The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 8 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on April 30, 2021.
Sergio Bardesi-Texocotitla ’22
Staff Writer
Editor’s Note: Julio Bardesi is Sergio Bardesi-Texocotitla’s cousin.
This past April, I went to visit family in the municipality of Cuautlancingo (Quwat-lan-sin-go), Puebla, Mexico. After much discussion with my family, I realized that I had no idea how the pandemic has affected students in Mexico. To learn more about the Mexican student experience, I connected with three students attending three different universities to learn about how Puebla’s citizens have reacted to the pandemic and the tumultuous difficulties universities have faced this past year.
Francisco Javier Barrales, who is 24-years-old, is currently in his tenth semester at the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP). I asked Barrales to summarize how Puebla’s public has reacted to the pandemic restrictions set in place, and he shared, “What I have seen is that [the majority of] people…go outside…they have their kids without masks… Until it [getting sick] happens to them…then they blame the…doctors… It sounds bad, but they say that the doctors kill [the patients] and return them dead.”
Barrales is studying biology in order to become a medical researcher, with a focus on medicinal plants. He shared, “[h]ere in Mexico there is plenty of biodiversity, and, in the past, plants were used to treat illnesses… I did my servicio [social service requirement] at a laboratory that works with medicinal plants in order to treat breast cancer…” Part of his interest comes as a reaction against deforestation, which he says is touted as being “insignificant.”
Julio Bardesi is 26-years-old and started attending the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) during the pandemic. He is currently studying electrical engineering. When asked why he returned to school during the pandemic, Bardesi said, “ …it was coincidental… [w]hen I began my admission process [in January] to get into university…I had the idea of going to campus…[but] here in Mexico, the pandemic began in March.”
UNAM planned an academic holiday between March 29 and April 2, but as of April 11, Bardesi had not yet returned to classes. Explaining the situation, Bardesi stated, “Currently… the [science] faculty is on strike…[UNAM] still owe[s] the professors, the assistants, and the becarios [students who receive scholarships and serve a function akin to a teaching assistant in the United States]” from the previous semester.
Lisset Rincon Martinez, who is 24-years-old, is in her seventh semester studying industrial engineering at the Technological Institute of Puebla (ITP). Martinez shared that during the pandemic, her school had a three-month-long break. She noted, “Before the pandemic began, we [students] were striking…because we were supporting BUAP… [e]xchange students were killed…so we joined their strike with other schools… After the [strike]…we returned to classes for two weeks and we [returned to break] because of the pandemic.” She explained that the break began near the end of March, and ITP resumed classes in the end of May. During this break, the students received progress updates from the administration and had no contact with a majority of professors. The semester was originally scheduled to run from February through June but finished in July 2020.
As of mid-April, Puebla had begun vaccinating its senior citizen population. A little more than a year has passed since the beginning of the pandemic in Mexico. According to Barrales, the plan that BUAP has for next year is to resume in-person instruction by vaccinating the professors. He pointed out that this plan concerns him because the students will not necessarily be vaccinated. They will still have to make their way to school via public transport and will likely spread COVID amongst themselves. Based on this information, Mexican universities will likely continue to face difficult decisions.
