MEXICO CITY — Instead of its usual banner headline, El Universal, one of Mexico's leading newspapers, carried a full-color photo-spread over two-thirds of the paper's top half, showing a sea of humanity. The signature white T-shirts, United States flags, scatterings of Mexican and other Latin American banners and hand-lettered signs told the story.
How the media in Mexico City, a metropolis of 20 million — seat of government, business and communications — reported the U.S. pro-immigrant demonstrations this month affects how large portions of the world will interpret what happened.
News and analyses have radiated from this listening post to the Spanish-language world, as well as to influential cities in Europe, Asia and Africa, since the early days of the Cold War.
"Migrants Take the Streets of Forty U.S. States" was the headline story by its Washington correspondent Jose Carreno in El Universal. "Africans and Asians Unite in the Protest."
A companion story, originating from Los Angeles by J. Jaime Hernandez, observed that Catholic Archbishop Roger Mahoney, Muslim imams, Jewish rabbis and Buddhist monks had marched arm-in-arm.
Different from many U.S. accounts that isolated the story into interest groups — unions, community leaders — and the roles played by Spanish-language radio disc jockeys, the countervailing impression from the major Mexican dailies was that of an emerging popular will to gain civil rights and dignity.
The influential Reforma, with a highly respected sister newspaper El Norte in Monterrey, carried a vertical photo the entire top half of page one from the Houston demonstration under the banner, "They Show Their Power." The caption below said 3 million people had demonstrated during two days.
Inside, on page 10, "Rafael," a Mexican who arrived in New York five years ago and now works at the trendy Colors restaurant, was out in the streets in Manhattan. "Here," he said, "migrants are seen as 'aliens,' (using the English word)."
He participated, he said, to "reject denigrating treatment."
La Jornada carried a four-column photo of the U.S.-flag-waving multitude in Dallas, estimated at up to "500,000." A hundred cities and towns held demonstrations, it said, adding that organizers wanted the campaign to transform into a civil rights movement. El Universal similarly capsulated the migrants' demand as one for "respect" from U.S. legislators.
Several dailies also reported a Tucson incident where about 12 members of the Border Guardians burned a Mexican flag in front of the Mexican consulate.
Foreign Relations Secretary Ernesto Derbez said the act had "a provocative intent" and deplored the "vandalism." The flag-burning was the only reported incident, except for an altercation between an anti-immigrant protester and an adolescent in Portland, Maine.
Milenio, a popular tabloid, tied the demonstration story to a press conference by Larry Rubin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, proposing European-style infrastructure investments in areas responsible for the most immigration and formation of a market economy similar to Europe's.
The business tabloid El Financiero plotted 136 demonstrations on a map and compared them to those of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. It noted that 53 percent of U.S. farmworkers are undocumented and restrictions would "break" U.S. agriculture.
The newspaper tied its Page 1 photo and capsule to a report, expected in June, from the Alliance for Security and Prosperity of North America, calling for "regional integration" between the United States, Canada and Mexico in light of global, especially Asian, competition.
While major U.S. newspapers may have largely tied coverage of the historic demonstrations to pending congressional legislation and leadership, the Mexican press presented the story in the context of globalization and its impacts on civil, human and domestic rights.
Josi de la Isla is a columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail: joseisla33@houston.rr.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.