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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2006 
In Nearby Mexican Towns, Rallies Are Big News
 Manuel Roig-Franzia - Washington Post
| | Armando Reyes hawks copies of El Mexicano featuring a story about U.S. immigration rallies, in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso. (Manuel Roig-franzia/ Washington Post) |
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - La Jornada, the left-leaning Mexico City newspaper, splashed the story across its front page Monday, running a giant photograph of demonstrators and declaring the U.S. immigration rallies "historic." Street hawkers in Ciudad Juarez touted the latest edition of El Mexicano, showcasing a tight shot of a Catholic priest standing beneath a crucifix and exhorting the faithful to rally for immigrants' rights across the border in El Paso.
In parts of Mexico, especially along the border, the immigration rallies being held in Washington and elsewhere in the United States were big news, accompanied by blaring headlines and front-page editorials. But elsewhere in the country, the reportage was decidedly subdued -- a far cry from the intense coverage by the Spanish-language news media in the United States that has been credited with helping to promote the rallies.
The news media here that are covering the events have seized on fears that illegal immigrants may one day be considered felons and that the people who employ them will be penalized. The news media also have gushed about the size of the protests: "The largest in memory," said the online edition of El Mexicano in Tijuana.
The tone, while exuberant, also struck cautionary notes. El Diario de El Paso, a Spanish-language daily read by thousands of workers who stream into the United States each day from Ciudad Juarez, urged demonstrators in a front-page editorial not to "wave Mexican flags in the noses of proud Americans. The most sensible thing to do would be to carry both flags: the United States flag as a sign of respect for that country and the Mexican flag to represent the pride demonstrators feel for their roots."
El Mexicano focused its coverage on calls for peaceful demonstrations. The paper noted that the same Catholic priest who called for crowds to gather in El Paso also pleaded for "order, so that the demonstrations won't turn into anarchy."
Although the rallies dominated cable news coverage in the United States, they were not enough to bump lighter fare off the air here. A dating show called "Twelve Hearts" and the venerable soap operas known as telenovelas kept on playing. In El Paso, Telefutura, a network owned by the powerful Spanish-language network Univision, stuck with its celebrity gossip hit, "Escandalo TV," or "Scandal TV," while demonstrators were massing in the streets of Washington.
Reforma, an influential daily in the capital, did not deem the rallies front-page news; El Universal, another widely read Mexico City newspaper, used a news service story.
Still, the radio waves in El Paso and across the border in Ciudad Juarez pounded out a steady stream of announcements urging people to gather for protests in El Paso's San Jacinto Plaza. "For pride," one announcer on Radio 13 declared. And the day's rallies were big enough to light up the editors at El Mexicano. Their online edition carried the headline: "Impressive." |
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