"las elecciones no han terminado" is painted on many walls in xoxo. this is not the work of grafiteros. there murals were paid for by the PRD, the partido revolucionario democratico, after the state elections in august. usually they also say something about a planned mega march that happened back in august or they renounce the general electoral fraud. their bright yellow colour envokes the ongoing protests and political action taken by the federal PRD, led by their presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
many walls in oaxaca continue to shout declarations of political and revolutionary victory over the government of Ulises Ruiz. the posters - this winter very professionally designed and painted - for the November 25th march are the colour red; one is of a raised clenched fist. graffitti on one wall in the centre reads: "el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido".
perhaps this alone, is what a casual visitor to oaxaca sees. and certainly, for the foreign tourists who have begun to flock to oaxaca, much in the same way they were attracted to chiapas, the revolutionary spirit in the state seems strong.
Mexico has spent 71 years under a one party state (for all intents and purposes), 34 years under a much despised dictator, and who knows who many years under a unified aztec bureaucracy. democracy is honestly not something that comes naturally in this coutnry. and, as a solution to the constant concentration of power, real and complete revolution has not been particularly successful either.
las sunday in las lomas de san nazareno our neighbours put up a tianguis. the individual puestos were marked out with rocks and women brought tables and umbrellas to sell their goods. sparkly stars, poinsettias, garlands and carol-playing lights predominated. although there were a few grocery items, atole to warm up shoppers in the morning, and memelas and tacos when mid morning hunger struck. no one was there to shop but rather to gather.
on the road in front three or four men were building speed bumps into the dirt road leading into the neighbourhood. here people do not petition the government for things - much less something as trivial as a tope to slow traffic.
so the community has a street meeting and decicdes to build topes, and how to organize the tianguis market, or where the taxis can stop and wait for passengers. One street bought a gate to close off traffic - most do not own cars - when there were more problems with theft and vagrancy. a couple of days ago i saw one of our street leaders talking with a sheherd explaining where exactly his animals are unwanted.
maybe this is why only 30% of elegible oaxacans voted in the august elections, and why, i think, APPO has very little dedicated popular support. politics in mexico are corrupt and when underhanded dealings are exposed no one seems to care. people do not place their faith in the political process.
voting in mexico has been explained to me as a choice of who will do the least. generally people don't seem to trust their elected representatives to change anything or to do what they are asked to do. the mysterious political activities that go on in state and federal houses of government are disregarded in favour of the community organization. a person's neighbours whose names, faces, and family history are known are trusted to get something done. and here, as in most places, small organizations form the strongest opposition to politicians. political parties are too big to be trusted and APPO is too diverse to be trusted to offer an alternative.
on the highway to arrazola, and thus on the way to las lomas, there is a bar. this area is full of construction businesses: supply stores, equiptment rentals, tablaroca (concrete brick) makers, and the contractors and labourers. the bar that we pass daily is call "el sindicato' - the union - and i have never seen it open. this is not a union prepared to drop everything to shut down the oaxacan economy, although collectively or individually it's members may have participated in the barricades last summer.
is in such a place as this, with the people who presumably congregate, where the heart of oaxacan political strength lies. the PRD will continue to scream electoral fraud until the next elections (during which campaign they will presumeably remind voters of the corruption), APPO will continue to poster the streets and hold occasional marches until it loses all remaining cohesion, seccion 22 and 59 will continue to squabble over rights to schools, missing money, unfufilled promises, and which section holds the moral authority, and the PRI will continue to blithely assume political dominancy.
none of this ultimately matters. it is my community organization to which i must ultimately answer in most things and to which i must go if i want change.
