vicente Fox of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN). In 2006, he was followed by Felipe Calderón, also of PAN. There is a strong belief among Mexicans that PRI will re-take the presidency in 2012. Its heritage of authoritarian, secretive decision making, corruption and resulting distrust among la gente, the people, is still very strong. Mexican democracy is very much a work-in-progress.

México global - As a result of increasing international indebtedness, peso devaluations and inflation in the 1980's and 90's -- in part, outcomes of PRI´s nationalist development policy -- the Mexican government found that it had to open its economy to the world. The World Bank required this for Mexico to receive debt relief. PRI President Carlos Salinas actively pursued trade treaties, the largest of which was NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the U.S. and Canada, which went into effect in 1994. Mexico now has trade treaties with more countries than any other in the world.

This globalization process has greatly transformed Mexico. US companies and their products, from Wal-Mart to Pepsi, are everywhere. The Mexican economy is now highly dependent on income from the United States: from exports of oil and manufactured goods, remittances (money sent home by migrants to the U.S.), and tourism. Government-owned enterprises have been sold to private owners, many of them U.S. companies. The railroad that runs past our house is the Kansas City Southern. Cell phones, computers and the internet are commonplace, as are US style clothing (made in China), fast-food, music, movies, TV and imported corn. English is the required second language in higher education.

Living within the Five Mexicos

Moving forward in this blog, My Mexican World, I will use this model of the five worlds of Mexico to analyze and communicate my experiences. I will look at each present-day experience to identify and explore how it manifests one or more of these worlds:

• Los Indigena
• Colonial Nueva España
• La Lucha
• El PRI
• México Global