Mexico's problem is not it's people--it's the Mexican political/ economic culture. (I love the food and the music.) Mexicans can be great and productive when they become Americans.
I had this realization during a business trip that took me through El Paso, TX in the 1990's. El Paso is a nice, fairly typical, medium-sized U.S. city. But just across the Rio Grande, its sister city of Ciudad Juarez is a depressing Third World armpit. I realized that the land on the south bank of the Rio Grande was just fertile as on the north bank. The difference had to be culture.
For another example, look at India and Pakistan. Both were parts of British India. They both have military and civil institutions left by the Raj. Yet which one is the emerging world power and which one is the place about to fall apart? I sadly concluded that the big difference had to be Islam.
The government is always a reflection of its people.
Mexico has had a great deal of opportunity to change itself, and hasn’t done so. The government that is there now is a continuation of a highly centralized colonial-era government deeply influenced by Indian tribal attitudes and overlain with European Marxism.
The National Museum in Mexico City has a tiled map on a wall in the main entrance that depicts Greater Mexico (this includes all the area we bought and fought for in the early 1800s). School children are brought in, stand before this map, and lectured about how the Norte Americanos cruelly stole this land from Mexico and slaughtered Mexicans, which is a great lie.
Then there are the “hate” museums. These are dedicated to immortalizing the vicious United States and how we have victimized the poor Mexican peasants. I suspect these institutions have been financially supported by the Cuban government. We have nothing equivalent in the U.S.A. nor will we ever.
It is all propaganda of the rawest sort, pushed by Marxists.
The average Mexican idolizes criminals, like narcotics traffickers, and Pancho Villa. Let me tell you about THAT murderer.
My great-grandfather was a miner from Wales, and while working at a mine in northern Mexico, the entire family was nearly murdered by Pancho Villa. He forced all the ‘gringos’ (including women and children) into the mine, then set up explosives around the mine entrance with the intent to bury all of them alive! The miners were rescued by the U.S. Army.
Mexico reflects the average Mexican citizen. I’ve known a few who have moved here, assimilated, and never want to go back to Mexico. But they are no longer “Mexican”, if you catch my drift.
Mexico's problem is not it's people--it's the Mexican political/ economic culture. (I love the food and the music.) Mexicans can be great and productive when they become Americans.
Mexico is an example of what happens when you don't have a robust middle class. Their country is either rich or poor. You need a country with enough people that are educated and with enough money and chutzpah to go after corrupt politicians instead of being on the take as one of the elitists.
People that have nothing are docile and afraid of politicians and police. The USA was made strong because Americans are not afraid to report illegal behavior and corruption and will ask politicians tough questions at town hall meetings. When that changes we become Mexico. I don't like the trend in the USA. The politicians want a culture of docile chumps and that is why they like illegal immigration.