Perspective; Unfinished Revolution

National Educational Television and Radio Center · October 1, 1962

Mexico, in the past twenty years, has seen a rapid and dramatic surge forward in almost every phase of national activity: economics, politics, agriculture, industry, education, health, and housing. The revolution against economic feudalism and political dictatorship took place in 1910. Now a new revolution is underway. With a stable government and a people eager to improve their lot, the nation has moved rapidly into the industrial, technical, and scientific age of the second half of the Twentieth Century. A new agriculture and a new industry have come into being, and with them a new working class, a new middle class, and a new class of professionals, scientists, managers and technicians. Life has changed drastically at every level of Mexican society except the very lowest. Problems remain: problems of growth and problems inherited from Mexico's stormy past, as well as those of climate and geography. This film deals with the meeting of those problems, with the strides that have been made, and with the future plans of a nation with the most remarkable record of recent growth and accomplishment in Latin America. Because the panorama in Mexico is so vast, the film concentrates on the visible effects of this "unfinished revolution" in a few varied areas - and on a few areas as yet untouched by the winds of change. It opens with a brief historical review of Mexico's past, and progresses to views of Mexico City as it is now: the traffic, the skyscrapers, the modern apartment houses - and the poverty stricken sections where the new gold age has not yet penetrated. The cameras then move to the home of Senora Lola Olmedo, a prominent business woman and collector of Mexican art. She and her guest, Senor Juan O'Gorman, well-known Mexican artist and architect, both believe that they would never have had the opportunity to achieve their present success had the 1910 Revolution not taken place. Dr. Edmundo Flores, professor at the National University and leading government economist is filmed in his study as he analyzes the effects of the Revolution. He points out that it was, of necessity, a left-wing movement. A conservative, right-wing revolution, he says, could never have brought the drastic changes in the Mexican government, economy, and way of life that this one did. The continual changes taking place in the Mexican status quo, the program continues, are due largely to the spread of higher education. Today, Mexico spends more than eighteen percent of her national budget on schools and schooling, far more than most nations. The National University, built ten years ago to accommodate 25,000 students, now has an enrollment of 70,000. Adela Bocanegra is typical of the new, ambitious generation, hungry for education. She comes from Tepotzlan, a small village about fifty miles from Mexico City. When she completes her medical studies at the National University, she will return to her village for a year's internship in the Tepotzlan health center. The village is in an area of Mexico that is scenically magnificent but economically miserable. Even though illiteracy (once afflicting 80% of the population) has been radically decreased and despite the elements of the modern world brought in by the advent of busses and paved roads - extreme poverty has kept the people from advancing as rapidly as those in the more urban areas. The peasants are deeply superstitious and suspicious of modern science. Even with a fully-equipped hospital offering free medical care, many of them still prefer to take their children to the "curandero" or witch doctor. So when Adela Bocanegra returns to her village, she will have to help educate as well as heal her people. The pall of poverty and endless, primitive labor that hangs over Tepotzlan and other villages in Mexico's southern regions once enveloped the entire country. Now it is gradually lifting in the northern areas where farming methods have been improved through the introduction of modern machinery. Huge irrigation projects have brought water to millions of acres of previously arid land. The production of electric power has risen over 500% as a result of new hydro-electric plants. Similar advances in all the basic industries have more than doubled Mexico's gross national product in the past twenty-years, and have made her an industrial leader in Latin America. The resultant growth of a new middle class with increased income and the leisure to enjoy it has, in turn, created a demand for automobiles, supermarkets, pleasure resorts, and other outlets for affluence. The very rich, of course, live in unmatched luxury. Luis Gil, for example, who designs modern homes and factory buildings, is among the five percent of Mexico's population who control 37% of the country's annual income. When he appears in the traditional Charro Festival he wears a sombrero costing $150 and a $250 cowboy suit. In contrast, the average work in Mexico makes about $20 a week - and his life, as the film shows, is quite different from that of Luis Gil. An even greater gap exists between the top and the bottom of the economic ladder - and the shantytowns on the outskirts of the larger cities. Here children grow up on garbage dumps and their homes are seldom more than packing cases and bits of tin. None of Mexico's advances have reached these people; most of them are landless peasants who came to the city looking for work and found only unemployment and misery. Ten percent of the Mexican population lives in this grinding poverty - a poverty that nourishes sympathy for Cuba - anger and resentment toward the United States. Here, among those who have no part of Mexico's new prosperity, the extreme left finds its most willing converts. The film concludes the Revolution of 1910 promised, among other things, a decent standard of living for all. Mexican governments have struggled for half a century to make good that promise; they have achieved much; but Mexico is still far short of the goal. How much longer will the poor be patient? In a Latin America tempted and propagandized by Cuba, how long can Mexico afford to delay the completion of "the unfinished revolution?" "The Unfinished Revolution" is the second Intertel program produced by National Educational Television and the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, joint American partners in the International Television Federation. Music score: Ross Gaffney Co. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)