Failed Democratic Transitions: Clientelism and Hand-Kissing in Contemporary Mexican Film
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5399/uo/peripherica.2.1.10Resum
Clients of corrupt patrons experience a process of moral disintegration, but more importantly, they are instrumental in perpetuating the lack of accountability and corruption. The two film adaptations analyzed here, as well as Luis Estrada’s dark comedies, La ley de Herodes (1999), Un mundo maravilloso (2006), El infierno (2010), and Dictadura perfecta (2014), visualize these informal practices of moral and political submission as hand-kissing, exposing their ritualistic and physical nature. The two film adaptations I study here radically change their literary sources to portray sympathetic characters who submit themselves enthusiastically to a corrupt patron: Arráncame la vida (2008) and El crimen del padre Amaro (2002). The protagonists seek out patrons in order to get access to power and its benefits. The changes that filmmakers made illuminate the practice of clientelism: political subordination in exchange for material advantages, perceived as friendship or fictive kinship.Referències
Aguayo Quezada, Sergio. Vuelta en U. Guia para entender y reactivar la democracia estancada. Mexico D.F.: Taurus, 2010.
Arráncame la vida. Directed by Roberto Sneider. Performances by Ana Claudia Talancon and Daniel Cacho. Altavista Films, 2008.
Ayuero, Javier and Claudio Benzecry. “The Practical Logic of Political Domination: Conceptualizing the Clientelist Habitus.” Sociological Theory, vol. 35, no. 3, 2017, pp. 179–99.
Bailey, Kay E. “El uso de los silencios en Arráncame la vida por Ángeles Mastretta.” Confluencia, vol. 7, no. 1, 1991, pp. 135-42.
Bañuelos, Claudio. “Bendice el obispo Ramón Godínez las limosnas dadas por narcotraficantes.” La Jornada, 20 September, 2005, http://www.jornada.com.mx/2005/09/20/index.php?section=politica&article=022n1pol. Accessed August 29, 2018.
Bodevin, Leon. “Naturaleza y cultura: una lectura elemental de Arráncame la vida de Ángeles Mastretta.” Revista de crítica literaria latinoamericana, vol. 29, no. 57, 2003, pp. 159-69.
Caballero, Jorge. “Arráncame... muestra cómo nos volvimos hijos del fraude, dice Daniel Giménez Cacho.” La Jornada, 2 September, 2008, http://www.jornada.unam.mx. Accessed 21 August 2018.
Cueva, Alvaro. “La dictadura perfecta.” Milenio, 19 October, 2014, http://www.milenio.com/opinion/alvaro-cueva/ojo-por-ojo/la-dictadura-perfecta. Accessed 21 August 2018.
Dictadura perfecta. Directed by Luis Estrada. Performances by Damián Alcázar, Alfonso Herrera, Joaquín Cosío. Bandidos Films, 2014.
Dore, Elizabeth. Patriarchy from Above, Patriarchy from Below: Debt Peonage on Nicaraguan Coffee Estates, 1870–1930. Durham, Duke UP, 2006.
Duncan, Cynthia. “Reading Angeles Mastretta’s Arráncame la vida Through the Lens of Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema.” Rocky Mountain Review, vol. 63 no. 2, 2009, pp. 171-93.
El crimen del Padre Amaro. Directed by Carlos Carrera. Performances by Gael García Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancon, Sancho Gracia. Alameda Films, 2002.
El infierno. Directed by Luis Estrada. Performances by Elizabeth Cervantes, Damián Alcázar, Joaquín Cosío. Bandidos Films, 2010.
Hilgers, Tina. “Democratic Processes, Clientelistic Relationships, and the Material Goods Problem.” Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics, edited by Tina Hilgers, New York: Palgrave, 2012, pp. 3-24.
Holzner, Claudio. Poverty of Democracy: The Institutional Roots of Political Participation in Mexico. Pittsburg, PA: U of Pittsburg P, 2010.
---. “The End of Clientelism? Changing Political Practices Among the Poor in Mexico.” Latin American Studies Association, 2003, lasa.international.pitt.edu/Lasa 2003/HolznerClaudio.pdf. Accessed 27 August 2018.
---. “The End of Clientelism? Strong and Weak Networks in a Mexican Squatter Movement.” Mobilization, vol. 9, no. 3, 2004, pp. 223-240.
Kauffmann, Stanley. Review of The Crime of Padre Amaro. New Republic, 25 November, 2002, pp. 24-25.
La ley de Herodes. Directed by Luis Estrada. Performances by Damián Alcázar, Leticia Huijara. Bandidos Films, 1999.
Lavery, Jane E. Angeles Mastretta: Textual Multiplicity. London: Tamesis, 2015.
Lawson, Chappell. “Mexico's Unfinished Transition: Democratization and Authoritarian Enclaves in Mexico.” Mexican Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, 2000, pp. 267-287.
Levitsky, Steven and Lucan A. Way. Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. New York: Cambridge UP, 2012.
Linthicum, Kate. “Mexican Filmmaker Luis Estrada's Satirical Agenda Hits Home.” Los Angeles Times, 3 November, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-mn-luis-estrada-film-satire-20141103-story.html. Accessed 24 August 2018.
Mastretta, Angeles. Arráncame la vida. Mexico, D.F.: Cal y Arena, 1994.
---. “Entre la aventura y el litigio.” Interview with Gabriella de Beer. Nexos, 1 April, 1993, http://www.nexos.com.mx. Accessed 21 August 2018.
---. “La escritura como juego erótico y multiplicidad textual.” Interview with Jane Livery. Anales de Literatura Hispanoamericana, vol. 30, 2001, pp. 313-40.
---. “Mi novela es una historia, no un ensayo feminista.” Interview with Braulio Peralta. La Jornada, 11 June, 1985, p. 25.
---. “Women of Will in Love and War.” Interview with Barbara Mujíca. Americas, vol. 49, no. 4, 1997, pp. 36-43.
Merino, Mauricio. “The Second Democratic Transition in Mexico.” Wilson Center, 2010, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/democratic_transition_merino.pdf. Accessed 21 August 2018.
Moreno, Alejandro, and Patricia Méndez. “Attitudes Toward Democracy: Mexico in Comparative Perspective.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, vol. 43, 2002, pp. 350-67.
Morling, Beth and Susan Fiske. “Defining and Measuring Harmony Control.” Journal of Research in Personality, vol. 33, 1999, pp. 379-414.
Orso, Luis García. “El crimen del Padre Amaro.” Xipe Totek, vol. 12, no. 1, 2003, pp. 97-105.
Pansters, Wil. “Alternation, Transition, and Regime Change in Mexico: Is the Glass Half Full or Empty?” European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, no. 91, 2011, pp. 91-102.
Preston, Julia and Samuel Dillon. Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
Quierós, Eça de. The Sin of Father Amaro. Translated by Nan Flanagan, London: M. Reinhardt, 1962.
Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. Boston: Harcourt, 2016.
Rodríguez, Rene. “Sins of the Flesh, Relevancy of the Story Make El crimen del Padre Amaro Timely.” Hispanic, vol. 15, no. 11, 2002, p. 62.
Roniger, Luis. “Favors, ‘Merit Ribbons,’ and Services: Analyzing the Fragile Resilience of Clientelism.” Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics, edited by Tina Hilgers, New York: Palgrave, 2012, pp. 25–40.
Shefner, Jon. “What Is Politics For? Inequality, Representation, and Needs Satisfaction under Clientelism and Democracy.” Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics, edited by Tina Hilgers, New York: Palgrave, 2012, pp. 41–62.
Sneider, Roberto. Interview with Ada Aparicio Ortuñes. Casa de America, 2008. http://www.casamerica.es. Accessed 21 August 2018.
Teichman, Judith A. “Competing Visions of Democracy and Development in the Era of Neoliberalism in Mexico and Chile.” International Political Science Review, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 67-87, 2009.
Tosoni, Magdalena. “Notas sobre el clientelismo político en la ciudad de México.” Perfiles latinoamericanos, vol. 29, 2007, pp. 47–69.
Tuckman, Jo. Mexico: Democracy Interrupted. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012.
Wuhs, Steven. Savage Democracy: Institutional Change and Party Development in Mexico. University Park: Pennsylvania SUP, 2008.
Un mundo maravilloso. Directed by Luis Estrada, performances by Antonio Serrano, Cecilia Suárez Damián Alcázar. Bandidos Films, 2006.
Washbrook, Sarah. “‘Una Esclavitud Simulada’: Debt Peonage in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, 1876–1911.” Journal of Peasant Studies, vol 32, 2007, pp. 367-412.
Zarazaga, Rodrigo. “Brokers Beyond Clientelism: A New Perspective Through the Argentine Case.” Latin American Politics and Society, vol. 56, no. 3, 2014, pp. 23-45.
