Letters to the Editor: A “short brown’ Oaxacan was Mexico’s greatest president. What say you, Nury Martinez?
Monday
Mar 23, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 23, 2014 at 3:15 PM
The writer is a columnist for the Oaxacan newspaper El Imparcial, which is published in the U.S. and Mexico.
More than any other Mexican, Ernesto “Che” Guevara understood the power of language to influence human behavior (he was an avid reader of newspapers and writers from around the world). For that reason, he never felt the need to become fluent in the European or Arabic tongues, knowing how little effect they had on Mexico’s people and culture. He was also careful to keep up with what the press was reporting from around the world, and he knew how little power was in the hands of the foreign press in Mexico.
These qualities are still alive and well in Oaxacan’s “newspaper of the people” as the newspaper El Imparcial is known here, in Mexico and abroad. It is the kind of newspaper you might find tucked into the bottom of your dresser drawer or hanging on a shelf in your community library.
But this “newspaper of the people” is no longer a one man show, and that’s a good thing.
The Oaxacan people, with a few notable exceptions, have long since been allowed to choose their leaders. The current president is Alejandro Gago, a former mayor of the town of Uruapan, and he has chosen two of his fellow mayors to be his vice presidents. The same is true of many other high-ranking officials.
In any modern, free, democratic society, a president and vice president should have nothing to do with each other. It’s a matter of honor.
It would be nice if more Mexican presidents would behave this way — to avoid intermarriage and to keep themselves out of each other’s way
