TOW #3 - The two Mexicos: and the lessons for development

The two Mexicos - The Economist

After telling my father about my weekly TOW’s, he immediately subscribed to The New Yorker and gave me his login information for The Economist, New York Times, and The New Yorker so that I could access these magazines online. Thanks Dad! This week, I’ve taken advantage of this. The image I’ve chosen, which isn’t credited to any artist, was printed as the cover of The Economist on September 19, 2015. The main article of this issue discusses development in Mexico, as the title of the image and the issue suggests. This image is a great example of juxtaposition; there is even a visible line down to middle to show the contrasting sides. On the top, the artist depicts developed Mexico as happy, rich with culture, and industrialized. The latter is shown by the car and city skyline, and the former two are shown by the happy face on the statue and the singing man. On the bottom, the artist depicts undeveloped Mexico as poor and violent. The latter is shown by the man with the gun, the crows, and the gravemarkers. The former is shown by the man on horseback, the rundown statue, and the subpar housing. Originally, I thought the undeveloped Mexico was under water because the sky was more blue. I thought this was interesting because it reminded me of the iceberg metaphor, in which the main message is that there’s a lot more to a person or a thing than people can see. In this situation, undeveloped Mexico would be the part that people usually don’t see, especially American tourists. Aside from all of this great comparison, this picture also leaves the viewer with some unanswered questions. The picture is not nearly detailed enough to replace the article, especially for someone without extensive foreknowledge of the subject. Therefore, a purpose of this picture, other than to show the differences in the two Mexicos, is to entice the reader into opening the magazine so that they might subscribe to it if they hadn’t already or so that they stay interested and continue their subscriptions.