The Social movements in Mexico Have emerged from the beginning of the twenty-first century to today, ready to fight for social, political, economic and cultural rights, mainly of citizenship.
Nevertheless, each and every one of them has its roots in the convulsed past century XX, where the Mexican nation underwent great changes from the triumph of the Mexican Revolution Of 1910.
Since then, Mexico has followed an uninterrupted history of social protests and mobilizations that allowed it to get rid of not only the Dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz .
It was possible to improve public education by decreeing it secular, free and compulsory, and to initiate a series of reforms that led to the creation of PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos company), the establishment of the female vote, the signing of the Free Trade Agreement and the arrival at Power of the National Action Party.
In the first half of the twentieth century, peasant movements, workers and trade unionists were the ones who raised the voice, today Mexican social movements have been able to constitute a true collective effort where the struggles for the rights of all social classes have been included.
Major Mexican social movements today
1- Movement"Our daughters back home"
Made up of relatives and friends of young women who have been killed or are missing in the State of Chihuahua.
The movement emerged in 2001, when five young people disappeared within two months in Chihuahua.
The movement is made up of professionals and human rights defenders who fight for justice, the visibility and denunciations of feminicides, and at the same time provide support to the families of missing women.
The movement aims to protect the rights of Mexican women, according to figures from the National Citizen Observatory of the Feminicide between 2013-2014, six women were killed every day in Mexico.
Violations, deaths and constant disappearances have become a terrible reality for those who make life in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, where being a woman is living in danger of death.
It is estimated that since 1993 more than 600 girls and women have been killed in Ciudad Juárez.
The victims are often women of limited resources, students, workers and maquiladora employees (factories and assembly centers of foreign companies operating in Mexico).
The movement Our daughters back home She constantly struggles to denounce gender-based violence and to seek help from the State.
2- Citizen movement for justice June 5
Closed on June 5, 2009, it is made up of the parents and representatives who lost their children that day following a terrible event in which 49 babies died after the daycare in which they were.
The ABC nursery located in Hermosillo, Sonora, did not have the minimum requirements of security and civil protection, which made the fire could not be controlled.
The nursery belonged to the Mexican Institute of Social Security that allowed institutions to define the standards of the place in relation to childcare and security.
The ABC nursery did not have the necessary facilities to face an emergency of such magnitude, hence the parents originated the movement with the objective of obtaining justice for what happened.
Eight years have passed and the authorities have not condemned anyone for the events despite the fact that each year the movement carries out different actions to capture national and international attention through marches, cultural festivals, informational lecture cycles, support talks and Legal work
Currently they continue to fight for those involved to receive criminal punishment in different international and local instances.
3- Movement for peace, with justice and dignity
It is a movement born as a response of Mexican civil society to the violence that the country suffers as a result of the war against drug trafficking.
The movement began on April 26, 2011 when the poet Javier Sicilia called on Mexicans to demonstrate against the violence produced by criminal groups and state security forces.
The poet initiates the movement following the death of his son in the hands of organized crime.
The main objectives of the movement are:
- Clarifying murders and disappearances
- Put an end to war strategy and take a citizen security approach
- Combating corruption and impunity
- Fight against the proceeds of crime
- Give attention to the young people involved
- Establish a true participatory democracy.
The movement continues its struggle today by advocating for the thousands of disappearances that occur in Mexico year after year.
4- Movimiento writers by Ciudad Juárez
The movement came after the death of the poet, activist and human rights defender Susana Chavez, who was found murdered and mutilated in Ciudad Juárez on January 6, 2011.
Following the tragic event, different writers organized and started a cultural movement that continues today.
It aims to practice culture on a permanent basis through the recovery of public spaces taken by criminals, the use of social networks and blogs, and the constant reading in forums, cafes, buses, libraries and schools.
The movement continues to be active and readings and meetings have been held in more than 170 cities in 26 countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa.
The ideal is and continues to encourage reading as a form of protest and fight against violence and especially gender violence in Mexico and the world.
5- Movement LGBTTTI
Since 1971, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transvestite, transgender and intersex (LGBTTTI) movement has been part of the mobilizations of the Mexican left against government repression.
A turning point with which they managed to consolidate themselves as a true movement in the country, was with the celebration in 1979 of the first march of Pride homosexual in Mexico.
Since then, it has been thanks to the constant pressure from groups such as the Homosexual Revolutionary Action Front or the Homosexual Liberation Group that the LGBTTTI movement became an important part of Mexican politics and society.
One of its major milestones was that it was possible to approve the recognition of the equal rights of families formed by LGBTTTI people and egalitarian civil marriage in the plenary of the constituent assembly in January 2017.
However, in spite of the many victories won by the movement, the Discrimination based on sexual orientation Is a daily Mexican problem, so there is still a long way to go in the fight for respect for sexual diversity.
Associations such as the Fundación Arcoíris in Mexico continues to work to improve the situation of this minority in danger of social exclusion.
6- Move"Let's save Wirikuta"
Considered as one of the most important ecological movements in Mexico. It arose with the aim of fighting for the protection of Wirikuta, a town located in the state of San Luis de Potosí which, besides being a natural reserve of great wealth, is the sacred territory of the Wixarika people.
It is believed that this area is the matrix of life of that town and all its culture, who consider Wirikuta as the sacred heart of Mexico.
Since 2005, the Mexican government has granted concessions to foreign companies to exploit mineral resources in areas that are even protected natural areas.
This has caused the alarm and discontent of civil society and environmental groups who today lead the movement"Save Wirikuta".
7- Movement # yoSoy132
The internationally renowned movement emerged in 2012 when current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto attended the Universidad Iberoamericana and was received with booing and insults.
The next day, the media announced that the demonstrators were people outside the university and paid to be on the scene.
Hence, the students, 131 in their totality, carried out a video in the social networks clarifying that the manifestations had been made of own will.
From that time, the # yosoy132 was used in numerous social networks, and the movement began to organize throughout Mexico carrying out mass marches demanding transparency and democratization of the media, education and economy. A movement that is still present.
8- Movements by the case Ayotzinapa
The movement emerged in 2014, when a series of protests and demonstrations between the municipal police, the Mexican army and students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa, injured journalists and civilians, nine dead and 43 students disappeared.
The families of the disappeared students continue to demand that the State respond to these disappearances. However, the government and the army remain silent.
Hence the emergence of this movement whose aim has been to inform the international community and to put pressure on Mexican civil society through numerous marches and acts of protest.
The purpose is to do justice and obtain information regarding the whereabouts of those 43 students.
9- Magisterial movements
They reached a high boom between 2015 and 2016, following protests, marches, clashes with the police, blockades and seedlings, with the aim of rejecting the proposals for educational reform established by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Numerous magisterial leaders have been arrested, however, the movements continue to put pressure on the government.
10- Movements against the gasolinezo
Arisen in the present year 2017 and carried out by different guilds, unions, activists and citizens with the aim of opposing the"petrolzo", namely the increase in the price of gasoline proposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
References
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