Detective Work in Guadalajara

Last week, armed with our contacts from the cultural tienguis, we headed out on a search for groups that could offer us help with our radio project. It has been rather arduous, and although we have met some pretty cool radicals here, we seem to be hitting a wall in terms of our larger goal.

On Monday, we set out with a card for what appeared to be a communist radio station. To our surprise, it turned out to be a gay/lesbian/trans rights organization/support space/HIV testing clinic. The friendly guy we met there told us of one indigenous rights group on their contact list. When we arrived at the given address, it turned out to be a missionary: the group had switched locations. Luckily, the missionaries there had their new address. We decided to stop by an Anarchist library that was recommended to us, but it was closed.

On Tuesday, we stopped by the new address of the indigenous rights group. We were led through a beautiful colonial era building full of posters and banners for various leftist political groups, it seemed as if we were on the right track. On the second floor was the office of Alma Rose. Alma explained more about the group and the various areas where the worked. There was only one catch: they're jesuits. But after days of searching, this was the best we had found. And maybe working with a religious group would offer us more security as far as transportation of our equipment. And anyway a lot of the indigenous groups in Mexico are heavily Catholic. So we agreed to come back on Thursday to meet some of the crew.

On Wednesday, the Anarchist Library was finally open. We were met there by a friendly group of radicals who had maybe sort of friends of friends who might not be in Guadalajara right now contacts with Xayakalan. We also learned why the library was so under the radar, and why the radical scene in Guadalajara is so small: They are all scared shitless. Apparently a large protest took place there in 2004 against the Third Summit of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union. In short, during the demonstrations, tons of kids got brutally beaten and a few were taken as prisoners for years on some pretty gnarly felonies. Cops came down hard on the anarchist scene, nearly squashing it completely. In 2007, the radical scene started to gain momentum again, only to be crushed again by a heavy hand from the cops in 2008: more brutal beatings, more political prisoners, all radical spaces shut down. And now the are scared and tired and radical culture "almost doesn't exist anymore."

Of course we were crushed to receive the information, but there still may be some hope in finding contacts here, and the people who were at the space seemed pretty down if not a little cautious.

On Thursday, we headed back to the indigenous rights group. They weren't there. The secretary wouldn't even let us through the door. We got stood up by the Jesuits. Seriously, who gets stood up by Jesuits?

And Friday, we headed back to the Anarchist Library for a discussion group which didn't actually happen. But we did meet some other pretty cool people there, and we are starting to feel really good about this group. Unfortunately, we still have no contacts involved in radio or with Xayakalan, and we are starting to get pretty frustrated.

After another week with little progress, we decided its time to move on. We are about to leave for the coast of Michoacan to do some hiking down the beaches and [hopefully) visit Xayakalan. Time permitting, we will then head for Oaxaca, where there seems to be a way stronger radical movement. Everyone keeps hooking us up with more and more contacts there, maybe it would be a better space to start.