In Mexico, Rich 'Ladies & Gentlemen' Told to Behave Lauren Villagran - The Christian Science Monitor
go to original June 21, 2013

One of Mexico’s most iconic images – the skeletal catrina – was originally created by José Guadalupe Posada to make fun of the upper class during the regime of Porfirio Díaz in the late 19th century.

“Ladies and gentlemen” no longer means damas y caballeros in Mexico. At least not when preceded by a hash tag.

This year has seen politicians and the rich dubbed “ladies” or “gentlemen” for behavior that would classify them as anything but. From #LadyProfeco – the woman who had a trendy Mexico City restaurant temporarily shuttered after she was denied a table – to the #GentlemanDeIxtapaluca, a public servant whose drunken tirade against the police was caught on video this week: Mexicans are catching their public servants misbehaving and getting the word out via social networks and traditional media.

It’s a recourse for public shaming that carries on a long Mexican tradition of poking fun of the powerful, say observers. And in the face of pervasive impunity, the airing of politicians’ less than ladylike or gentlemanly behavior is having modest results. In a country where legal avenues for fighting abuses of power often fall short it is knocking the powerful down a notch or two.

“It’s a cultural question,” says Hector Castillo Berthier, who directs the youth division of the Institute for Social Research at the National Autonomous University. “We opt for mockery, for the snub, for contempt. What’s at the bottom of it? Social inequality.” A recent study by the national statistics agency divides Mexicans into three classes: 59 percent fall into the lower category, 39 percent in the middle, and just 1.7 percent in upper class.

Read the rest at The Christian Science Monitor

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