SOME THOUGHTS ON MEXICO

I am flying out for Mexico today, where I will be giving a series of 9 lectures in the colonial cities of Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende.  My topics will deal with Mexican history, politics, and culture.

Ever since my first trip to Mexico at the age of 12, I have had a fascination with life south of the border.

On the first visit, my young mind grasped that to be so close, Mexico was an exotic and very different place.  I still tell the story of how I crept out of our hotel room in Monterrey while my father was sleeping and experienced sights, smells and situations that I had never dreamed of when living in small town America.

Today, Mexico is a very different place.  Its 110 million people are experiencing challenges that would never have been imagined in the 1950's.  Each year, for example, a million potential new workers attempt to enter the Mexican workforce, with only half of that number being accommodated with what we might term "regular jobs."  As for the other 50%, the options are limited to establishing street-side businesses in carts and other conveyances, or hitting the road, hoping to discover work as illegal aliens in "el Norte."

With estimates of poverty affecting up to 40% of the population, most Americans are surprised to learn that Mexico has more billionaires than Britain and France combined.  In fact, Mexico is a rich country, blessed with mineral and oil deposits that most nations would envy.  As the 5th largest oil producer in the world, Mexico ranks 3rd in quantities of foreign oil flowing into the U.S.

Sadly, a significant element of Mexican culture is the oligarchical nature of society, which has tended to rigidly divide class structure and to concentrate wealth in a relatively few quarters.  In other words, the Mexican playing field has not been one noted for its fairness and impartiality.  Hence, the migration of labor to the U.S., where opportunities for income and advancement are far more numerous than in Mexico.

The out-migration of Mexican labor has, in large part, been welcomed by the wealthy oligarchs who call the shots south of the border, for the northward movement has served as an escape valve for what might have festered into political discontent in Mexico.  Frankly, the established order in Mexico has been, in this regard, irresponsible and highly reluctant to engage in meaningful efforts to remedy societal shortcomings.

Despite Mexico's many challenges, the country has the potential of becoming a real Latin American economic powerhouse.  It has a workforce not afraid of hard work and segments of a growing educational system that have begun to turn out graduates well trained in the technology and science that Mexico must have to advance herself in the global economy.  In the next few days, postings on Two for Texas will seek to probe developments that  mutually affect the U.S. and its culturally distant neighbor of Mexico.