Scenes from a Mexican Battlefield

...1 2 The international culture industry, for example, has wrought significant changes in the value systems of Mexicans, especially among the poorer sectors of society...

...7 Amidst these intimidation tactics, there is a notable absence of public figures who are willing to confront the sexism and homophobia of the Church and its allies...

...6. Excelsior (Mexico City), February 11, 1994...

...What irritated conservatives was that the book recognized that sexual values depend on the norms that are accepted within a given societyarguing, in effect, that there is nothing "natural" about dominant views of sexuality...

...Despite the power of these lies, however, the pilgrimage did not attract the expected crowds...

...Many urban gays are not interested in thinking about the absence of a rights-based culture, and much less in taking action to change the situation...

...What is more, while the influence of mass culture may counter the puritanism of political and religious elites, it generally directs people away from political activity...

...This incident reflected changing public attitudes about sexuality and the fact that many Mexicans have more liberal and tolerant views than the conservative groups who govern them...

...The heads "Silence th...

...SEP has been the target of an aggressive campaign waged primarily in the media...

...More than 15 years have passed since the first gender research and study programs were established in Mexico, but serious engagement with feminist thought remains scarce in academic circles...

...5. La Jornada (Mexico City), February 11, 1994...

...1 This at least partially explains why the explicit and implicit rules about sexuality stink of the nineteenth century, and why the discussions about modern sexual identities and practices are so backwards...

...One of his mistakes was to write an insidious article against condom use, arguing that latex pollutes the environment.10 While it is safe to presume that the more offices PAN wins, the more absurd policies we will see, it is equally probable that Mexicans will reject moralistic restrictions from a Church and a political party that are increasingly out of touch with their needs and desires...

...For example, Domecq distillery and the Bimbo bread company threatened to pull their advertisements if television stations aired a public-service announcement of the National AIDS Council (CONASIDA) in which Lucia M6ndez, a prominent national actress, appeared promoting condom use...

...Most recently, the Primate Archbishop of Mexico, Norberto Rivera, declared during a mass in the cathedral that condoms were harmful to one's health and ought to carry an explicit warning like cigarettes and alcohol...

...As far as sexuality in Mexico is concerned, the twentieth century did not begin until the 1970s...

...The Catholic Church has played a crucial role in keeping the debate on sexual politics in its pre-modern state...

...1 4 And while no other political figure has openly acknowledged the legitimacy of the struggle for sexual diversity, Subcomandante Marcos offered public congratulations to Patria Jim6nez, a PRD congresswoman, for defending lesbian and gay rights.15 The absence of sex education and government campaigns against the spread of HIV are clear indicators that the political elite sees sexuality as high-risk political terrain...

...The civil war came to an end with an agreement that guaranteed the flexible application of the anti-clerical statutes...

...A book on sex education for adolescents and for training high-school teachers set off a storm of accusations...

...The political and economic power of Catholic groups to promote a sexist and homophobic agenda is worrisome...

...She is director of the journal, debate feminista, and of the Information Group for Reproductive Choice (GIRE), an NGO based in Mexico City...

...They were not so generous a few weeks earlier when Canadian ambassador Marc Perron made comparatively mild statements against corruption, which led to his resignation...

...This offensive of reactionary forces has had powerful effects on the political landscape and has largely shaped the embattled debates and activism around Mexican sexual politics in recent years...

...Soon after its first triumphs, PAN governments launched moralizing initiatives in various states...

...The situation is also compounded by the lack of activism among gay youth...

...The liberal and socialist currents within the Mexican Revolution led to anti-clerical laws that went far beyond establishing the separation of church and state...

...The "nonaggression pact" signed in 1929 and consolidated over the next decade ensured a margin of "tolerance" for the Church and allowed, for example, the opening of private schools for religious education...

...Despite a recent flowering of critical thinking seeped in post-structuralist perpectives, few on the Mexican intellectual circuit have any interest in feminist or gay thought...

...During its period of "illegality...

...Fear of confronting the Church has also led the government to excuse statements from the Vatican's official representative that would have sent any other diplomat packing...

...But it is also a reflection of the state of intellectual debate in Mexico...

...This was interpreted as promoting abortion, and the National Parents NACLIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 18REPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS Association, an affiliate of the Ibero-American Parents Association, denounced SEP for "inciting young people into licentious behavior...

...These laws were vehemently rejected by both the Vatican and VOL XXXI, No 4 JAN/FEB 1998 17REPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS the Mexican Church hierarchy, prompting "La Cristada," a peasant uprising instigated by the bishops between 1926 and 1929...

...In terms of political visibility, however, the response has been weak...

...3. Statement reprinted by La Jornada (Mexico City), August 25, 1997...

...Sexual politics is still seen as a secondary issue, below the serious problems of poverty, misery and disempowerment...

...A woman exar These battles have been anti-abortion / fought on many fields, a ture inside a cd result not only of Mexico's in Tuxt/a Gutih Me cultural diversity but of its uneven socio-economic development...

...The PAN and the Mexican Bishops launched a smear campaign against the government for signing the final Beijing Accords, and attempted to frighten people with lies...

...If Mexicans are to fully and freely exercise their rights to reproductive choice and sexual freedom, values themselves must also be assigned new meanings...

...Over the past few years, members of the hierarchy have made statements on sexual issues that are irresponsible and ignorant, even criminal...

...he growing interference of the Church in the public arena has gone hand in hand with the electoral victories of the PAN in several states...

...The owner of Bimbo made the same threat to Channel 40 if they broadcast the accusations of child molesting against Marcial Maciel, founder and leader of the Legionaries of Christ...

...There is growing awareness that public participation and legislative representation will be needed to overcome these barriers...

...6 Although the authors of the book responded some days later, their statements were relegated to letters to the editor section, and did not have the impact of the original news stories...

...New perspectives on sexuality have broadened the horizons of love, relationships and family, but the absence of sex education and legal abortion, and the difficulties in obtaining condoms and other contraceptive methods impede the free exercise of sexual and reproductive rights.16 Unwanted pregnancies result not only in hundreds of thousands of abortions each year, but also in thousands of unwanted children...

...The lay legislation enshrined in the 1917 Constitution dramatically circumscribed the presence of the Catholic Church in the public arena...

...If these initiatives weren't so dangerous, they would be comical...

...Arrogantly asserting itself as the only moral representative of Mexican society, the Catholic hierarchy uses its influence and economic power to promote its sexual policies via the religious organizations of the wealthy, like Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ and the Knights of Columbus...

...In Guanajuato, at the request of the bishop, the mayor blocked a conference on abortion by Catholics for a Free Choice and the Information Group for Reproductive Choice (GIRE...

...It does so, moreover, not only from the pulpits and confessionals as was always the case, but in conjunction with important businessmen and the owners of television stations, newspapers and radio stations...

...4. El Heraldo (Mexico City), February 11, 1994...

...f the Church's offensive since the 1991 reforms has been spectacular, so has the government's retreat...

...To be gay is to become part of an international movement, moving from a problem-ridden condition to an extravagant but "modern" lifestyle...

...Pleasure, rather than politics, becomes the desired way to spend free time...

...ssy during ational AIDS 1993...

...They claimed that the government had embraced the decriminalization of abortion, that it had endorsed homosexual and lesbian families and their right to adoption, that it called for banning the word "mother," and that it had commited itself to promoting the use of contracepMass culture may counter the puritanism of political and religious elites, but it directs people away from political activity...

...3 (September 1991...

...A well-known gay actor, Tito Vasconcelos, also has an alternative program on the radio station of the Secretariat of Public Education where the gay population can express its concerns...

...The best example is the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), which is in charge of providing rudimentary sexual education in the public schools...

...Most importantly, its public statements and actions had to be controlled and measured...

...But these reforms represent an important recon- figuration of the political arena to the extent that they institutionalize the Church's role as an overt and indeMarta Lamas is an anthropologist in the Gender Studies Program at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM...

...When Mexicans seek sexual freedom, they confront the vast difference between their desires and the reality of the country...

...The left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which recently won the mayoral seat in Mexico City, has been relatively absent from public campaigns against sexism and homophobia...

...The primary beneficiary was the Catholic Church, whose public presence is now legally protected by the Constitution...

...Nuns and priests could not walk the streets in habits and collars, for example, and the Church was prohibited from holding assets...

...A new political group called DIVERSA is attempting to implement a rainbow-coalition model to promote the defense of sexual diversity, which it sees as a political means to achieve full citizenship and democracy...

...The philosophy of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) revolves around the ideal that "everything should be shared evenly...

...With a pseudo-democratic rhetoric that denounces the corruption and authoritarianism of the ruling party, the PAN has won municipal and gubernatorial races in several states...

...7. See Proceso, No...

...The government's response gave aid and comfort to these reactionary views...

...The popular women's movements that grew out of the 1985 earthquake, on the other hand, did become a vehicle of participation for many...

...films and televisions programs have eroded traditional prohibitions by providing new perspectives on the worlds of sexuality and reproduction...

...Carlos Monsivais, personal communication, October 20, 1997...

...Several major research projects have been structured on the mistaken assumption of the "natural" heterosexuality of those being studied...

...This includes organizations like Catholics for a Free Choice, the Mexico City Women's Health Network, GIRE, Sor Juana's Closet, Letter S and the Gay Cultural Circle...

...1 3 Despite the obstructions put up by the Catholic Church and its political allies, respect for sexual diversity is slowly gaining ground, at least among certain generational and progressive groups...

...the Catholic Church never stopped making statements or pressuring the government...

...The Church now has legal access to the media, which it has used to disseminate its positions on a wide array of social issues...

...As part of his package of reforms to modernize Mexico, former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari approved an amendment in 1992 to Article 130 of the Constitution to strengthen freedom of religion...

...As such sexist and homophobic initiatives have spread, many citizens have come to associate the PAN with out-dated authoritarian moralizing...

...According to Monsivdis, VOL XXXI, No 4 JAN/FEB 1998 19REPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS many young homosexuals in Mexico City have found a certain degree of acceptance by adopting a "gay" identity, suggesting that the semantic impact of the word "gay" creates a social space of tolerance...

...In some cities, such as Guadalajara, conservative pharmacy own- ers refuse to sell condoms because they are prohibited by the Catholic Church...

...A young cp Yet despite the march to dec fact that con- nalize abortic sumer culture Mexico provides a tremendous counterweight to the recent onslaughts of puritanical rhetoric, it very often reinforces the existing sexism and homophobia in society...

...Pleasure, rather than politics, becomes the desired way to spend free time...

...But if sexual rights are to become part of the aspirations of Mexican women and men for full citizenship, they must be formulated politically and placed on the public agenda of political parties and the government...

...Some of these contradict traditional values and encourage more open and less guilt-ridden sex lives for both women and men, gay and straight...

...The Parents Association took aim at sex-education programs, and pressed for the "expulsion" of the Mexican Foundation for Family Planning, a Planned Parenthood-type organization, from certain states...

...2 This explains why all local and federal battles over sexuality have focused on the same issue-whether to affirm or question traditional Catholic morality...

...Despite the official separation of church and state that has existed in Mexico since 1917, the Church has always been a powerful player in Mexican politics, especially where sexuality is con- cerned...

...Patria Jimenez, personal communication, April 6, 1997...

...People's desire for democratization at the local and national level is and will remain an important factor in facilitating discussion about sexual and reproductive rights...

...95/33 (September 26, 1995...

...These babies, once welcomed as old-age insurance, are increasingly perceived as punishment in a society that offers no support in the difficult task of child-rearing...

...Although the Church has always enjoyed a substantive role in Mexican society, its constitutionally mandated marginality contributed to a certain moderation of its public presence...

...5 And Excelsior stated, "SEP distributes a book that borders on pornography...

...The body and sexuality are accorded relevance as subjects of reflection and research, but there is little academic work on lesbianism or homosexuality, nor is there any sort of engagement with queer theory...

...Some reject activism because they associate it with sectarian gay-liberation groups or with leftist politics...

...These efforts to question the infallibility of Church authorities and the usually willful blindness of government and party officials have posed fundamental challenges to obsolete understandings of sexuality...

...The absence of a gay movement with economic power and a strong political presence creates the circumstances in which savage homophobic repression can continue with impunity...

...The few middle-class feminists groups that have taken progressive stances on sexuality have often been stigmatized as "libertines" for doing so...

...The collective work of feminist and gay groups who labor to contain the conservative tide is crucial in this struggle...

...3 The Salinas reforms have empowered the Church to launch prime-time massmedia campaigns about anything with which it takes offense...

...They achieved just that in San Luis Potosi in June, 1992, and managed to scare other states into abandoning their sexeducation programs...

...The SEP itself, following the ostrich-like policies so common to the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), chose to remain silent, revealing its cowardly reluctance to confront the Catholic hierarchy...

...This appears to dissolve prejudice, which in turn erodes the motivations for activism...

...From 1917 to 1992, the Church had no legal status in Mexico...

...Scenes from a Mexican Battlefield 1. Carlos Monsivais, personal communication, October 20, 1997...

...In many ways, through these agreements the state also handed the regulation of daily life over to the Church, including everything related to the family and sexuality...

...of images inappropriate for children that border on the most vulgar pornography," screamed La Jornada...

...2. Carlos Monsivdis, personal communication, October 20, 1997...

...But today it enjoys the freedom to move beyond rhetoric to active public campaigns that border on intimidation and blackmail...

...The consequences of this heterosexist bias can be seen in the content of university curricula, including graduate studies, and in the homophobia that tinges much of Mexican intellectual production...

...22-29...

...Its leaders have also joined forces with conservative political leaders, particularly from the National Action Party (PAN), and launched aggressive local and national campaigns for "family values" and sexual abstinence, and against condom use...

...Translated from the Spanish by Mark Fried...

...Others simply want to live their lives and not be bothered by politics...

...8 Their struggle against homophobia has been largely ignored...

...Activists in Mexico nstrate in of the U.S...

...pendent political force in Mexican society...

...Public challenges to the government's policies have come from feminist and gay activist groups, some intellectuals and a handful of media figures...

...Especially dangerous is the influence of the hierarchy's business allies in the Opus Dei, whose members use their economic clout to influence the media...

...Ongoing raids against gays, and the evident lack of interest in the murders of transvestites and prostitutes are clear expressions of the government's approach...

...To combat these alleged horrors, the Bishops Conference called on the Catholic community of the archdiocese of Mexico to make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe "for life and the family...

...Yet despite the mobilizations of the 1970s-which made feminists a political force to be reckoned with-the movement has not created a political alternative for most Mexican women...

...Although some notables have taken progressive stances, most PRD representatives remain backwards machos...

...When the Papal nuncio, Justo Mullor, spoke out against public education last October, the Ministers of the Interior and of Foreign Relations were quick to forgive him...

...4 "Leaders of parent organizations criticize the inclusion Homophobia and sexism tinge much of Mexican intellectual production, distorting political discourse and impeding the construction of a rigorous intellectual foundation for nondiscriminatory policies...

...Worthy of mention here are Carlos Monsiviis, the most important cultural critic on Mexican sexuality, feminist commentators like Ver6nica Ortiz, who has a weekly TV program on sexuality, and Patricia Kelly, who runs a radio show on the same topic...

...Another problem was that it spoke clearly and directly about the consequences of sexual relations and mentioned both birth and abortion as possible outcomes of pregnancy...

...This offensive has shaped the embattled debates and activism around sexual politics in Mexico...

...Parent organizations demand removal of books that incite licentious behavior and harm Mexican morals," proclaimed El Heraldo...

...Castillo Peraza, "Reflexiones condoecol6gicas," Proceso (March 20, 1997...

...See Guiomar Rovira, Mujeres de maiz (Mexico City: Era, 1997...

...This has opened possibilities for apparently freer sexual behavior such as marriage and divorce by mutual agreement and the undermining of traditional sex roles among combatants as women reach positions of authority...

...1093 (October 12, 1997), pp...

...The headlines were ferocious...

...Statement No...

...This is clearly visible among youth in Mexico City, where the impact of New Age culture is widespread and where rock music provides an important cultural space for sensory and existential release...

...It also exerts pressures through the organizations it controls, like the National Parent Association or the National Pro-Life Committee...

...Such homophobia and sexism, in turn, distort political discourse, impeding the construction of a rigorous intellectual foundation for nondiscriminatory sexual policies...

...But the demands that mobilized these women steered clear of sexual questions, despite the fact that they are the ones who suffer most from sexual double standards, the lack of sex education, and the criminalization of abortion...

...Outside Mexico City, other groups are active, such as Patlatonalli in Guadalajara, Embrace in Monterrey, Fight in Tijuana, the Rosario Castellanos Women's Center in Oaxaca and the San Crist6bal Women's Group in Chiapas...

...But homophobia is rampant among many feminists, and is especially visible in the movement's constant battle to keep itself from being identified with lesbianism...

...This is in part a product of the intellectual backwardness that characterizes discussions of sexuality...

...A notable example are the Zapatistas...

...tives from the age of 11 without parental consent...

...A few gay groups have managed to achieve a public presence, but only through their AIDS-related work...

...These changes are the result of "the cultural internationalization of the country, the rise in secondary and university education, general secularization built on tolerance, and the dissemenation of NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON SEXUAL POLITICS feminist principles...

...In other states, party officials that are allied with the Catholic hierarchy have supported arbitrary actions such as prohibiting state employees from wearing mini-skirts in Jalisco, shutting down a photography exhibit of nudes in Aguascalientes, and striking the name of Juurez, the president who decreed the separation of church and state, from a street in the state of Mexico...

...9. See the weekly column, "Por mi madre bohemios," by Carlos Monsivais and Alejandro Brito in La Jornada...

...Images from popular music as well as from U.S...

...9 In the 1997 elections for mayor of Mexico City, the openly anticondom and anti-abortion PAN candidate, Castillo Peraza, dragged his party to defeat...

...Carlos Monsivbis, "De c6mo un dia amaneci6 Pro Vida con la novedad de vivir en una sociedad laica," debate feminista, No...

...Compared to gay groups, the feminist movement appears well established...

...8. The monthly supplement, "Letra S," published by La Jornada, has provided extensive coverage of these organizations...

...In fact, feminists have defended the freedom of sexual choice since 1976, when the Feminist Women's Coalition was created...

...In Chihuahua, for example, the PAN reformed the state Constitution to defend life "from the moment of conception...

...The growing distance between these conservative sectors and average Mexicans was revealed in the aftermath of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995...