The local protest was part of a well organized national movement, designed to send out signals to candidates in the upcoming presidential election. Teachers, parents and striking school children could be found on the side streets near the park or sitting on folding chairs in the open Plaza listening to their leaders shout words of protest over bull horns. The protesters, many of whom came from outside the city, camp along side one of the streets that spill into the Plaza Melchor Ocampo. The camps are simple constructions consisting of plastic roofs anchored to adjacent buildings, with sleeping bags and outdoor cooking equipment tucked underneath. This arrangement appears to have been pre-negotiated with authorities.
Several streets are closed to traffic in favor of the protestors.
Despite a large milling, shouting crowd, there is no riot control enforcement. Meanwhile at the Cathedral, located within the park itself, life goes on with its routine of daily masses, weddings, baptisms and funerals. The bull horns of the protest leaders often overshadow the soft homilies of the Bishop, but no one seems to mind. Accommodation to others, including the needs of other institutions, is an observable Mexican characteristic. The modern Church has followed its own version of accommodation adapting to new lifestyles of its parishioner families, including their choice to have fewer children.