It's a strange feeling - disconcerting, really - to spend the Fourth of July sweating out a mini-revolution in a Latin country, especially when the cause is but an underpass. Yes, an ordinary underpass. But that's what I did two years ago today in the White City. Instead of a Kansas backyard barbecue with endless delicacies and plenty of cold beer, I found myself at a midtown intersection in this steamy capital, trapped between noisy protesters on one side and stern countenanced estatales on the other, trying to figure out why everybody was in such a stew.
Now that I look back on that sweltering afternoon 24 months ago, I realize some of the demonstrators - not to speak of the local militia called out to contain them and keep the public peace - were trying to do the same thing.
For those inclined to learn more about what can get Mexicans really upset, here are two offerings:
Violence Over an Underpass Underscores Reality of Gloves-off Politics in Mexico
One year later, Mérida remembers the "aggression" of July 4 at Glorieta de la Paz (with more photos)
In any case, the Underpass Which Will Live in Infamy has not been forgotten. Mérida's main daily newspaper, Diaro de Yucatán, reported today that a thousand people turned out to remember once again the "violent repression" of July 4, 2011.
A very fitting day for a revolution.
For reasons yet obscure, some didn't want the new "paso deprimdo"
These fireworks were set off not on July 4 . . .
but in October 2011, when the underpass which led to an uprising was finally completed and opened
Mérida is the White City, and its nearby neighbor of Izamal is the Yellow City.
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
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