Marichuy's campaign to become one of the official independent candidates to the 2018 Mexican presidential election was always a long shot. She wasn't the only woman (former First Lady Margarita Zavala would seek a candidacy too), nor the country's first Indigenous politician at that level (one of Mexico's most historically significant presidents, Benito Juárez, was Indigenous), but she was the only hopeful that was both Indigenous and a woman.
Zavala also had a semi-presidential background advantage, and El Bronco (the other independent candidate) had already succesfully been voted in as governor of the state of Nuevo León. María de Jesús also wasn't a career politician, or even much of any kind of politician, before this campaign.
As the title of the documentary states, she was a spokeswoman. Chosen by the country's National Indigenous Council to speak for them collectively, her and the Council's non-individual approach was another aspect that played against their campaign, as it was often interpreted as non-conformist. In order to be inscribed as an official candidate, Marichuy needed to gather signatures equivalent to at least 1% of the electorate.
This is where the documentary begins in earnest, as her campaign for awarenes and the corresponding signatures, mirrors the typical trans-country touring campaigns of her rivals. Her approach however, focuses almost exclusively on Indigenous communities. Highlighted specifically are the Maya peoples of the Yucatán Peninsula and Chiapas (the state with the highest percentage of Indigenous population in the country, and birthplace of the Zapatista movement, which preceded the National Indigenous Council), the Yaqui of Sonora and the mid-Pacific Coast's Huichol/Wixárika.
The film spends time with representatives of each of these groups who supported the campaign, and allows them to showcase the particular issues that accost their communities. Environmental and land ownership concerns are the most common, but the subtext of everyday racism and classism permeates them all. The documentary tends to have a hands-off approach to showcasing these, allowing the subjects to do practically all of the talking and point-making.
In this regard, it at times comes off as dry and slow, but this slow burn burns regardless. Indigenous and minority struggles have been among the most defining of the 21st century so far, and their realities as portrayed here are downright infuriating. Governmental oppression and engineered poverty are commonplace in most countries, but the specifics to Mexico, in the way that these communities in particular have generally been abandoned in regards to the drug-related violence, make the country's one of the world's most heartbreaking examples of Indigenous relations.
This narcoviolence aspect isn't even mentioned directly at any point during the film, but its presence is as inescapable on-screen as it was during the 2018 campaign and since. All in all, La Vocera does not need to say much in terms of film-making. Deft editing and the right choices of spokepeople are all it needs to make its point.
At the end of the day, despite the campaign's best efforts, corruption succeeded in keeping Marichuy from appearing officially on the voter ballots. Only time will tell if this story on film fares better.
