It turns out that American parents aren’t the only ones who are opposed to their government
undermining the Judeo-Christian values they are trying to inculcate in their children.
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Parent groups in Mexico have taken to the streets in protest of their department of education with one group even burning books they charged were laced with “Marxist-communist” indoctrination.
And they are not wrong.
The Financial Times reports the drafting of the new books was managed by a former Venezuelan Socialist government official and an educational director named Marx Arriaga, they draw heavily on Brazilian theorist Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed and a target for conservative criticism of Leftist thinking in his home country.
Hannah Grossman reported parents in Mexico from Christian organizations have taken to the streets in the thousands to oppose new textbooks from the Ministry of Public Education they deem to contain sexual and gender ideology content, according to Mexico News Daily. At least 12,000 people attended the protest.
Jean Arce of Barron's reported the new school textbooks promoted by the Mexican government have sparked a battle between the leftist president and opponents who have burned them and taken the case to the highest court. The Supreme Court of Mexico subsequently issued a decision to suspend the distribution of the books in the northern states of Chihuahua and Coahuila.
Authorities in at least eight of Mexico's 32 states have refused to distribute the books.
Although it has granted two injunctions, the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the merits of the matter.
Critics allege that the books promote communism, homosexuality and contain factual errors.
They wanted the government to pull the new textbooks from distribution before millions of students began the new school year on August 28.
Arce reports one of the most radical protests took place in the southern state of Chiapas, where parents in an Indigenous neighborhood set fire to books they said were the work of "the devil" and taught "communism, homosexuality and lesbianism."
Stimulating the "sexuality of our children with this type of ideology... gives rise to pedophilia," said Jose Tomas Bermudez, a local evangelical pastor.
The president of the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN), Marko Cortes, called on parents to "destroy (the books) in their entirety."
Speaking against the backdrop of campaigning to choose candidates for the 2024 presidential election, Cortes alleged that the texts seek to "indoctrinate" students.
Among the factual errors in the books caught by the parents is the wrong date of birth of Benito Juarez, Mexico's first Indigenous president and the leader of Mexico’s second war for independence from European colonialism.
One of Mexico’s national heroes, Juárez was elected president in 1861 and twice reelected. Early in his first term, the French under Napoleon III invaded and occupied Mexico, putting Maximilian of Austria in power in 1864. When Napoleon later withdrew his troops, Juárez defeated Maximilian's armies and had him executed in 1867.
And that’s not the only issue the parents have with the state-sponsored textbooks.
It appears the books also promote the politics of Mexico’s current Leftist President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The protesting parents allege bias in the history content, such as the assertion that "hope was the soul of the campaign" that brought Lopez Obrador to power in 2018, and the allegation that he was the victim of voter fraud in 2006.
Naturally, Leftist President Lopez Obrador’s government rejects the parent’s arguments.
“They have been prepared by teachers and experts,” said López Obrador, who has dismissed those who say the government wants to indoctrinate children in communist or gender ideology with the new books, reported Mexico News Daily.
While admitting that the books could be “perfectible”, Leftist President Lopez Obrador said those promoting protests are classists and racists.
However, the parents were not convinced, nor dissuaded from further protests.
Mexico News Daily reported in Aguascalientes, where the governor announced a moratorium on distribution of the textbooks on Aug. 12, organizers said they have 46,000 signatures against the new materials. Many were collected on a Sunday at tables set up in the city’s main square.
In an Evangelical Indigenous community in the southern state of Chiapas, on the Guatemalan border, parents set fire to unopened boxes of the textbooks outside Benito Juárez Elementary School, claiming the books teach communism, homosexuality and lesbianism. They demanded the SEP send them the previous textbooks.
At the elementary school in Chiapas, which reportedly has 700 students, parents in the community piled up boxes of the new textbooks, doused them with fuel and set them afire. Others used a loudspeaker to proclaim, “We want the previous books, not crap,” “We don’t want trash” and “We don’t want triple-X.” Parents who attended signed or stamped their names to a statement against the books.
“Mexico is at risk from a virus that people thought was eradicated — the communist virus,” Mexican news anchor Javier Alatorre proclaimed in front of a dramatic backdrop of a hammer and sickle with education ministry officials. “They want to condemn Mexico to poverty, mediocrity and hatred.”
Mr. Alatorre is right, and we stand with the parents and local leaders of our southern neighbor in their fight to educate their children according to the highest standards and the Judeo-Christian values of their community.
“Marxist-communist” indoctrination
Mexico Department of Education
Christian Organizations
Marx Arriaga
Brazilian theorist Paulo Freire
Ministry of Public Education
Chihuahua
Coahuila
communism
homosexuality
National Action Party (PAN) Marko Cortes
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
burn textbooks