The Mexican Shock: Its Meaning for the United States - Softcover

Castaneda, Jorge G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565843126 ISBN 13: 9781565843127

Publisher: The New Press, 1996

Synopsis

One of the most trenchant critics of the Latin American scene and American foreign policy, Jorge G. Castañeda has been hailed as the “leading Mexican voice in the U.S. media” (In These Times). In The Mexican Shock Castañeda examines the major issues in Mexico in recent years and their effects on the United States: emigration, the relationship between politics and economics, the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Colosio, and the rapid devaluation of the peso. He also explores the United States’s changing perceptions of Mexico and the historical and cultural outlooks that still divide the two countries. Finally, he examines the campaign behind Proposition 187 in California, discussing the dangerous mix of ignorance and bias that has formed so much of America’s reaction to Mexico.

About this title

Review:

The United States has long misunderstood its neighbor to the south, writes a distinguished Mexican scholar, and the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement has not helped matters. "After years of being perceived largely as a problem for Washington," he argues, "Mexico now became part of the solution: an apparently growing, dynamic, 'emerging' market for U.S. goods and services--especially those unable to penetrate other markets and appeal to other tastes." It earned that vision after a misleading campaign by the Bush and Clinton administrations to portray Mexico as progressive, democratic, and reform-minded, qualities far from the truth. Updating Octavio Paz's critique of power in Mexico, Castañeda calls for thoroughgoing reforms in the Mexican government, and he offers thoughts on matters like the murder of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio and the inability of the young technocrats who now rule Mexico to replace the old system of one-party rule with democratic institutions. This well-reasoned book of history and current events has excited much discussion, and it deserves our attention.

From the Back Cover:

In his extraordinarily timely new book, Castaneda focuses in on Mexico, a country whose fate is increasingly entwined with that of the United States. In Castaneda's view, Mexico is still a society about which too little is known and too much is proposed. Americans have been unsure how to interpret the enormous changes that are taking place in today's Mexico - and affecting today's United States - from the Chiapas rebellion of 1994 to the current economic crisis. Castaneda examines the key issues in Mexican life: the impact of emigration, the relationship between politics and economics, and the enormous cultural changes taking place as Mexico moves closer to the United States. He also explores the United States' changing perceptions of Mexico and the basic historic and cultural outlooks that still divide the two countries. Finally, he examines the campaign behind Proposition 187 in California, discussing the dangerous mix of ignorance and bias that has formed so much of America's reaction to Mexico.

About this edition

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1565843126
• ISBN 13: 9781565843127
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288