Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

when the PRI used various tactics to ensure triumph and to fill the plazas and theatres
with so-called followers during their proselytising demonstrations. 90
In Los Agachados, Nopalzin becomes the voice of readers who share with him
the idea that the PRI cheated in the elections. His absentminded 91 statements bring
satisfaction as well as comfort, in the same way that Borola’s insults to the diputado.
Nopalzin and some neighbours are playing football on the street and they need a referee.
Licenciado Trastupijes volunteers to be the referee, and, Nopalzin comments: ‘¿Usté de
árbitro? Uy no, mejor uno que no sea del RIP.. son medio chuecos para contar y ser
jueces’. 92 We not only enjoy the impudence but also discuss something that the
government refused to admit and citizens were not allowed to debate, namely, that the
elections were fixed in the PRI’s favour. But this example is slightly different from the
situation between Borola and the diputado since the character of the diputado was the
generalisation of all diputados because in humour the facts and characters are presented
as universal, as Zupancic proposes. 93 However, in this case from Los Agachados,
Nopalzin is refering openly to all the members of the RIP (the way that Rius refers to
the acronym PRI). Thus, the insult is directed specifically at PRI members , and, at a
time when the Mexican government did not tolerate criticism, such comments were
widely enjoyed and appreciated by opponents of the Regime and by those who were not
strong critics of the government but recognised the reality of the situation. 94
90
These tactics are part of the co-optation and corporatism that prevailed in Mexico under PRI rule, as
described by Roderic Ai Camp, La política en México, trans. by Stella Mastrangelo (Mexico: siglo xxi
editores, 1995), pp. 27-32. The fraudulent methods used by PRI to win elections for many years can be
consulted in Enrique Krauze, La presidencia imperial: ascenso y caída del sistema político mexicano,
1940-1996, (Mexico: Tusquest Editores, 1997) p. 40.
91
According to Henri Bergson absentmindedness is a great source of comedy, Laughter. An Essay…, p.
146.
92
Los Agachados, 44, p.10.
93
Zupancic, ‘The “Concrete Universal”, and…’, p. 180.
94
Davies, Jokes and Their Relation… p. 176.
110