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8/14/2019 Questions or Comments About Canoa?

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Questions or comments aboutCanoa?


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El Crimen del Padre Amaro

21st century Mexico

Liberation TheologyDrug Lords

Gael Garca Bernal


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The film is set in 2002, butbased on a novel written in

1875 by the Portuguese writerJos Mara Ea de Queiroz.


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Mexican bus system

Traveling by bus is economical, efficient and comfortable. There area number of options, and classes of buses.

De lujo or EjecutivoLuxury lines

reclining seats, headphones for the films shown, air conditioning, fewerand wider seats

Primera clase1st classAC, movies, non-stop service to larger towns and populardestinations

Segunda clase2nd classUsually there are no reserved seats. The bus stops for passengers whowave them down [along with stopping at regular stations]. These bussesare used for shorter trips, are often crowded, and may be filled withpeople coming and going to markets. They may be called chickenbusses and yes, there may be chickens [but not running freely]. These

busses may be decorated and even named.


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All bus travel should be during daylight hours and on first-class buses ifpossible. Although there have been several reports of bus hijackings androbberies on toll roads (de cuota), buses on toll roads have a markedly lowerrate of incidents than buses (second and third class) that travel the lesssecure "free" (libre) roads. Although most first-class bus companies performsecurity checks when passengers' board buses, armed robberies of entire busloads of passengers still occur. Be vigilant; watch your hand luggage. Longdistance bus travelers should stay alert.

Travel warnings


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Mexico and drug trafficking

The US is the main customer for the marijuana, heroinand cocaine crossing the border, somewhere between 8and 24 billion dollars/year.

In return, the US sells 90% of the guns used by drug traffickers inMexico.

In the first 2 months of 2009, more than 1000 people were killed, either bythe drug cartels or by the Mexican military and police operations. MOST ofthis violence takes place on the border.

In an effort to stem violence and control the power of the cartels, Mexico hasdecriminalized small amounts of marijuana, heroin and cocaine. But if the USdoesnt do the same, the drug trade will continue. Traffickers makeenormous amounts of money, and are able to bribe officials on both sides ofthe border.The maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5grams the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram forcocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015

milligrams for LSD.


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http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war
http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/


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All over Central America in the 1970s, priests and nuns were re-evaluatingtheir traditional role within the Church, and the role the Church should play ineffecting social change. They were calling for a theology of liberation, andtheir call has had serious consequences, threatening to divide the Churchirreparably. It had also affected them on a personal level. By 1980 more than50 priests had been killed for their activities, including an archbishop.

Liberation theology draws the Church into an active role, demanding that ithelp the poor meet social and economic needs and liberate the oppressedfrom authoritarian regimes. Some priests, supported by dissident bishops,argued that only through establishing communist governments can the poorand oppressed be liberated. A few had gone so far as to join guerrilla

movements. Most followed a more moderate line, contending that neithercommunism nor capitalism is suited for Latin America, and that a newpolitical and economic order is needed.

Liberation Theology


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In the mid-1960s, with guerrilla activity spreading throughout the continent,young theologians began to question their traditional view of Latin AmericanCatholicism. They turned to Marxism as an analytical tool to help themunderstand the causes of economic and social under-development on thecontinent that seemed to underlie the growing revolt.

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

But an acceptance of Marx the sociologist did not necessarily lead to supportfor a Marxist ideology, much less communism, which most liberation

theologians rejected as a political system incompatible with Christianity.What attracted the theologians was not Marxs formulas for a new society,but his suggestion of the interrelationship of experience and theory thatone supported and furthered understanding of the other. As a result, thedissident theologians developed a series of new religious and sociologicalinsights based on Latin Americas historical condition as an economically and

politically dependent continent. The work that resulted became known as thetheolo of liberation.


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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, atthe one-year anniversary memorial of the Aguas Blancas Massacre,in Aguas Blancas, Guerrero. During this announcement, the groupread from its manifesto in which they described their origins: Wecome from the sadness of widows and orphans, from the absencecreated by our disappeared loved ones." Then they called for the

overthrow of the "unjust and illegitimate" Mexican government.


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ExcommunicationAccording to the Catholic Church, excommunication is not a penalty.

Excommunication is never a merely "vindictive penalty" (designedsolely to punish), but is always used as a "medicinal penalty" intendedto pressure the person into changing their behavior or statements,repent and return to full communion.

Excommunicated persons are barred from participating in the liturgy ina ministerial capacity and from receiving the Eucharist or the otherSacraments, but is normally not barred from attending these (forinstance, an excommunicated person may not receive Communion, butwould not be barred from attending Mass).

Certain other rights and privileges are revoked, such as holdingecclesiastical office.Examples of people excommunicated:

Eduardo Aguirre, Guatemalan Catholic priest, now bishop of the BrazilianCatholic Apostolic ChurchMother of a nine-year old Brazilian rape victim, for obtaining an abortion forher daughter. Also the doctors performing the abortion.

Pius XII excommunicated all Catholic supporters of Communism


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Priests and celibacy

Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx in The Church with aHuman Face asserts that clerical celibacy originated in "apartly 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 beforecelebrating the Eucharist. However, when the Western Church begancelebrating a daily mass, abstinence became a permanent factor formarried priests.

In 1139, the Second Lateran Council forbade the marriage of priestsaltogether and declared all existing marriages involving priests nulland void.

As the Church began acquiring his own property, there was areal danger that legitimate children of priests could inherit and

deprive the Church of its land. At the time, common lawrevented ille itimate children from inheritin ro ert .


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Since the Council of Trent [mid 1500s], celibacy has remainedChurch law, specifically upheld by Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclicalSacerdotalis Caelibatus. Despite opposition from half of the bishopsattending the Synod of 1971, requests from bishops in the United

States, France, and Latin America in 1988, Pope John Paul II did notbudge from his opposition to a married priesthood.

According to A.W. Richard Sipe, a study in 1984suggested that the modern-day candidate for the areinclined 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 completelytrue to their vows of celibacy during their lives as priests. (And, as the jokegoes, that two percent probably did not understand the question.) Some ofthe polled priests contended that their was a difference between being

unmarried and celibate. Others drew distinctions between being on-dutypriests and off-duty priests.A.W. Richard Sipe points to something he calls "splitting which he views asbeing more harmful that the acts that actually constitute breaking the vowsof celibacy. The duality, the secrecy, the associated fear and paranoia ofliving two lives can be detrimental to the emotional stability of a priest.


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Rationalizing infidelity to one's vowscan 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 loveothers better.

Those priests who break their vows fall into anumber 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 withfemale religious.

Socially, some priests go off on vacation posing aslaymen either individually or in groups.


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A few related statistics

In 2002 there was 1 priest forevery 10,000 people in Mexico.

40% of the priestswere foreign.

Many live in basecommunities /comunidades de base[part of Liberation

Theology].

Ab ti i M i


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Abortion in MexicoIts [mostly] illegal.

A new national study shows that the number of abortions performed inMexico increased by one-third between 1990 and 2006 (from 533,000 to875,000), despite legal restrictions that virtually ban the procedure in mostparts of the country. (In 2007, the federal district of Mexico City legalizedabortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; the procedure remainsillegal in other Mexican states.) Mexicos 2006 abortion rate (33 per 1,000

women) was more than 40% higher than the abortion rate in the UnitedStates (19.4 per 1,000 women), where abortion is broadly legal and available.

The study, conducted by El Colegio de Mexico, the Population Council MexicoOffice and the Guttmacher Institute, found that many abortions in Mexicotake place under unsafe conditions, resulting in serious health consequencesfor women. Seventeen percent of the Mexican women who obtainedabortions in 2006 were treated in public hospitals for complications. Incomparison, fewer than 0.3% of abortion patients in the U.S. havecomplications 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 itunsafe and puts womens lives at risk, said Fatima Juarez, the studys lead

Di i i d ti


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Dionisia and syncreticreligion

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 hascombined Catholic practices with non-Catholicpractices [and added a few of her own] to createa new religion to fit her own circumstances andbeliefs.


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A star-studded cast

Gael Garca Bernal Today [30 November[ is hisbirthday! Hes 31.

Like many, he started intelenovelas [soap

operas]. Hes one of themost popular Mexicanactors ever.

Amores perrosY t mam tambin

Diarios demotocicleta/Motorcycle DiariesMala educacin / Bad EducationBabel


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Ana Claudia Talancn

She also started in telenovelas.

Fast Food Nation

Love in the Time of Cholera


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Sancho Gracia

From Madrid. Hiscareer dates back to1963.

The Guns of the Magnificent SevenThe Call of the Wild

Martn [Hache}800 Bullets


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Pedro Armendriz Jr.

The son of legendaryactor PedroArmendriz, his careerdates back 40+ yearswith more than 200roles.

EarthquakeThe Magnificent Seven Ride!ColomboThe Passion of BereniceThe Love Boat

Knight RiderOld GringoThe Mask of ZorroBefore Night Falls/Antes queanochezcaThe MexicanOnce Upon a Time in Mexico


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Gastn Melo

Sexton/Sacristn

in Canoa


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What to watch for/ thinkabout

Just what is the crime of Padre Amaro?

What other crimes were committed during thefilm, and how would you rate their severity?

What do you think happens next to:

Padre Amaro

RubnLa SanjuaneraPadre Benito

What do you think the role or importance of Dionisiaand Getseman is?

Documents

¿Questions or Comments About Canoa?