Pain and Pride in Mexico

Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist, is a member of NPQ's Advisory Board.

Mexico City - 1997 was a rear of lights and shadows in Mexico. ON the bright side, the nation celebrated its first fully democratic elections since 1911, when revolutionary leader Francisco Madero was elected president along with a quarrelsome opposition Congress. On July 6, 1997, the miracle happened for the second time. Opposition parties captured the Lower house of Congress as well as the major's office in the capital city, Mexico. Fifty-two percent of the country is now ruled by opposition parties, in effect ending the 70-year domination of the PRI (Party of Revolutionary Institutions), thrown on the defensive and searching for the identity it lost in an opportunistic shuffle of ideological masks.