Mexico Attempts To Tame Machos

MEXICO CITY — Machismo has long been widespread in Mexican society. But times are changing for the Mexican macho man, or “machista.”

Soaring crime rates against women in recent years, and a strengthening women’s rights movement, have forced Mexicans to begin addressing machismo and the harm it does.

President Enrique Peña Nieto has urged the eradication of “a deeply rooted machista culture,” one that “ultimately and truly generates violence against women.”

But women’s rights advocates say fundamental change can happen only by confronting the entrenched ideas fueling machismo.Gendes, a group in Mexico City that seeks to improve male behavior through counseling, is trying to do just that.

Jorge, a university professor in Mexico City who asked that his last name not be used, is attending Gendes’s group therapy. He said his relationship with his wife suffered after a violent episode. One night, his wife arrived 30 minutes late to meet him for a movie, and he felt she did not seem sufficiently remorseful. In their apartment, Jorge threw her to the floor and punched her in the face.

He said it was the first time in the relationship that his anger had turned physical, and he feared that his wife would leave him. “I had to do something,” he said. “I felt curious to know if it was something I could actually change and if I could learn new ways of relating to people, particularly women.”

Ruben Guzmán, a Gendes counselor, said the goal was “letting go of the person you were taught to be.”

The free therapy, given three times a week, seeks to address the cultural beliefs that lie at the heart of machismo, said Antonio Vargas, director and founder of Gendes, which is privately funded.

At the Gendes office, several men sat in a circle one evening. Jorge brought news of a new f lare- up: His wife had found out he had been