Posted on 07/25/2008 12:28:55 PM PDT by 3AngelaD
For a generation, Mexican intellectuals have pondered the possibility of a “Greater Mexico” – the idea that Mexican immigration to the United States was so persistent and sustainable, that Mexican culture could “re-settle” lands lost to the United States at the conclusion of the Mexican American War. Americans, clinging to the belief of a “melting pot,” dismissed that notion, arguing that Mexican immigrants would follow historical norms and assimilate into mainstream American life, as previous generations of newcomers did before them.
A new study by the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME), part of Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Relations, offers insight that answers this lingering question. As Carlos González y Gutiérrez, IME’s director, told Notimex, “To our surprise and unease, we realize that Greater Mexico isn’t on the other side of the moon, but that more and more it looks like us, and that has many consequences. The principle one is that this new situation reflects, to a good degree, our divisions of class, background, language, ethnicity and educational attainment.”
In other words, there is a “perfect storm” in which middle class ambition, immigration and higher birth rates among Hispanics, is changing the face of Mexicans in the United States. Whereas in the past the bulk of Mexicans entering the United States has come from the economically marginalized – rural farmers, urban poor, under-educated and unemployed – as part of NAFTA’s unintended consequences, Mexican middle class professionals are now establishing themselves on both sides of the border. Hundreds of thousands of non-indigenous Mexicans, meaning Mexicans who are Caucasian and of European descent, are migrating to the United States; the idea of a “Greater Mexico” is becoming a reality.
Who are these middle class Mexicans with lives and families across the border? They are people like the Caceres brothers, whose company designs and manufactures crystal chandeliers. Some are based in Merida; others are in Los Angeles. They see themselves as Mexicans who live in cities that accommodate minorities – Maya speakers in Merida and English speakers in Los Angeles.
Others are like Enrique Norten, a well-known Mexican architect based in New York, whose firm, TEN Arquitectos, has offices in both countries. “I’m from Mexico City, but I live in New York,” Norten told the Cornell Daily Sun. “My life is about architecture, not borders.”
These Mexicans, with businesses and families on both sides of the border, give currency to the notion of an emerging “Greater Mexico” – where the idea of a “Brain Drain” depleting Mexico of its entrepreneurial spirit and sense of innovation is turned on its head. “Will there be a border in the future?” Jose Luis Caceres, one of the Caceres adult children, rhetorically asked. “For me, it doesn’t matter, since I can go wherever I want.”
That reality – and attitude – has caught Mexican officials by surprise. IME Director Carlos González y Gutiérrez calls these white middle class Mexicans in the United States “Mexico’s transforming agents,” adding that, “although they send many things that benefit us, they also send other things that harm us. But we are tied to each other.”
And their numbers are increasing — particularly since middle class Mexicans like the Caceres and Nortens have families in both countries –- and their children are registered as dual citizens of the United States and Mexico. ??This is also a recent phenomenon for the United States, and as a result, Hispanic growth is being fueled by birth rates and not by immigration. “In all of the uproar over immigration, this is getting missed,” Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute told USA Today. “All the focus is on immigration, immigration, immigration. At some point, it’s not. It’s natural increase (in Hispanics’ birth rates).”
In post-Katrina New Orleans, for example, four out of five births are to Hispanics. Throughout Latin America the news media have “celebrated” the realization that New Orleans is now a Latin American city.
What does it mean when white middle class Mexicans are establishing businesses and families on both sides of the border and moving with the same ease as someone who works in New York but lives in New Jersey? What happens when the immigration debate is sidestepped by a new generation of dual citizens who can vote wherever they choose, and who are not bound to any single country?
And how will politicians on both sides of the border deal with the emergence of this “perfect storm” – immigrations, birth rates and an entrepreneurial middle class – giving rise to a “Greater Mexico”?
Mexico needs to spend their energy on solving their own problems with the intelligence and money gained on their foray into the United States. These people are whacked. Try to take our land officially—they are going to suffer mightily if I have anything to do with it as a citizen (sometimes these days it feels I do not have much impact on the politicians catering to the Mexican nationals.).
Americans would do well to study exactly how their forefathers took over the American Southwest one hundred and seventy years ago, because the Mexicans are doing the same thing in reverse. This time, however, there may not be a war, as our traitorous government may simply roll over and play dead. Oh wait, that's exactly what they are doing.
Mexico is a disgrace and should be ashamed!!!!!!!!!!!
“Greater Mexico” = Weaker America
“Greater Mexico”?
You’ve got to be kidding?
Mexico is a narco terrorist haven and a third world crap hole.
Mexicos entire govt. local, state and federal is about as corrupt as any nation in this world.
Its people are poorly educated and it can’t either feed clothe
educate or provide for its people because it doesn’t want to.
It is rich in minerals and land and could take care of its people if it really wanted to but a small number of families control everything and just don’t give a damn about all the poverty and uneducated.
Thus the uneducated unwashed hungry and needy come across the the U.S.A. to be taken care of by us.
You have taken the term “greater Mexico” too literally. What they are referring to is the idea of Mexico extending its influence into our country, taking advantage of the gringos and relieving us of a great deal of our wealth. And of course, we are generously subsidizing their efforts and paving for way for this to occur with public policy such as the anchor-baby rule. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that their country is dysfunctional in the extreme. See my tagline.
barf alert?
Why should we tolerate this from a cesspool pretending to be country? It's unbelievable to me. The Quisling candidates running for president are a disgrace. They support this.
One example is Punta Colonet. Over the next 20-30 years it will grow to a city of 250,000 and it will be built as an "American City". There will be many Americans living and working there.
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Have you ever sat down and dreamed about an America where there wasn’t a single drug user? Ever thought about what that would do to the rest of the world? Imagine the upheavel that would happen here if we could cure the addicted idiots overnight.
I couldn't agree more about your assessment of the effect of American drug use on the world.
It has been devastating, and the models for it have been the celebrity culture that thinks it is in a position to moralize to the Bitter Armed Religious Folk.
“And how will politicians on both sides of the border deal with the emergence of this “perfect storm” – immigrations, birth rates and an entrepreneurial middle class – giving rise to a “Greater Mexico”?”
Well, so far, not worth a damn! Good article.
“Those Mexican intellectuals are confusing the rotten border policies of the US with a non-existent willingness to surrender territory to Mexico...”
I understand what you’re saying, but no one is asking if we are ‘willing’.....it’s the frog and the boiling pot....one city at a time. In Texas, there are towns who have proclaimed their official language, Spanish. Mayors of large cities are being elected by aliens and recent immigrants who have no interest in our ‘rule of law’. The presidential candidates.....McCain can’t go a day without appearing for some illegal alien lobby ‘non profit’.
It took Black Americans 200 years to get to 11% of our population. Mexico/Latinos have gotten to 14% in a generation. Do you know that only 17% of our colonial population was actively involved in the revolution? Doesn’t take much of a percentage to change a government.
“... all enemy, foreign or domestic...”
An oath is forever binding, and this one couldn’t be any less ambiguous.
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