Almost 50 years ago, when I was a junior professor of sociology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Law School, the following happened; I remember it very well, although I didn't write it down and I lack further details.
The event took place in a large classroom filled with more than 40 first-semester undergraduate students. A young man in the group, whose face and name I can't identify, caught the attention of everyone present. Since I began teaching, I've sought to connect with my students. I like to listen to them and ask questions, especially when they seem restless, disoriented, or upset.
In simple terms, the interested party said: "It's just that law doesn't appeal to me. I'm here to please my parents, as if out of obligation. My father is a lawyer, my mother graduated from this school, my older brother studied law, my family has a law firm, and now I have to study law; but I can't, I don't want to." He looked upset, to say the least. How painful!
I got straight to the point: "Comrade, then, what would you like to do?" (I asked ceremoniously, in the law school style, addressing him formally, even though I wasn't much older than him, maybe 25 versus 18). He didn't take long to respond; he spontaneously said, "I want to be a bullfighter," and his expression changed. Surely some of his classmates, he or I, added something, but that wasn't the main point, so much so that I don't remember. The important thing came later.
That morning I left class feeling uneasy; the matter seemed worrying to me, worthy of reflection. A few weeks earlier, on Wednesday, January 28, 1976, a splendid article had been published in the newspaper Excélsior (I still have the clipping, almost 50 years later) by Enrique Maza, whose column made important contributions to my personal development. The text is titled "Parable: The Audacity or Fear of Being Free" (pages 6 and 8, in case anyone is interested in locating it easily). And freedom and respect are clearly what the aspiring bullfighter was demanding.
Without further ado, I grabbed the newspaper, went to the stationery store near my house, and made a photocopy of the article, which, of course, ended up in the student's hands. The next day (the class was daily, Monday through Saturday), I brought the document to the session, found a time, and handed it to him in public, with a simple remark: "My friend, I hope the insights in this article will be helpful to you." And that was that; after a "thank you," the class continued.
Before continuing, I'll take the liberty of transcribing a few paragraphs from Enrique Maza's extensive text. It's invaluable and very relevant. The author states:
“Security risks suffocating man… Freedom displaces… Paths acquire importance. And risk… Freedom is made to awaken us. To shake us up. It does not offer us ready-made solutions, because that would be to despise man. Freedom is, first and foremost, a shock… It gives birth to man in his interiority… There are those who are afraid of freedom… Freedom is the risk of open paths… And people in fear lose control of themselves… Fear chains… There are many who prefer their prison; because to be free requires great audacity… Freedom is being with a horizon… Wherever man is crushed, wherever there is oppression, that will be the place of the fight for freedom.”
