¿Questions or comments about

Canoa?
El Crimen del Padre Amaro

21st century Mexico

Liberation Theology
Drug Lords
Gael García Bernal
 The film is set in 2002, but
based on a novel written in
1875 by the Portuguese writer
José María Eça de Queiroz.
 Mexican bus system
Traveling by bus is economical, efficient and comfortable. There are
a number of options, and “classes” of buses.

De lujo or Ejecutivo—Luxury lines

reclining seats, headphones for the films shown, air conditioning, fewer
and wider seats

Primera clase—1st class

AC, movies, non-stop service to larger towns and popular
destinations
Segunda clase—2nd class
Usually there are no reserved seats. The bus stops for passengers who
wave them down [along with stopping at regular stations]. These busses
are used for shorter trips, are often crowded, and may be filled with
people coming and going to markets. They may be called “chicken
busses” and yes, there may be chickens [but not running freely]. These
busses may be decorated and even named.
 Travel warnings
All bus travel should be during daylight hours and on first-class buses if
possible. Although there have been several reports of bus hijackings and
robberies on toll roads (de cuota), buses on toll roads have a markedly lower
rate of incidents than buses (second and third class) that travel the less
secure "free" (libre) roads. Although most first-class bus companies perform
security checks when passengers' board buses, armed robberies of entire bus
loads of passengers still occur. Be vigilant; watch your hand luggage. Long
distance bus travelers should stay alert.
 Mexico and drug trafficking
The US is the main customer for the marijuana, heroin
and cocaine crossing the border, somewhere between 8
and 24 billion dollars/year.
In return, the US sells 90% of the guns used by drug traffickers in
Mexico.
In the first 2 months of 2009, more than 1000 people were killed, either by
the drug cartels or by the Mexican military and police operations. MOST of
this violence takes place on the border.
In an effort to stem violence and control the power of the cartels, Mexico has
decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, heroin and cocaine. But if the US
doesn’t do the same, the drug trade will continue. Traffickers make
enormous amounts of money, and are able to bribe officials on both sides of
the
The border.
maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5
grams — the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for
cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50
milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015
milligrams for LSD.
http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war
Drug lords and philanthropy

There are many cases of drug

lords “giving back” to their
communities, fund schools,
clinics, even anti-drug
campaigns. Mexican drug
lords are no different. Apatzingan, Mexico - They hand out Bibles to
the poor in the rural foothills of the state of
Michoacán. They forbid drug use, build
schools and drainage systems, and declare
themselves the protectors of women and
children.

But this is no church group. This is La Familia

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1123/p12s01-woam.html
Michoacána, Mexico's newest drug-trafficking
gang, which now reigns over Mexico's
methamphetamine trade. What began as a
self-declared vigilante group doing "the work
of God," now is seen as the nation's most
 Liberation Theology
All over Central America in the 1970s, priests and nuns were re-evaluating
their traditional role within the Church, and the role the Church should play in
effecting social change. They were calling for a “theology of liberation,” and
their call has had serious consequences, threatening to divide the Church
irreparably. It had also affected them on a personal level. By 1980 more than
50 priests had been killed for their activities, including an archbishop.

Liberation theology draws the Church into an active role, demanding that it
help the poor meet social and economic needs and liberate the oppressed
from authoritarian regimes. Some priests, supported by dissident bishops,
argued that only through establishing communist governments can the poor
and oppressed be liberated. A few had gone so far as to join guerrilla
movements. Most followed a more moderate line, contending that neither
communism nor capitalism is suited for Latin America, and that a new
political and economic order is needed.
In the mid-1960s, with guerrilla activity spreading throughout the continent,
young theologians began to question their traditional view of Latin American
Catholicism. They turned to Marxism as an analytical tool to help them
understand the causes of economic and social under-development on the
continent that seemed to underlie the growing revolt.

Marx was respected as a sociologist in many parts of the Third World, and the
use of Marxian analysis was dominant among scholars from countries with
colonial backgrounds.

But an acceptance of Marx the sociologist did not necessarily lead to support
for a Marxist ideology, much less communism, which most liberation
theologians rejected as a political system incompatible with Christianity.
What attracted the theologians was not Marx’s formulas for a new society,
but his suggestion of the interrelationship of experience and theory – that
one supported and furthered understanding of the other. As a result, the
dissident theologians developed a series of new religious and sociological
insights based on Latin America’s historical condition as an economically and
politically dependent continent. The work that resulted became known as the
“theology of liberation.”
 Guerrillas in Mexico
Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR)

A Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group in Mexico that advocates a socialist

revolution. The group announced its existence on June 28, 1996, at
the one-year anniversary memorial of the Aguas Blancas Massacre,
in Aguas Blancas, Guerrero. During this announcement, the group
read from its manifesto in which they described their origins: “We
come from the sadness of widows and orphans, from the absence
created by our disappeared loved ones." Then they called for the
overthrow of the "unjust and illegitimate" Mexican government.
Los Zapatistas [EZNL]
 Excommunication
According to the Catholic Church, excommunication is not a penalty.

Excommunication is never a merely "vindictive penalty" (designed

solely to punish), but is always used as a "medicinal penalty" intended
to pressure the person into changing their behavior or statements,
repent and return to full communion.

Excommunicated persons are barred from participating in the liturgy in

a ministerial capacity and from receiving the Eucharist or the other
Sacraments, but is normally not barred from attending these (for
instance, an excommunicated person may not receive Communion, but
would not be barred from attending Mass).

Certain other rights and privileges are revoked, such as holding

Examples of people
ecclesiastical excommunicated:
office.
Eduardo Aguirre, Guatemalan Catholic priest, now bishop of the Brazilian
Catholic Apostolic Church
Mother of a nine-year old Brazilian rape victim, for obtaining an abortion for
her daughter. Also the doctors performing the abortion.
Pius XII excommunicated all Catholic supporters of Communism
 Priests and celibacy
Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx in The Church with a
Human Face asserts that clerical celibacy originated in "a
partly pagan notion of ritual purity."

Schillebeeckx says that in the fourth century came a law that forbade
a married priest from having sexual intercourse the night before
celebrating the Eucharist. However, when the Western Church began
celebrating a daily mass, abstinence became a permanent factor for
married priests.

In 1139, the Second Lateran Council forbade the marriage of priests

altogether and declared all existing marriages involving priests null
and void.

As the Church began acquiring his own property, there was a

real danger that legitimate children of priests could inherit and
deprive the Church of its land. At the time, common law
prevented illegitimate children from inheriting property.
 Since the Council of Trent [mid 1500s], celibacy has remained
Church law, specifically upheld by Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclical
Sacerdotalis Caelibatus. Despite opposition from half of the bishops
attending the Synod of 1971, requests from bishops in the United
States, France, and Latin America in 1988, Pope John Paul II did not
budge from his opposition to a married priesthood.
According to A.W. Richard Sipe, a study in 1984
suggested that the modern-day candidate for the are
inclined to have dependency problems, low libido,
low athletic and/or mechanical interest, and have
experienced "mother dominance."
Some complex surveys indicate that only 2% of all priests are completely
true to their vows of celibacy during their lives as priests. (And, as the joke
goes, that two percent probably did not understand the question.) Some of
the polled priests contended that their was a difference between being
unmarried and celibate. Others drew distinctions between being on-duty
priests and off-duty
A.W. Richard priests.
Sipe points to something he calls "splitting” which he views as
being more harmful that the acts that actually constitute breaking the vows
of celibacy. The duality, the secrecy, the associated fear and paranoia of
living two lives can be detrimental to the emotional stability of a priest.
Rationalizing infidelity to one's vows
can also cause some major problems.
Some common forms of
rationalization are:

1) sex is good, clean; not evil, dirty;

2) sex makes me a better priest;

3) no one is being harmed;

4) helps me to understand and love

others better.
Those priests who break their vows fall into a
number of categories. A good number of them,
perhaps as many as twenty percent of them have
heterosexual relationships with single women.

Others have relationships with housekeepers,

married friends of friends of the family, or with
female religious.

Socially, some priests go off on vacation posing as

laymen either individually or in groups.
A few related statistics

In 2002 there was 1 priest for

every 10,000 people in Mexico.
Many live in base
communities /
comunidades de base
[part of Liberation
Theology].

40% of the priests

were foreign.
 Abortion in Mexico
It’s [mostly] illegal.
A new national study shows that the number of abortions performed in
Mexico increased by one-third between 1990 and 2006 (from 533,000 to
875,000), despite legal restrictions that virtually ban the procedure in most
parts of the country. (In 2007, the federal district of Mexico City legalized
abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; the procedure remains
illegal in other Mexican states.) Mexico’s 2006 abortion rate (33 per 1,000
women) was more than 40% higher than the abortion rate in the United
States (19.4 per 1,000 women), where abortion is broadly legal and available.
The study, conducted by El Colegio de Mexico, the Population Council Mexico
Office and the Guttmacher Institute, found that many abortions in Mexico
take place under unsafe conditions, resulting in serious health consequences
for women. Seventeen percent of the Mexican women who obtained
abortions in 2006 were treated in public hospitals for complications. In
comparison, fewer than 0.3% of abortion patients in the U.S. have
complications requiring hospitalization.

“These findings confirm research from other parts of the world – that making
abortion illegal does not significantly decrease its frequency, it just makes it
unsafe and puts women’s lives at risk,” said Fatima Juarez, the study’s lead
 Dionisia and syncretic
religion
She appears to be a descendent of one of the 200,000 African slaves
brought by the Spaniards to Mexico.
As we saw earlier with the Aztecs, she has
combined Catholic practices with non-Catholic
practices [and added a few of her own] to create
a new religion to fit her own circumstances and
beliefs.
 A star-studded cast
Gael García Bernal Today [30 November[ is his
birthday! He’s 31.

Like many, he started in

telenovelas [soap
operas]. He’s one of the
most popular Mexican
actors ever.

Amores perros
Y tú mamá también
Diarios de
motocicleta/Motorcycle Diaries
Mala educación / Bad Education
Babel
 Ana Claudia Talancón
She also started in telenovelas.

Fast Food Nation

Love in the Time of Cholera
 Sancho Gracia

From Madrid. His

career dates back to
1963.

The Guns of the Magnificent Seven

The Call of the Wild
Martín [Hache}
800 Bullets
 Pedro Armendáriz Jr.
The son of legendary
actor Pedro
Armendáriz, his career
dates back 40+ years
with more than 200
roles.

Earthquake
The Magnificent Seven Ride!
Colombo
The Passion of Berenice
The Love Boat
Knight Rider
Old Gringo
The Mask of Zorro
Before Night Falls/Antes que
anochezca
The Mexican
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
 Gastón Melo

Sexton/S
acristán
in Canoa
 What to watch for/ think
about
Just what is the “crime” of Padre Amaro?

What other crimes were committed during the

film, and how would you rate their severity?

What do you think happens next to:

Padre Amaro
Rubén
La Sanjuanera
Padre Benito

What do you think the role or importance of Dionisia

and Getsemaní is?