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

and the president. Many journalists did not need to be co-opted because they already
supported the PRI president without reservation. In a practice which began under Díaz
Ordaz and continued through the years, some journalists received bribes for favourable
coverage of the government, its policies, and the presidential image. This practice was
known as ‘chayote’, and was very common and well known among the press. 70 Hence,
the representation of the journalist in Calzonzin Inspector as someone who works
closely with the local government and obeys the authorities submissively.
In 1972, Echeverría proposed an educational reform in which the school
curriculum would be revised. This was an effort to satisfy the demands of a changing
society. The official history now included information about Ché Guevara, Mao Tse
Tung and Fidel Castro, adding to concern among some conservative groups of his left
wing tendencies. 71 But the education reform went beyond public texts. The
preparatorias that belonged to the UNAM were moved from downtown and were given
new buildings in different areas of the city. Eight hundred and fifty-seven institutions
were created to provide technical studies. Moreover, the Colegios de Bachilleres and the
Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades were created in order to satisfy demand for high
school studies. UNAM had two extensions created outside the main university campus
on the edge of the city. 72
La Familia Burrón and Los Agachados contain references to the low salaries
teachers professors receive, as well as their demands for better working conditions. La
Familia Burrón is the only one of our sources in which young characters regularly
appear -Reginito and Macuca, the children of the family. Both attend colleges to learn
technical skills rather than high schools, and they do not have the ambition to go on to
70 Scherer, Los presidentes, pp. 158-159.
71 José Agustín, Tragicomedia mexicana 2… p. 95.
72 Ibid., p. 51. The author believes that the reason for creating new schools and building a new university
campus was to make it more difficult for students to organise themselves, because the schools were
decentralised.
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