Ross Gandy

Professor Ross Gandy came to visit us today. He is from Texas, but has lived here in Mexico for the last fifteen plus years. He is married to a Mexican woman and is now actually blacklisted from the U.S. (From his teaching years in the Reagan era). He gave us quite the talk - a socio-political-economical history of Mexico from the Mexican Revolution until present day in the 21st century. He began with a story, and his story turned into a whole history that explained very clearly the present conditions, socially, politically, and economically, in Mexico today.

His story began with Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who were the main characters of the Mexican Revolution. The revolution ended in 1920, and so began land reform in Mexico. In 1940, Lázaro Cárdenas became president of Mexico (yes I am skipping through some years here to get to the point) and his presidency marked a great change in Mexico. He was loved by the people, and known as the sphinx, for instead of talking like most politicians today, he did things. He made change and worked with the people. Amongst many things, he opened 34 rural teaching training schools so that la gente indigena could relate with rising and about to be industrialized country. 1940 until 2000 marks an age of industrialization in Mexico. Agri-business began to flow in, and those in power began to want to mirror their country like the all-mighty country above them, the United States of America. In 1942, after WWII, Chrystler, General Electric, CocaCola, etc. began to flow in and lead the businesses in Mexico. 1951 the government began to offer cheap sugar subsidies so that CocaCola, for example could continue to offer its service to the people. From 1980 until today, free trade, market, and enterprise is alive and well between Mexico and outside countries. The 20th Century until today have been called the "marginalizing" decades. Lovely, isn't it?

The story continues...

10% of the people in Mexico are super rich. ALL power and priorities are in these hands. 10%.
20% of the people in Mexico are middle class professionals.
70% are peasant workers.
There are 100,000,000 people living in Mexico.

The super rich and middle class professionals are concerned with buying a car, toilet paper, kleenex, canned goods, coke, detergent, and washing machines.

The peasant workers with public transport, food, toilets, textbooks, school, health, water, housing, and jobs.

It is almost impossible to get to and from work in Mexico City. The factories are on the west side and the housing on the eastside. At least two and a half hours each way. Mexico City is one of the most polluted cities in the world. In fact, there is so much lead in the air that families are advised to move their children out of the city. It is no longer safe for children to breathe the air.

Toilet paper costs about 3 pesos a roll. There are more forms of toilet paper produced in Mexico City than all of the world. Only 30% of Mexico has access to this paper. The rest is exported to the rest of the world. Toilet paper is a luxury. The other 70% of Mexico is not worried about whether or not they have toilet paper, but toilets. 4 million people in Mexico live without a toilet and Mexico produces 50,000 tons of shit daily. Toilet paper versus toilets versus shit. Let's think about this for a minute...

Water. 1/2 of the water in Mexico is polluted. Coke is cheaper to buy than water. Therefore, people drink coke to hydrate themselves. Every one in three people in Mexico now has diabetes. It is now the leading cause of death in Mexico.

Text books. Although Mexico is one of the leading producers of paper, and although textbooks in the U.S., which are probably manufactured in Mexico, are free in the U.S., they are quite costly in Mexico. Textbooks are not free, and families can barely afford them. The daily minimum wage in Mexico is $57 pesos a day. This is a little bit less than five dollars. To put this all into perspective a bit more, on average, 6.5 people live in one room. 6.5 people to a room.

1/2 of electricity is free in Mexico. People have no water, no housing, no toilets, underdeveloped schools, no jobs, but they have electricity. Why? Because the government wants the people to have access to TELEVISION. There is 1 TV per family in Mexico. 4% of Mexicans will ever buy a book and 1.5% read any type of newspaper at all.

Iowa now produces 3 times more corn than Mexico and 30% of Mexico now cultivates poppies and marijuana because free trade policies have taken away their production such as corn. Their income now depends on the Narco-economy.

40% of the population evades paying their taxes. It is as much as a crime in Mexico as running a red light. No biggie. Sales tax is now up to 16%. There is no money going to the people. It all rests in the hands of those who control the T.V. Oh, did I say that the TV company, which everyone has access to through their televisions, heavily sensors what is put on television? Are you beginning to connect the dots?

None of this is easy, or pleasant to hear, but it is a reality, and a wake up call for us to begin to realize the effects of industrialization, globalization, and the disparity gap between rich and poor. Also for us to begin to see how the poor are ripped to pieces while the rich continue to live in luxury. Let's begin to wake up. I invite you all.