Schools and patriarchal violence in contexts of organized crime in Michoacán

Abstract

In this article we analyze how the social violence of organized crime is manifested in schools through the reproduction of a patriarchal order that materializes through processes of school precariousness, the formation of models of tense and dialogic masculinity, as well as daily practices of hierarchization, sexual division of schoolwork and the sexualization of the female body in schools. For this, an ethnographic study was carried out in which the staff of six basic education schools in Michoacán collaborated; Direct and participant observation, informal talks, group, and individual interviews were used. We identify that the patriarchal order established by organized crime in the regions is intertwined with the conditions of dismantling and job insecurity in the basic education sector, so that the necessary circumstances are provided for the reproduction of this order through different violent practices inside schools. This is facilitated by the alliances, silences, complicities, and fear of male school workers, who are attracted or subdued by the model of warrior masculinity that has displaced teacher masculinity. We conclude that within the schools in these contexts the gender device is reproduced according to the conditions of violence and territoriality related to organized crime.