The Mexican Paradigm or World View
© 2011, Carroll Williams

Every nation and people have their iconic places and events which shaped their national character. In the U.S. mention Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Liberty Bell, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Nine Eleven, and the list is endless, but the educated citizen immediatley forms a mental picture of shared national character shaping events. If one is to understand another person's world view it is necessary to become acquainted with some of the personalities and events which shaped the person's national character and world outlook. This essay is intended to help the reader begin to understand the way our Mexican neighbors view themselves and the world around them.

Mexicans view their history and culture from a very different perspective and in bold contrast to U.S. history. Mexicans begin with the histories of their indigenous peoples which reach back many thousands of years prior to the coming of the Europeans. Mexicans do not celebrate the Spanish conquest, but rather take it in stride and view it as a very mixed episode at best and in many instances a very negative event. They very carefully note the destruction of indigenous culture, art, and literature by zealous Spanish Catholics and the forced amalgamation of indigenous peoples with the Europeans. Today the Mexican government goes to great lengths to preserve and enhance indigenous cultures which remain.

The colonial history of Mexico was already a century in the making before the English arrived in Virginia. UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the National Autonomous University of Mexico was founded a full century before the creation of Harvard which stands as the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. Mexico’s European chapter was approaching some small degree of maturity before the first English settlers got off the boat.

Mexico experienced a violent and protracted war for independence from 1810 to 1821 in which the various classes of people sorted out their places in society through copious amounts of spilled blood. In contrast, the U.S. war for independence, often called the American Revolution lasted for seven years and was not very revolutionary in the sense that class rose up against class and caste against caste. The U.S. experience was more a political parting of the ways with the mother country with little or no appeal to class or caste warfare. In Mexico’s war for independence indigenous peoples and Mestizos, the mixed blood people, sought to correct earlier injustices committed against them by the colonial ruling classes of Peninsulares, those directly from Spain and the Criollos the pure-blood Spaniards born in Colonial Mexico.

Early attempts to establish republican government were thwarted by the ambitions of various autocratic dictators among them, Augustin Iturbide who styled himself Emperor and later Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, who was labeled the “butcher of the Alamo” in Texas history. Santa Ana is a hero in Mexican history in that he defeated an invading Spanish army at Tampico in 1829 and thwarted the final attempt by Spain to regain a colonial foothold in Mexico.

As President of Mexico, Santa Ana made a major political error by scrapping federalism and replacing it with a system of central control. Texas at the time was a province of the State of Coahuila and was loosely governed by local Mexicans and Anglo Americans who had been invited by previous Mexican governments to settle in the province. Coahuila and many other Mexican states took offense at the centralist movement of Santa Ana and revolted.

Texas achieved its independence from Mexico and from 1836 to 1846 existed as the Republic of Texas, the only part of the present day U.S. to ever have been an independent nation. Texans drew their national map very generously to include the territory of the present states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming, and later extended their claims to include California, Baja California and modern-day Arizona. There was little if any evidence to support the territorial claims. Coahuila had never been so ambitious as to stretch its borders in that manner.

Mexico never truly recognized the independence of Texas and when the U.S. annexed Texas in 1845 a border incident between the Rio Grande and the Nueces rivers in Texas was seized upon by the U.S. as an excuse for war. The U.S. invaded Mexico and in a war from 1846 to 1848 defeated the central government of Santa Ana and forced a treaty upon Mexico which stripped away over fifty percent of Mexico’s national territory. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 between the U.S. and Mexico has remained a point of resentment in Mexico for the past century and a half. The whole southwest section of the U.S. including Texas to California and everything in between was taken by conquest from our neighbor to the south giving rise to the often heard expression on the part of immigrants legal and otherwise that “I didn’t cross the border, the border crossed me.”

From 1857 to 1861 Mexico suffered through the War of the Reform in which Benito Pablo Juarez sought to reshape the nation sharply reducing the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1861 wealthy Mexican refugees in France prevailed upon French Emperor Napoleon III to intervene to turn back the reforms wrought by Juarez. The French sent an army to invade Mexico and to install Maximillian von Hapsburg as Emperor of Mexico. Napoleon III saw an opportunity to not only interfere in Mexico, but to influence the outcome of the American Civil War. Napoleon’s desire was also to assist the Confederacy thereby preventing the continued growth of a unified Anglo America. The break up of the American union was important to Napoleon’s future plans for France.

The French invasion of Mexico in 1862 produced a singular event in Mexico's national history which is celebrated every year on the 5^th of May. El Cinco de Mayo celebrates a stellar victory by the citizens of Puebla over a much larger invasion force of French regular army troops attacking the city. Puebla is situated on the road leading from the coast at Veracruz to Mexico City, the nation's capital. This has been the invasion path for armies landing on Mexico's gulf coast from the time of Cortes until more recent history. It is the natural path to the Valley of Mexico and the Federal District. The fruits of this Mexican victory were short lived as the French succeeded in installing their puppet government under Maximillian von Hapsburg in Mexico City. However, this unlikely victory has never lost its appeal to patriotism among the Mexican people.

Maximillian was inclined to create a Mexico for Mexicans and less interested in Napoleon’s ambitions. Maximillian was a true 19^th century liberal and desired to improve life in general for all classes of Mexicans. However, he was regarded as a foreign interloper and was eventually defeated by the Republican Army of Mexico. Maximillian, along with Mora, and Mejia two of his generals were captured and executed by firing squad at Queretaro in 1867 ending the last serious European attempt to control Mexico. I have stood on the Cerro de las Campanas, or Hill of Bells where the trio met their fate, and I have seen the death mask of Maximillian in the National Museum of History at El Castillo de Chapultepec in Mexico City where it is displayed alongside the rifles used by the firing squad.

Following the expulsion of the French, Mexico experienced several presidential administrations in the latter half of the nineteenth century with mixed results. Some were more legitimate than others in terms of electoral integrity. One very long running administration was that of Porfirio Diaz from 1876 to 1911. Diaz was good at attracting foreign investment in mining, transportation, and communications, but inept at improving the lives of average Mexicans. The gap between rich and poor widened until the nation plunged into a cataclismic war known as the “Mexican Revolution.”

The Mexican Revolution spanned the years from 1910 to 1921. Rebel armies in the south, the west, and the north eventually defeated government forces and then set out to remake the nation. Emiliano Zapata in the south was primarily interested in agrarian reform, land distribution, breaking up the great Haciendas and giving land to peasant farmers. Francisco “Pancho” Villa in the north and Pascual Orozco Vazquez contributed to the defeat of the government’s forces. Another rebel leader, Venustiano Carranza was a political reformer who oversaw the creation of the Constitution of 1917 replacing the Constitution of 1857 and containing truly revolutionary features. Among those were the guarantee of social and labor rights of the people, sharply curbing the influence of foreigners in Mexican life, and vastly reducing the influence and power of the clergy and the Catholic Church. Many of the guarantees of the rights of citizens and workers became examples and were copied in the Weimar Constitution in Germany following WW I and the Russian Constitution following the fall of the Czar in 1918.

The Mexican Revolution brought the U.S. into direct conflict with Mexico. Mexican exiles in the U.S. supported the revolution through publications and arms smuggling. Francisco I. Madero who had opposed Porfirio Diaz in the election of 1910 only to be imprisoned by Diaz, escaped and took up residence in San Antonio, Texas where he led a group of political exiles.

Then a U.S. Navy battleship paid a port visit to Tampico in 1914, several U.S. sailors went ashore to purchase gasoline for the ship’s auxiliary boats. They were placed under arrest by government troops who mistakenly thought they were there to intervene on behalf of the rebels. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was totally intransigent in his attitude toward Mexico over the incident. He insisted upon a series of steps for Mexico to take as an apology, and when none were forthcoming Wilson sent U.S. troops into Veracruz, killing many local citizens, seizing the city and holding it for nine months. This move deprived the government of Mexico of its major port of entry for European arms used by the government to fight the rebels, and its primary source of revenue from import duties. Wilson wanted to force the collapse of the Mexican government and bring about a rebel victory.

In 1916, Pancho Villa and his troops crossed the U.S. border and burned the town of Columbus, New Mexico. In 1972 I visited with a number of Pancho’s old soldiers in Chihuahua, Mexico and learned the reason for the raid. Pancho had been buying ammunition from arms merchants in Columbus only to discover he had been sold some really bad merchandise. Many rounds of ammunition simply were too old to fire and were getting a lot of his lads killed while fighting with government troops. Pancho only meant to burn out the arms merchants, but the fire got out of control and burned most of the town. President Wilson sent the U.S. Army into northern Mexico to find and capture Pancho Villa. The mission was a total failure as the U.S. troops simply didn’t know the terrain. While Pancho was never captured he did meet on one occasion under a flag of truce with General John J. Pershing. I viewed a large photo of that meeting where it hangs on the wall in Chihuahua in the home of Mrs. Luz Coral Villa, the widow of Pancho Villa. In addition to General Pershing and Pancho Villa they are shown with members of their respective delegations. Standing beside General Pershing in the photo was a young U.S. Army cavalry officer named George S. Patton.

Mexican school children studying the history of their country can easily recount the number of times their nation has been invaded by foreign armies including the forces of the United States. If they start with the Texas war for independence, considering the U.S. volunteers who went to Texas to participate, and then add the War with Mexico in 1846-1848, the occupation of Veracruz in 1914, and the invasion of Chihuahua in 1916, Mexico was the recipient of four incursions of U.S. forces, the worst of which resulted in the loss of over half their nation. Most U.S. citizens fail to appreciate the psychological effects of four invasions from your nearest and largest neighbor. The closest parallel would be the mind set of the former Confederate citizens following the American Civil War. The old south was the only part of the United States ever defeated in a major war and occupied from 1865 to 1876 by the former enemy, in this case the Union troops.

Other relations with the U.S. have been strained at times as well. In 1938 several major oil companies refused to bargain with Mexican labor unions over wages and working conditions in Mexico’s oil fields and refineries. The companies simply locked out the striking workers. Mexico’s President, Lázaro Cárdenas seized the oil company properties and created Petroleos Mexicanos or Pemex, the national oil company which exists today. Relations with the U.S. and its allies in World War II were further strained when Cárdenas, incensed at losing export markets among the allies insisted on selling Mexican oil to Germany and Italy, two of the Axis powers.

President Manuel Ávila Camacho who succeeded Cárdenas changed Mexico’s policy and sold oil to the U.S. and no longer to the Axis powers. He also led Mexico to side with the allies in WWII against Japan. Japan had threatened to occupy Mexico as a base against the U.S. Mexican airmen of the Aztec Eagle Squadron trained on U.S. P-47 fighter bombers and flew extensive combat missions in the Philippines in support of U.S. ground troops. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy” toward Latin America did much to thaw relations and mend fences. Roosevelt and Camacho settled the claims of the oil companies for the loss of their expropriated properties. The oil companies were persuaded to settle for a small sum in the interest of western hemisphere unity in the face of a world war.

Today Mexico is a nation with a land area twenty percent that of the area of the U.S. with much of its land arid desert and unproductive. Mexico’s population stands at 111 million which is thirty-six percent the size of the population of the U.S population which numbers approximately 310 million. Mexico is a dynamic nation with many well-educated scientists, engineers, intellectuals, composers, artists, and skilled workers in its major population centers. Most larger towns and cities have fine cultural centers such as universities, museums, institutes, and centers for the performing arts. Modern Mexicans gather in record numbers to attend classic orchestral concerts, and opera productions which rival any in Europe or the U.S. In spite of all of this, Mexico still has many pockets of poverty in small towns and rural areas and high rates of unemployment among the lesser educated populace.

The economy of Mexico is in much better condition than that of the U.S. Mexico's GDP is above 5% with unemployment standing at just 5.5%, and public debt standing at about 41% of GDP. A hidden statistic is underemployment which is estimated at around 25% consisting mostly of poorly educated small town and rural populations including many indigenous peoples. The economy of Mexico has prospered greatly in the last four decades. The total unemployment rate in the mid 1970's was above 50%. By contrast the U.S. currently has a real GDP growth rate of 2.5% with unemployment above 9% and the U.S. public debt having risen this year to just above 100% of GDP.

Mexico is making great strides in becoming a world trading nation. There are new seaports under construction on both coasts. Rail and road facilities are being expanded to accommodate an expected growth in trade from Asia directed not only to Mexico, but also for trans shipment to the U.S. and Canada. Huge container ports are being constructed on the Pacific coast to handle Asian goods for all of the Americas. New energy sources are being brought on line to power industry. Technical Institutes are being established and existing ones expanded to train a modern work force. Instituto Politécnico Nacional (National Technical Institute) founded in 1936 by President Lázaro Cárdenas to provide technical education to all Mexicans, now has over one hundred and fifty thousand students in all of its branches. It’s motto is "La Técnica al Servicio de la Patria" or Technology in the Service of the Nation. Mexico today ranks among the leading nations of the world in its emphasis on and application of technology to its economic development.

Mexico’s major problems today are the drug war waged between rival cartels and between the cartels and the central government and continuing overpopulation of rural areas. In the past decade more than forty-thousand people have been killed either directly or in the crossfire in the drug wars. Mexicans need only look north to see the primary cause of their suffering which is the U.S. appetite for illegal narcotics. If the demand for narcotics were to disappear, so also the drug war would cease and Mexicans might enjoy a degree of peace unknown for the past three or four decades. Overpopulation has been addressed for decades by the Mexican government which is very active in family planning and birth control. It has been an uphill effort in the face of strong resistance from the Roman Catholic Church and the people’s strong conservative religious attitudes. However, the rate of population increase would have been much greater without these ongoing efforts.

Mexicans can often be heard to appeal to the memory of their national heroes. Populist movements sometimes adopt symbols such as Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa to appeal to the masses. When a Campesino declares himself a Zapatista the intent is to preserve the small farm against the interests of corporate agriculture. Tension between the national memory of the huge haciendas under single ownership and the interest of the small plot peasant farmer are still felt in rural Mexico.

How do Mexicans view their place in the North American continent and their relationship to their larger neighbor to the north? Mexicans feel a sense of national pride in their accomplishments as a people and a nation. They have lived through a sometimes turbulent and dangerous history which continues with the current drug wars. Mexicans have survived every bit as much in the way of disasters and privations as have the people of the USA and they have become strong from those experiences.

Mexicans see themselves as equal partners in the North American continent. Many Mexicans take a totally different view of national borders and believe that borders should be open to the free movement of peoples in both directions. Many undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S. feel they have a moral right to be in the country. This is in conflict with many U.S. attitudes about closing the southern frontier. This is not meant to be a value judgment of either position, but simply a statement of differing perspectives. It remains to be seen how these different views will be accommodated by both nations. Currently there are an estimated twelve million undocumented Mexicans and other Latinos living and working in the U.S. They are here to stay, and no amount of political rhetoric or posturing will resolve the issue. A realistic approach by both nations will be required to work out an equitable solution for all concerned.

End

Revised: 28 October 2011

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