Symbolic Violence And Rhetoric. Reyna Haydee Ramirez vs. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Abstract

The political strength and popular support that Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador obtained after his election as President of the Republic in 2018 was fed and nourished throughout his six-year term, mainly from the morning conferences in which he polemizes, refutes, and argues – always in a monologic way – his “enemies and adversaries” among whom are journalists and reporters from media outlets that are not in line with his government. After the victory in the election of his candidate on June the 2th, the president praised his government plan, achievements, figures, and so on. In this context, journalists critical of his regime questioned him. Such is the case with Reyna Haydee Ramirez Hernandez. This paper aims to show how symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 2000) is used as an expression of rhetorical and argumentative resources in the discursive interaction between Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and reporter Reyna Ramirez at the Mexico’s President morning press conference on June the 28th, 2024. Based on imaginary formations (Pêcheux, 1978) and speech acts (Haverkate, 2006), the strategies of impoliteness (Kaul, 2008) employed by both are reviewed, and how they function as rhetorical resources and multimodal arguments (Gilbert, 1994) to safeguard self-image (Goffman, 1967) is shown.