Cultural Promoters: Demand for Zaco's Resignation at Railway Workers Museum is "Arbitrary"
mexicosolidarity.com
The trade unionist was fired by Mexico City's Ministry of Culture, who still have yet to recover sculptures of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara that were stolen by ultra-right wing mayor Alessandra de la Rojo Vega.

This article originally appeared in the December 13, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. A group of cultural promoters and social activists deemed the termination of Salvador Zarco Flores’s directorship of the Railway Workers Museum an “arbitrary act.” In a letter addressed to Clara Brugada, Head of Government of Mexico City, they requested that the former student activist and historic railway leader conclude his tenure after the museum’s 20th anniversary, which falls next May.

Last October, according to the letter, Zarco met with officials from the Mexico City Ministry of Culture, who asked for his resignation. He requested to conclude his term on May 1, 2026, so that he could “organize a grand festival to close a 20-year cycle” of the project he helped build with a group of railway workers.

The request was ignored, given that last Friday, December 5, the general director of Historical, Artistic and Cultural Heritage of local Culture “even asked her to sign her resignation.”

Zarco Flores became a railroad worker in 1974 and joined Demetrio Vallejo’s movement. He held union positions and was fired when then-President Ernesto Zedillo privatized the important means of transportation (La Jornada, 7/24/16).

In 2006, he was chosen to head the newly opened Railway Workers Museum, housed in the former La Villa station. The proposal came from Raquel Sosa, then Secretary of Culture for Mexico City, which has overseen the museum since its inception.

In August of last year, the National Museum of Mexican Railroads organized a tribute to him for his consistent career as a social leader, labor fighter and cultural promoter for more than 50 years (La Jornada, 8/26/24).

There Should be an Advisory Council

The agreement establishing the Railway Workers Museum, dated June 12, 2006, stipulates the need for an Advisory Council composed of seven members. The lack of this committee, which “requires the presence of two retired railway workers, and the possible absence of Maestro Zarco, could jeopardize the purpose for which the museum was created, which is to preserve and exhibit the struggle of railway workers and the labor movement in our country.”

The letter, released this week, states that to preserve the essence of the space, Zarco “has been in charge of convening and organizing, among other cultural activities, meetings with retired railway workers, in addition to establishing relationships with groups, collectives and other museums in the interior of the Mexican Republic, in order to preserve the memory and history of the railway struggle.

“At the initiative of Maestro Zarco, it has been an open space for other groups to hold courses, workshops, meetings, fairs, among other activities. The most emblematic case is the Teodoro Larrey Book Club (named in honor of the founder of the Mexican Mechanics Union, the predecessor of the Mexican Railway Workers Union).”

This initiative, in its 13 years of existence, has organized meetings, workshops and oral storytelling performances, in coordination with similar entities in the city, the rest of the country and other Latin American nations.

Teacher Salvador Zarco Flores is a symbol of resistance and dedication, since his militancy in the Spartacus Communist League.

The letter, signed by some 25 people from seven cultural groups, includes the demand that “everything possible be done to create the Advisory Council, in charge of ensuring that the commitment to preserving the historical memory and legacy left by the struggles of the railway workers continues,” a committee that “has not been created or convened.”

The museum has been under the sole responsibility of the General Sub-Directorate of Historical, Artistic and Cultural Heritage of the capital’s Culture, and as project coordinator leader, Zarco Flores, “who since his youth has been an example of struggle, constancy and perseverance.”

They also request that the current director be supported in publishing his memoirs as a worker, railway leader, and his experience leading the museum; likewise, that he be appointed a lifetime member of the advisory council.

Among the signatories is storyteller and journalist Hena Carolina Velázquez Vargas, who has led the Teodoro Larrey Book Club since its inception. She is the daughter of railway union leader Guillermo Velázquez, whose collection of union records was added to the museum’s holdings.

The text concludes: “We advocate that this space continue to pay tribute to the union that suffered one of the worst attacks by neoliberal governments when they handed over the National Railways of Mexico to private enterprise. With this, they lost their source of employment, but they became an example of struggle, dignity, and resistance, which has been a benchmark for the transformation of our country.”

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