Septiembre, Mes de la Patria September 2, 2008

I heard this slogan hundreds of times while I was growing up… “Septiembre, mes de la patria” (september, month of the homeland). TV and radio spots would highlight the fact that the Mexican Independence Day was coming up (September 16th). Everywhere you went, you’d see booths where flags and other Mexican memorabilia would be sold.

My parents live about 30 minutes away from Guanajuato, where the Mexican Independence’s biggest battle was fought. While the Independence was declared late at night on September 15th and in Dolores Hidalgo (about an hour by car from Guanajuato), most accounts focus on the battles taking place in the city of Guanajuato.

I grew up immersed in this patriotism, and was always excited because my birthday was so close to the Mexican Independence Day. Interestingly enough, I have felt for a long while now that this sense of nationalism has been fading. Mexican culture is rather complex and I can’t say that I’m an expert, but I’ve been feeling this sense of a massive exodus since a few years now.

Immigration, and transnational migration are topics that I’m interested in and that affect me, but they’re not at the core of what my research and writing interests are. However, given that I’ve spent a few weeks in Mexico now, I can speak to the sense I have that many, many Mexicans want to leave their country. And that’s a bit sad, in my view, as it seems like a sign of fading nationalism.

Another reason for this apparent fading nationalism is a sense of disempowerment and lack of trust in the Mexican government. I was reading some statistics from a poll by the nation-wide newspaper Reforma, whereby the rate of approval of President Calderon went down 2 points in the past year (reaching 62%) and the credibility of his messages went down from 54% in September 2007 to 44% in September 2008 (Periódico Reforma, p. 10, Encuesta Reforma: Séptima Evaluación del Presidente Felipe Calderón). I have been feeling a sense of desperation in Mexican society that may be leading to a massive exodus.

However, there are many people that are hopeful and that just keep going and working really hard IN Mexico. I was talking to a cleaning shoe man last night, and he said that while business had gone down, he was really happy that he was still finding work. He mentioned that he noticed how for many people, making enough money to put food on the table was more important than having their shoes cleaned. Yet, he still was hopeful and working hard at it.

There are many wonderful things about Mexico, and I’m very happy to be here now, and I’ll be happy to be back in Canada too. I can navigate both worlds and feel at home in both countries. And although I’ll be away from Mexico on Independence Day, I plan to celebrate in Vancouver. If I were in Mexico on July 1st, you can bet I’d be celebrating too! 🙂 And I am also sure I’ll find ways to help Mexican society from wherever I am.