MEXICO: Artists Push 'Other' Bicentennial Viewpoint

• by Emilio Godoy (mexico city)
• Monday, September 20, 2010
• Inter Press Service

While the Mexican government has set aside substantial sums of money and organised dozens of activities this year to celebrate 200 years of independence from Spain, artists and civil society groups have created their own agenda to provide an alternative viewpoint.

'It is about motivating people to reflect on the bicentennial. We feel that everything that was prepared at the official level has been disheartening. The government wanted to do something with drums and cymbals, in a jingoistic approach. There is an itch to present other views,' Cisneros told IPS.

This poet and playwright, graduate of the public Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), is a founder and member of the collective coordination of the CLETA Political Cultural Organisation, founded in 1973.

CLETA and other organisations launched their international campaign 'What Are We Celebrating?' last week to call attention to opinions other than the official discourse about the Bicentennial -- and to the 100 years since the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.

'There is nothing to celebrate: on one side, we have an extremely dependent economy and, on the other, we have a majority of the population that is submerged in poverty, and this is a new kind of slavery,' charged painter Antonio Ortiz, widely known as El Gritón (the shouter).

Ortiz was one of the driving forces behind the exhibit 'Ire and Desire,' convened by independent artistic and cultural groups to provide an alternative and critical contrast to the official bicentennial celebrations.

In two exhibitions in May and July on a busy avenue on the south side of Mexico City, some 250 artists provided their visions about the two historic events -- Independence and the Revolution -- through paintings, sculptures, installations and performances.

The Mexican government of conservative President Felipe Calderón has planned dozens of activities, including forums and contests, to celebrate the Bicentennial. The main attraction was held Sep. 15, with a military parade including soldiers from many countries, followed by fireworks. Sep. 16 marked the 200th anniversary of the start of armed conflict the people of Mexico who sought independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Presidents Álvaro Colom, of Guatemala; Porfirio Lobo, of Honduras; Ricardo Martinelli, of Panama; and Juan Manuel Santos, of Colombia, were the few to respond to Calderón's invitation to celebrate Mexico's 200-year anniversary. 

 In addition, the official agenda has excluded Mexico's many indigenous peoples, as well as African-Mexicans.

In a bid to make up for that oversight, the government granted the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the country's highest honour, to Guatemalan indigenous icon Rigoberta Menchú, 1992 Nobel Peace laureate, and to Jean Marie Le Clezio, of France, winner of the 2008 Nobel for Literature.

Menchú lived in Mexico in exile, while Le Clezio, who also lived in Mexico, is deeply knowledgeable about Hispanic cultures.

In his Bicentennial speeches, Calderón has appealed to patriotic sentiment and called for national unity, which some see as an effort to boost support for his policies, particularly those related to public security in this nation assailed by the violence of several drug-trafficking cartels.

The government has spent some 235 million dollars on the celebrations, though its major symbolic projects will not be completed this year, like the illuminated column 'Estela de Luz' (trail of light) in the Chapultepec Forest, the city's 'lungs' in the western metropolitan area.

Nor will the Bicentennial Park be finished, which is under construction on the site of a former petroleum refinery in the eastern neighbourhood of Azcapotzalco.

The Bicentennial of Mexico's independence has occasioned new books, songs, cooking contests, movies, documentary films and even jokes on social networking websites like Facebook, parodying the heroes of Independence, including Catholic priests and rebel leaders Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos.

In response to the official events, the Coordination of Metropolitan Cultural Organisations decided to promote culture and art for creating social change, strengthening cultural spaces through local self-management, and defending cultural diversity through community and collective values.

'There is an initial response that says 'There is nothing to celebrate; yes, we are going to commemorate our heroes and deeds.' It is a claim that goes beyond those 200 years,' said Cisneros.

To set up a new socio-political agenda, a conglomeration of non- governmental organisations held its second national social congress Sep. 14- 15 in the town of Dolores Hidalgo, in Guanajuato state, some 320 kilometres north of the Mexican capital.

CLETA, meanwhile, held a mock trial Sep. 19 about the beginning of the fight for independence.

Other activities this year include the 37th Cervantes Street Festival, hosted by CLETA, Oct. 24-Nov. 7, in the city of Guanajuato, with more than 300 activities planned and showcasing artists from a dozen countries.

'Political-cultural caravans' will travel across the country Nov. 7-14, to arrive in Mexico City in time for the Constituent Social Congress, to take place Nov. 17-21.

The organisers of the 'Ire and Desire' exhibit have yet to decide if they will extend their artistic movement beyond the Bicentennial.

'It was a good reflection of ourselves. It made an impression that artists, through our works, can help people to think about the state of our nation,' said Ortiz.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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