Films track troubles in Mexico

A CSU-Monterey Bay professor who spent the summer in Mexico City has produced a 35-minute documentary film about the chaotic political situation in Mexico.

Caitlin Manning, a professor of film and video, was in Mexico when the populace took to the streets after the ruling party's candidate, Felipe Calderón, squeaked to a victory with the slimmest of margins.

In "No te rajes" (Don't back down), Manning narrates what happened during the weeks following the election, when thousands of people from all over the country camped on the city's main thoroughfares to demand a full recount of the ballots.

Since then, Mexico's political climate has been red hot. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist candidate who claimed he had been robbed of the presidency through fraud, has led hundreds of demonstrations attended by thousands of people, and has called himself the legitimate president of Mexico.

The movement paved the path to Friday's embarrassing inauguration of Calderón, a brief ceremony preceded by days of fracas in Mexico's Congress.

The documentary gives a glimpse into a huge social movement explained by its protagonists: working men and women who are disenchanted with Mexico's policies, voices that are rarely heard or seen on television in Mexico or the United States.

"Overall, the country, the people are fed up with 20 years of neoliberalism," said Manning, referring to the economic model that limits social spending. "It feels like a moment when things can really change and if they don't, (there will be) a lot of more repression."

Manning will present the film on campus tonight, along with "The Battle of All Saints," a 10-minute documentary that depicts one of the harshest confrontations between students and teachers and the riot police in Oaxaca.

Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in the country, has been in the eye of one of the most intense political storms the country has seen in decades, since a coalition of dozens of community organizations, commonly known as APPO, occupied the colonial city's Zocalo this summer to demand the resignation of the state governor, Ulises Ruiz.

It all began when the teachers, who had occupied the Zocalo for weeks demanding a salary increase, were violently evicted in the summer. Since then, the movement has grown and gained a stronghold in the state.

"The mainstream press (labels the protesters) as anarchist hoodlums, but they have a huge basis of support in the state," Manning said. "It's a mass popular movement for social justice. The teachers are out there and see the poverty, the misery. The children can't concentrate, have to go back to work. It's no accident that the teachers became the catalyst of the social movement."

It's no wonder that thousands of people end up leaving the country and try to come to the United States, Manning said.

The causes that have "led to the protest are directly relevant to the immigration situation in this country," she said. "It's been so dire that they are forced to leave their homes."