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 Entertainment | June 2006 
Youths Targeted in Mexican Version of 'Rock the Vote'
 Laurence Iliff - Dallas Morning News
Mexico City – It looked like a typical Mexican rock concert: youths with black T-shirts, eyebrow piercings and Coronas in hand. And it sounded like one: bone-crushing drums, wall-of-sound guitars.
But here and there, behind the stage, on video monitors, was an almost subliminal message hinting at another mass event in a week's time – Sunday's presidential election.
"If you don't vote, then shut up," read one image below a huge "X" stenciled with the words "Tu Rock Es Votar," Mexico's version of the American "Rock the Vote."
The voter drive has dished out months of concerts, blunt TV spots and MTV interviews with the candidates.
Saturday's concert capped the campaign.
The need for such a campaign illustrates how quickly Mexican youths' euphoria over democracy dissipated just six years after the 2000 election ended one party's 71-year lock on the presidency.
Armando David Ortigosa, president of Tu Rock Es Votar, visited L.A.-based Rock the Vote and adapted the program for Mexico.
Tu Rock is hoping for similar success in a nation where democracy is only a decade old – far younger than the voters themselves – but where a certain cynicism is already setting in.
"It's hard to get inspired about voting because all the candidates say the same thing, and none of them represents real change for Mexico," said Ricardo Quiroz, 19. "Young people follow these bands [in the Tu Rock concert], so maybe that will inspire them."
Youth cynicism has different roots in Mexico – $5-a-day jobs, corrupt police, widespread poverty – but disgust with the political process is common ground shared with youths in the U.S.
"The political apathy in Mexico is somewhat different from the political apathy in the United States, and so we had to modify the program somewhat," said Mr. Ortigosa, 28.
To draw the nonrockers, he brought in soccer star Gerardo Torrado and yuppie newscaster Carlos Loret de Mola.
Saturday's closing concert featured a dozen groups, including Plastilina Mosh and Victimas del Doctor Cerebro, playing three songs each. The focus was on rock, however, not politics.
Tu Rock has been careful not to lean toward any candidate and is hoping to survive during non-election years through grants from the Federal Election Institute.
While Rock the Vote registered 1.4 million young voters for the 2004 election, Tu Rock is trying to encourage youths to go to the polls, because only the government can register voters.
Firms that will do exit surveys on election day have included questions measuring the effectiveness of the Tu Rock campaign.
Mr. Ortigosa, who secured sponsors including Coca-Cola de Mexico and received free airtime from both major TV networks, is optimistic about youth participation in Sunday's vote, but he said the candidates have not helped.
"They are doing everything to keep people from voting," Mr. Ortigosa said of the nasty, name-calling campaigns. Their bland MTV appearances didn't help, he said.
Tu Rock Es Votar has competition. Leftist groups, university students and government critics like Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista National Liberation Army have denounced the elections as a farce. Some have called on voters to annul their ballots.
The youth vote is particularly important in Mexico because of the high number of young people in the country.
In Tu Rock's expansive definition of youths, voters 18 to 34 represent just less than half of all registered voters. Those least likely to vote are younger than 25. They vote at only half the rate as voters in general.
Tu Rock says just 30 percent of young people cast ballots in the 2003 midterm elections.
"Many young people get their voter credentials because it's the only official identification, and it allows them to get into bars," said pollster Ray Campos, president of Consulta Mitofsky. "To them, its least useful purpose is for voting."
Generally, analysts said, young people are more concerned about their personal situation than the long-term future of the country and thus see little point in voting. That changes once they settle down.
But Mexico has a long tradition of youth activism, and there are presidential candidates like Patricia Mercado of the minor party Alternativa talking about drug use and safe sex and gay unions.
Maribel Sotelo, 22, is looking forward to election day. "I am excited to vote because we do have a candidate that is going to create a good democracy," she said, referring to former Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Polls show that young voters are as divided as the nation at large over the two front-runners, Mr. López Obrador, 53, and former Energy Minister Felipe Calderón, 43.
Miriam Anabel Lozano Barajas, 25, is not going to sit out this election. "I didn't vote in 2000 because I didn't think my vote counted for anything. Now I'm voting for Calderón. ... As you get older, you begin to realize how bad things are and how much better they could be."
In fact, Mr. Ortigosa doesn't think Mexican youths are really that indifferent to the big political picture. They just need to be motivated to do something about it.
"Our idea is that young people are not apathetic. Young Mexicans complain about everything," he said. "And when you complain about the way things are, that means you care."
Mexico City intern Linda Corchado contributed to this report. |
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