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The Democratic Current

A “Documento de trabajo número uno” (Working Paper Number One), dated October 1, 1986, was signed by a group of PRI members, among them Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo. The group, known as the Corriente Democrática, asked the party to open the selection of its candidates to its base. It questioned the dedazo, the method by which the candidate for president was designated.

On March 4, 1987, at the party’s national assembly, PRI president Jorge de la Vega Domínguez said: “En el PRI no tendrán cabida ni la quinta columna ni los caballos de Troya” (In the PRI there will be no room for a fifth column or for Trojan horses). In October 1987, Cárdenas joined another party, the PARM, as its presidential candidate.

The objection was made in a signed document, inside the party. By the end of 1987, Cárdenas and Muñoz Ledo had both left the PRI.

The Banner from Atotonilco

The conspirators of Querétaro planned to begin their uprising in December 1810, according to México Desconocido. Their plan was discovered in September. When Miguel Hidalgo learned of it, he began the movement in Dolores, on September 16.

On the march, at the sanctuary of Atotonilco, Hidalgo took a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe, according to INEHRM, the government’s institute for historical studies. A history booklet on the government portal gob.mx says that the movement gathered under this emblem, which “se dice” (it is said) came from the parish of Atotonilco.

The Company Store

On the haciendas before the Revolution, the tienda de raya was the estate store. The historian Jesús Silva Herzog wrote that it kept “cuenta minuciosa de sus deudas, las cuales pasaban de padres a hijos” (a detailed account of their debts, which passed from parents to children). Indebted peons were easier to keep “arraigados a la tierra” (rooted to the land).

Article 123 of the Constitution of 1917 declared void any work clause that created an “obligación directa o indirecta de adquirir los artículos de consumo en tiendas o lugares determinados” (direct or indirect obligation to buy consumer goods in particular stores or places).

The Union Leader

Fidel Velázquez was secretary general of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) for about five decades. Biografías y Vidas states that he held the post “desde 1941 hasta su muerte” (from 1941 until his death). Encyclopedia.com gives two terms instead, from 1940 to 1946 and again from 1950.

He died in June 1997 at the age of 97. The Deseret News, reporting his death, called him “a kingmaker” in the ruling party.

Hunger and Thirst for Justice

On March 6, 1994, Luis Donaldo Colosio, the PRI’s presidential candidate, spoke at the party’s 65th anniversary at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City. The speech is remembered for one sentence: “Yo veo un México con hambre y con sed de justicia” (I see a Mexico hungry and thirsty for justice).

Seventeen days later, on March 23, he was assassinated.

The Wells of Baján

On March 21, 1811, at Acatita de Baján in Coahuila, the royalist officer Ignacio Elizondo captured Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende and other insurgent leaders. He had pretended that he wanted to join them. In his own report, he describes a reception “con apariencia de un recibimiento obsequioso” (with the appearance of an obliging welcome).

The historical calendar of Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission reads: “Allende fue traicionado por el teniente coronel Ignacio Elizondo en Acatita de Baján, Coahuila” (Allende was betrayed by Lieutenant Colonel Ignacio Elizondo at Acatita de Baján, Coahuila).

Chinameca

In 1919, Jesús Guajardo pretended to break with General Pablo González in order to win the trust of Emiliano Zapata. México Desconocido writes that he gained it “con visitas, pláticas y pruebas de colaboración” (with visits, talks and proofs of collaboration). On April 10, 1919, Zapata came to the gate of the Hacienda de Chinameca, in Morelos, and was shot.

According to México Desconocido, Guajardo received “50 mil pesos en monedas de oro” (50,000 pesos in gold coins).

Malinchismo

Malinchismo takes its name from La Malinche, the interpreter of Hernán Cortés. The Diccionario del español de México defines it as the inclination “a preferir lo extranjero o al extranjero” (to prefer what is foreign, or the foreigner).

BBC Mundo writes of La Malinche: “En el imaginario colectivo de México, aún hoy es vista como la mayor traidora de la historia del país” (In Mexico’s collective imagination, she is still seen today as the greatest traitor in the country’s history).

Respect for the Rights of Others

On July 15, 1867, after the defeat of the French intervention and the execution of Maximilian, President Benito Juárez issued a manifesto to the nation in Mexico City. It contains this sentence: “Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz” (Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace).

The Contadora Group

In January 1983, the foreign ministers of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela met on the island of Contadora, in Panama, to promote peace in Central America. The four countries became known as the Contadora Group.

Mexico also hosted bilateral talks between the United States and Nicaragua, “auspiciadas por nuestro país” (sponsored by our country), in the words of Mexico’s foreign ministry journal. Sources give different days for the first meeting on Contadora, from January 7 to January 9.