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Book Review by Glenn Spencer
The American Patrol Report
by Wilson Beck (Author) [Click here for other chapters of this review]
October 26, 2009
Chapter VI: 200 Years of Mutual Disrespect
Beck begins this chapter as follows:
"There are a thousand reasons why Mexicans, in general, dislike their northern neighbors. And, not to be mistaken, Mexicans in general do not like the citizens of the United States of America or its government. There are just as many reasons that Americans use in support of their distrust and disparaging attitude towards their southern neighbors as well."
He then goes on to describe these reasons in detail, reaching back to the wars between England and Spain. "The Anglo-Saxon and Spanish racial and cultural dislike for each other started in the 14th century," Beck reports, including the sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588. More than 200 years later, Admiral Lord Nelson won a major victory over both Spain and France at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.
"With four hundred and fifty years of intense political, social, religious, and economic competition, coupled with five major wars, hundreds of thousands of casualties, the British and Spanish had established a relationship of cultural and racial hatred," Beck writes. Beck says this animosity continued as England expanded into the United States and Spain sponsored Mexico. The hatred spawned in Europe had been transferred to the Americas.
Texas Breaks with Mexico
The 1819 Transcontinental Treaty, between the U.S. and Spain had set Mexico's Texas territories and the Louisiana Territories belonging to the U.S. In 1824, U.S. President Monroe recognized Mexico's nationhood and the Monroe boundaries. Beck says this was one of the lasts gestures of friendship from the U.S. for many years to come.
Legal migration into Mexico's Texas territories, encouraged by Mexico, soon found Mexicans outnumbered 4 to 1. As this dominance became obvious, Mexico made American migration illegal. As a result of the ongoing political upheaval, Texans eventually declared independence from Mexico. Mexico retaliated but, with the defeat of dictator Santa Anna, became in independent nation in April of 1836.
The war over Texas solidified the hatred between the Mexicans and Americans. "The Mexican-Spanish had contempt for the American-British and vice versa for centuries," Beck writes. The Mexican massacre at the Alamo and firing squads at Goliad solidified feelings.
Following the war with Texans Santa Anna agreed to withdraw his troops south of the Rio Grande and cease all hostilities. The issue of the Rio Grande was to play a major role in the later war with the U.S.
The U.S.-Mexico War
The growing bond between the Lone Star State and the U.S. grew until 1845 when President John Tyler accepted Texas as the 28th state. Having warned the U.S. against annexing Texas, which it still considered part of its territory; Mexico began to prepare for war.
(While Beck doesn't include this, Wikipedia says the following: On April 25, 1846, a 2,000-strong Mexican cavalry detachment attacked a 63-man U.S. patrol that had been sent into the contested territory north of the Rio Grande and south of the Nueces River. The Mexican cavalry routed the patrol, killing 11 U.S. soldiers in what later became known as the Thornton Affair after the U.S. officer who was in command. The Mexicans returned A_FEW survivors to Fort Brown, including wounded sent in an ambulance.)
Polk believed this was a cause for war.
The Mexican-American war started in May of 1846. The final battle was fought in September of 1847 in Mexico City.
To this day, Mexicans consider the war a U.S. invasion; the occupation and illegal land steal of 1847.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848 and Mexico ceded much of the territory consisting of the remaining parts of Texas, California Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
"Not content with a vigorous condemnation of the United States government, they [Mexican historians] pinned the responsibility on the American people and the congenital defects of their Anglo-Saxon heritage," Beck writes.
Beck says the main reason Mexico lost the war so quickly was the instability of the Mexican government. "At the beginning of the war, the Mexican army upon receiving their orders to march to the border of Texas, and protect the country, immediately overthrew President Parede. Eight different presidents tried to bring unity to the country during the short seventeen month war," Beck reports.
"There are millions of Mexican citizens, both in Mexico and in the U.S., as well as millions of Chicanos (Mexican Americans) who openly discuss the dream of repatriating all of that lost territory. Many believe that continued illegal immigration and super-high birth rates among immigrants will eventually accomplish the goal. Perhaps they are right," Beck observes.
In January of 1848, Just months after the fall of Mexico City, gold was discovered I California. "Most Mexicans believe the riches of California were stolen from them," Beck writes.
Beck says Mexico's reputation by the mid 1800s was very negative. "The country was recognized internationally as being backwards, corrupt, and lacking any respect for the rule of law," Beck says. "This ungovernableness and lack of respect for the rule of law continues to characterize Mexicans into the 21st century as Mexico has become so lawless that foreigners fear to travel freely into the country," he reports.
Strong Man President Diaz
Beck says it was the emergence of a strong leader, Porfiro Diaz, that brought a semblance of law and order to Mexico and allowed foreign investment in to develop its infrastructure. "The British and American investors heartened by Diaz' militaristic control began investing in Mexican infrastructure such as railroads, oil and gas, as well as the mining industry," Beck writes. The results were positive but the majority of the profits were not getting to the Mexican people.
The Mexican government granted legal immunity to Americans living in Mexico. "It was just another reason the Mexicans hate the gringos," Beck observes.
The treatment of Mexican workers led to serious problems such as the unrest at the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company's mine in 1906. In that case Arizona Rangers were invited into Mexico to suppress the workers. A second strike at Rio Blanco resulted in the killing of over 100 men, women and children.
Beck says Diaz was unwilling or unable to defend Mexico's sovereignty. He goes on to say that American intervention may be needed now, but that Calderon does not want to do this – but may have to.
Labor unrest led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910. The U.S. – friendly Diaz was hated, as were the Americans. The eruption against Diaz spilled over into U.S. soil. In March of 1916 Pancho Villa and 500 men invaded the town of Columbus New Mexico with the cry of "Death to the gringos!"
The resulting Pershing brigade of 12,000 occupied Mexico for one year without finding Villa.
World War I and the Mexican/German Threat
In 1913 Woodrow Wilson sent troops into Veracruz to defend U.S. and British oil interests. They occupied the town until November of 1914.
In 1917 Germany tried to bring Mexico into the First World War promising upon victory to return lands they lost to the U.S. This, some say, led Wilson to declare war on Germany.
Growing Hatred of Americans
"Post revolutionary Mexico say even more growth of Anti-American sentiment than had existed before the Revolution," Beck observes. Mexicans refused to us the term "American" because they thought it applied to everyone in the Western Hemisphere – preferring the term "gringo" instead.
"Today, seventy years later it is not even considered a derogatory term unless used with an adjective such as pinche (fucking) in front of it, which is very common. This expression, pinche gringos (fucking Americans) defines the current, prevalent Mexican sentiment towards Americans that is found throughout Mexico," Beck observes.
Actually, Beck reports, the term gringo is old-fashioned. Mexicans who live in the U.S. and Chicanos use the term gabacho, or White Americans.
Cardenas and the Nationalization of Oil
The social changes hoped for in the Mexican revolution began to arrive with the election of Lazaro Cardenas in 1934, Beck observes. Cardenas nationalized the holding of the seventeen largest oil companies who were expelled from Mexico. As expected, Mexican oil production plunged.
In 1976 the huge (35 billion barrel) Cantara field was discovered, saving Mexico's bacon, at least for a while.
Beck says Mexico is currently in a "self-strangling" situation, with huge reserves but little money or technology to develop them. While a full forty percent of Mexico's national budget is paid through petroleum sales the future looks bleak. Beck says experts predict that a combination of internal demand and falling production will lead to the end of oil exports by 2014. "This calamity will be momentous!" Beck says.
World War II and the start of illegal immigration
As World War II approached Mexico's president Manuel Camacho decided to support the allies, out of fear the Japanese would use Mexico as a launching platform for invasion. The Mexican press criticized his decision.
With the outbreak of the war, Camacho made a deal with Roosevelt to export Mexican labor to the U.S. This was the beginning of the flood of illegal immigration. "The Mexican government used the impending war in order to manipulate FDR," Beck writes.
NAFTA
Ongoing problems with Mexico led the U.S. to come up with the NAFTA treaty in 1993. It promised to solve the illegal immigration problem and create jobs in Mexico and the U.S. It failed. "The Big Sucking Sound from the south that Ross Perot talked about during the 1993 presidential campaign can be heard very clearly in every state of the U.S.," Beck writes.
Back in 1993, during the NAFTA debate, California Governor Jerry Brown said that a boom in border factories would bring more Mexicans north to eventually cross the border. Beck agrees. "The poor, uneducated masses that emigrate from rural southern Mexico to work in the Maquiladoras sweat shops are more than willing to illegally enter the U.S. in search of work within months of arriving at the border," Beck writes.
(Note: The American Patrol Report, then Voice of Citizens Together, opposed NAFTA for all the reasons listed by Beck. Everything we said would happen, happened. Everything NAFTA supporters promised would happen, didn't.)
Beck ends this chapter with a delineation of why there is mutual disrespect between the U.S. and Mexico. The list is staggering.
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