Today it seems that we live in two places at once. Depending on who you talk to or what groups you listen to, the national reality that is portrayed in one or the other narrative seems to correspond to two incompatible places. In one, our country is moving forward: economic and labor conditions are improving, and in general there is optimism about a growth that is perceived to reach everyone. However, in another place, our country is going backwards: it is losing freedoms and democratic rights and critical voices are not finding space.
While one feels excitement and hope, the other feels concern and pessimism. And it seems that there are no bridges between the two extremes of these narratives. And what is most surprising – and worrying – is the enormous distance that separates them, where we see each other but do not listen to each other, much less understand each other.
Now that the victory of the most voted political option in the recent electoral history of our country has been formalized, some still do not understand what happened. Two groups that see each other know that they exist, but do not listen to each other. They see each other but do not observe each other. We live and coexist daily and this duality does not seem to be reconciled. Some find it difficult to believe that one can live in a Mexico where institutions are destroyed. For others, it is difficult to believe that one wants to live with these institutions. Some accept the end of democracy and the loss of freedoms. Others think that they finally feel free and that their voice is heard.
“We are engaged in a world war of conflicting narratives“I read Salman Rushdie express in his book Knife. “A war between incompatible versions of reality,” it seems this narrative conflict is not exclusive to the great world powers, it is a narrative war within the country as well. The elections last June, while leaving an overwhelming victory for Morena, also left its detractors perplexed.
And we don’t have to agree. But there is a huge distance between disagreeing and not recognizing the existence of the other. Differences build us. Recognizing the other implies knowing that there is the possibility of being and thinking differently without minimizing ourselves or making ourselves invisible. It doesn’t matter if one group represents an overwhelming majority and the other is concentrated in a smaller opposition. Respect and democracy are built in differences. Space is built for different voices, needs, ideas, definitions.
