The News: Mexico (LRW)

There are many different news sources in Mexico, but the most popular (and my personal favorite) is El Universal, one of the largest circulating newspapers and television programs in Mexico. I use the El Universal app on my phone to stay up-to-date on the latest stories, and I try to read a couple articles in Spanish every day. Helpful tip: this is also a great way to expand your vocabulary in your host country´s language!

The major news of the week is the Pope´s visit to Mexico. In a country where 84% of the population is Catholic, a visit from the Pope is like Christmas, a block party, and a huge news scandal all rolled into one. Pope Francis does not exit a building or kiss a child at a pediatric hospital without every major media news source documenting his actions. Yesterday, he gave a mass in a suburb of Mexico City called Ecatepec, and 400,000 people traveled for hours or days to attend the service, including my host family! Unfortunately, this weekend I was white water rafting in Huasteca, so I could not attend this historic event, however my host brother Olaf showed me the video he took (posted to the left) more than a couple times, so I basically count that as my virtual attendance (all the benefits of seeing the Pope without having to travel for an entire day to see an hour-long mass). The traffic was actually so bad that the State Department issued a security threat, advising American citizens in Mexico to "ensure that you have adequate food, water, fuel, and other necessities on hand before the start of the Pope’s visit [because]... significant traffic congestion is likely." 

Ecatepec has one of the highest murder rates in Mexico, and it´s slums are notorious for drug gang violence, something that the Pope did not overlook in his sermon. Amidst Donald Trump´s ridiculous demands that Mexico pay to build a wall, blocking immigrants travels to the U.S., Pope Francis encouraged his followers to turn Mexico into a land of opportunity, where citizens would not need to emigrate to envision a better future. He intoned that the word of God would defeat the "devil," referring to the violence that plagues the country, as well as other sins like vanity, pride and wealth, in a state where the income gap is continually becoming wider.

Although I did not have internet access the last three days (I spent the weekend off the grid, in the hut pictured to the left) scanning the headlines this morning before classes, I see many of the common topics, like "corrupción" in politics, and of course, the latest soccer news, amongst stories about the success of the movie "Revenant" (which was directed by Mexican film producer Alejandro González Iñárritu) and international news, like the discussions between Obama and Putin to create peace in Syria.

My entire first month in Mexico, el Chapo, his interview with the Rolling Stone, and his messages to actress Kate del Castillo dominated the news, however this hubub has finally started to die down. El Chapo is both hated and adored in Mexico, as some view him as a modern-day Robin Hood, and others see him as the symbol of the drug cartel problem, and the resulting violence it causes in this country.

Needless to say, the news in Mexico is very different than how news from Mexico is portrayed in America. The only headlines we ever hear in the States are the negative ones, when in fact my experience here so far has been very different. My favorite representation of this is the Youtube video that we watched in my business class, which turns all perceptions of Mexico as solely a country with drug cartel violence and corruption on their head, depicting Mexico as a land of opportunity. Yes, this country has its problems, but so does every other country in the world. News outlets profit from scandals and negative headlines, but the words of the Pope to the Mexican bishops show the true hope for the future of this country: " Do not lose time or energy in secondary things, in gossip or intrigue, in conceited schemes of careerism, in empty plans for superiority, in unproductive groups that seek benefits or common interests.  Do not allow yourselves to be dragged into gossip and slander... Of great benefit to the Mexican people will be the unifying witness of the Christian synthesis and the shared vision of the identity and future of its people."