Backwoods Barnstormer

MEXICO

In the courtyard's dust swirls, a grey Brahmin bull had Viva Aleman charcoaled on its sides. Above, in the open galleries, fiery Oaxaca mole, beans, hot tortillas, lemon pop covered the long tables at which the dusty, sweating politicos ate greedily. A four-piece band played.

The village of La Mina, in southernmost Mexico, was playing host to Presidential Candidate Miguel Aleman, who has barnstormed 24 of Mexico's states since July 1945, by election day (July 7) will have touched all 28. On his barnstorming he has been showered with confetti; has posed with local belles (see cut). As the Government party candidate, he was almost certain to win.

La Mina's reception over, the Aleman caravan set out again in the midday glare, the candidate's black Cadillac sedan at its head. When the procession reached the end of the International Highway's hard surface, construction gangs served mezcal, drunk with maguey worm salt. Thereafter the road became a mule path that dipped into canyon beds, clung to mountainsides. The sun grew hotter, the dust thicker; passengers climbed out to lighten loads. In streams--shallow at the dry season--drivers parked to cool their tires.

At dusk the caravan emerged onto the broad plains of the Tehuantepec Isthmus, where, ever since the days of Heman Cortes, men have talked of digging a Gulf-to-Pacific Canal. Brown families bathed in the tepid streams. At Tequi-sixtlan, brilliantly costumed Tehuana women danced the stately Llorona (The Weeper) to the music of a twelve-foot marimba. The politicos watched, and sipped the milk of green coconuts.

In earthquake-ridden Tehuantepec City, Miguel Aleman made the day's first real speech from the plaza bandstand. Speaking extemporaneously to one of the world's few remaining matriarchies,* he said that Mexico's women were coming into their own. Tehuana women applauded. Tehuana men were busy shooting fireworks and drinking beer.

Next morning, in sultry Salina Cruz on the Pacific, local delegations visited Aleman. Labor wanted the port reconditioned; salt producers, more electrification ; the peasants' league, irrigation and roads. To all of them he said he hopes, as President, to do something about such problems. Said Candidate Aleman to U.S. correspondents with him: "I invite you to come back to this region with me three years from now so that you can see ... how the country has developed."

*In Tehuantepec, women outnumber men five to one. They carry on the trade and commerce. The original Tehuana men were almost wiped out by internecine warfare.

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