The Hungarian Student, 1958 (3. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
1958-10-01 / 1. szám
Letter from Mexico BY DEZSŐ LÁNG The unforseeable fate of emigration has landed me here in Mexico City. I would never have imagined it, but here I am, a professor in the Liberal Arts and Literature Department of the Universidad Nációnál Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). I arrived here after a few unforgettably beautiful days of contact with the West in Vienna, and several memorably horrible months spent at a receiving camp. I came here with my wife, two children, three suitcases full of gift clothes from various sources, about fifty volumes of carefully-guarded new text books and $44.35 in cash. In principle, Mexico did not accept any Hungarian refugees. The dozen families, about fifty people out of two hundred thousand, who finally landed here came as official immigrants with no special privileges. Some were accepted because the head of the family was a specialist in a field which is undermanned in Mexico, or because the head of the family was invited by a large Mexican company in an executive capacity. Without exception it was through the help and intervention of relatives long resident in Mexico, that these invitations were obtained. In most cases they were only a formality which served to set immigration authorities at ease. In practice, the Mexican consular and immigration authorities were most helpful to the Hungarian refugees and assisted us as much as they could, although limited to a great extent by bureaucracy. The standard of the Mexican press is particularly high with regard to literary and cultural matters. The biggest morning papers are large sheets of about forty pages on weekdays and one hundred on Sundays. About one third of their volume consists of advertisements and another half, of the Seccion Literaria; the remainder contains everything else. Good poems, excellent novels, essays and detailed reviews are printed daily, but on Sundays the papers’ literary sections contain such a wealth of material that I sometimes think that one Sunday’s literary production in Mexico is more than was produced in Rakosi’s Hungary in a year. In addition, a number of monthly and quarterly literary magazines are also published. Editors maintain that they always sell out, and I know from personal experience that many times the one available copy of a magazine published six months or two years ago can only be found in the Hemeroteca Nációnál, the National Periodicals Collection. But it is not only the domestic literary magazines, reviews and cultural periodicals that are in great demand; Mexico is the largest market for the books and periodicals of all other Spanish countries. To protect Mexican publishers, large duties are imposed on Spanish-language printed matter from other countries—there is no duty on non-Spanish printed matter. Nevertheless, Argentina alone sold one and a half million dollars’ worth of books and magazines to Mexico in 1957, for which the Mexican public paid at least five million dollars, including both the retail price and duties. English and French magazines and books are also in great demand, and large amounts are spent on them. Mexican theater is on a very high level too. Mexico City boasts forty-four legitimate theaters, all active. Only one of them is subsidized by the State. All others are privately owned, receive no subsidy and pay rather high taxes. All tickets cost twelve pesos (ninety-six cents). Five pesos go for taxes and another two to the Actors Guild Pension Fund. There is, of course, no unified program policy. Every theater produces whatever play its director selects, and it runs as long as there is an audience. This year’s greatest success was “Diary of Anne Frank,” which is approaching its three-hundredth performance. Last year, Berchtold Brecht’s “Three Penny Opera” was the biggest hit. Mexican acting is a little too realistic for my liking, but at the same time it is reserved and tasteful. There are no exaggerated movements,' no overemphasized words, and the directing and acting are excellent; there are no prompters in Mexican theaters. October 1958 9
