On the first part of this blog series, I wrote about Mexico as a land of contrast. To continue this thought, I would like to add the idea of Mexico as a nation of innovation and solidarity. In spite of the fact of having the power and the resources, Mexico risks very little in the actions taken against the real causes of inequality. There’s a pervasive social and political fear of breaking paradigms, of getting out of our comfort zone, of not getting the applause at the end. This fear has not allowed real change to flourish. I am sure that we are not the only country facing it, but this is the country I know the most about, I would love to read some comments in case this resonates with someone else.

In many aspects, Mexicans are still in the Renaissance: searching for a humanistic explanation of our own existence, trying to find the cause and effect that might give meaning to our internal politics, trying to reevaluate our society and, mainly, a combination of factors that might push us, “macehuales”[1], into our desired progress. Maybe it is time to go back to our origins and find our “toltequidad” (toltecáyotl): creativity, wisdom, tragic optimism, spirituality; word used by the informants of Fray Bernardino of Sahagún[2] to describe an ancient civilization of men and women that worshipped only one god, a god that found bloodshed offensive and only asked for butterflies and snakes. Skillful people that handled the codex, that were artisans, pyramid-builders, men and women with the ability to organize themselves peacefully thanks to their transcendent vision of themselves and their future. In modern argot, we call it social entrepreneurship, community development, social responsibility, sustainability, local leadership.

[1] The working class in the Aztec Culture.

[2] Spanish Franciscan missionary from the colony, who devoted his work to the ethnographic research and documentation of what we now know today as Mexico.

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