2005
Iraq is a country that suffers from the devastating consequences of the overthrow of a dictatorial regime, gradually weakened by international commercial sanctions and finally put down by the armed intervention headed by the United States army. The enormous destruction of the country combined with the sabotages and attacks perpetrated by the terrorist guerillas paint a desperate panorama for the civilian population that cannot find any recourse other than to continue fighting for its beliefs and survival.
2005
What are antiques? What is the specific passion that motivates their jealous custodians, the antiquarians? When an object, besides being beautiful, carries the stigma of the generations of that attended to it and valued it; when that object was sculpted, appreciated and cared for by the hands and eyes of those who are now dead; when it reminds us of our family and cultural history with its presence, then that object is called ''an antique''. In this program, we unravel the reasons that explain how a value is placed on nostalgia and art, and also how it is fixed in relation to the prosaic and necessary market.
2005
After his arrival to New Spain, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún convened the ancients of Toluca Valley to have them tell him about their ancestors: this was how the history of Mexico State was begun, a rich history due to its political influence, its natural resources and it extensive territory which included the current states of Guerrero, Hidalgo Morelos and the capital of the republic. Mexico State was the scene of creative and evangelizing work of the Franciscans, as well as of the enterprising spirit of its sons, which brought about the work of exploiting the mines, cultivating haciendas and founding industry, a pioneering spirit that today continues to characterize the dynamic economy of the state; In all, this is a quick historic vision of Mexico State, from its remotest origins to the golden years of the Porfiriato.
2005
The Mexican Institute of Social Security has served the country's workers and their families for more than sixty years. Today, the services that are offered daily to 45 million deserving inhabitants is at risk due to the enormous labor liabilities owed by the regime of retirement and pensions to its employees. Is this a present without a future?
2005
This is the story of the greatest interpreter of romantic Spanish ballads. This program presents his privileged voice, his unique style, intense rhythm of life and the hardships that put him through great trials and tribulations. The story is told by the singer himself and by some of the people closest to him. It is a dramatic testimony of struggle and overcoming challenges.
2005
Rural poverty - an historic evil that might seem unbeatable. This program presents the vision of those who suffer scarcity and marginalization day after day, those who receive these experiences as a heritage of burden. The program explores the abandonment of the countryside and proposes to open the possibility of reverting the precarious conditions of life for so many men, women and children: a debt that we as Mexicans have with ourselves.
2005
In this program we provide an analysis of the phenomenon of water in Mexico. Water is looked at as an affected natural resource as well as an essential element for the country's development. Specialists on the subject tell us of the alterations that have taken place in the country's underground water deposits, the influence of climate change on hydro-logical resources, plants for producing potable water and different uses that can be made of water. They also inform us about institutions that are in charge of water's regulation and administration. This program hopes to be a reminder of the responsibilities that we all have as well as that water is not infinite, and in Mexico, as in the rest of the world, this element has become a problem that is impossible to ignore.
2005
With the program "Retratos", we enter into the biographies of two rural Mexican schoolteachers. Jesús Barragán had barely finished primary school in a small town in Jalisco when he already found himself in front of an chalkboard teaching letters to the children of the day workers and rural workers of his community. Minerva Hernández without forgetting her indigenous roots, has worked for more than thirty years in a small state in ñahñú, the language that the otomi people from the region inherited. The lives of these two teachers, Minerva Hernández and Jesús Barragán, have been an interminable journey that finds its strength from day to day in offering a better future to those who, like them, would normally not have had it.
2005
The cult of the Holy Death and its ever more notorious manifestations have been the cause of scandal for some and the object of study for others. This strange social phenomenon does not only have its basis in the history of Mexican traditions, but rather, as this analysis shows, it helps us to explain and come to know better present-day Mexican society.
2005
In the program The Traveling Pope we pass through the details of the life of Karol Wojtyla, from his childhood and youth in Communist Poland up to the moment when he was elected Holy Father in October 1978 and assumed the name of John Paul II. As a representative of the Holy See, he was called the Pope of Peace because of his propensity toward dialogue and unity, though his critics considered him to be a contradictory man. During his papacy he visited more than 600 cities in 129 countries and his pastoral visits promoted and spread the Catholic religion. His political influence contributed to the fall of Communism and in 2000, in celebration of the Jubilee, he visited Jerusalem. Millions of people looked toward Rome, seeking both guidance and consolation for their spiritual and moral troubles. John Paul II maintained contact with the faithful up until just shortly before his death on April 2, 2005. John Paul II will be remembered as the Pope who, in the years of the changing century, began a new era in the Catholic Church.
2005
The history of books is the history of their different readers and readings. In Mexico, the long colonial period is characterized by the Church's strong hold over society's small number of readers. Afterward, the country's independence in many ways signaled the beginning of freedom to read and think for those who already knew how to read. Finally, due the 1910 Revolution, books and readership finally conquered the majority of the nation's population. In our days, however, readership among Mexicans is quite limited. Why is this the case? What does reading do for us? Why does reading nourish our lives and why does its absence weaken us? In this documentary, leading voices of the country's literary and editorial life sketch out the answers.