Last May 11, 2012 a social movement was born in Mexico City. “I am 132” is the name of this social movement which phrase draws inspiration from the “Occupy” movement that started in Lower Manhattan, New York a year ago.
Enrique Pena Nieto the recent elected President of Mexico, held a campaign event in one of the most prestigious Universities in Mexico City, the Ibero- American. During this May 11, 2012 event Pena Nieto was questioned strongly about an incident in which then governor of the State of Mexico Pena Nieto called in state police to break up a protest by local residents of Atengo Mexico, and where protesters were killed.
After the incident, Televisa the media monopoly in the country and members from the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary party) dismissed the attendees’ reaction saying that they were not students from the Ibero but “Smuggled in” by contending parties. In response 131 students who had attended the event posted a video on Youtube showing their student ID’s. They expressed discontent with the media for what they reported. Immediately after the video was posted hundreds of people expressed solidarity with the students by tweeting “I am 132n student” “Yo soy 132”.
A rally that started by few students making some demands have become a giant pressure group demanding for the right of free speech, the right to be inform, equality, and to stop the growing of the gap between rich and poor, among others. Now and after the awaking of thousands of manifest this movement has been called by international press as the Mexican Occupy.
Title: “Yo soy 132”: una respuesta al autoritarismo, la antidemocracia y la prepotencia, Source: Zona Franca, June 3, 2012,
Author: Federico Velio Ortega Delgado,
URL: http://www.zonafranca.mx/yo-soy-132-una-respuesta-al-autoritarismo-la-antidemocracia-y-la-prepotencia/
Student Researcher: Victor Farfan. Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluator: Ronald Lopez. Chicano and Social Studies, Sonoma State University