The Antisocial Socialist

I know better than to put too much hope in electoral politics, but you know what? I'm going to celebrate the fuck out of the fact that Amlo won, not just for it being an historic moment (a left-leaning party crushing the PRI—like, do you know how amazing that is?) but because Mexico is bucking the global trend towards authoritarian, anti-democratic, far-right politics. If you know anything about Latin American politics, you know that this is a brave and dangerous move, and there will be a long, probably deadly fight ahead if Morena is going to both institute the kinds of sweeping changes it's talking about and avoid a US-sponsored coup.

In related news, I really miss Mexico and want to go back.

Oh, Mexico. I don't see how this could possibly go badly, do you?

What I don't get, despite having spent time in Mexico and studying Latin American history, is how a populace that is overall much more politically astute than ours can basically go back to electing dictators. Even with widespread electoral fraud, it seems bizarre.

If you mean "horchata," you should say "agua horchata." Otherwise, you may get some raised eyebrows, or worse, a different sort of delicious milky substance than the one you wanted.

Some photos from today's adventures...

We got a slow start to the morning, and ended up grabbing coffee in a cute café across from the Monument to the Revolution:


This is the view. It's approximately a two-second walk from the Casa.

Then we went to the Basílica de Guadalupe.


I think this is seriously the best picture I've taken here.

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Then we met up with the Mexican film editor and did film stuff. Wish me luck that the phone call we get tomorrow morning says that it all exported and burned correctly.

Arizona residents show some basic human compassion, get ticketed for littering.

But opponents say the water drops are encouraging immigrants to continue to come across the border illegally. The critics say there ought to be Border Patrol agents stationed near the water stations to arrest those who are crossing illegally as soon as they finish drinking. So furious are some at the practice of aiding immigrants that they have slashed open the water jugs, crushed them with their vehicles or simply poured the water into the desert.

These "critics" ought to get charged with murder. One of the people profiled in the article found the body of a 14-year-old child in the desert just before he was ticketed.

The detention of the Juarez chief of police was the big story in Mexico City over the past few days, with this awesomecakes shot gracing the cover of La Jornada:



I was wondering if it was going to show up outside the Mexican news, but apparently it was on FOX, go figure.

I heard vague things about 1600 people killed in flooding in Northern Pakistan, but I wasn't really aware of the severity until I got home. ironed_orchid has a links round-up here.

Stephen Hawking sez: We're so screwed.

Are the courts playing stupid for political reasons, or do they honestly think that property destruction during mass demos is organized?

Jury selection for Omar Khadr's trial. I know the trial has started, but it's painful to read about it.

The intertubes informs me that Ted Stevens died. Okay, so he was corrupt as all hell, but to his credit, he coined one of the best memes ever, and his trucks will live on in the popular lexicon.

Edited all day, and then at night, 20 of the people from the Casa headed out to see the Lucha Libre. It basically consists of muscular guys in masks beating the crap out of each other in a homoerotic spectacle, so you can imagine I was right into it. Also, there was delicious beer spiced with celery salt, chili pepper, and lime that you could get by the litre. I feel like I got two or three degrees more manly just by virtue of watching it.

They don't let you take pictures inside (which is a pity, because there was the most excellent mural of a race car and a masked wrestler holding a machine gun, all of which were in flames), but I got a picture of two of the cuter fans outside:


It's a very family-friendly event. The little kids in their masks were all kinds of adorable.

I was just about ready to pack it in for the night, but Giovanni, a long-term and very popular volunteer, is leaving this weekend, as are the interns, so it was decided that we should pack in to Jacalito, a tiny and wonderful bar.


I mean, there were 20 of us, but DEAR LORD.

We all got nicely toasted except for the two American boys. I was wearing my Marx dress, so I got into a heated but friendly debate with a Dutch economist who's staying at the Casa. Then it was time for dancing. Jacalito is popular with the Casa crowd, and perhaps for that reason attracts a certain element of the skeezy population that hangs around bars teaching clumsy white women how to dance. Oddly, the first guy I danced with wanted to talk to me about Marx and teaching. The second one was less gentlemanly. I had an excellent time.

Most people are hungover this morning and sleeping in. One of the big drawbacks of the dorm (besides that it's really hard to get in and out of the top bunk!) is that there are a few older people staying there, and the thing about old people is that they get up at 5 or 6 in the morning and believe you should be up too. The worst offender, the Chilean cockroach-slayer I mentioned earlier, had a habit of waking up at 6 and REARRANGING ALL THE THINGS, and losing her cosmetics bag and asking me to get things off the top shelves for her. She departed unceremoniously without paying up, but everyone was so relieved that she was gone that no one even minded. But there are still loud early risers, so I'm looking forward to having my own room in a few days.

ETA: Awww! The really cute Iraqi Kurdish refugee living here just brought me yogurt. I'll miss this place.

By the way, these entries are mostly public so that my mom knows I'm alive. I'm going to lock them down once I come back. But anyway, with this in mind, I'll start with a gross anecdote, which is that I saw my very first giant flying cockroach today. Right by my bed, too. My Chilean dorm mate made quick work of it, splattering cockroach guts everywhere.

Other than that, today was good. We struck out with the PRI again--they told us to come back tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. The CMT was also a washout--they told us to go to the Labour Congress instead.

( photos )

So I can say with confidence that the day improved after the cockroach incident. But then, when your day starts with a flying cockroach, there is nowhere to go but up.

Very exciting day today doing tourist stuff. We accomplished no filming whatsoever, but quite a bit of editing brainstorming, and hit the major museums that I was dying to see.

( muchos fotos )

The good news: There is wireless at the hostel, so you get to hear about my adventures in Mexico more or less as they happen.

The bad news: It's not the world's most convenient wireless, and my schedule's looking pretty packed, so my updates won't be as rich in detail or flowing in prose as I'd like. Also, no Photoshop on this computer so while I took photos, they're too large to upload, so those will have to come later.

Enough with the excuses, though. Here I am in beautiful Mexico City, staying at the Casa de los Amigos. The trip in was surprisingly not stressful, besides the 2 am wake-up. I'd intended to sleep on the flight, but my seatmate was a precociously bright child named Pepe who decided that it was his solemn duty to make sure that I understood some basic phrases in Spanish: "Hi!" "I don't understand!" "Poo." "I was killed by a bird." I am not sure where I will use the last one but he was very insistent that I learn it, just in case I had to explain to a doctor.

Paul met me at the airport, I dropped my things off at the Casa and got a whirlwind tour of the premises, and then it was off to the weekly punk market. For you Toronto people, imagine Kensington Market minus the pretension and gentrification, and much more crowded and intense. For you Toronto goths mourning the closure of all the clubs, rest assured that the subculture is alive and well here despite the heat. I think there were more goths on one street corner than there are in all of Toronto.

We then walked around downtown, taking in the sights until rain forced us into a Catholic church. I'm a fish out of water, but it's as if the fish was taken out of the water and put into delicious beer: Confusing and overwhelming, but a wonderful way to drown. The architecture is baffling and gorgeous, a mix of colonial European, traditional pueblo, and Brutalist concrete monstrosities. There's music everywhere, bursts of sounds from CD hawkers on the subway, bands playing on the streets, the church organs, drowned out by rock concerts. At night, everything flashes and glows; people stand in the square and throw flashing whirligigs into the air. The streets are named for revolutionaries and revolutionary moments, with the ominous headquarters of the municipal PRI competing with a gigantic ad for Corona across the skyline.

Had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, believe it or not, and then hot chocolate and churros at a deeply surreal cafe. I'm more or less ready for sleep, but apparently a bunch of us are going out for adventures instead. No rest for the wicked, it seems.