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“Your
people have enlivened and brightened our
community,” he tells the gathering of county
officials and businessmen. “They’ve made it
grow and made it young. Your brothers and sisters,
nieces and nephews who live in Storm Lake are wonderful
people and have made our community a better place to
live.”
I sit
with the mayor’s three sons, sophisticated young
men named David, Raul and Francisco. They speak perfect
English. David runs his father’s waterpark at
Santa Rita, which is a major regional tourist spot
— the big weekend is Easter. Raul studies
journalism at the University of Guadalajara. Francisco
soon will be an architect, and is in love with a woman
who just started her career as a lawyer.
Raul
describes the politics.
“There
is no international investment in the rural areas
because there was no democracy,” he explains.
The PRI
(Party of Institutional Revolution) ran Mexico for 70
years until 2000.
“It
was the perfect dictatorship,” Raul says.
Then
came President Vicente Fox, of the PAN party,
historically allied with the Catholic Church. These are
all PAN people on the hill.
PAN was
supposed to deliver them from evil. Fox has not yet
delivered. The PAN people say you can’t turn a
battleship that fast. Others think it’s more of
the same: one set of oligarchs hands the keys to the
other set.
“The
parties are not convinced that the problem is
themselves,” Mayor Soto says through his son,
David. “They need to follow democracy for the
people, not just for them.”
I ask
Mayor Soto what he wants from Storm Lake.
“We
want your friendship, to feel like friends. We need to
get close so that in the future you can pass your
culture to us,” he says.
His
wife, Elva, tells Scott Olesen that what the mayor is
after is democracy, liberty and the rule of law.
That’s what Mexico wants from America.
But, the
peasantry has been under the thumb of a single,
dominating power for the better part of 1,500 years.
The Aztecs invaded in 620 AD and made their human
sacrifices on the steps. Ruins remain in Ayotlan. Five
hundred years ago, the Spanish Conquistadors came and
vanquished the Aztecs, ruling hand-in-hand with the
Catholic Church. Santa Rita was established formally as
a community in 1574. The PRI took over early in the
20th Century, trying to obliterate church influence.
PAN took the reins just a few years ago.
Mexico
has a revolution every 100 years or so: 1810, 1910
…
Poverty seeps like the morning dew on the
wrought iron benches in Santa Rita’s town square.
The unemployment rate in Ayotlan County is estimated at
30%, but it is probably greater considering
under-employment. The illiteracy rate is 50%, but is
probably greater considering functional illiteracy.
The
roosters crow at 5 a.m. Women and children sweep the
sidewalks and the streets in front of every house. The
houses are clean, almost all have TV and telephones.
Water is heated by the sun on tanks atop the casas. The
church bells ring the Angelus at 6 a.m., 6:30 a.m. and
7 a.m., when Mass starts. Twenty women and five men
sing a capella. Girls and boys polished in uniform walk
past the church on their way to school, offering smiles
and greetings to a stranger.
They
will go to school maybe through the elementary level.
If they can afford bus fare of $50 to $60 per month to
Ayotlan, their education might continue. At the high
school in Ayotlan, a town of 15,000 has 240 students
enrolled. Three students share a computer.
The
principal makes $2.95 per hour. He also works as a
psychologist and homeopathic physician (natural
medicines). The assistant principal works for free.
Teachers are paid for the morning, and volunteer in the
afternoon. The school is funded through the University
of Guadalajara. The city donates the building. The
state and federal governments do not fund schools
directly.
The
people know what the schools are like in Storm Lake. To
be enrolled in Iowa is a privilege. Dr. Hernandez, in a
recent visit to The City Beautiful, urged his compadres
not to blow the opportunity. He wants them to come back
to Santa Rita and build the community. Hernandez and
others lament the fact that when some children come
back home from Iowa, they bring crass materialism with
them. The same gang signs in Storm Lake are in Ayotlan
County. That culture they can do without.
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