Mexican Leader Knocks Racism at Home After ‘Roma’ Oscar Wins

From Voice of America

Mexico’s president on Monday denounced racism in his country a day after the Mexican film Roma emerged as a big winner at the Academy Awards with a plot that highlighted prejudice and inequality.

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron won the best director Oscar on Sunday for his semi-autobiographical film Roma, which told the story of an indigenous domestic worker who cares for a middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City.

The movie also won awards for best foreign language film and cinematography, and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador fielded several questions about Roma at his regular morning press conference.

Asked if he agreed with Cuaron that Mexican society remains rife with racist prejudice, the veteran leftist did not mince his words.

“I completely agree. Unfortunately, there is a lot of racism in Mexico,” he said.

Lopez Obrador, who in the 1970s worked for the indigenous affairs bureau in his home state of Tabasco in southern Mexico, has pledged to give priority to the poor as president.

Cuaron noted that the film emphasized the divided nature of Mexico’s social structure, opening up a much-needed discussion on racism and domestic worker rights.

“It’s a moment in which the country has recognized itself as a racist country,” he said at an event in Los Angeles last week.

In his acceptance speech, he thanked the Academy for recognizing a movie centered around an indigenous woman, saying her character represents the “70 million domestic workers in the world without work rights.”

Lopez Obrador admitted that he has yet to see the movie, but said he will do so soon. He added that the success of Roma has become a source of pride for many Mexicans.

Named for the neighborhood in the Mexican capital where it is set, Roma stars Yalitza Aparicio as a maid named Cleo who becomes pregnant as she looks after a family with four children just as the parents are splitting up.

While cheers echoed through Roma when the film began collecting Oscars on Sunday, revelers were disappointed when Aparicio did not win the Best Actress award, the first indigenous woman to be nominated for the honor.

Reactions to her performance sparked a debate in Mexico over discrimination faced by darker-skinned indigenous or mixed-race Mexicans, a topic often relegated to the sidelines of political discussions in the country.