Macario

Dream of a decent life

Abstract

Taking the film Macario as a reference, we reflect on two features of Mexican society: one cultural, the celebration of death and another structural, the unequal situation of the indigenous population. The first serves as a contextual framework to show the second. The story begins and moves with allegorical elements of the cult of death. Faced with the sudden hope of eating a whole guajolote (turkey), Macario must face the Devil, God and Death to satisfy the hunger that has tormented him all his life. He can only satisfy people’s essential needs by curing them with a magic potion, but it is only a dream of a dignified life that later turns into a nightmare. From this, at least five fundamental rights are identified, and -from his condition as an indigenous person- analyzed and contrasted with the perspective of the film’s narrative.