US-Mexican Relations I “For better of for worse, Mexico and the United States are wedded to each other” (1).

US-Mexican Relations I

“For better of for worse, Mexico and the United States are

wedded to each other” (1).

Domínguez and Fernández Key thesis of the text is that the US and

Mexico have become, and will continue to be, more important to one another. The late 1980s and the early 1990s were a period of profound change in the relationship of the two countries.

Context The Long-term US-Mexican Relationship The “Lost Decade” of the 1980s US Neoliberalism in the post-Cold War Era

The Long-term US-Mexican Relationship Texas in 1836 (annexed by US in 1845) 1846: Mexican-American War 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo US intervention in the 1910s WWI offer from the Germans. WWII 1940-1988: bargained negligence

Bilateral little effort in improving or institutionalizing

these dealings

Basic Facts 2000 Census estimated 9 million persons

of Mexican birth in the US, 7 million were not citizens.Source: http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/stp-159/STP-159-Mexico.pdf

There were an estimated 6.2 million unauthorized Mexican migrants in 2005, or 56% of the unauthorized population.Source: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf

Policy Options Conflict Cooperation Bargained neglect

Mexico’s POV Nationalism Isolationism

autarchy Wanting to avoid dependence

Focus on the unfortunate fact of having a superpower as a neighbor, without recognizing the potential inherent in that situation.

“poor Mexico so far from God and so close to the United States” (Díaz on 11).

Castañeda: “I cannot believe any signs of good intentions, sympathy, or moral considerations on the part of the United States that could make them change their basic attitude towards Mexico” (11).