| | |  Entertainment | Books | December 2009 
Book Review: Mexico City, in All its Filth and Glory
 Hank Lamport - Denver Post
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December 21, 2009
No self-respecting advertising agency would intentionally dub one of its favored clients a "monster." Yet, Mexico City, which has grown meteorically in the past century to be among the world's largest metropolises, surely qualifies for the close-up, affectionate treatment and evocative nickname that John Ross' new book, "El Monstruo," lavishes upon it.
From its origins as the ceremonial and administrative center of the Aztec pre-Colombian empire to its role as linchpin of modern Mexico, the city pulses with a unique vibrancy. Situated in an earthquake zone with the additional burdens of bad water drainage, flood vulnerability and its notorious, miserable air quality, it is miraculous that Mexico City has spectacularly endured for more than six centuries.
Ross, a longtime journalist and author of a prior book on the Zapatista movement, came to Mexico City in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 1985 earthquake and never left. He ensconced himself in the heart of town and from there has covered the cataclysmic shifts in the social and political fabric of the country.
Ross' populist perspective permeates the city's daily brutality toward its most marginal citizens, the ones who live in the sprawling east-side slums where population densities approach 100,000 per square mile. He punctuates his text with slice-of-life interviews done in La Blanca, a restaurant Ross frequents near his downtown residence, as a way of showing the stories that cumulatively make the city.
His most harrowing accounts are of competing revolutionary armies besieging the capital for 10 days in February 1913, culminating in the murder of President Francisco I. Madero, and of government action to suppress student unrest on the brink of the Summer Olympics in 1968.
One theme that enhances appreciation of modern Mexico for the casual reader is the antipathy felt between urban and rural interests, a mutual non-comprehension that is confused by the fact that the vast majority of Mexicans flocking to the capital in the last half-century retain their identification with the countryside.
When the agrarian Emiliano Zapata, in the throes of the Mexican Revolution, had the opportunity to bring Mexico City to its knees, he recoiled, realizing that the soundest way for rural Mexico to attain its political goals was through the brokering provided by a strong capital city.
Ross faithfully chronicles the sea change in Mexican politics since 1985, in some measure due to the ineptitude with which the institutionalized governing party (the PRI) handled the earthquake's political fallout. He traces the post-quake tenants' rights movement as an indicator of the national dissatisfaction with the PRI, the dominant political party for more than 70 years until 2000.
It is no accident that within three years of the quake, Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas, son of populist president Lázaro Cárdenas and later mayor of Mexico City, nearly became president but for generally acknowledged governmental fraud that tipped the election against him.
In Mexico City itself, the left has held the reins of power for 20 years. As difficult as attaining power was, the city's entrenched interests have severely crimped the wielding of that power in a programmatic manner.
Ross deals at some length with an earlier example of conflict between change and continuity recounting quarrels over subway construction, which gobbled huge chunks of Mexico City's budget and that pitted forces of modernization against politicians with strong patronage among bus and taxi drivers as well as the permit-holders of profitable bus routes.
Throughout we are treated to tidbits that help recast our impressions of how the United States has interacted with its southern neighbor recently. For example, it came as a surprise that the first American auto manufacturer was in Mexico well before 1930. Ross' chronological treatment also clearly captures the ongoing dilution of overtly anti-U.S. sentiment in Mexico's foreign policy.
While the book could stand some photos, and Ross' familiarity with Mexico City's geography is not shared by the general reader, El Monstruo is a valentine to place and useful chronicle of an epoch that has seen Mexico's people find their voice.
With the centennial of Mexico's revolution dawning next year, as well as the 200th anniversary of the start of the Mexican independence movement and with disquiet stirring in the populace, Ross' quarter-century as witness does us the invaluable service of putting events to come in a context to understand them.
Hank Lamport is a teacher in Aurora and has written about Latin American issues since the 1980s. |
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