Forging a New Relationship with the State; the Growth and Consolidation of Excelsior Newspaper (1932-1968)

Abstract

The history of Excelsior newspaper is marked by the influence of its director Julio Scherer García (from 1968 and 1976) and his violent dismissal from the newspaper at the end of Luis Echeverría’s presidency. Over the years, a “hegemonic memory” has arisen, pointing out that Scherer's expulsion from Excelsior was a result of his differences with President Echeverría, who saw the newspaper's editorial line as a threat to his government and regime. This “hegemonic memory” has been reinforced to such an extent over the years that it has virtually prevented the existence of other memories of what happened in 1976, showing that there were other reasons for Scherer's departure from the newspaper in addition to his problems with the incumbent president. In this monograph, I explore the history of Excelsior from 1934 to 1968 and find that the newspaper contains various versions of its history (such as the years when the newspaper was directed by Rodrigo de Llano and Gilberto Figueroa, who established an authoritarian administration in which decision-making was concentrated solely in them and did not allow the firm's other partners - Excélsior was a cooperative - to participate) and that the prevalence of one of these versions of the past was due mainly to the image created of themselves by Julio Scherer and the group of journalists that helped him found Proceso magazine.