Dia de Los Inocentes December 30, 2020
“Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar en este Día de los Inocentes, que en nadie debes confiar.”
Innocent dove, you let yourself be fooled on this Day of the Innocents, when nobody should be trusted.
If I were writing to you from Mexico on December 28th, you should be even more suspicious of my words than usual, for the 28th is the equivalent of April Fool’s Day, with a little Catholic sour twist. It is officially the day which commemorates Herod’s bloody purge of infants in Bethlehem, Dia de los Santos Inocentes, when he was fooled into believing he had eliminated the Christ-child threat. In the European middle ages, Christians celebrated it as the Feast of the Crazies, at least until it got too crazy for the Holy Roman Emperor, who ultimately banned it. However, Mexico specializes in crazy fiestas, so Herod’s folly is institutionalized, much like its revolutionary party identity. This is the day that Mexico’s newspapers publish headlines that are ridiculously false, with the unintended effect of reenforcing the notion that Mexican journalism itself is ridiculously false.
“The entire city of Acapulco is sold to the Sandal’s Resort as a theme park for families to experience the thrill of living in a narco-state, with the fun, the sun, and the guns all included. Create memories of a lifetime, as the kids follow clues to answer the question: What have they done with Mommy and Daddy?“
This is a typically silly front-page story out of Guerrero, but one which unwitting readers might fall for, at least until editors conclude the piece with the obligatory disclaimer about innocent doves. Gotcha! These pillars of free speech and government watch may take pride in their light treachery, but the truth of their profession is that only a few, such as Lydia Cacho, earn their salaries honestly. According to my source, the mainstream media personalities receive bribes, called “Chayote,“ to peddle government propaganda. These corrupted ones, with press credentials and a national spotlight, are referred to as Chayoteros.
My source is admittedly jaded when she tells me that it happens everywhere, even my beloved New York Times, and I worry that this may be just another thread in the fake-news-conspiracy nihilism of the age. However, journalists in Mexico are threatened like nowhere else, as the death toll in recent years demonstrates. Hundreds have been murdered since 2000, and last month 3 died in ten days. Clearly, if professional success is measured by survival, it might seem like a good career move to accept the “mordido,“ the “bite“ of the fruit, as bribes are euphemistically described.
Speaking of euphemisms, Chayote is an odd one to refer so specifically to a pressman’s code of ethics. Chayotes are small green squashes that taste bland and cost very little. The cost paid by a public denied its independently-sourced information is great indeed, however, and has allowed presidents to act secretly and with impunity for years. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, AMLO, aims to change that. He faces the public every morning to take questions, and he has called for an end to the bribes. This has inflamed such right-wing media giants as El Reforma, creating a widespread anti-AMLO platform of relentless criticism.
In response, the President announced the other morning that his regular press conferences would hereby be cancelled going forward. The date was the 28th of December. News outlets, including El Reforma, printed it in their afternoon additions. Oh, the innocent doves.