"JESUS AND MCDONALDS"
Volume 21 - January 20, 1999
Dear Readers:
Happy New Year to all. This issue of The Democracy Center On-Line is inspired by the juxtaposition of two big cultural events that happened last month here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The first was Christmas (celebrated in a remarkably non-commercial way compared to the onslaught of advertising and hype at home). The second was the grand opening, with much-fanfare, of Cochabamba's first McDonalds (and first U.S. fast food chain). I found some symbolism in that, as you will read below.
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
JESUS AND McDONALDS
In this valley city of 400,000, spread out across the bottom of a bowl of Andean hills, there are two man-made icons visible from most parts of town. The first is "Christo de la Concordia", at 108 feet tall, the largest statue of Jesus in the world (surpassing by just a few inches its more well-known rival in Rio de Janeiro). It was originally supposed to be built for the visit here by the Pope in 1990, but money for construction ran out and for many years all that stood on the hillside overlooking the town were two very large "feet of Jesus". Today his whole body is there, illuminated at night in such a way that from throughout Cochabamba he looks like he is hovering high in the air watching over the city.
The second icon was just erected last month. Towering some five stories over the city's tree-lined central avenue are two massive and familiar golden arches, a mammoth sign straight from a U.S. superhighway. Like Jesus, it can be seen day or night from most any part of town. Below it is the freshly-opened McDonalds, three floors high, with a play area, a drive through, and a two-story-tall inflated Ronald McDonald gazing down from the roof upon passing Cochabambinos.
EVANGILISM IN TWO FORMS
Christianity had a five hundred year head start over McDonalds on this continent. With evangelical fervor the religion imported from Europe arrived with that dangerous mix of good intentions, phenomenal arrogance, a serious interest in economic exploitation, and destructive consequences. Whole Indian populations and cultures were destroyed as the arriving Christians sought to transform an entire continent and people (mimicking the very words of the bible) "in their own image". Cultural conversion and expansion of empire were inseparable. No where was this more true than Bolivia, where a small hill in the town of Potosi produced (with handy slave labor) the silver that bankrolled the Spanish empire for hundreds of years.
And now comes McDonalds carrying that 20th century brand of evangelical theology, U.S. commercialism. In this most-Indian country on the continent, what beckons Bolivians to the temple of the golden arches is something far more than "two all beef patties on a sesame seed bun". To walk in those doors is to pass right straight through to the USA. "Happy Meals", small plastic packets of ketchup, baby faced workers in blue uniforms working at a frenzy - it's all there. Here in a city that almost completely shuts down every day between 12:30 and 2:30 so families and friends and reconvene for long two hour lunches, Bolivians are queuing up to be served and finished in five minutes. It is that special formula of U.S. fast food culture - bad nutrition served at breakneck speed with stunning conformity and predictability.
A SAD CONFESSION
Make no mistake, the seduction of it is powerful. After swearing that neither I nor my hot-to-go kids would ever patronize the place, I wondered in one day while passing by, just to check it out. That smell! It's familiarity was overwhelming, a blast of home and of road trips down highway five where those same golden arches looming over Kettleman City mean "bad-for-you-but-familiar-far-from-home" food. Before I could stop myself I was in line, and ferociously inhaling a cheeseburger drenched in ketchup. The high lasted five minutes, followed by that also-familiar feeling of twenty five bad grams of fat settling in my stomach.
There are other ironies in McDonald's arrival here. Our 11 year old neighbor hasn't seen her father in almost two years. He left his family to go to Wisconsin to work for minimum wage in a McDonalds in hopes of coming home someday with a little money in his pockets to build his family a future. Like many who seek to leave Latin America for "El Norte" I'd bet he probably snuck in illegally. Those are the rules for Labor, "stay in your own damn country, whatever the wages are." But for Capital the rules are different - "go wherever your investment can make the most return - come on down!" Investors seeking a profit get a welcome mat when they crosses national boundaries. Workers looking for a decent job get deported.
Five hundred years ago the cultural and economic changes to come arrived in the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. Today they are headed here in the Happy Meal, the Big Mack and Chicken McNuggets. On one side of town the world's largest Jesus watches as his newest challenger, a massive clown with red hair and fast burgers, draws in a growing congregation. Jesus and Ronald McDonald - a little something for everyone.
BURGER KING - WHERE ARE YOU?
Did Bolivians ask for that special smell, the bright colors, the clean plasticness of it all, or the 15 minute visit to the U.S. No, but in a modern economy demand is not served it is created and so Cochabambinos are lining up, just like I did (once, only once). What will happen now? Some of the street vendors, who will sell you a better burger, with fries included, for a smaller price, will lose their work. Bolivians will get used to eating on the run. The Golden Arches, under Jesus' steady gaze, will draw imitators - can Burger King be far behind? The slow outdoor lunches under the trees will give way to one more fast food opening after another, as the U.S. methodically seeks to recreate Bolivia once again in someone else's image. Evangelism with the face of a red haired clown.
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