July 5, 2002
Mexican City Bans Swearing
Filed at 4:36 p.m. ET
ZAPOPAN, Mexico (AP) -- A city in western Mexico has banned swearing in public, slapping fines of up to $400 or jail terms of 36 hours for uttering ``bad words.''
City council in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara with 1.2 million inhabitants, approved the law on Wednesday, and already residents are wondering what it means.
The law doesn't define ``bad words,'' leaving it up to police to decide which utterances are against ``morals and good customs.''
Outside Zapopan's Roman Catholic Basilica, 17-year-old Pedro Castellanos Martinez said he always swears when he plays soccer.
``I do it without realizing it,'' he said. ``It's just for fun. We don't insult one another in anger, just playfully.''
Martinez's mother, Rosario Martinez, said if the law were enforced she would have to pay daily fines for her son's outbursts. But she said she wouldn't punish him -- because she swears as well.
``That's how we Mexicans are,'' she said.
Zapopan and Jalisco state are governed by the conservative National Action Party, of which President Vicente Fox is a member. Party leaders in some areas have proposed banning miniskirts in city offices and homosexuals from swimming pools. But the ban on cursing was proposed by a councilman from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party.
