Javier Sicilia: Advocate of deliberative democracy in the Americas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/1899-2226.21.4.08Keywords:
Javier Sicilia, Mexican public sphere, transnational public sphere, civic activism, deliberative democracy, United States-Mexico relationsAbstract
When Javier Sicilia’s son was killed by cartel assassins in 2011, he transformed into a civic activist, with a mass following sufficiently large for Time Magazine to recognize him in 2011 as one of its “Protestors of the Year.” His very success mobilizing public opinion against cartel violence overshadows his more fundamental role as an advocate for deliberative democracy in the Americas. Sicilia’s historical importance lies in his recognition that only civic dialogue within the transnational public sphere that includes Mexico and the United States can heal the social pathologies unleashed by globalization and by the war on drugs. His ultimate achievement has been to dramatize what would be required of citizens to realize the democratic ideals that both countries profess as the foundations of their national identities.
References
Anderson, K. (2011). The protestor: person of the year, 2011. Time. http://content.time.com/time/person-of-the-year/2011/
Avritzer, L. (2011). Democracy and the public space in Latin America. University of Princeton Press.
Backman, C. M. (2012, September 22). Children of the same sorrow: The U.S./Mexico caravan for peace takes on the drug war [Audio Story]. PRX Radio. http://www.prx.org/pieces/85174/transcripts/193731
Beiser, E. (2017, December 21). CPJ special report. Committee to Protect Journalists. https://cpj.org/reports/2017/12/journalists-killed-iraq-crossfiremurder-mexico.php
Bohman, J. (2007). Democracy across borders. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Brooks, D. (2012, August 13). The end of the caravan. La Journada. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/08/13/index.php?section.html
Brundage, R. (2012, September 20). Voices crying in the wilderness: Mexico caravan for peace in the U.S. Mexico Voices. http://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2012/09/voices -crying in the wilderness-mexico.html
Burdick, J. & Warren, H. E. (2000). The church at the grassroots in Latin America: Perspectives on thirty years of activism. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing.
Camp, R. A. (1997). Crossing swords: Politics and religion in Mexico. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Camp, R. A. (2014). Intellectuals and the state in twentieth-century Mexico. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Castaneda, J. G. (2014). NAFTA’s mixed record: The view from Mexico. Foreign Affairs, 93(1), 134–141.
Cayley, D., & Taylor, C. (2005). The rivers north of the future: The testament of Ivan Illich. Toronto, CA: House of Anansi Press.
Cisneros, D. J. (2008). Contaminated communities: The metaphor of ‘immigrant as pollutant’ in media representations of immigration. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 11(4), 569–601.
Dryzek, J. S. (1996). Democracy in capitalist times: Ideals, limits, and struggles. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Dryzek, J. S. (2000). Deliberative democracy and beyond: Liberals, critics contestations. Princeton University Press.
Farrell, B. T. (1993). Norms of rhetorical culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Felker, A. (2012, August 9). Mexico: Caravan for peace in the U.S. has roots in Javier Sicilia’s own history. Mexican Voices. http://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2012/08
Fraser, N. (2009). Reimagining political space in a globalized world. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Fukuyama, F. (2014). Political order and political decay: From the industrial revolution to the globalization of democracy. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Gallager, J. (2012). Mobilization in Mexico 2012: The movement for peace and the struggle for justice. Anuari del Conflicte Social, 2012 [2012 Annual Conflict Year Book]. DL: B-15661-2012.
García, L. (2012, March 27). Remarks of Javier Sicilia to the school of authentic journalism. Narco News. http://narconews.com/Issue67/article4581.html
Giddens, A. (1985). Jürgen Habermas. In Q. Skinner (Ed.), The Return of grand theory in the human sciences. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Giordano, A. (2011, August 11). A lesson for the cynics. Narco News. http://www.narconews.com/print.php3?ArticleID=4477&lang=en.html
Gonzalez, P. (2012, March 29). Javier Sicilia and the challenge to us all. Narco News. http://narcosphere.narconews.com/nnstory/javier-sicilia.html
Grillo, I. (2011, April 9). Mexicans shout ‘BHasta.’ Global Post.
Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicative action, lifeworld and system: A critique of functionalist reason. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1990). Moral consciousness and communicative action. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
Habermas, J. (1994). The past as future. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Habermas, J. (1996). Between facts and norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Habermas, J. (2008). Public space and the political public sphere: the biographical roots of two motifs in my thought. Between naturalism and religion: Philosophical essays. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
Hayden, T. (2012, August 31). Javier Sicilia to Americans: Don’t leave us alone. The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/article/169689/javier-sicilia
Manning, R. D., & Butera, A. C. (2000). Global restructuring and U. S.-Mexican economic integration: Rhetoric and reality of Mexican immigration five years after NAFTA. American Studies, 41(2/3), 183–209.
Mejía, D., & Restrepo, P. (2008). The war on illegal drug production and trafficking: An economic evaluation of plan Colombia. HiCN Working Papers 53, Households in Conflict Network.
Mendoza, E. (2011, December). Cinco años de guerra, 60 mil muertos. Proceso. http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=290774
Molina, M. (2011, June 1). Pilgrimage to the sources of Javier Sicilia, the poet who is shaking Mexico. Narco News. http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4439.html
Molina, M., & Giordano, A. (5 June 2011). Javier Sicilia slams the politics of insult and gives the movement a lesson in nonviolence. Narco News. http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4443.html
Nugent, C. (2018, June 28). Mexico is suffering its bloodiest year in modern history. Here’s why. Time. http://time.com/5324888/mexico-violence-murders/
Nuncio, A. (2015, April 3). Caravan of Ayotzinapa parents. Mexican Voices. http://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2015/04/mexico-in-crisis-caravan-of-ayotzinapa.htm
Olmos, J. G. (2012, August 15). Get out of here. Don’t bring your problems here. Mexico Voices. http://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2012/08/get-out-of-here.html
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2012). Country statistical profile: Mexico 2011-2012. http://www.oecdilibrary.org/economics/country-statistical-profile-mexico-2011_csp-mex-table-2011-1-en
Padgett, T. (2011, December 14). Why I protest: Javier Sicilia. Time. http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745.html
Paquot, T. (2003). The non-conformist. Le Monde Diplomatique (English Edition). http://mondediplo.com/2003/01/15illich
Poverty in Mexico and in the federal entities, 2008-2012. Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social. http://web.coneval.gob.mx/Informes/Interactivo/Medicion_pobreza
Quintero, J., & Castillo, E. (2011, November 11). Nepomuceno Moreno, Mexico anti-violence activist, killed in northern state. The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/29/nepomuceno-moreno-killed_n_1118707.html
Rosen, F. (2012, August 21). The caravan for peace begins a long ride across the USA. Fred Rosen’s blog. NACLA. https://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/21/caravan-peace-begins-long-ride-across-usa.html
Rosen, F. (2012, January 31). Inventive nonviolence in Mexico: A conversation with Javier Sicilia. Fred Rosen’s Blog, NACLA. https://nacla.org/blog/2012/1/31/inventive-nonviolence-mexico-conversation-sicilia.html
Sicilia, J. (2011, April 4). Open letter to Mexico’s politicians and criminals. Narco News. http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4346.html
Sicilia, J. (2011, May 10). Speech from the zócalo in Mexico City. Narco News. http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4413.html
Sicilia, J. (2014, May). Mexico movement for peace at three years: Chronicle of unfulfilled peace and justice (J. Brundage, Trans.). Mexico Voices. http:// mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2014/04/mexico-movement-for-peace-at-three.html
Sloane, T. (1997). On the contrary: The protocol of traditional rhetoric. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press.
Sullivan, A. (2016, May 2). America has never been so ripe for tyranny. New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html
Tadeo, J. (2011, August 21). Mexico: Following Javier Sicilia’s footsteps. Global Voices. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/08/21/mexico-following-javiersicilias-footsteps.html
Uchitelle, L. (2007, February 18). Not exactly what they had in mind. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/weekinreview/18uchitelle.html
Unna, C. T. (2015, April 15). Mexico in crisis: Javier Sicilia and the challenges of pain. Mexico Voices. http://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2015/04/mexico-in-crisis
Urrutia, I., & Zibechi, R. (2011, June 3). El diario de Juarez. Proceso/Apro. https://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/love-struggle-and-memory-in-ciudad-juarez/
Welsh, S. (2013). The rhetorical surface of democracy: How deliberative ideals undermine democratic politics. Minneapolis, MN.: Lexington Books.
Wright, R. (2016, January 7). Interview with Robin Wright [Radio Broadcast Episode]. Terry Gross (Host). Fresh Air. www.npr.org/2016/01/07/462250478
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Annales. Etyka w Życiu Gospodarczym

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
