The Perfect Dictatorship

Introduction

What is Mexico? How has it come to be in the state that it is today? The film The Perfect Dictatorship represents a Mexico whose leaders in both politics and media are so thoroughly corrupt, and in bed together with one another, that no honest men have a chance of winning a seat in a position of power. Has Mexico always been this way? The fact is that the 21st century is unique in its own ways because of the power and influence of media and the role that crime plays in the lives of the rich and famous. In prior centuries, Mexico faced different issues, different strugglesand if the same kind of corruption was there it was manifested in different ways. One thing that is clear is that the struggle of Mexicans was more genuine in the past than in today (Hamnett, 2019). The Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century was a time when the Cristeros fought fiercely against a revolutionary government that aimed to reshape Mexico (Jaffary et al., 2003). Today, such a fight is not found because Mexico is beyond being subdued: it is veritably enslaved by the upper class villains who work hand in glove with the media empire, sustained all the while by the criminal class (of which they are all a part). It is a Mexico that is caught in a bitter, twisted death spiral. The Perfect Dictatorship makes light of that spiral, by using satire to represent the sad reality of the situation in Mexico today. If, however, there is one thing that is in Mexicos favor it is this: it has at least retained its sense of humor.

Historical Context/Background

As Hamnett (2019) points out, the war with the US (1846-1848) led Mexicans living under US occupation to become like 2nd class citizens. Even though Mexico and the US have much of the same heritage as products of the Enlightenment and the Revolution, the reality is that the culture of Mexico has been subverted by a power within the US that used and exploited Mexico for centuries (Valentine, 2017). Mexico is also different because in spite of the revolutionary influences that have shaped Mexico in recent history, it has retained a great deal of the Catholic influence that shaped it in the post-Colombian era. That influence has been particularly powerful in Mexican culture because of the relevance of great narratives like the appearance of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of Guadalupe) and other stories (Rodriguez, 2010). The US, culturally speaking, went in a different direction: it veered towards the White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) culture of England, and immigrant cultures were suppressed ultimately through the promotion of the great melting...

In Mexico, the vision that was required of Mexicans following the revolution and the Cristero Rebellion, was one that aligned more with the American way of things. It ushered in a century of corruption and made every Mexican citizen who was not a member of the ruling class into a second class citizen, like those who had lived under US occupation in the 19th century. In his own homeland, Mexicans thus became like outsiders in their own nation.

Comparative Analysis of the Film and Historical Sources

The film The Perfect Dictatorship is named after a poem by Llosa, describing the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The film is a satire of the political situation in Mexico, its ties to Big Media, and the way the criminal cartels work in tandem with corrupt politicians and media leaders to create narratives that are wholly false, all designed to support the moneyed interests and their superficial, self-centered pursuits. Moreover, the film shows how ordinary Mexicans long to take part in this faade because they see TV as a portal to wealth and riches and fame. This is why the film ends with the note that the abducted twins are to become reality TV stars with their own show on Mexican television. Mexican citizens thus participate in their own subjugation to a false narrative and a fake political culture made possible by the fake narratives proffered by television. It is a vicious circle of fakery that everyone, save the one authentic politician, agrees to be part of. The one authentic politician refuses to play ball with these people and is eventually shut out and vilified in the media as a result.

The film supports what the historical sources show is a main problem in Mexico: there is too much money and power affecting the politics and communities of Mexican society. Valentines (2017) work shows that the US intelligence community has long been involved in working with the drug cartels in Mexico, which suggests that the corruption of Mexico has had something to do with the aims of the WASP culture of the US. The fact that the Cristeros lost the war in the first half of the 20th century indicates that the Catholic culture of Mexico that had existed was displaced by a foreign culture that had no sympathy for Mexicos post-Colombian beliefs and values. This fact is reflected in the film The Perfect Dictatorship, which represents the cynical influences and relationships between top-tier politicians, media, and the cartels. It is all one big club and those who make deals are the ones who get to play and rise to the toplike Governor Vargas, who ends up becoming President thanks to the medias help, even though he has plenty of skeletons in the closet.

The film also depicts how political correctness masks over and hides an underlying system of corruption in Mexico. For instance, it begins with the President committing the political faux pas of making a racial slur. The incident captures national attention and the government has to go into damage control mode, recruiting Television Mexicana to help foster a distractiona…