Luz Beatriz Rosales Esteva

Luz Rosales is spearheading the promotion of a citizen culture based on a deep, comprehensive sense of citizen involvement at every level of political life.

The 1997 elections in Mexico City reflected citizens' demands for a more responsive government. Indeed, recent years have seen significant steps toward the attainment of truly democratic processes in Mexico. In Luz Rosales' vision of civil society, however, these reforms alone do not suffice.Luz is creating an organizational base for the promotion of a new citizen culture based on ethical principles such as respect for diversity and citizens' awareness of their own responsibility for assuming a role in social change. The culture Luz is developing includes not only electoral reform but also new standards and goals for citizen behavior in all aspects of life, from within the home to relationships with government institutions and officials. A significant difference in Luz's efforts from the host of other Mexican democratization activities is its emphasis on positive contributions. This represents a marked contrast to the overwhelming majority of citizen sector movements in Mexico, which are typified by a reactive, aggressive and often violent stance. She leverages the proliferation of nascent citizen mobilizations and is creating a system to help them develop a lasting ability to participate effectively in public affairs.

Widespread political corruption in Mexican politics has often been noted. It is manifest, for example, in a general lack of respect for citizens' wishes or the buying of votes and intimidation familiar in Mexico's political tradition of single-party dominance. As a result, many Mexican citizens feel that they are in a hopeless situation. Such a public attitude has led to apathetic participation in electoral processes and social changes, mainly after the 1988 presidential elections and conflicts stirred up by later processes. There is little pride of citizenship, and the government has not developed mechanisms for informing citizens of their human and political rights under domestic and international law.

Adopting responsibility for gathering information from the grass roots upwards, numerous citizen groups have been working since the mid-1980s to systematize information on human rights and to stimulate citizens to vote. Nevertheless, these actions have been limited to specific campaigns, such as just before an election, and have not reached a national level of impact.

Luz has brought together citizen efforts to coordinate and disseminate information at the national level through her work, which is based in the organization she co-founded in 1991, the Citizen Movement for Democracy. Through its staff of volunteers, which grew to 80 by 1996, the Movement for Democracy contributes to the democratization process through civil actions such as implementation of widespread electoral observations, introducing "fair play" campaigns to eliminate fraud at elections and launching campaigns to promote the importance of the vote.

To spread her new idea of citizen culture, Luz has designed a strategic education plan over the next ten years. In the Movement's first year, 1996, she implemented a general information strategy to combat the "democracy deficit" that occurs when people do not participate as citizens. She created materials to stimulate awareness of democratic rights and obligations and citizen responsibility to take political initiative and participate in public affairs without waiting passively for the government to get its house in order. Luz spread her message through the media: booklets, flyers, murals, posters, TV and radio programs and magazines.

The next step was the launch of a training program to increase the Movement's volunteer base throughout the country. The training program places special emphasis on the electoral processes of the year in which it takes place and includes education in all the issues of the campaign. The program produces citizens who are trained to act as electoral observers, to monitor for "fair play" practices and encourage people to vote.

By 1998 Luz will move the citizen training forward to the monitoring of elected representatives' behavior. She is developing a replicable training system that teaches citizens how to maintain a positive relationship with the officials they elected, opening channels of permanent communication and information. Through its expansive networks, the Movement will promote new relationships between government and the governed. Citizens will be encouraged to hold their representatives accountable to their campaign promises, as well as to take active positions in the governing of their own municipalities. Citizens will be recruited and trained to take positions in the varying public entities, such as the water or electricity boards, the school boards or the accounting office for public spending. In this way, citizens themselves will participate in the decision-making processes–from prioritization of needs to allocation of funds–as well as in the implementation of public policies at each level of their municipalities. The entire strategic process will be oriented toward the electoral process of the year 2000.

In addition to her work at the national level, Luz nurtures nascent efforts where citizens are beginning to mobilize. Working through the Movement she identifies promising opportunities across the country with which to instill her idea and move forward both the local project and her broader goal of a citizen culture. For example, if a community organizes itself to confront an immediate issue, such as an unjust government increase of their electric bill or an inappropriate use of public space, Luz capitalizes on this experience by engaging the community in an ongoing process of information exchange and training programs to stimulate their interest in continued citizen involvement. This process changes the traditional pattern in which citizen groups disband and disperse after a single issue is resolved. Luz provides opportunities for citizen groups to meet with one another and share advice and information, as well as to disseminate their experiences nationwide through her information and communication campaigns as a method

Luz Rosales was born in a family united by ethical and moral values and with a strong sense of love for Mexico, its culture and its people, all of which drove her decision to study social work. Her love for Mexico has another family root: her grandfather Ramón M. Rosales was one of the leaders of the Anti-Reelection Club and governor of the state of Hidalgo during the time of Madero. He had to endure exile for many years, but he held his fight for justice and democratic ideals until his death.

As a social worker, Luz had the opportunity to gain a more personal view of the economic and social problems of ordinary people. She worked for government agencies in the forming of cooperative societies and popular housing and in community development. Since 1982 she has involved herself in work with civil organizations, impelling the formation and strengthening of networks, especially in the aftermath of the 1985 earthquakes in Mexico City. Through these experiences, Luz has acquired significant grass-roots experience.

In 1991 she joined the Convergence of Civil Organisms for Democracy and collaborated with Dr. Salvador Nava Martinez in the creation of the Citizen Movement for Democracy, of which she has been Executive Secretary since 1992. From Dr. Nava she has learned that "politics are not only a question of parties or government, but of the strong call arising from citizens from all over the country, whose pressure can put ethical values up front as a way of making a different sort of politics."

Her work during the past five years has consisted in the articulation of civilian groups in the whole country that agree on the need to advance in an active citizen participation the rescue of ethical values and the advance of democracy and justice in Mexico. It is this experience that has pushed her to accept the personal challenge of finding new ways for articulating several aspects–each one very valuable in itself–that she has found scattered in a fragmented way throughout the country. Like her grandfather, Luz Rosales has always been a democrat, a social fighter and a leader.