© 1999 by Bill Olson   

Like many poor countries, Mexico is getting left behind, to some degree, in the Information Revolution. Despite its slow progress, Mexico may be experiencing its own information revolution, in the form of the awakening of both press freedoms and a movie industry that have been sleeping for many years.

Any country's national constitution is often the beginning and end of media freedom, since it often defines the extent of media freedoms that will be officially recognized.

(Translation by Bill Olson.)

Article 7. The liberty to write and to publish writings upon any matter is inviolable. No law or authority can subject expression to prior restraint, or require a payment from the authors or printers, or limit the liberty of the press, beyond the requirement that it respect private life, public morals and peace. In no case shall the press be seized as an instrument of crime.

In forcing the press to respect a right to privacy and "public morals and peace," Article 7 compels the press to adhere to a sense of social responsibility.

Freedom of the press, as it is currently described in the Mexican constitution of 1910, has its roots during the presidency of Benito Juárez, a Native American liberal who is still regarded as Mexico's greatest president. He held office from 1858 to 1862 and again from 1867 to 1872. Francisco Zarco, one of Juárez's principal advisers, was "instrumental" in creating Mexico's first laws that guaranteed press freedom (Fromson, 120).

Though this legislation ended up, almost word for word, in the Constitution years later (as quoted above), the advances of Juárez and Zarco did not end the persecution of journalists. 1877 began the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, during which journalists, who had become used to freedom of expression under Juárez, would occasionally be beaten in prison. One journalist was beaten until he had to be taken to a hospital where he was locked up, his physician prevented from treating him (Fromson, 121).

Even the constitution is no guarantee of press freedom today. While Article 7 states, "No law or authority can … require a payment from the authors or printers…," it does not prevent payment to authors or printers. Embutes are bribes that government officials, business leaders, or members of the ruling party pay to journalists (Fromson, 115, 117, 118, 130). These payments are often made without comment, but those making them expect favorable news reporting in return. Some publishers no doubt support this culture of bribery, since many of them have paid extremely low salaries to their journalists, knowing that the journalists will recoup the losses from bribes (Fromson, 116).

Publisher Alejandro Junco de la Vega, however, who took over El Norte from his grandparents, was determined to develop an honest news team. When he expanded into Mexico City with Reforma, he trained young, inexperienced people as journalists, to avoid hiring anyone from the "old school." He wanted people who would not be part of the embute culture (Fromson, 131; Fitzgerald).

Junco de la Vega also acquired a reputation for challenging the government and the biased distributors that kept non pro-government newspapers out of Mexico City. (Fromson, 133; Fitzgerald). In 1973, he faced an attempt by President Echeverría to close down El Norte (Fromson, 131). But Junco de la Vega persevered.

He has had great success in the publishing business over the past two decades. He now owns a number of newspapers, including the renowned Mexico City daily, Reforma. (Fromson, 131-4; 136; Fitzgerald). "Junco is a publishing genius," wrote Fromson in an e-mail dated November 28, 1999.

Professor Fromson, who teaches journalism at the University of Southern California, also wrote that embutes might have cut back in recent years, but not because of ethics or legal crackdowns. The recent financial crisis has left the people who "provide the 'embute' ... less able to do so nowadays" (Fromson, 136; e-mail).

Foreign journalists and filmmakers in Mexico.

It is important for the non-Mexican, whether media professional or simply tourist, to note the 33rd article of Mexico's National Constitution:

Article 33. Foreigners ... have the right to the guarantees offered by Chapter I, First Article, of the present Constitution, but the Executive of the Union will have the exclusive faculty of deposing from the national territory, immediately and without need of prior judgment, any foreigner whose presence he judges inconvenient.

Foreigners shall not, in any manner, meddle in the political affairs of the country.

Paragraph Two explicitly places a prior restraint on the actions and expressions of foreigners. In 1997, I spend a lot of time with the family of a man who worked for the Institutionalized Revolutionary Party (PRI), the ruling political party. One day, he became offended that I was whistling the catchy theme from a TV ad for the rival PRD political party. He made reference to the 33rd article, but seemed satisfied, however, when I allowed him to make a statement on video advocating the PRI.

So Paragraph One of Mexico's Constitution provides the Executive branch a remedy to address the concerns of Paragraph Two. Article 33 is taken seriously in Mexico and is occasionally acted-upon.

Two hot topics in Mexican publishing are "Computers and the Internet" and "Business Management." Stores abound with books, in Spanish, on surfing the Internet and operating Microsoft® Windows®. Business Management, on the other hand, is often the only subject carried by some bookstores.

Popular fiction and non-fiction titles are also common. One can easily find a Spanish version of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Plus, there are many Mexican fiction titles in Spanish, and American fiction titles in both English and Spanish.

English language dictionaries are common, but not American titles. Merriam-Webster's dictionary is nowhere to be seen, but the Larousse Chambers English Dictionary, which seems to almost totally ignore American English, is widely available. In fact, Larousse prints copies of the Chambers English Dictionary in Mexico. This coincides with the Mexican preference toward teaching British English, a confusing choice, given that most Mexicans cross the river instead the ocean, so to speak.

Emanuel David Weinstein's review of Viva Mexico, for Mexico City's The News, gives some insight into how books in Mexico tend to handle delicate issues surrounding that country's history. Viva Mexico is a coffee table book written by Antonio Haas, a Harvard graduate who writes for the Mexico City daily newspaper, Excelsior (Weinstein).

In the review, Weinstein says,

"…The more intriguing aspect of this book is the forthright and honest writing about Mexico…. Unlike the majority of such books and almost all histories of Mexico, "Viva Mexico" [sic] is patently geared to telling the sometimes unpleasant truths about Mexico and Mexico's icons and heroes. Instead of being dogmatic, ideological and politically correct, Mr. Haas points out in the very first pages that Mexico is a country of gross contradictions and falsehoods.

Says Mr. Haas: "the image most foreigners have of Mexico is like a sculpture by Henry Moore, strong and expressive but full of holes in vital places ... it is the result of much tampering with the facts by political chroniclers who view history as an inexhaustible supply of modeling clay which they can shape for their own purposes" (Weinstein, 1).

Resurgence

According to Dr. David Dávila, Chair of the Department of History and International Relations at the University of the Americas, in Cholula, Mexico, in the 1930s and 40s, Mexico was "the second largest producer of films in the world." (Dávila) But after two decades of very minimal activity, the Mexican film industry is entering a new golden age (Munoz).

According to the website of Imcine, the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (Imcine), there were 39 motion pictures produced in the 1970s, 17 in the 1980s, and 66 in the 1990s. 1999, Mexico's biggest movie production year listed, saw 15 new titles released.

What might be called the first golden age was defined greatly by comedies featuring Tin Tan (Dávila; Tin Tan website) and Mario Moreno (Cantiflas website). But that was also the period when Luis Buñuel was directing classics like "Angle of Death," "The Lost Ones" and "The Brute."

During the 1980s, Mexican movies were not very distinctive. From what I've observed, and according to Munoz (Munoz, 2), Mexican movies at that time were "cheap, soapy productions that floundered at the box office."

If one compares the Cantiflas comedies of the 1940s with movies of the 1980s, the difference is obvious. The Cantiflas movies were virtually indistinguishable from Hollywood movies. They were slick and professional. They were often inspired, and Mario Moreno was a comedy genius, equally skilled with dialog as he was with slapstick. In the 1980s, comedies like "Ni Modo Así Somos" had humorous moments, but were too long, self-indulgent and forced. And the serious movies were, as Lorenzo Munoz wrote, "Soapy" (Munoz, 2). The well-intentioned "Trájico Terremoto en México," about people affected by Mexico City's 1985 earthquake, provided mild entertainment. But, as was typical of this period, it looks like a below average American TV movie. The dialog and plot lines were formulaic, showing little inspiration or intelligence.

Common movie themes included violent crime thrillers with undercover cops fighting wealthy drug traffickers, sex comedies, westerns, horror movies and attempts to cross the border into the United States.

Mexican society is permeated by the mythology of crossing the border to a better life "on the other side." And like crossing the River Styx out of the Underworld, the odyssey is wrought with danger and personal tests. Movies of smugglers who exploit people, and news reports of violence against Mexicans in the U.S., seem almost designed to scare people away from searching for the route past Cerberus, to the bright, prosperous world above.

One somewhat interesting border-crossing movie, "Pasaporte a la Muerte," featured several people paying their life-savings to gain passage in a railroad freight car. The car is padlocked shut, then fortuitously abandoned in the hot sun. As the people inside face a slow death, each recounts the story of why he or she tried to cross the border. The movie is most interesting because of the background stories of the characters. But the genre is very telling about Mexico.

The new breed of movies, like "Cronos," and "Like Water for Chocolate," are demonstrating a literacy and artistic quality that puts Mexico's new cinema into more of a European category. But some people, like Marlene Dermer, co-founder and director of programming for The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, are disappointed by being pigeon-holed in the artfilm category, noting that "These are films for the masses" (Munoz, 3).

Given the growing latino community in the United States, Mexican movies of quality may be more economically viable. If obstacles to mass distribution can be overcome, this could be good not only for Mexicans, and for latinos in the United States, but may provide a boost for Mexico's film industry as it creates new entertainment products for all Spanish-speaking peoples of the world.

Censorship

There are two examples of government control of content in Mexican movies. First, in 1985, in Mexico City, I met an American director of Mexican movies. He told me he had to reshoot some scenes for his latest film, because the government thought he portrayed soldiers disrespectfully.

In another example, according to a December 8, 1999, article from Mexico City's The News (Garza), the release of Luis Estrada's new movie, "Herod's Law," was canceled at the last moment, leaving moviegoers angry. The film, which takes place in the 1940s, portrays corruption in the ruling PRI party (Garza; Lazcano). The Mexican Film Institute, which helped finance the film and owns 60% of it (ibid), wanted Estrada to release it after the year 2000, saying that it would be "very dangerous to release the movie at this moment." Officials at the Cinemark 12 movie theater in Mexico City said the movie's release was delayed "because of a faulty projector" (Garza). In November, a film festival in Acapulco had refused to show the film, until the outcry of government censorship caused them to back off (Garza; Lazcano).

All telecommunications in Mexico are regulated by COFETEL (www.cft.gob.mx), the Federal Telecommunications Commission. Its website is very well developed, containing statistics, graphs, bulletins for the press, even some information in English describing the telecom law for foreign investors (COFETEL).

Statistics/Demographics

According to COFETEL, there are 10.5 million phone lines in Mexico, or about 10.5 per each 100 people. Additionally, there are about 5.4 million cell phone users, or about 5.6 per each 100 people.

Consolidation of local areas

Currently, the Mexican government is engaged in a massive operation to consolidate areas of local phone service. According to Bulletin 39/99, issued by COFETEL (Consolidación), this is a gradual program to redesign the geographic areas of local service. Currently, local service is confined to a community. The redefinition will expand local calling areas to neighboring communities, allowing people to call them without the long-distance charge.

Before the program began, Mexico had 1,464 local telephone service areas. After the consolidation is completed, the number of local areas will have been reduced to 406 (Consolidación).

Each month, the COFETEL website publishes a new list of communities who will be affected. The restructuring will also standardize phone numbers, which currently vary in length, to seven digits. COFETEL says the consolidation process should be completed in June, 2002 (Consolidación).

LATADEL

Most public phones in Mexico today are LADATEL phones, which are operated with pre-paid phone cards that can be easily purchased at news kiosks, pharmacies, grocery stores, bus depots, etc. These phones are new and have a digital display that tells how much money is left on the card, as well as the number you are dialing. The cards are decorated with photos, some of which are works of Mexican art, others of which are advertisements for national products or resorts.

These public phones are far superior to the coin-operated phones of past generations. The coin phones were old, unreliable, and an operator frequently interrupted calls, asking that more coins be deposited. In 1982, when I attended college in Mexico, ten centavo coins still existed. These were valued at one tenth of a peso and equaled about one tenth of one U.S. cent. They were virtually valueless. Sometimes stores, upon ringing up a price including centavos, never worried about collecting them or giving them in change. But people collected them for pay phones. It was not totally uncommon to see someone on a payphone, perhaps in a bus station, with a handful of ten centavo coins on the counter before him, ready to plug them in to keep from getting disconnected.

At least two of the major U.S. Internet search engines, MSN and Yahoo, now have Mexico services (MSN; Yahoo). In addition, Mexico has Infosel.com, owned by newspaper magnet Alejandro Junco de la Vega (Fromson, 132; Infosel). Infosel has chat rooms, a constantly updated newswire, links to Junco de la Vega's newspapers, pages on entertainment and general news, and a search engine for Infosel, Mexican Internet sites, the World Wide Web, or news items (Infosel).

Infosel also has special services restricted to members, such as databases of who's who in Mexico and judicial decisions (Infosel).

Only about 1.4% of Mexicans have access to the Internet, almost 53% of whom are in business. Unlike the United States, Mexico does not provide much access to information per se for its citizens. Public libraries are few and poorly equipped. Even Mexico's Library of Congress provides no Internet access (Collier). People without the Internet in their homes can access it from computer stores, Internet cafes (Collier), and -- in Mexico City and Monterrey -- at the Benjamin Franklin Libraries. But such access typically costs between three and six dollars an hour -- far too expensive for the average Mexican (Collier). While some universities, such as the University of the Americas, in Cholula (UDLA), have some Internet access for their students, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which is self-proclaimed as the country's "most important university" (UNAM), only provides Internet access for students "engaged in research" (Collier).

One barrier to technology in Mexico is the cost. Not only is the per capita purchasing power about a quarter that of the United States (at $8,300 annually compared with $31,500 in the U.S.) (CIA), but technology items often cost slightly more than in the U.S., providing a "double wammy" for Mexicans. Internet service providers, for example, "typically charge $26 or more each month" (Collier). But there are less expensive services, such La Neta, which is non-profit and charges from $8.01 a month for four hours of Internet access up to $21.36 for 30 hours (La Neta; OANDA, Inc.). But La Neta's cost is actually higher. Its website lists cost-additions due to the IVA sales tax (La Neta).

An additional option exists for foreign travelers to Mexico, who may sign up for limited-time Internet access through Mexico Online (Mexico Online).

In addition to the cost of Internet access, Robert Collier describes other obstacles to Internet growth in Mexico, including, 1) that telephone companies charge about five U.S. cents per minute for local calls, 2) that investors in Mexico's stock market are reluctant to invest in Internet and other high-tech stocks, and 3) the lack of successful e-commerce in Mexico, which is itself affected by, 4) the lack of good customer service among most Mexican businesses and unreliable shipping (Collier).

Mexico has two major television networks, Televisa and TV Azteca. While, according to Fromson, broadcasters in Mexico may have a greater level of freedom than in some other countries (Fromson, 123), government economic favors, similar perhaps to the embutes paid to journalists, can affect TV's independence without regulation. Televisa makes no secret of showing its gratitude for the "enormous tax advantage" it receives from the government (Fromson, 124).

A lack of competition has allowed Televisa to operate business as usual for years. In the early 1990s, TV Azteca had a difficult time getting established, since Televisa had exclusive contracts with the nation's leading advertisers. (Fromson, 126-7) But today, Televisa's content may be in a process of liberalization because of competition from TV Azteca and Mexico City's Cable Channel 40. (Fromson e-mail)

Cable & VCRs

In 1997, I had the opportunity to spend time with six middle-class families in Pachuca, the capital of Mexico's state of Hidalgo. Occupations included retired public school teacher, retired nurse, college-educated employee of the ruling PRI party, telephone service technician, custodian in a state capital building, etc.

Each family owned its own home, made of concrete blocks. These homes were small by U.S. standards. Half of the homes were two stories, the rest were one. Only about half of the families owned a car, usually a used car. The PRI employee had two cars. Each family owned a stereo, with CD player, a color TV, and had cable service. Only three families had a VCR. One VCR was a Betamax and another was in such disrepair that it frequently broke videotapes.

According the CIA, Mexico has 1,300 AM and FM radio stations (CIA). Professor Fromson, of USC, says radio stations in Mexico "have far smaller audiences than big television stations," but nevertheless remain "a popular medium," one that the government takes a great interest in (Fromson, 127). According to Fromson, in 1993, Manuel Villa, the "pseudocensor" for the Interior Ministry (Domestic Secretariat), threatened to revoke Radio MIL's license within ninety days when it invited leading opposition presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas to be a guest.

The show's host, Miguel Angel Granados Chapa, resigned rather than turn his talk show into a "brief, daily commentary," as his station's manager requested (Fromson, 128).

The future growth of Mexican radio will be interesting to watch. According to a newspaper column by Juan Calderon, there are about 60 AM and FM radio stations in Mexico City (Fromson, 127; Calderon). The FM music stations have a larger audience than the AM talk stations, because of the large number of young people in Mexico (Calderon; CIA), who prefer music to talk. Calderon asserts that radio in Mexico appears to be trying to compete with television. And in fact, he says, it has lured many personalities away from TV (Calderon).

Moral influence

In recent e-mails, I asked two professors at the University of the Americas, in Cholula, Mexico, about the effects of U.S. mass media on Mexican moral values. Professor Cisneros teaches TV production. I asked him what he believes might be the cultural influence of American media, as well as Mexican reporting of sensational American cultural trends. Part of his response follows:

(Translation by Bill Olson)

That which is called the "American way of life" impacts Mexico in the following ways:

In the upper class, totally. In the middle class, in that its economic power permits it to consume all the goods and services that appear in American messages. For example: to drink whisky for any reason; to consume junk food; to have sex with multiple couples; to use drugs as a status symbol; to use disposable items, even though they pollute; etc.

In the lower class: buying extremely expensive sports clothes (tennis shoes) that the family cannot afford, tattooing the skin, using earrings and other ornaments [pierced] in the body (Cisneros).

Dr. David Dávila, Chair of the department of History and International Relations, said that, "Mexico will absorb and mexicanize [sic] whatever comes from the US." But he also said that some aspects of Mexican culture, "table-dances," for example, are "far more permissive in Mexico than in the US" (Dávila).

On September 24, 1999 (Ortiz), Mexico's Domestic Secretary, Diódoro Carrasco Altamirano, challenged Mexico's mass media to address inequities in the treatment of women. In his keynote speech to the Second International Seminar of Communications Strategies, he referred to the historic inequality of women throughout Latin America and asserted that the communications media must promote women to decision-making positions in their programming departments. Carrasco also said the federal government, "in all government programs," will attempt to incorporate women fairly in its strategies of social communications (Ortiz).

As Mexico enters the new millennium, it faces many changes. The government's commitment to addressing gender inequities, the reawakening of its film industry, and of press freedoms, are but a few. Will Mexico remain just another poor nation left behind by the Information Revolution? Perhaps Mexico's future possibilities lie not in its per capita purchasing power, but in the vision and courage of its people. As Alejandro Junco de la Vega has demonstrated, the greatest River Styx lies within Mexico itself, as well as the bright world that awaits beyond. Perhaps Mexico needs more Heracles to confront the dreaded Cerberus and take its people across, to the prosperity that awaits on the "other side."

-- Eau Claire,Wisconsin
    December 10, 1999

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CIA World Factbook.

Calderon, Juan, "El Canto Del Gallo," The News (Novedades Editores); Mexico City; September 18, 1999.

Cantiflas information -- http://www.mty.itesm.mx/dcic/carreras/lcc/cine_mex/estrellas/cantinflas.html

Cisneros Espinosa, José -- e-mail with author.

COFETEL -- Example of Information in English: http://www.cft.gob.mx/html/9_publica/six_info/info1.html

Consolidación Telefonica en Areas de Servicio Local, COFETEL (Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones de México).

Collier, Robert, "Mexicans Divided By Digital Revolution / Large sectors of society lack access to Internet," Chronicle Staff Writer, San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco, Calif.; Sep. 27, 1999. (Available through Proquest.)

Dávila Villers, David R. -- e-mail with author.

Garza, Adolfo, "Theater Yanks Film Depicting PRI Corruption," The News (Novedades Editores); Mexico City; December 8, 1999.

Fitzgerald, Mark, "Mexico's press: ready for freedom?" Editor & Publisher, July 8 1995, v128 n27 (The University of New Brunswick website) -- http://www.cs.unb.ca/~alopez-o/polind.html

Fromson, Murray, "Mexico's Struggle for a Free Press," Communication in Latin America: journalism, mass media, and society, Richard R. Cole, editor. 1996: Scholarly Resources Inc. Wilmington, DE. And e-mail with author.

Imcine -- http://www.imcine.gob.mx

Infosel -- http://www.infosel.com/

La Neta -- http://www.laneta.apc.org/home/formneta.htm

Lazcano, Hugo, "Government Censors Anti-PRI Film," Reforma; Mexico City; November 12, 1999.

MSN -- Mexico Edition, http://www.mx.msn.com/homepage.asp

Mexico Online -- the Internet in Mexico -- http://www.mexicool.com/cyber/default.html

Munoz, Lorenza, "Introducing 70 Films From Latin Quarters; Movies * Mexican cinema shows a resurgence in the third annual L.A. Latino International Film Festival, offering more fare from the Americas," The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Oct 1, 1999 (Available through Proquest).

OANDA, Inc., Classic 164 Currency Converter -- http://www.cnn.com/TRAVEL/ESSENTIALS/

Javier Ortiz, "Carrasco Urges Equality for Women, Requests Communications Media to Denounce Inequities," The News (Novedades Editores); Mexico City; September 24, 1999.

Tin Tan website -- http://www.eureka.com.mx/ecsa/ga/tintan

UDLA, Universidad de las Americas (University of the Americas) -- http://info.pue.udlap.mx

UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (National Autonomous University of Mexico) -- http://www.unam.edu.mx/

Weinstein, Emanuel David, "New Book Tackles Sacred Cows," The News (Novedades Editores); Mexico City; September 18, 1999.

Yahoo Mexico Edition -- http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Mexico/

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Cablevision -- http://www.cablevision.net.mx/

Canal 40 -- http://www.cni40.com.mx/

COFETEL -- (http://www.cft.gob.mx/index.html) Cronología de la telefonía en México" -- http://www.cft.gob.mx/html/la_era/info_tel2/hist1.html English technical terms defined in Spanish -- http://www.cft.gob.mx/html/la_era/glostec1de3.html

Statistics -- http://www.cft.gob.mx/html/5_est/indest.html

Junco de la Vega, Alejandro Interview (in Spanish) and photo of (Infosel) -- http://www.infosel.com.mx/extra/junco/discurso.htm

Biography (in English) and photo (University of Texas) -- http://wwwhost.utexas.edu/coc/journalism/SOURCE/adcouncil/junco.html

Mexico Online Homepage -- http://www.mexicool.com/

Novedades Editores (Mexico City), English Edition, The News -- http://unam.netgate.net/novedades/the-news.htm

Novedades Editores (Mexico City), Spanish Edition -- http://unam.netgate.net/novedades/novedad.htm

TV Azteca -- http://www.tvazteca.com.mx/

Televisa -- http://www.televisa.com.mx/