The authors of The Nation‘s account of the Mexican election, Margaret Cerullo and JoAnn Wypijewski, tried to keep triumphalism in check. But their call and response still managed to seem a bit beamish. Their claim the election meant Mexicans had become “heroes of their own story” reminded your editor of this story about a place in the country where everyday people have been acting like heroes for years. I hope it doesn’t seem churlish to point out citizens of Cherán chose to abstain from the recent election…
Per The Nation, plenty of Mexicans who voted in the election now belong to “newly formed autodefensas [community self-defense force],” which seem like versions of the one in Cherán. Ms. Cerullo’s note on the “controversy” surrounding such organizations zeroes in on their downside:
Their presence is both profound and unnerving. They saw vigilance as their community’s last chance, their survival. And yet, the concern, as a village neighbor put it, is that “sometimes necessity overwhelms dignity,” and they could be infiltrated, could devolve and become, alongside narco bands and police forces, simply another paramilitary group preying on the population.
That might happen in Cherán. And that’s why no-one should imagine the town has found the solution to Mexico’s history of violence. But clarity about limitations of Cherán’s model of social living doesn’t mean we shouldn’t bow to the bravery and resourcefulness of people there who took their city back. Their heroism hasn’t always been appreciated. A couple years back Vice ran a snarky story anticipating Cherán’s decline. It was reminiscent of “slothful and smirking” accounts of America’s 19th C. utopian socialist communities that Edward Dalhberg once decried. Dahlberg (who was nobody’s idea of a dupe) insisted the significance of those noble cooperative experiments didn’t rest solely on whether they had endured or failed. After all, as he pointed out: “Everything ultimately fails, for we die.” B.D.