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ritual,
rumor and corruption in the
constitution of polity
in
modern
mexico
introduction
This paper provides
a
perspective
on the
conn ection s between ritual
and
polity
in
Mexico. Constructing
eventhe
roughest
m ap
of this relationship is
a dauntingtask, both em pirically and con ceptually. Nevertheless, as the
num ber of historical and anthropological studies of ritual and politics
grows,
1
sodoesthe
need to construct various organizing
perspectives.
I shall
propose
suchavantage point here
by exploring the historical con-
n ections between various sorts of
rituals and the developm ent of
local and n ation al public spheres.
2
My ultim ate goal is to clarify the
connection
between
political ritu al
and the constitution of political
com m unities in the national
space.
Inordertocarryout this aim ,
I propose a line of historical and
spatial inquiry that is driven by a
set o f m ethodological and theo-
retical inn ovations that m ay be
sum m arized as follows. First, I
hypothesize a com plex relation -
ship between the existen ce of
areas of free political discussion , public spheres, and the cen trality of
political ritual as an arena where political decision s are n egotiated and
journal of latin american anthropology 1(1):2
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claudio lomnitz
university of hicago
resumen
enacted. At an y given local level, the relationship between public discussion
and ritual is n egative: ritual substitutes for discussion and vice-versa.
However, in an in tegrated n ation al space, the relation ship can be
com plem entary: localized political rituals becom e the stuff from which a
(restricted) national public
sphere derives
its legitim acy.
3
Second,
I
propose
a few characteristics of the geography of
public spheres
em phasizin g
the
fact
that civic discussion in Mexico
has been segm ented along class
and regional lines, and that the
consolidation of national public
**
frab
?i
P/esenta
una perspective
, . ,
r
nu eva at enfo car el significado de l
opinion has always been a ritual en la esfera pu blica n a d o n a t y ta
problematic
affair
Third, I posit relac ion entre el ritua l, el rumor y la
dialectica de la expansion estatal en
Mexico. El traba jo considera el
desarroiip hjstonco de regiones politicas
en Mexico; traza ef desarrollo de
esf eras publlcas locales y nac ionales ;
y luego discute el papel del ritual
en Ta ge og ra f ia po l i t i co
M exic an a. El autor presenta
n o v e d a d e s t e o r i c a s y
metodologicas mientrasque aclara
los lazos entre el ritua l politico y la
constitucion de c om un ldad es ponticas
en el espacio nacion al.
that the creation of a n ational
public sphere in this spatially
segm ented field o f opin ion and
discussion involves creating
m echanism s for privileged in ter-
pretations of a diffuse popular
will. I therefore explore the
relation ship between political
ritual, rum or and the dram atiza-
tion of political in terests. Finally,
I argue that there is a general
relation ship between political
ritual and localized appropria-
tion s of state institutions (corruption ). The expansion of state in stitution s is
historicallylinked
to
the conflictin g dem ands of an tagon istic local groups, a
factor that strengthens the im portance of ritual, of festivities, and of the
ritual,
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redistribute actions that are associated with them. As a result, there is a
connection between footing the bill of these rituals and the ways in which
state institutions are appropriated. The inception and growth of state
institutions involves the production of ritual, so the patrons of these rituals
have a degree of control over the local branches of those institutions.
This paper is divided into three parts. First, I offer general
considerations on the historical development of political regions in Mexico
as necessary preliminary groundwork for an adequate understanding of the
geography of public spheres. Readers who are familiar with the history of
Mexican political geography may wish to skip this section. Second, I provide
an outline of the development of local public spheres and of a national public
sphere. Finally, I discuss the relationship between ritual, rumor, and
corruption and their role
in the
representation of political interests and in the
production of boundaries within the polity.
political regions
in
historical perspective
A spatial perspective of Mexico's public sphere requires a general
understanding of the development of the political and cultural regionsinthat
country: political regions because those are the communities that public
spheres are organized to discuss; cultural regions because they reflect the
existence of discussion, display, consensus and dissent. For reasons of space,
I shall focusmy discussion hereonpolitical regions and shall make reference
to cultural regions only when it is indispensable.
4
I shall briefly sketch the evolution of Mexican political geography by
summarizing the inter-connections between four dimensions: transforma-
tions in administrative un its, transformations in the sort of power that was
concentrated in
them,
types of bureaucratic organizations that were utilized,
and forms of representing the peoplein the administrative units. This review
serves the purpose of clarifying various levels and kinds of political
comm unities in M exico. In particular, I want to stress that interconnections
between a peo ple and the sta te vary in different kinds of political
regions.
colonial organizations
Understanding the history of territorially-based politics in M exico m ust
perforce begin inthe colonial period,
5
and specifically in the 1530s, when the
crown began wrenching political jurisdiction over Indians out ofthe hands of
encomenderosand into those of appointed
corregidores.During
these early
years, the crown established an administrative system that was essentially
three-tiered. The viceroy, at the top of the system, concentrated all civil
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branches of governm ent and retained an im portant role in the religious
branch as well. The second tier was the
corregimiento
and the
alcalde
mayor,
6
whichwerethe mainprovin cial un its duringthe whole colon ial era.
These un its hadat
their
apex a
corregidor
or an
alcalde mayor
(sin ce these
titlesbecameequivalen t
in
many
cases,
I
shall usealcalde mayor
to
standfor
either),
who concentrated all four
branches
of civil governm ent in their hands
and could apply them equally to all races and castes.
State officials were expected to m ake m oney off o f their posts.
7
On e
sign ifican t form of raising personal revenue for an
alcalde mayor
was
m onopoly control over com m erce.
8
This bureaucratic system im plied a
certain de-cen tralization of state functions and widespread corruption . In
this con text, the m ediating role of the church was crucial, with a
concom itantly high political significance of local ritual.
9
The third
adm in istrative tier was the town governm ent, which had different
com position s depending on the sign ificance ofthe town and on whether it
was a Spanish villa or an Indian pueblo. Span ish town s had
cabildos
(coun cils), the head of whichwas thealcaldemayor.Indian jurisdiction s had
an Indian governor as well as a council m ade up of local n otables
iprincipales)
who had
minorposts.
10
Span ish citieswithIndian barrios often
had both form s of governm ent runn ing sim ultan eously, with the Indian
governm ent ultim ately accountable to the Span ish
cabildo}
1
In sum , there were three levels of territorial organ ization, but the truly
sign ifican t power was concen tratedin the uppertwo levels (the vice royalty
and
alcaldias mayores),
both of
which
were headed by crown appoin tees.
Popular representation was largely confined to local governm ents, especially
after the concentration of Indians into centralized villages was effectively
accom plished (en din g roughly 1605).
12
early changes
One early change, im plem ented in 1786, was the inclusion
of alcaldias
mayores
and
corregimientos
into larger units of adm in istrative con trol, the
intendencias. These units were ruled by an intendente,who was in every
respect like an
alcalde mayor
(re-nam ed
sub-delegado)
except that there
were fewer of them , they were salaried profession als accountable to the
crown, they
did not
exercise
or
allow
a
m onopolyoverlocal com m erce
in
the
benefit of an y m inor official, and they had greater m ilitary strength at their
disposal. The system ofintendenciassoughttoheightenthe crown 's con trol
over regions and to m ake possible an overhaul of the whole system of
com m erce and taxation .
13
The
intendencia
was the ideal system for central con trol both in the
Bourbon period and un til the 1910 Revolution , since it placed
alcaldes
mayores
(renamed
sub-delegados
and later transform ed into
jefes politicos)
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under the surveillance of a higher authority that could
limit their
power and
consolidate revenues for central authorities. Whereas alcaldias mayores
were m uch larger than m odern -daymunicipios(there were 116 ofthemin
New Spain fewer than the num berof municipiosthat exist today inthestate
of Oaxaca alone),intendenciaswere very m uch the seeds of m odern-day
states. Thus, New Spain'salcaldias m ayoreswere incorporated into nine
intendencias:
An tequera (Oaxaca), Guanajuato, Mexico, Puebla, San Luis
Potosi, Valladolid (Michoacan), Guadalajara and Durango (Gerhard
1993:17). On
the other
hand,
many states
were created
out
of m ajor historic-
cultural regions that had found recogn ition in the territorial organ ization of
the church such as Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan, Veracruz, Puebla, Tlaxcala,
Michoacan , and Jalisco. Som e states, such as the state of M exico,
encom passed several historical regions, som e of
which
eventually split off
and becamestates in their own
right
(Guerrero, Hidalgo, Morelos).
14
In other
cases, historical region s were prevented from becom ing states (such as the
failed state of Iturbidein the
Huasteca),
orsign ifican t political rifts split one
region (the case o f Cam peche and Yucatan ).
A corn er-stone of the cen tralizing reform s o f the Bourbons was to wrest
control of the tax-base from local elites. This was carried out by
professionalizing
the
bureaucracy an d, just
as
im portan tly, by
relying on the
distin ction between Peninsulars and Creoles. The Bourbons gave
Peninsulars a privileged position in the new bureaucracy because, bein g
outsiders to New Spain , Pen in sulars n ecessarily reliedon thecrown as their
m ost sign ifican t ally. However, this resource was obviously n ot available to
Mexican governm ents after Independence.
Thus,
the independen t Mexican state
had enormous
difficulty in tryin g to
reconstitute
a
professional bureaucracy.
In the
process,
the
m aterial base for
a powerful central governm ent
was
lost, and regional
caudilloswere able
to
effectively assert their dem ands and power until they con trolled the m iddle
tiers of govern m ent, includin g the state governm ent. So, although the
federated state was in principle the heir of theintendencia,it passed out of
central bureaucratic con trol after Independence.
the modern era
This geography of power was slowly transform edbyPorfirio Diaz, who
m anaged to con solidate a relatively cen tralized regim e based largely
on
the
railroads. Diaz effectively brought state governors under presidential con trol
although this was n ot accom plished by a profession alization of the
bureaucracy as m uch as by the creation of a com plex balance between the
acknowledgm ent of the privileges of m ajor regional fam ilies and the
assertion of the prim acy of the president's will in any particular case .
15
Despite D iaz's success in creatin g a strong cen tral governm ent, his
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reign ing coalition burst asunder during the Revolution . And central power
was pain stakin gly recreated through the decades of the 1920s and 1930s in
a system that far surpassed the efficacy of
Diaz:
the Revolutionary party.
From a territorial poin t of view, the 1917 con stitution elim inated a critical
historical figure,
ihejefe politico,
who was the m ost hated governm ental
represen tative o f the Porfiriato. Instead, m unicipal govern m ents were
con solidated, with nothing between
them and
state governm ents. This m ove
was com plem ented un der Lazaro Cardenas with extensive agrarian reform ,
which furtheredtheconcen tration of elitesincities, reorienting m ost of their
econom ic activity towards industryand
com m erce,
givin g som ewhat greater
autonom y to villages and
municipios.
Eviden tly, this m ove was successful because
it
occurred
in
tandem with
conditions that were favorable to industrialization . As a result, power was
centralized in the presidency and in the federal governm ent far m ore
effectively than under Diaz, leadin g to weak provin cial governm ents that
posed no serious contest to presidential power. Moreover, industrialization
under a state-led system ofimportsubstitution led to the form ation ofnew
sorts o f econom ic enclaves
and
organizations that cut across local and state
boundaries, and were organ ized n ationally with som e local chapters, again
stren gthening n ation al over region al identity, and national power over local
power.
On the other hand, post-revolutionary public adm in istration did n ot
follow a sim ple process of profession alization. Instead, the system
has
been
characterized by
a
m ixture of
rational
bureaucracy
and
system s o f prebendal
con trol known ascaciquismo .The con n ections between a profession alized
civil service and entrenched power holders reflect the currently existing
geography o f power.
In sum , M exican political geography has recogn ized
three
to four m ain
levels of political com m un ities. Of these,
the
city,
town or
village is the on ly
political un it with an uninterrupted history ofhavingm atched govern m ent
withtherepresentation of a peopleandofapopular w ill.Inthis respect, the
use of the term
pueblo
(people) to refer to any town is n ot without
sign ifican ce. Higher levels o f governm ent
(alcaldias m ayores, intendencias,
provinces or states) have m ore shallow traditions o f popular political
represen tation since represen tation at those levels involves articulatin g
various
and
diverse sorts of political
and
cultural collectivities and, perhaps
m ore im portan tly, because m id-level political un its were design ed m ain ly to
aid kin gs, presiden ts and regional elites to wrest resources and power from
local hands. As a result, representations of 'the people' have tended to be
stron gest at the local and the n ation al level, and weaker in the in term ediate
political com m un ities.
16
Correspon din gly, on e m ight expect both
ritual
and
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publicspheresto operate in distin ctive ways at the various levels o f M exican
political organ ization .
17
locating public spheres
Historian Francois Xavier Guerra has produced a political portrait o f
Mexico's 19th centuryin which he m ain tain sthatM exico'srealpolitical and
social organ ization was left without a correspondin g political ideology and
program after Independence. Without a m onarchy, the n ation 's region s, its
political bosses and clien ts, its corporate indigenous com m un ities,
hacendados and retainers had to create and accom m odate to a system of
political representation that
was,
in theory, based
on
equal individual rights.
This situation led to a system where an idealized n ational com m unity
was created by an elite m ade up of m ilitary leaders, hacendados, m in ers,
m erchants, and in tellectuals whose discussions occurred in the com m ercial
press,
free-m asonry
forum s,a
few urban literary
and
scien tific in stitutes, and
salons
and
social gatherings
(tertulias).This
elite form ed
the
n ation al public
opinion that m attered,and their ideas and ideals were form ally n ationalized
in institution s such as con gress, the suprem e court and the n ation al
presidency.
As a result, there was con siderable distan ce between what occurred in
the n ation al public sphere and the way in which the country was actually
govern ed, for governm ent relied alm ost entirely on private n egotiation
between politician s. So, for exam ple, Porfirio D iaz m ain tain ed a
rem arkable, con tin uous correspon dence with all of his governors and som e
jefes politicos
and local n otables. In this private correspondence, region al
issues were discussed, instructions were received, and suggestions were
provided. Governors would,
in
their
turn, m eet with represen tatives o f what
Guerra calls the prin ciple collective actors of their region s-
representatives of villages,
jefes politicos,
heads of elite fam ilies of
hacendados, m erchants and m iners and they would en gage in closed-door
discussionsthatparalleled thosethathadbeencarriedoutwithDiaz. Fin ally,
these leaders would institute the n ew policies.
This im plied that the n ational public sphere was constituted alm ost
exclusively by
elites
(both regionaland national),and
that there
wasnoopen
n ational or regional forum for civic discussion during the Porfiriato or,
a
fortiori
in an y of the previous regim es. On the other hand, the various
collective actors whose leaders were brought together in closed-door
discussion s also had their own local form s and forum s o f com m un ication ,
som e of which in volved free public discussion and som e of which did n ot.
This is why it is n ecessary to speak of publicspheres.
26 Journal of latin amorican anthropology
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overview
of
mexican public spheres
Mexican cities in the pre-industrial age had as their m ain collective
actors local urban elites, artisanal guilds, petty m erchants, In dian
com m unity m em bers within the cities, and an urban rabble which at tim es
acted collectively but had no official corporate status. In rural areas, m ajor
relevant collective actors during this early period included
obraj e,
mine
workers and in habitants of haciendas, ranches and peasant com m un ities.
Most of these collectivities were organ ized in the religious plan e around
cofradias(corporations
for the
cult of saints)
and
also found discrete places
in the period's m ost in clusiverituals,such as the bullfight, m ajor religious
festivities, and the entrada of a viceroy, archbishop,
alcalde mayor
or
priest.
18
Much participation in these
cofradias
was
an occasion to discuss the
in ternal affairs of the collective actors. This is probably the root cause o f the
prohibition s that were raised against slave
and
blackcofradias(see Palm er
1976). The organ ization around the cult o f each collective actor's patron
sain t also allowed discussion and expression of collective in terests within
each o f those groups.
Colonial society offered n o political arena in which these various
discussions could be publicized and broadened. Newspapers, which were
in troduced in the 1720s and were m onthlies throughout m ost of the 18th
cen tury, were n ot a forum for public discussion . There were no editorials,
letters to the editor or opin ion pieces. Rather, there were short inform ation
briefs an n oun cin g the
ritual
ife of the city
and
glorifying
the
political life of
the colon y.
Thus,
collectivities were represen ted in the
ritual
ife of
the
kingdom but
their problem s were n ot discussed
or
exam in ed
in a
n ational forum of public
opinion. All of these collectivities were constructed out of
or
into sm aller
n etworks of fam ilies, frien ds, neighbors, patrons, clien ts,
and
allies, m ost of
which did and still do n ot serve as m in iature forum s for free dialogue and
discussion . Elite fam ilies, for exam ple, havebeen known
to
gatherhundreds
of m em bers in sign ifican t fam ilialrituals
and
to con struct com plex webs of
com m un ication and decision-m akin g processes within these large groups.
On the
other hand, m ost of these fam ilial decision s
and
debates could n ot be
said
to
occur
within miniature public spheres
because
members
do not
confer
in an unrestricted fashion , but rather discussion occurs in a hierarchical
con text where wom en and m en argue in different ways and places, where
thereare rules
of sen iority,
and where
significan t
status
differen tials between
m ajor power-holders and their (fam ilial) clien teles system atically inhibit
discussion . Thus we get
arichritual
ife
in
elite fam ilies,where
the
results of
com plex n egotiations, allian ces and decision s
are
displayed, but no fam ilial
public sphere operates.
19
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The sam e
sort
of argum ent can apply
to
the typically sm aller kin dreds o f
peasan ts, workers, artisan s, and sm all m erchants. They have sign ifican t
fam ilial rituals,strong channelsof in form ation and opin ions com in g fromall
m em bers ofthe fam ily, but on ly lim ited in tra-fam ilial discussion by m em bers
as equals. In stead, in form ation
and
opin ion s are weighed by powerful fam ily
m em bers who m ake up their m inds and im pose their decisions.
20
Of the m ain agrarian collective actors m entioned (hacienda and ranch
dwellers, m in e and
obraje
workers,
and
peasant com m unities) on ly peasan t
villages developed well-established local public spheres. Unions were
prohibited
in
haciendas, factories
and
m in es,
and the
fact
that
workers lived
on the land o f the owners lim ited open discussion between m em bers of the
collectivity. Instead, discussion was in form al, with no forum to collectively
focus
on a
sin gle
issue
and to sound
out
a collective
will.
Discussion am ongst
equals operated as rum or, while public life was dom inated by ritual and by
centrally controlled form s of publicity.
In m ost peasant com m unities we have both a ritualized display of
com m un ity an d a local public sphere. This public sphere has had various
types of com position s, and we have in stitutions such as town m eetings,
m eetin gs
of the juntas de mejoras,
the Lion 's Club or the
asociaciones de
padres defamilia, thatserve asforum s of discussion . Discrim ination by sex
in these forum s varies and has n ot yet received system atic attention from
either
anthropologists
orhistorians.
Although
my
im pression is that they
are
usually dom inated by
m en ,
there is also plenty o f fem ale participation , and
m any key in stan ces where wom en are the cen tral players.
21
But it m ust be
n oted that in addition to the various com m un ity-wide forum s there are sex-
specific forum s of discussion and debate, in cludin g such classical lower-
class forum s
as the
cantina
(bar)
for
men
and
thelavadero
(water-well or the
washing
area)
for wom en,
and these
should
alert us
to
the need
for describing
the genderedspaces o f discussion andtheirin ter-conn ection sinvarious local
contexts.
In sum , the institutional spaces that stand out as havin g been arenas of
discussion am ongst equals
are
associated
with
village
or urban
life.
The
bar,
the well, the village or school association , the
cofradia,
the Rotaries or the
townm eetin g allow forsomepublic discussion that m ay havebeensom ewhat
less lim ited by the strictures of fam ily authority on on e side, and state
authority on the other.
On the other hand, overall interconn ection s between the various local
and n ational public spheres have had six m ajor m om ents of transform ation
in
M exican history: (1 )In dependence and the constitution of a national public
sphere, (2)the birth of m odern industry during the Porfiriato, (3)thc
incorporation ofaworker's sectorto thereignin gpartyaftertheRevolution ,
(4) the em ergence of m iddle-class professional groups (first m ajor
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m an ifestation of which were the doctors' strikes in 1964-65), (5)the
em ergen ce of
an
independent
union
m ovem ent (1970s), (6)
the
em ergen ce of
social m ovem ents that do not explicitly represent class interests but focus
rather on selected issues such as housing, wom en 's rights, and defense
again st developm ent projects.
Although Ihave nospace to detail each o f these developm ents here, a few
considerations on the transform ation of the public sphere are n eeded. First,
with Independence, a national public sphere em erged for
the
first tim e, with
the com m ercial press and congress as its two m ain forum s. This tran sition
m eant that arbitration from the political cen ter was n o longer the on ly, or
even n ecessarily
the main
way o f arguing
for the
rightsof a collective actor.
Instead of m erely expressin g
the
collectivity's inclusion
in the realm
by way
of the m ain fiestas, these collectivities som etim es found their fundam ental
usos ycostumbres(traditionalrights)beingdebated andchangedin then ew
national public sphere. This was notably the case of indigenous
com m un ities, whose traditional institution s cam e under attack alm ost
im m ediately after Independence,
and
who lost m ost of their legal protection
by the m iddle o f the century.
Moreover, m ost of the collective actors o f the period were illiterate and
lacked property
and
other characteristics that were deem ed cen tral to bein g
a citizen. Because of
this,
the
ritualized
represen tation of
a
n ation al order
con tin ued to
be
of cen tral sign ifican ce, although
Liberal
governm ents fought
hard to wrench this system of representation out of the hands of the church
and into those of civil authorities. This process was politically painful and
wasnever achievedin its
entirety.
I would argue that the difficultywas in part
due to the fact that the civilframeworksetupby Liberals had n o room for
form ally recogn izin g m any of the collective actors who were on the scen e,
whereas these had previously been acknowledged in the organization of
cofradias,
in the com m em oration of
patron
sain ts, and in m ajor religious
fiestas such as Corpus Christi and Easter.
In
other words, the creation of a
n ational public sphere, fictitious
and
highly im perfect though it was, was
a real threat for the traditional status of collective actors since it set up an
arena where
new
rules could be
m ade
that
affected
the
very acknowledgm ent
of the collectivities in question .
The secon d sign ifican t poin t to n ote regards the form ation of a m odern
proletariat and its historical conn ection s to a public sphere. In the in itial
phases o f m odern ization , the Mexican proletariat found very little room for
expression or represen tation in govern m ent. Proletarian public spheres did
em erge, however,
around trade
un ions and
with the
help of the penn y-press,
and it produced two of M exico's m ost n oteworthy in tellectuals, n am ely,
Ricardo
Flores Magon and Jos6
Guadalupe Posada. In other words, the early
stages o f m odern ization - especially in m in ing and in tex tiles - saw the
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con stitution of proletarian collective actors and the articulation of the
proletariat to the national public sphere, although both of these processes
were hindered by state repression as well as by low literacy rates and by the
m any social ties that the Mexican proletarians have m ain tain ed with n on -
proletarian kin sm en and friends.
After the 1910 Revolution, such proletarian organization s and voices
found m uch support from governm ent, which took a lead in organ izing and
coordin atin g a union con federation first the CROM and later the CTM,
which still hobbles alon g today.
This
process, however, also led to
the
form al
inclusion of un ion s in to the official party apparatus, a situation that
ultim ately weakened that class' internal public spheres, and com prom ised
proletarian inclusion in civic, non-govern m ental forum s. A com parable
process occurred
with
peasan ts who,
thanks to the
political strings
that
were
attached to land reform , were effectively incorporated in to the state's
m asses. Thus we get relatively weak conn ection s between these two
classes and the n ational public sphere. This m ean t that these collectivities
m aintain ed arbitrated
andritualized
relation ships with the state that were in
som e respects com parable to those
that
existed in
the
colon ial era, except for
the
fact that
the
state -
through
a particularly
rich
developm ent of nation alist
m ythologywas able to wren ch m ost of these
ritual
fun ctions away from the
church.
The first collective actors to run headlong again st this neo-baroque
system were from the new m iddle classes. Pozas Horcasitas (1993) has
describedthisprocessin hisstudy ofthem edical doctors' m ovem ent of early
sixties. These doctors cared little for Revolutionary rhetoric. They had
already been trained in a fully m odern era, and expected the benefits of
m odernity without
the
form s of
state
tutelage
that had been
im posed
on
m ost
peasant
and
workin g class collectivities. They also expected to control their
in ternal discussions and to have access to the m edia of the national public
sphere: the press and public policy m akers.
Thegovernm ent showedadistin ct un willin gn essto open uptothesenew
political actors, either by way o f concedin g a fortified in ternal collective life
or by givin g greater freedom of access to m edia and policy-m akin g.
Repression of the em ergin g m iddle classes occurred during the m edical
strike (1964-1965), and culm in ated in the student m assacres of 1968 and
1971, after which point the governm ent proceeded to develop pragm atic
n egotiation s as well as a series of political reform s.
These m iddle class pressures (m ovem ents o f doctors, school teachers,
students, paren ts' association s, etc.) grew in tandem
with the
developm ent of
the so-called
new
social m ovem ents that
were
no
longer
strictly class based
and were n ot directed toward the control or redistribution of the ben efits of
production , but cen tered rather on the conditions o f reproduction: housin g,
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urban services, pollution control, schooling, parks, transportation costs,
wom en 's rights, etc.
It isim portant tosay, withregard to these m ovem ents, thatmanyof them
are not new in a strict sense. For instan ce, Castells (1983) has described a
ren ters' strike in Veracruz in 1915. What is n ew about the m ovem ents
beginn ing roughly in the 1970s is (1) their scale, which reflects the
vertigin ous growth of
cities,
particularly Mexico City, (2) the diversification
of dem ands on governm ent as an in stitution responsible for providin g an
ever-expan din g set of services and form s of social protection , (3) that these
m ovem ents were less
amenable
tocentralized control
than either labor
or the
peasant m ovem ent, (4) that, bein g goal oriented, these m ovem ents som etim es
lacked m echan ism s for defin in g participants as stable m em bers of
collectivities. This fin al poin t m eant that m ovem ents usually jelled around
leaders and issues and could die down to such an extent that they defined a
generationrather than a collectivity that reproduced through tim e.
All o f these conditions together m eant
that
the new social m ovem ents
had enorm ous potential for widenin g the national public sphere, sin ce they
were not easily in corporate to the sectorial apparatus of the official party
and the state.The com bin ation of these variegated pressures, including those
from professional and proto-professional m iddle-classes and n on -
incorporated un ion s and peasan t com m un ities, forced the state to develop
n ew strategies of encom passm ent and in clusion , as well as an expan sion of
access to the n ation al public sphere.
I have provided a historical overview of Mexico's m ain collective
actors and have poin ted to their in ternal forum s of discussion and to their
con n ections tothe state throughritual,closed-door discussion and decision-
m aking, and the n ational public sphere. In addition, I have given som e
elem ents with which to im agin e these various collectivitiesintheir regional
location s. It is in conn ection to these factors that a profitable discussion of
the place and role of political
rituals
can take place.
political ritualinnational and regional space
A poignant in troduction to the role ofritualn consolidatin g Mexican
political com m un ities
can be
found
in the
early con tact period, which was a
tim e when the capacity for dialogue between Span iards and Indians was
m in im al, and powerful in terests were vested in m ain tain in g som e
m iscom m unication between them .
22
At
that
tim e,aFranciscan Friar, Jacobo
deTestera, sought to createanatm osphere
that
was propitious forthe rapid
conversion of Indians, an atm osphere that would n ot require exten sive
com m un ication between Indians and priests. For this purpose he created a
form of pictographic writin g wherein icons were to be spoken out in
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indigenous tongues, while the sounds that were thereby emitted
approximated those of the Latin orations of the M ass. Through a mock form
of reading, Teste ra put Christian orationsinthe Indians' m ouths. They read
out flag and prickly pear (pantli,
noxtli);
he heard som ething quite like
Pater
noster
and this misunderstanding allowed both parties to
participate in a critical comm unitarian ritual. T hus, at a time when there was
no public sphere in M exico, before the existence of a national language o r
even of a coherent project for a national language, rituals were a fundamental
arena for constructing political boundaries and relations of domination and
subordination within the polity.
24
Gruzinski (1990) has written extensively on the crucial significance of
non-discursive forms of communication in the conquest and colonization of
the Indians. He has shown the centrality of icons in this communicative
process, and has even spoken of a war of images. At the level of images,
and especially in ritual, pragmatic accommodations between participants
occur without any necessary accommodation at the level of formally stated
policy or discourse . This sort of politics pragmatic accom modation while
formally adhering to a discursive orthodoxy has been insistently remarked
upon by observers of Mexico, some of whom trace its beginnings to Hernan
Cortes, whose dictum to King Charles I obey but I do not com ply has
become famous.
Th is profoundly anti-dialogic trend did not die along with the Counter-
Reformation. Mexico's Enlightenment and Positivist eras were also
characterized by the use of modernity as a discourse more than a s a set of
adopted practices.
25
Generally speaking, anthropologists and historians have
recognized that Mexico has a legalistic, formulaic tradition that is combined
with keen political pragm atism, a pragmatism that has often been com pared
to Machiavelism.
26
The flexibility lacking at the level of formal political
discourse and discussion appears in political practice, and these
accommodations are enacted in ritual and its imagery. Correspondingly, the
study of ritual allows us to witness the ideological articulations of a society
that has always been both highly segmented, and systematically
misrepresented in formal discourse.
In sum, ritual is a critical arena for the construction of pragmatic
political accomm odations whereno
open,
dialogic, forms of communication
and decision-making exist. In other words, there is an inverse correlation
between the social importance of political ritual and that of
the
pub lic sphere.
Moreover,onecould add a culturalist argument to this sociological one: once
the Spaniards abandoned all serious attempts to truly convince and
assimilate Indians to their society, certain aesthetic forms were developed
(the baroque sensibility ), and these became values that permeated th e
society deeply, affecting family relations, forms of etiquette,
and
other social
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form s
in all
social
strata.
Thus Mexicanritual
and
ritualismwould havedeep
sociological and cultural roots.
However, this very general appreciation
is
merely
a
starting
poin t,
for in
order to organ ize the variegated literature on political ritual and,
furtherm ore, to propose
an
agenda for future research, we n eed to arrive at
a m ore precise form ulation of the specific sorts of political work
that
ritual
does and has done in different regional and historical con texts. I focus on
three m ain poin ts here.
First,
I
arguethatpoliticalritualreflects
the
dialecticsof opposition and
appropriation between state agencies and collectivities. This point leads us
awayfroma sim ple opposition between popular and stateritual.Second, I
shall discuss som e of the intercon n ections between ritual and rum or.
Specifically, I shall argue that both ritual and rum or can be seen as
occupyin g spaces of expression that cann ot
find
other ways into the public
sphere. Ritual can serve as a way of constructing a high level of region al
in tegration with on ly a m inim um substratum of com m on culture and,
especially, of discussion . This view leads us awayfromookin g at M exican
history as a sim ple secular process towards dem ocracy and m odernity.
Finally, I shall discuss the con n ection s between
ritual
and corruption. This
poin t helps
us
understand
the
ways
in
which the state is locally appropriated
and in which a hegem on ic order is constituted.
ritual and the expansion ofstate institutions
A good starting point is to pair the relationship between Foucaultian
institutions and
their
techniques of bodily disciplin e with
rituals
that aim to
construct
an
im age of con sen susaround
a
notionof
'the
people'{e lpueblo).
In a study o f the history of patriotic festivals in the state ofPuebla(1900-
1940),
Vaughn (1994) shows that the in terconnection between schools and
festivals passed through two stages. During the Porfiriato, festivals were
organized by the local jefe politico with the aid of the local elite of
hacendados, ranchers and n otables. The system of schooling m ain ly catered
to the n otable fam ilies an d, to a lesser extent, inhabitants of the m ain
cabeceras,
but decidedly excluded the rural and poor m ajority. After the
Revolution , the strength of schools was underm ined con com itan tly with the
stren gthen ing of the agrarian com m unity
and the
weakening of the region al
elites. Schoolteachers
did not
have
the
coercive power that ihejefespoliticos
had, so they could n ot organ ize local work-parties in support of the school
and
federal funds
were
insufficien t.
This
situation began to turn
aroundin the
1930s through the revival of the patriotic fiesta by the teachers, who used
com petitive sports as theirmaindraw.These sporting com petition s becam e
a
venue
for local social life
as
well
as
for traditional form s of com petition
and
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sociability between villages and
barrios.
As a result, local agrarian
com m un ities vied for gettin g schools built and provided the badly n eeded
support for their sustenance.
Hen ce perhaps the m ost fundam ental m odern in stitution of discipline
and
un iform ity,
the
school, spread not
so much as a result
of state im position
as by its own capacity
to bridge and
reconcile
state plans
with various form s
of local politics. The school becam e, in fact,analternative arena for givin g
m ateriality and visibility to local com m unities in a way that is an alogous to
the role that the church had played in the colon ial period, and ritual (the
patriotic festival, with its attractive sports features) played a central role in
the expansion of schools just as the religious fiesta, with its secular
attractions, was cen tral to the expansion of the church.
Thus Vaughn provides a clue for understanding the ways in which the
Revolutionarystatesucceeded in takin g represen tational fun ction sover from
the
church.
In the
Porfirian
arrangem ent,
schools and patriotic festivals were
m ainly organized by and for regional elites, while the church still provided
the broadest arena forthepolitical assertion of collective force in its fiestas.
It is on ly aftertheRevolution,with thedeclinein thecoercive power of local
politician s and the in troduction of com petitive sports (which were cheaply
available to everyone), that the civic fiesta becam e a forum in any way
com parableto thechurch fiesta an d, interestin gly, it is on lyatthis point that
rural school teachers m usteredthelocal support they needed to really expand
the school system with the tight budgets that they have always had.
In
other
words, state in stitution s expand in a fashion that is dependent on the local,
region al an d n ational politics of culture. The institution s that create an idea
of sim ultan eous n ational developm ent are also constrain ed by the various
local cultural and political forces.
The results of this situation have varied historically as the force of
m odern institution s has grown , but overall they m ay be synthesized as
follows: n ational reality in Mexico, public opin ion and national sentim ent
still have public popular
ritual
as their fundam ental forum , an d the leveling
m edia of the bourgeois public sphere (schools, n ewspapers,television ,
parliam ent) have generally been used as a tool for providin g a discursive
in terpretation and solution to theritualm an ifestation s of popular will.
Eviden tly, this situation is deeply interm ingled
with
the lack o f a form al
dem ocracy
in
M exico, but
it
would
be a deep
m istake to attribute
this
lack o f
dem ocracy exclusivelyto adictatorial im positionfrom thepresiden cy, sin ce
authoritarianism isthe product of com plex in tercon n ections between various
local, n ation al and international forces. Moreover, there has been lon g-
standin g cultural accom m odation to these circum stan ces, such that
established form sforexpressin g political dem ands, for interpretin g them and
for resolving them do exist.
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These form s of political expression and of con flict resolution are
m ultiple,sincethey m ust respond toneeds a tvarious points in n ational space
and, because of this variety, they do not lend them selves to be easily
shoehorned in to a single constitutional
order.
O n th e
con trary, the system of
m ediation /representation that was handed downfromthe colonial period is
better suited as a m odel for this situation, sin ce it allows greatflexibilityn
the consideration of th e specific n eeds of in dividuals and collectivities (it
institutionalizes a n exceptionalism a n d still
provides
a n outlet for collective
representations.
This does n o t m ean , however,that th e roleof politicalritualhasmoreor
less rem ained constant in Mexico since the baroque era. I am n ot even
im plyin g, as
P a z
(1982)
h a s
done, that
t h e
Revolution allowed for a
return
to
the wom b of the baroque. Neither does m y argum ent im ply a sim ple
substitution of
church
ritual
by state
ritual.
I believe that cults o f various
saints still uphold a standard of com m unity and acertainpurity o fmotive v i s -
a-visstaterituals,and they m ust therefore be taken account for in political
an alysis. I sim ply m ean that the system of political and cultural
representation of th e baroque n eeds to be seriously considered in order to
understand t h e role of politicalritualtothis d a y , and that thisi sdue to the fact
that religious a n d civic
ritual
sa keyt o understandingth e expansion of state
institutions in Mexico.
I shall n ow
turn
t o t h e significance of
ritual
n th e articulation of various
collectivities in to a hegem onic order. My argum ent is presen ted in two
stages. First, Idiscuss the con n ection s between
ritual,
rumor a n d the public
sphere. In that section I shall argue that the social salience o f rum or in
Mexico m akes
ritualized
public m anifestations
into
th e prim ary sign s of the
public sphere. Finally, I shall conclude with a discussion of the con n ection
betweenritualand local appropriation s o f the state.
r u m o r r it u a l a n d t h e p u b l ic s p h e r e
In our discussion of the spatial and class distribution of public spheres,
I argued that there were various social organization al form s and collective
actors that h a d n o in ternal public spheres, n o forum for
open
discussion and
evaluation of decision -m akin g processes.Thisdoesn o t im ply,however, that
com m unication
does
n o t
exist
within
these groups, or that they
a r e
incapable
of constitutin g a gen eral public sen tim ent. It m eans, sim ply, that public
sen tim ent is form ed in com m un icative contexts other than those of an open
dialogic public sphere.
Hierarchical organization s such as land holdin g fam ilies, hacien das, or
factories did not have internal public spheres, and neither could their
individual m em bers freely participate in a n ational public sphere sin ce they
h a d highly restricted
access
tot h e
m edia.
In these organization s,
opinion
was
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formed in the sort of context that Erving Goffinan has called a back-stage
91
:
in the kitchen, in the washroom, while bending down to plant or pick, in the
market place, orsotto vocein the anonymity of a crowd.
These a re the spaces where information flows. Because these spaces are
backstage , they are typically seen as subversive of official truths as well as
of the national public sphere, and they are correspondingly feminized. Th us,
in Mexico frank, open talk at public meetings is often contrasted to
washer-woman's gossip
(chismes de lavadero o de asotea).
Political
dialogue is characterized as manly (direct, open, rational), whereas rumor
is cowardly (it occurs behind one's back) and considered wom en's ta lk
(chisme de viejas). Evidently this form of mapping gender onto the
frontstage/backstage relationship between public spheres and the multi-
stranded currents of rumor should be understood firstly as a ploy for
undermining the validity of rumor and it should not be taken a s ade facto
correspondence between a masculine/feminine dichotomy and public sphere/
rumor. The same rumors that are feminized and called washer-w om en's
go ssip one day can be hailed as the sentiments of the nation the next day.
Moreover, backstage communication is not only engaged in by women ju st
as women engage in the national public sphere (although usuallyinmarkedly
different contexts than men).
Itisuseful to think of rum or as following the negative mold of the various
public spheres that we have discussed. W herever civic discussion and open
argument is precluded by the asymmetries of power, alternative
comm unicative relationships emerge and rumor predominates. In M exico the
national public sphere has never achieved widespread respectability and
credence; too many voices are excluded from it. Because of this, people
always prefer a personal source of information
( gossip )
to merely an
official one.
27
This situation leads to Mexico's classical legitimacy crisis: how to
interpret, conform or channel what Jose Maria Morelos called '*the
sentiments of the nation. Intellectuals have had a leading role in filling this
communicationalvoid,jus t as newspapers have become a privileged media
for the interpretation of national sentiment. At the same time, intellectuals,
like the oracles of old, need signs. Going out and asking citizens in a
systematic fashion was always seen as problematic, and has only begun
gaining some ground in recent years.
28
This is because the poll involves
making the backstage front stage. In other words, it involves constructing a
free-flowing, confessional relationship between citizens and the state, a
relationship that involves a corresponding notion of governmental
accountability. Since this accountabilityisnot readily forthcoming, a candid
relationship is not buildable except in cases where citizen s feel
that
they
have little to loose and perhaps something to gain.
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The sign s that intellectuals and politician s read are therefore com plex,
sin ce political m an ifestation s are interpreted m ain ly in their expressive and
sym ptom atic dim ensions. Hencethework of in terpreting n ational sentim ent
does
not end with the
gathering of opinions, for opin ion s
that are
unlinked to
action, opinionsthat have nopractical consequence,areeasily discounted as
wom en 's
gossip or talk.
The
true
n ational sen tim ent is only m ean in gful
in conn ection to public action , to political ritual.Isayritualherebecausethe
weakn ess of M exico's n ational public sphere guarantees
that
political even ts
will be interpreted sym bolically, with expressive dim ensions coun tin g at
least as m uch as instrum ental ones.
29
Moreover, significan t differences em erge between political m an ifesta-
tion s that are geared to the m edia and political m an ifestations that are
oriented to direct action in sm aller-scale collectivities. Interesting in this
respect
is the
use o f m asks in
two recentcases,
that of Superbarrio
in
Mexico
Cityand thatof the neo-Zapatistas in Chiapas. The use of m asks allows for
a m ore abstract identification of a m ovem ent with the people. As such its
points can be put forward in a clearer way to the public and the specter of
cooptation of
a
specific leader or of
a
sm all con stituency dim inishes.
In
effect
the masks are aBrechtiansortof m ove, effacin gtheindividualandstressing
the social persona via a reliance on im ages derived from the m ass-m edia.
This is en tirely different from ritualized social m ovem ents that are not
directed to the m edia ofthenational public sphere, for exam ple in sm all
town s. In those
cases,
the people
are
represented directly by
known
people,
anditis thepresence of particularindividuals thatcon vin cesothersto join in
the m ovem ents. Correspondingly, these m ovem ents are not m ediated by a
national public sphere. They are direct expressions of local public spheres
and, although at tim es they seek support from national m edia and public
opin ion , they do n ot usually entertain high hopes for the efficacy of these
m ediations.
Also interesting is
the usage
of inversions o f public
and
dom estic realm s
in m ediated versus face-to-face m ovem ents.
30
Whereas in local m ovem ents
these sorts of inversions
are
direct
appeals
to revolt,
in
m ediated m ovem ents
they serve as poin ted appeals to public opin ion and are thusgestures of
revolt. Thus, m iddle and upper class wom en take to the streets of Mexico
City to protest the con struction of a highwayorto protest the high costs of
a devaluation . Sim ilarly, ranchers from the Altos de Jalisco filled
Guadalajara's central square with tractors in protest again st n ew
agricultural policies. These sorts of inversions are subversive in sm aller
com m un ities, where local public opin ion is im m ediately swayed by them .
For exam ple, when womentookto thestreetsinTepoztlan in 1978, the m en
backedthem andtookover them unicipal presidency;when theCham ulas in
19th century Chiapas appropriated the Christfigureout of the church, they
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revolted and laid a siege on ladino Ciudad Real (San Cristobal). In the
m ediated urban context (which is an ever-growing field , given the curren t
expansion ofthe n ational
public
sphere in to ever-deeper levels of the region al
system ) inversions are directed as appeals to a public sphere that will then
exert pressure on governm ent by n on-violent m eans.
In sum , whereas m any collectivities are routinely recogn ized and
reconstituted in rituals
that
substitute an internal public sphere, therea r e also
political m an ifestation s of public sen tim ent that are created in backstage
con texts, socialized through rum or, and converted in to specific m ovem ents
that are rightly analyzable as ritual because their significance is
system atically re-in terpreted and given a certain directionality in the public
sphere.
The centrality o f ritual in the con stitution of polity can therefore be
understood in t w o dim ensions. Ont h e o n e hand, rituals canb eexpressions of
collective vitality and interests within the sanction ed political order. O n the
other hand, public political m an ifestations are understood as expression s of
a public sentim ent that i sconstructed int h e backstage,a n d thath a s therefore
not (yet) been harnessed by the state. This second dim ension m ean s that
political m ovem ents are heavily ritualized. They are in fact the m ain signs
that political interpreters read.
31
c o r r u p t i o n a n d r i t u a l
I have thus far suggested three im portant roles that ritual has in the
constitution of political com m unities in M exico. O n the m ost general level,
ritual is crucial because social segm entation a n d power relations underm ine
m echanism s for dialogic understanding and negotiation between membersof
the national com m unity. Secon dly, ritual has been strategically utilized to
construct alliances between local collectivities and state and church. The
dialectics of this process involve com petition or struggle between
collectivities or classes, a n d allianceswith stateo rchurcha r e used t o further
local in terests in those struggles. Fin ally, I have suggested that ritual is
critical to t h e constitution of a nationalpublic sphere i n a n authoritarian state
because it is th e principal
sign that
interpreters read, occupying a role that is
an alogous to that of the poll a n d thatis n o less m an ipulatable). In this final
section
I
shall providesomeconsiderations on
t h e
relation ship between ritual
and corruption in the Mexican system .
The problem of corruption needs to be understood on three levels: first,
on a function al level (what it does for governm ent, individual participan ts
and victim s); secon d, at the level of accusation s (what a discourse of
corruption does in the world of politics); and third, at the level o f the m oral
sen sibility o f a people (how discourses and practices of corruption affect
personal attitudes, definitions ofself, and how is corruption cleansed or
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avoided).
Throughout Mexican
history,
corruption
has
con sisted of appropriating
portion s o f state or church m achinery for private benefit and (arguably) to
the detrim ent of the state's in terest as well as to those of n on -fun ctionaries
(subjects or citizen s).
However,
these appropriations
serve various
fun ction s
and have varyin g im plications in the different periods. For exam ple,
throughout the colon ial period official governm ental posts were seen as
prizes that the crown handed down in recognition either of social proxim ity
or
of past favors, or else in exchange for
m oney.
Correspondingly, officials
were expected to profit from their posts, and were in n o sen se civil
servants. Acom parablesituation hasextended well intothem odern period.
On the other hand, because the church was the fundam ental arena for
collective expression and because it had its own independent sources of
taxation , corruption
in
the church was also im portant. Local con stituen cies
could at tim es play these two sets o f am bitions off again st each other.
Villagers participated fervently in theirfiestasn part as a show of allian ce
with the church that m ighttheninterveneintheir favor against the abuse of
landowners
or
officials.
On
the other hand, suits and revolts again st priests
were brought to civil authorities. Finally, local ritual could stand as an
affirm ation of local
rights
against
both church and
state,
both
of
whom
could
easily con spire again st the subaltern classes. Thusritualhada fundam ental
m ediatin g fun ction in
the
colon ial
period,
where
theboundaries,
stren gth and
rights of
a
collectivity could
be
expressed at
the
sam e tim e
that
alliances were
forged with the church or the state.
In this con text o f n egotiation , which survived the colon ial era albeit in
differen t term s, corruption was reflectedinwhat m ay be called an extended
cargo system . An thropologists have beenproneto take a n arrow view of
what religious cargos are about, stressin g their significan ce in indigen ous
com m unities
and their
lin ks to form s of prestige
that are
allotted on ly within
the lim its of traditional com m un ities. In fact, variations of cargo system s
exist and have existed throughout the n ational space, and the burden of
paying for celebration s has usually reflected
the
expected distribution of the
benefits of reign ing. So, for
exam ple,
Mexico City n otables
and
officers had
to
come up with money for all sorts
of com m em orations o f
the
royal fam ily's
affairs
as
well
as those
of
theviceroy.
32
On the other hand, sm aller villas and
pueblos had to in cur parallel expenditures to com m em orate
their saints
days,
etc.
But it was these very form s of public festival that also gave political
recogn ition to the
pueblos
and villas and allowed for the funneling of
resources to the com m unity leadership.
This sam e logic survived in to the n ational period. In Tepoztlan , for
instance, carn ival becam e the m ost expen sive and lavish fiesta and was
fundam entally bankrolled by the local n otables. This contrasted with the
ritual,
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humble barrio fiesta, which was paid for by collective contributions. Local
notables funneled their money intocomparsasthat represented their barrio of
origin, encompassing only three of Tepoz tlan's seven or eight barrio s. Thus
notables created solidarity with poorer members of their barrios and
subsequently depended on this local basis of support to successfully control
municipal offices during
the whole
of the 19th and most of the 20th centuries
(Lomnitz-Adler 1982).
De la Pena (1980) has described how hacienda owners in the Morelos
Highlands buttressed their own popularity and that of the municipal notables
by contributing resources to the local fiesta. Finally, in Zinacantan, the
classic and much debated instance of the so-called traditional cargo
system , Cancian (1992) has shown that financing local fiestas was a crucial
item of prestige and local power for many years, and that the system only
came into crisis when the local economy diversified and the population grew,
creating a split between the older peasant notables and younger capitalist
entrepreneurs. The elders have kept the young generation from sponsoring
the fiestas, andthecargo systemh stherefore declined as a locus of political
expression.
This correlation between financing festivities and reapingthebenefits of
the state (or of appropriating local branches of the state) has a marked
parallel with the ways in which the PRI's political campaigns have been
financed. Calculating costs of official party campaigns is practically
impossible in Mexico because instead of working with a centralized coffer
and budget, campaign costs are diffused amongst supporters, all of whom
either benefit or hope to benefit from the state, and m ost of whom appropriate
their local state resources for the purpose of supporting the campaign. So,
for example, governors and municipal presidents use up their budgets to
show their personal support of a presidential candidate and through that
personal support, the support of the collectivities to which they are linked.
Union leadership that has had privileged support from government uses
union funds and working hours to support the candidate.
33
Ontheother hand,
as inthefiesta, participants in campaign events are also meant to ga in things
for themselves: a day off from work, free food, a fiesta, or at least a renewed
relationship with their immediate patron.
Thus political ritual is tied to corruption because much of the financing
of ritual reflects the actual or expected ways in which local leaders and
communities appropriate portions of the state apparatus. They are
enactments both of personalized state redistribution and of the pow er of the
whole constituency vis-a-vis the more abstract national state.
But the connection between fiesta and corruption does not end here for
most fiestas com bine a controlled and an unrestricted aspect.Themascaras
40 Journal of latin arrw ican anthropology
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a lo serioanda lofaceto are
exam ples of this
in
colon ial pagean try, but the
situation is alm ost entirely gen eralizable: solem n m asses are followed by
mole, drinking and dancing; carnival ends with the High Mass of Ash
Wednesday; political rallies typically are followed by free-flowing stream s
of alcohol. Even the
most
apollon ianrituals,
such
as
the
on ce popular oratory
contests
had
certain frothy in terstices while secular festive even ts such
as
the
bullfight orthecockfight tended to receivea certain amountof governm ental
supervision , with form al m om ents where this supervision was asserted.
This com bin ation of political control and unrestrained popular
expression m ade the
fiestas
places where a certain com plex hegem ony was
enacted, for popular expression was at once unrestrained and en com passed
by
the
authorities. This is the m ost subtle sense in which political
ritual
can
be said to be tied to the history of corruption:
fiestas
assert the sign ificance
of
a
collectivity vis-a-vis the
state and as
such they
have been used
to jockey
for position in the n ational m ap. On the other hand, on ce a collectivity is
receivingsomebenefits fromthestate, on ce theyhave aleaderor aclass that
appropriates the state and represen ts it locally, these leaders
are
expected to
foot the bill o f m uch political ritual, for the ritual will serve as a
m anifestation ofthecollectivity's con tinued vitalityto higherofficials. Thus
fiestas
are
usually
signs
both of the vitality o f
thepeople
and of
the
state .
Corruption underwrites this whole relationship because the state is on ly
extended into these collectivities on the condition that it be locally
appropriated (usually by local elites) and that som e o f the ben efits of this
appropriation spill over to the rest of the local population .
Fin ally, rituals presen t popular m oral standards regarding corruption .
Un generous leaders
areshunned,
as
are leaders who do notfinancefiestas
or
do n ot recogn ize or acknowledge their own people.
34
Ingeneral an ethics of
respect, gen erosity, and com m union are en acted, and these values provide
the
rudim ents of a technology
that is used for
articulating
the
national polity.
In this respect, the Catholic ritual stan ds as a standard that con tin ually
haunts the politician. These pervasive conn ections between ritua l and
corruption, bothin relation tolocal appropriation s o fstatem achinery and in
the
con struction of an
ethics
of
thoseappropriations,
dem onstrate
the
critical
sign ifican ce of the study of ritua l for understanding hegem ony in the
Mexican n ational space.
c o n c l u s i o n
I have explored
the
conn ection between
ritual
and
political com m un ities
by looking at the geography of public spheres developm entally. In the
process, I have suggested relationships between rum or, ritual and
ritual,
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corruption . This an alysis leads us away from three trends in the study of
political ritual. The first is the on e thatdivides ritualsim plyintostatist versus
popular; the second is the trend that tries to construct a secular progress
between pre-m odern ritual and m odern dem ocracy. Again st the first
position , the perspective developedherestresses the dialectics of opposition
and appropriation between state agencies and various collectivities. This
dialectic affects both the constitution of subjectivities by the state and the
ways in which state in stitutions
are
locally
appropriated.
Against
the
second,
our perspectivestresses thepersisten t obstacles tothe creationofabourgeois
public sphere
in
Mexico. Our m odern ity contin ues
to
segm en t
and
to exclude
large num bersfromthe prom ised benefits of citizenshipandm odernization ,
and this has allowed for a contin uous re-constitution of a ritual life that has
its origin s in the baroque era.
33
For these reasons, the specter o f
anAncien
Regimeseem s never to die in Mexico; it survived the 1857 con stitution , it
survived the Revolution , and it m ay even survive the current n eo-liberal
period. The regional study of ritual offers a way of specifying these
relationship, a way of understanding their historical evolution, and of
clarifyin g the nature of social change in the polity.
Finally, a third position that m ust be m odified is the on e that seeks to
synthesize national culture by way of the study of national rituals. Our
contribution to this perspective is to showthesign ifican ce of developing an
overall geography of ritual as a n ecessary
priorstep.Once this
is done (and,
evidently, this paper isonly abeginn ing ofsuch ageography),thesocial and
political referen ts o f rituals can be clarified and placed in their proper
perspective. Since our fundam ental thesis is that political ritual is
substituting for arenas of discussion and argum entation, creating hegem onic
idiomsof agreem ent betweenvariousand diverse poin ts o f view (cultural and
political), the study of these rituals can serve as an entry to understanding
hegem ony geographically,
but
they
cannot be
used
to
hom ogenize the culture
of their participants in any sim ple way.
notes
1.
The role of ritual in the construction o f a n ation al polity is a venerable line o f in quiry, with W olf
(195 8) and Turner (1974)
as
the m ost prom inent foundin g an cestors. The role of ritual
in
the con solidation
of local com m un ities has received m uch m ore atten tion, notably in argum ents over W o lf s typology of
peasan t com m un ities, as well as in debates over the so-called cargo system (cf. Cancian 19 63 , 19 92;
Sm ith 197 7) and in studies on the con n ections between ritual and local politics (cf. De la Pena 198 0;
Lom n itz-Adler 198 2). In terest in political ritual has also em erged in ethnographies of various dim en sion s
of M exican urban life (cf. Velez-Ibaflez 1983 ; LL om n itz 1987b) and in the anthropology o f social
m ovem en ts (cf. Alon so 1986; Mon sivais 1987). Finally, there is also work on p olitics as spectacle an d on
the role of m yth and ritual in bureaucracy (cf. Lom n itz, Lom n itz-Adler an d Adler 19 94 ; Ruy Sa n chez
1981).
In
the past decade or so , interest
in
these fields has also gain ed prom inence am ongst historian s, wh o
have atten ded sim ilar them es in various periods and regions (cf. Be ezley et al. 1 99 4; Oruzin ski 19 90 ;
Joseph and Nu gen t 19 94 ; Viqueira 198 7). These titles are only a sam ple of the literature.
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2 .
By 'public sphere'Im ean arealm ofoursocial life in w hich som ething approaching public opin ion
can be form ed Access is guaranteed to all citizens. A portion o fthe public sphere com es
into
being in every
con versation in which private in dividuals assem ble to form a public body. They then behave n either like
busin ess or professional peop le tran sacting private affairs, n or like m em bers of a con stitutional order
subject to the legal con strain ts of a state bureaucracy. Citizen s behave as a public body wh en th ey con fer
in an unrestricted fashi on - that is, with the guarantee o f freedom of assem bly an d association an d the
freedom to expressandpublish their opin ion s- aboutmattersof gen eral interest. Ina large public b ody this
kind of com m un ication requires specific m eans for transm itting inform ation and influen cing those w ho
receive it Today n ewspapers and m agazines, radio and TV are the m edia of th e public sphere. (Elley
199 2:2 89) This Haberm asian n otion is useful not least because
it
presents
an
ideal type of com m un ication
again st which altern ative form s, such as the rituals and rum ors thatIshall discuss here, can be com pared.
3.
Inthis paper I em phasize on ly the m ethodological utility of this prem ise, sin ce it provides clues for
understandin g the spatial lo gic of civic
ritual.
However, the point has general theoretical significan ce, since
m ost anthropological work on political ritual fails to problem atize the spatial integration o f political
system s, and so an alyses o f political ritual tend t o be vague regardin g the precise relation ship betwee n
rituals an d the production of hegem on y.
4.
I in itiated an an alysis of Mexican cultural region s in Lom n itz (199 2a, b).
5. How ever, Gerhard (19 93 ) has shown the overlay that often occurred between pre-Colum bian and
colonial territorial organization. See also Carrasco (1967: 4) for this point, and Lockhart (1992) for the
prolon ged relevance o fthe pre-Hispan ic political system at local levels in the colon ial era.
6. Gerhard (19 93 :14 ) explains the evolution of these two term s. Initially,
corregidores
had exclusive
jurisdiction over Indian regions, and alcaldias mayores englobed Spanish towns. Gradually, the two
functions were fused an d the two titles becam e in terchan geable.
7. See Elliott (198 4:293 and 299).
8. These m on opolies were form ally recognized by the m id-eighteen th cen tury in the in stitution of th e
repartimiento de comercio.
9. De la Pefia (1 98 0) has shown how local Cestas were used to consolidate alliances between villagers
and priests.
10.
See Carrasco (19 67 : 10-1 7) for a discussion o f these.
11 .
For exam ple, see Lira's (19 83 ) work on the Indian
barrios
of Mexico City and Haskett's ( 19 91 )
work on colonial Cuernavaca.
12 .
Gerhard(1993:27)explainsthat [I]nthefirst ha lfofthe 17th cen tury, NuevaEspa fia wasina sense
urbanized, with com pact Span ish town s and cities and Hispanized Indian villages separated by vast
stretches of deserted lan d, a pattern visible today. Chevalier (19 70 ) has shown the way in which these
concentrations affected the consolidation of landed estates and rural production.
13 .
For a synthesis, see Brading (19 84 :40 0-4 09) .
14 .
For a history, see Macun e (197 8).
15 . Guerra (19 8 8) chapter 2 provides the critical description o f this system .
16 . The exception, of course, is in instances when regional elites appropriate state governm en ts in
opposition to cen tral power an d try to rally region al support again st the n ational state. This has occurred in
som e contexts and occasion s.
17 . A parallel argum en t could be developed to specify different sorts of cultural region s, ran gin g from
m inim al cultural region s (which in rural central M exico tended historically to be lower-level m arketin g
region s or endogam ousmunidpios), to m id-level regions based on identity between m inim al regions, to
m id-level cultural region s con structed out ofthe incorporation o f ow -level region s into powerful econ om ic
and political cores, to n ation al regions. These various kin ds ofcultural region s
are
characterized by variou s
form s of intern al cuhural diversity, m echanism s of distinction, cultural form s of inclusion and ex clusion ,
etc.
An d whereas som e o f these cultural region s are buttressed or even created by state power and policy,
others are n ot
18. See Viqueira (1 98 7) for a fascinating discussion o f som e ofth e transform ations of collective
participation in pub lic ritual durin g the 18th century.
19 . See L Lom n itz (198 7a) for a discussion o f fam ily ritual and its conn ection to form of intrafam ilial
com m un ication and decision -m aking in the twentieth century.
2 0 .
This is wh y LL om n itz (19 87 b), wh o has studied Mexican fam ilies of various social strata, in sists
on the sign ifican ce o f've rtic al' ties in that social organ ization al form .
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2 1 . For exam ple, wom en have been quite vocal in Tepoztlan. So m uch so that the official party
organized asitsm ost m ilitan t branch a local organization kn ownasLaMujer Tepozteca. Friedrich (1 98 6)
m akes the poin t that wom en are able to publicly articulate opin ions that would get their m en killed. Th is
argum ent wou ld seem to be borne out by the historical work on rebellion in M exico (cf. Taylor 197 9).
22 . G reenblatt argues that the discourse of the m arvelous was used to avoid transcuhural
com m un ication in the contact period (19 92:13 5-6). Gruzinski (19 90 ) argues that attem pts to foster true
dialogue b etween priests and In dian s were m ore or less abandon ed in M exico c. 157 0. I have argued that
am bivalen ce towards com m un ication between urbanelites an d popular classes lie s at the heart of the history
of M exican anthropology (in press).
2 3 .
See Johnson (1987:15 ).
24 . So m uch so that all of the early ritualsandspectacles m ust be un derstood politically, in cluding early
theater, which w as oriented toward evangelization as well as to reform ulating po litical relation s. For
exam ple, the attackonpolygyn y in early colonial plays served both to teach about the sacram en t o f m arriage
and to underm ine Aztec political organization, which used m ultiple m arriages as an idiom of allian ce for
em pire-buildin g.
25.
See Guerre (19 88 v.
1:182-201).
See also the significance of lip service to dem ocracyinthe PRI's
19 88 presidential cam paign inLom n itz, Lom n itz-Adler and Adler (199 4). Escalan te (199 2) deals squarely
with this issue.
26 . Most prom inen tly by Paul Friedrich (1986 ).
27.
Ilya Adler's (19 86 ) study of the uses of the press in M exico's bureaucracy is sign ifican t in this
respect. He describes how bureaucrats con stantly presen t inform ation that they have read from the
n ewspapers either
as
their own personal interpretation or as com in g
from
a personal source. The backstage
has greater claim to truth than official, public renderings in M exico.
28 .
Nuestro Pais
is the first journal devoted to public opin ion in Me xico, an d polls on ly began fin ding
their wa y in to n ewspapers sin ce the 19 88 presiden tial cam paign.
29.
A full study of this phenom enon would have to focus on the press and its m anagem ent of public
m an ifestation s, a work that is yet to be done. However, exam ples and illustration s are easily available to
an y reader of the M exican press. In the past decadeorso ,crucial in stances of these processes have occurred
in the afterm ath of the 198S earthquake (what was the m ean ing of the popular and the govern m ental
reaction s to the disaster), durin g the CEU 's student m ovem en t, durin g the 1988 election s, after the
im prison m ent of La Quin a, after the assassinations of Cardinal Posada, Luis Don aldo Co losio and Jose
Fran cisco Ru iz Ma ssieu, durin g the Zapatista rebellion, an d after the devaluation on the peso in 1995 . All
of these events (an d an in fin ite n um ber of sm aller on es) are the foci of political con tention through the
interpretation oftheir
true
nature and m eaning. Anethn ographic description o fthe dyn am ics of political
interpretation durin g Mexican cam paigns can be found in L om n itz, Lom n itz-Adler and A dler (19 94 ) and
in Lom nitz (1992b) .
30.
The m ost striking exam ple of the distinction between directin g actions to public opin ion versus
directin g them at specific political targetsisthe ZapatistasinChiapas, who have e ssen tially foughtawar in
the m edia, and gain ed im portant trium phs through their
gesture
of arm ed revolt, and no t through actual
arm ed victories.
31 .
In this respect, our findings on the 1988 presidential cam paign are significant: political events and
public ritual produced a profusion of interpretation, m ean ing w as n ever obviousandreferents w ere alw ays
disputed. These processes of interpretation, which were triggered by am biguity o f inten tion as m uch as b y
a shared tradition of quasi-herm etic over-in terpretation, produces closed-door, back -stage pro cesses o f
n egotiation , the results of which are seen as post-hoc confirm ations of on e inter