TV REVIEW : Images of Mexico’s Rich Social Tapestry

A world-acclaimed artist pens one of his final sketches. An entrepreneur consumes fire for passing motorists. An elderly woman happily spruces up the grave of her long-departed daughter, her cheerful words underlining a great loss.

These are some of the disparate, and at times enchanting, images to be viewed on “The Mexicans: Through Their Eyes,” a “National Geographic” special airing tonight (at 8 p.m. on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15, and at 7 p.m. on KVCR Channel 24).

The documentary, produced by Bill Livingston and Jeanne Rawlings, a well-known team that has produced several films for the “National Geographic Explorer” series, endeavors ambitiously to present U.S. viewers with alternate perceptions of this decidedly multifaceted nation just to the south of San Diego. To its credit, the film partially succeeds, although attempting to provide even an impressionistic tableau of a nation as varied as Mexico is an enterprise fraught with pitfalls.

There is Rufino Tamayo, the renowned artist, musing about the “peculiar” nature of his compatriotas, in an interview shortly before his death last June. Later, a woman employed in one of the many foreign-owned assembly plants in the border metropolis of Ciudad Juarez speaks both about the opportunities of the U.S.-Mexico frontier zone and its decided downsides: wretched living conditions and abysmally low salaries ($26 take-home pay for a grueling 45-hour work week). And there is Jose Antonio, one of Mexico City’s many fire-eaters, who observes how “proud” he is that he has resisted the temptation to join so many exiles in California.

While no film can capture all of Mexico, some of the omissions here seem questionable. Considerable attention is spent on environmental issues--there is some riveting film of endangered turtles being harvested--but there is little mention of the Revolution of 1910-17, the seminal event in modern Mexican history. The nation’s tortured relations with the United States, a national preoccupation, are really only touched upon, perhaps in deference to U.S. viewers and underwriters.

Sometimes, the pretty pictures overwhelm the harsh reality. And the narration, by Edward James Olmos, at times seems needlessly lugubrious. Moreover, most of those interviewed tend to be in artistic fields, and many speak English, greatly skewing the perspective.

Overall, however, one is left with a pleasant feel for the distinct Mexican humor and the nation’s dense tapestry of existence. That in itself is a commendable accomplishment, particularly at a time when racial stereotyping is so in vogue north of the border.