Understanding Mexico

Alan Riding, in Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans, has set for himself a highly ambitious task: "The purpose of this book is to make Mexico more accessible to non-Mexicans. It is inspired not by a desire to expose the country's vulnerabilities but by the belief that Mexico would also be better served if better understood by its northern neighbor" (p. xii). This is a highly commendable ambition, but Riding makes unwarranted assumptions when he takes for granted that the United States has any desire to understand Mexico. The history of the relationship between the two countries demonstrates that the United States has a low tolerance for understanding and a high tolerance for exploitation. The people of the United States have demonstrated a monumental indifference toward Mexico (except with respect to keeping out "illegal aliens" --- aside from those employers who want to import and exploit), and the leaders have sought to "understand" Mexico only insofar as that understanding would help them exploit their "neighbor" to the south.

Riding goes on: "In a sense, the book represents a search for an invisible 'black hole' that embraces the entirety of Mexico in a single concept: to know what it contains requires a journey through the history of the country, through the minds of its people and through the diverse sectors of society. Each element can be analyzed in isolation, but it can be understood only when related to all the others to form an idea, at once diffu

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e compared to Omar Cabezas' account of a life among the Sandinistas, Fire From the mountain, in order to better understand both books and to see the limitations and assets of each. Riding, whatever his ambitions, gives us a conservative overview of Mexico and its history and development. Because of its essentially conservative viewpoint, Riding's book does little to explore the revolutionary spirit which underlies much of the discontent of the poor people of Mexico. Cabezas, on the other hand, lives in the essence of that revolutionary spirit in Nicaragua. He gives us the insider's view of what it is like to live in a culture exploited by indigenous leaders as well as by American powers-that-be. Riding's book can be properly appreciated only after the reader understands his biases. These biases are not necessarily personal, but are largely cultural. Riding has accepted the assumptions of the dominant culture, and a conservative attitude is the result. For example, when Riding does acknowledge that there is a split between the government and the masses in Mexico, he presents this fact in academic, conservative, and exceptionally moderate terms: "Certainly, by ignoring the traditional political interlocutors with society,

Category: Foreign - U