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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

A River Runs Through It, Bleeding


Listening to Alejandro Junco, publisher of numerous newspapers in Mexico, I am reminded of a linguist who I had the good fortune to interview some years ago. He was from Germany, but raised in Latin America. He explained that the whole concept of being bilingual was so foreign to monolinguals, that it was almost impossible for them to understand what being bilingual is. A person born and raised in Chicago speaking English, he said, could not understand what being bilingual is any easier than a person born and raised in Mexico City can get it. Their world is monolingual, whereas a person born, raised, educated in two languages finds it "muy pretty" and normal, to boot, to be bilingual.

In Mr. Junco's talk, I learned what went wrong with Mexico, but I don't have a sense that Mr. Junco has much to say about what to do, what steps to take in order to improve what went wrong and make it right. The talk is priceless in understanding what went wrong, brutally honest and unflinchingly open and clear. I recommend it to anyone who loves Mexico and whose heart aches for what is happening there with the narco violence. I commend Mr. Junco for expanding the conversation to include democracy and what is needed to have democracy survive.I have thought often of the ease and safety that I live in and take for granted since my trip back home to Laredo. I have so many freedoms, including that to speak and write about whatever I wish.

I am disappointed to not hear about Mexico-based solutions from Mr. Junco. I am disappointed to not read about US-based solutions from other policy makers or in media. In his defense, Mr. Junco doesn't speak much about solutions and ideas for Mexico's re-creation because his job as a journalist is to tell the story, and he does this extremely well. Perhaps it's not his job to envision a solution for the problems he lays out for us to study. Maybe in the studying of the problems, a solution will emerge from somewhere, I don't care if it's Mexico City, Chicago or Stockholm, just let's get started.

Check out Alejandro Junco's talk on Texas Public Radio a few weeks ago on April 16. (scroll down about 8 program titles to "Mexico:What Went Wrong?"

http://www.tpr.org/programs/newsmakerhour.html
Mexico: What Went Wrong?

April 16, 2010 · Alejandro Junco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Reforma, a seven daily newspaper publishing group. Junco spoke on March 25, 2010 to members and guests of the World Affairs Council of San Antonio. The title of his presentation is "Mexico: What Went Wrong?" Introducing Alejandro Junco is Raul Rodriguez, the Benson Chair in Banking and Finance and a distinguished professor at the H-E-B School of Business and Administration at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

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