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The Story
Juan Vargas is a simple man with
unswerving loyalty to the PRI, and that is why he is chosen
to be the mayor of San Pedro. There is an election coming
up, three mayors have been killed in the last five years,
and Lopez, the regional party leader, hopes Vargas can keep
the lid on and not cause much trouble. As Juan and his wife,
Gloria, drive to San Pedro in the dusty Packard supplied by
the party, they dream of his assignment to bring "Modernity,
Peace and Progress" to the little town, little suspecting
how little it is.
"Where is San Pedro?" Juan asks a man. "This is it," the man
replies. "I am Pek, your secretary." Vargas and his wife
look around in dismay at the pathetic hamlet he is to lead.
Pek will be invaluable, because he speaks the Indian
language, and few of the residents speak Spanish. Vargas
quickly meets other important local figures, including the
doctor, the priest and Dona Lupe, the madam of the local
brothel.
All of the trouble in San Pedro comes from the brothel, the
doctor bitterly tells Vargas. It is responsible for disease,
corruption, murder. The padre is more forgiving: "San Pedro
lacks many things, and Dona Lupe performs an important
social function." The priest advises Vargas to accept Dona
Lupe's bribes so that village life will continue as before.
This is a mercenary padre: in the confessional, he charges
one peso per sin and pointedly informs Vargas he would like
a car: "A Ford ... or perhaps a Packard, like yours ..."
Herod's Law uses Vargas and
his backwater town to form a parable about political
corruption in Mexico. It is a savage attack on the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico
from the days of revolution until the recent rise of
President Vicente Fox and his National Action Party. In the
figure of Juan Vargas, it sees a humble working-class man
with high ideals who caves in to the temptations of high
office, even in so low a town, and is soon demanding bribes,
making himself mayor for life and paying free visits to Dona
Lupe's girls. He justifies his actions with a motto learned
from his party leader, who quotes Herod's Law, which is
(somewhat reworded), "Get them or they'll get
you." His wife, who is not blind to Juan's visits to
the brothel, finds consolation from a visiting American. The
gringo's function in the parable is not difficult to
decipher: He repairs Juan's car, demands an exorbitant
payment, moves into Juan's house, and has an affair with his
wife. I think (I am pretty sure, actually) this is intended
to suggest the helpful role of Americans in Mexico.
And yet there are a couple of scenes that suggest that
perhaps the film is not a complete indictment of the PRI.
One involves a dinner in the midst of all the chaos, at
which the principal characters sit down to discuss their
nation. The American is asked his opinion and refers to
Mexico as a "dictatorship," which makes the others--except
the doctor--laugh. The doctor observes: "If
there were true democracy in Mexico, the president
would be a priest." |
