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2. The Invasion of Santo Domingo

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The Meanings of Macho
This chapter is in the book The Meanings of Macho
TWO The Invasion of Santo Domingo Today, whoever says they know Mexico City is lying; at best, we intuit it. Carlos Monsivdis, in La jornada iHAY TIERRA! During the night of 3-4 September 1971, a call went up in the southern outskirts of Mexico City: "jHay tierra! [There's land!]" Within a twenty-four-hour period, four to five thousand families, some twenty thousand people in all, "parachuted" into the sparsely inhabited area today known as Colonia Santo Domingo. It stands as the largest single land invasion in the history of Latin America. Mexico's president, Luis Echeverria Alvarez, proved the uninten-tional instigator of the invasion when, on r September 1971, he de-clared his intent to respect the rights of all Mexicans to decent housing, called attention to the need to legalize de facto tenancy on public lands, and emphasized the obligation of the federal government to support those living in the worst conditions. In the early 1970s, the squatter settlements and slums of Mexico City were part of what Castells (r983:175) calls the "fastest and most dramatic process of urbanization in human history." The short-and long-term success of self-built areas such as Colonia Santo Domingo during and since that time has been predicated on extensive labor by members of the communities themselves, tolerance on the part of state authorities for the technically illegal land occupations, and investment by capitalist speculators, often through local front men.1 In fact, self-help housing in Mexico City in the early 1970s was not so much toler-ated by the government as it was recognized and fostered as the only viable option left at a time of crisis. And self-construction offered an 33
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

TWO The Invasion of Santo Domingo Today, whoever says they know Mexico City is lying; at best, we intuit it. Carlos Monsivdis, in La jornada iHAY TIERRA! During the night of 3-4 September 1971, a call went up in the southern outskirts of Mexico City: "jHay tierra! [There's land!]" Within a twenty-four-hour period, four to five thousand families, some twenty thousand people in all, "parachuted" into the sparsely inhabited area today known as Colonia Santo Domingo. It stands as the largest single land invasion in the history of Latin America. Mexico's president, Luis Echeverria Alvarez, proved the uninten-tional instigator of the invasion when, on r September 1971, he de-clared his intent to respect the rights of all Mexicans to decent housing, called attention to the need to legalize de facto tenancy on public lands, and emphasized the obligation of the federal government to support those living in the worst conditions. In the early 1970s, the squatter settlements and slums of Mexico City were part of what Castells (r983:175) calls the "fastest and most dramatic process of urbanization in human history." The short-and long-term success of self-built areas such as Colonia Santo Domingo during and since that time has been predicated on extensive labor by members of the communities themselves, tolerance on the part of state authorities for the technically illegal land occupations, and investment by capitalist speculators, often through local front men.1 In fact, self-help housing in Mexico City in the early 1970s was not so much toler-ated by the government as it was recognized and fostered as the only viable option left at a time of crisis. And self-construction offered an 33
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents ix
  3. Acknowledgments xi
  4. Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition xv
  5. Introduction: Gender Conventions 1
  6. I. Real Mexican Machos Are Born to Die 11
  7. 2. The Invasion of Santo Domingo 33
  8. 3. Imaginary Fathers, Genuine Fathers 50
  9. 4. Motherly Presumptions and Presumptuous Mothers 89
  10. 5. Men's Sex 111
  11. 6. Diapers and Dishes, Words and Deeds 146
  12. 7. Degendering Alcohol 173
  13. 8. Fear and Loathing in Male Violence 196
  14. 9. Machismo 221
  15. 10. Creative Contradictions 243
  16. Notes 265
  17. Glossary 291
  18. Bibliography 295
  19. Index 325
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https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520933538-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents ix
  3. Acknowledgments xi
  4. Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition xv
  5. Introduction: Gender Conventions 1
  6. I. Real Mexican Machos Are Born to Die 11
  7. 2. The Invasion of Santo Domingo 33
  8. 3. Imaginary Fathers, Genuine Fathers 50
  9. 4. Motherly Presumptions and Presumptuous Mothers 89
  10. 5. Men's Sex 111
  11. 6. Diapers and Dishes, Words and Deeds 146
  12. 7. Degendering Alcohol 173
  13. 8. Fear and Loathing in Male Violence 196
  14. 9. Machismo 221
  15. 10. Creative Contradictions 243
  16. Notes 265
  17. Glossary 291
  18. Bibliography 295
  19. Index 325
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