Before beginning his second song on the steps of the headquarters of the Federal Judicial Branch (PJF) on Avenida Revolución, he tells the rest of the protesters: “I also started from the bottom like you.”
(Photo: Yared de la Rosa.)
Then he takes the microphone, his phone to guide him through the lyrics, and sings in a band rhythm: “We come from the bottom working, studying, giving it our all, there is no other way to progress. I was a meritorious, an official and a clerk, a secretary in a court, a collegiate tribunal, and today I am a full member.”
Anyone would think that Judge Samuel Meraz has taken singing lessons, but this is not the case. He claims that he likes to sing and compose, which is why he was the one who wrote these songs to protest. He also claims that he prefers to protest with music rather than with a “trite” speech.
“We express ourselves with music because I believe it is a universal language and it is a way to touch hearts faster than with a trite speech. I hope it reaches the hearts of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum. What we want is for them to give us the opportunity to talk,” she says.
He says that he started in the Judiciary as an intern in 1997 in Durango, where he received no pay for the work he did and from there he rose through the ranks until he became a magistrate; for this reason he defends the judicial career, which has allowed him to occupy the position he now has.
“I was climbing the ladder. That’s why that song is called ‘I’m a careerist’; this is what it’s about, because like everyone else we are climbing the ladder and that is shaky if the reform is approved. People who are currently working as attorneys or secretaries could see their aspirations to become judges or magistrates diminished,” he mentions. Political Expansion.
The judge – who does not stop giving interviews, since he has become famous – says that among the sacrifices he has had to make to continue in the Judiciary are putting aside vacations with his family and watching his son grow up.
“I’m in my second marriage. In my first marriage I remember that I worked from Monday to Sunday and I didn’t have any rest and I had to sacrifice holidays. I had a little one, and I would leave in the morning and he would be asleep; I would come home at night and he would be asleep. There are people who even take their children to the office,” she says.
Samuel Meraz finishes giving interviews and continues singing; now it is a salsa song called “Vamos todos a lucha” (Let’s all fight), and when you listen to the first verses it seems like it is a love song for a couple, but no, it is a call to defend the Judiciary.
“There are no words to describe the pain I feel here in my soul, here in my heart. When you love something, you truly give it to yourself; it’s a nightmare if they want to take it away from you; you feel a helplessness that you can’t explain, that makes you lose your strength when you start to falter and you can’t sit still, just watch, you can’t stay quiet when you have to protest,” he sings while some people start to move their bodies to dance.
Start without receiving a salary
Yadira Rodríguez Contreras is another of the workers of the Federal Judicial Branch (PJF) who already meets the requirements to take an exam that can lead her to become a magistrate or judge, but if the reform promoted by Morena is approved, that will be suspended, since to occupy those positions the vote of the citizens will be necessary.
She began working in this Judicial Branch 25 years ago as an unpaid intern and is now a court secretary, where she earns more than the average salary in Mexico.
“With a judicial career, it doesn’t matter where you come from. I come from a poor family. I never had an acquaintance who would get me involved,” he says while demonstrating outside the San Lázaro Federal Courthouse, where there are more than 500 people under red and blue tents to protect themselves from the sun or the rain.
(Photo: Yared de la Rosa)
Yadira Rodríguez Contreras is one of the 50 thousand public servants of this Branch of the Union who is protesting against the judicial reform of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as they claim that this modification seeks to eliminate the judicial career as a merit system to access federal judge positions.
She tells Political Expansion who came to the Judiciary to ask for an opportunity when he was in his third semester of law school, so they only gave him the “meritorious” position, which is similar to professional internships.
“You come to work for free until you earn your place. I worked for six months, they don’t give us any salary, the only thing we came to learn. Currently there is the figure of the interns and the Council (of the judiciary) already gives them some help. When I started, the position of intern didn’t exist, you came to knock on doors so that a judge would give you the opportunity,” he says.
Working in the Judiciary has forced her to make sacrifices, because working there, she says, means working 24/7, since at any moment something “pending” can come up. She points out that one of the sacrifices she has made is not having children.
“It takes up a lot of our time, we sacrifice everything to belong to the Judiciary and I missed, without a doubt, the opportunity to be able to start a family. I couldn’t have children (…) More than the decision, life took me away, suddenly you realize that time has gone by,” she says while around her there are more protesters having breakfast, since many of them stayed overnight in this camp that is located outside the Palace of Justice.
(Photo: Yared de la Rosa.)
