Manana Forever? by Castañeda Jorge G

Author:Castañeda, Jorge G. [Castañeda, Jorge G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9780307596604
Goodreads: 11398846
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2011-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

Quantifying Fear and Inviting In the Foreign

As recently as 2004, after the advent of democracy, globalization, NAFTA, and a certain degree of economic prosperity, according to a Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) poll, 51% of all Mexicans thought it was bad for ideas and customs of other countries to spread in Mexico; only 27% thought this was a good thing. In 2006 the number dropped to 34% saying it was a bad thing, and rose to 40% saying it was good; by 2008 positive opinions had climbed to 50%, with “only” 33% holding negative feelings.14 If the question was phrased slightly differently, as in a Pew Global Attitudes Project poll taken in 2009—“our way of life needs to be protected against foreign influence”—four-fifths agreed, and nearly half agreed completely. In a similar vein, in the same year, faced with the question whether globalization was mostly good or mostly bad for Mexico, opinions were divided equally; when the question was reiterated two years later, this time defining globalization as greater contact between the Mexican economy and other economies in the world, a majority was in favor. Nonetheless, 42% thought that Mexico benefited little or not at all from foreign investment in general, and they were unswervingly opposed to it in oil, electric power, and infrastructure. Mexican elites, however, though polled less scientifically, proved to be highly favorable on the three counts (oil, electric power, and infrastructure).15 These attitudes have undoubtedly helped to protect Mexican culture and even to enhance its influence abroad, mainly in Central and South America. But they have proven totally dysfunctional to the country, as we shall see in the next chapter.

This “fear of the foreign” and mistrust of the outside world does not mean that Mexico is an inhospitable society. Its hospitality is legendary, and contributes at least partly to a little-known fact: more nonmilitary Americans (close to one million) reside in Mexico than in any other nation in the world.16 Twenty million U.S. residents visit the country every year, and there are several hundred million north–south border crossings, with practically no episodes of violence, aggression, or hostility against any of these visitors.17 And it is true that the foreign factor in the life of the territory known today as Mexico has always been overwhelming. Thus it is perhaps a symptom of Mexico’s dilemma that despite its repeated attempts to limit foreign influence and intervention, the country has repeatedly experienced it. A nation that prides itself so much on wanting to be the “owner and author of its own destiny” has, in fact, rarely been so.

Moreover, it has persistently suffered, since birth, from the temptation all Mexican leaders have known—and often succumbed to—of seeking foreign backing for their domestic endeavors and conflicts. As the political scientist José Antonio Crespo has documented in a notable recent book, Contra la historia oficial, even Benito Juárez, the hero of the war against the French, sought U.S. support, first against the conservatives, then against the French, then once more against Emperor Maximilian after he was abandoned by the French.

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