Todos Somos Americanos

How are we connected to Mexico? Travel, immigration, trade & NAFTA, diplomatic relations are some of the ways we are linked. We share are a border and both belong to the continent of North America. As one attorney in Mexico City put it "We are tied at the hip."

How do policy-makers see this relationship?
This overview from the Inter-American Dialogue outlines some of the big issues in US-Mexico relations.

Their Mexico press page sums up what some of the policy experts are saying about this relationship:

If everything was going right Mexico should be growing huge amounts, but that never happened. In the worst of times, Mexico really did get knocked off its perch," Peter Hakim in Reuters on August 4, 2009.

"La novedad más notable sea con México, que ha pasado rápidamente al frente de la agenda política en Washington. Hay mucha más atención a México que antes, y el reconocimiento de que la política antidrogas también ha fracasado fue también muy bien recibido en la región," Michael Shifter in AP on April 27, 2009.

“Obama has had a quick learning curve on Mexico. He understands that this is absolutely crucial,” Michael Shifter in The Houston Chronicle on April 16, 2009.

"Mexico is facing a grave challenge and a threatening level of violence, but we're not talking Afghanistan here. Mexico is a state that has built up its governmental capacities and effectiveness in recent years, but it's also a neighbor that is now under stress and needs reinforcement," Michael Shifter in The Christian Science Monitor on March 25, 2009.

Reading Mexico

How do we think of Mexico? To answer this, let’s think about where our information on Mexico comes from. At the World Affairs Council, we consult the Woodrow Wilson Institue's Mexico Portal, the World Bank's Mexico page, and Mexico's bicentennial page among others.

Through our Mexico speaker series we have learned about Mexican experts such as Shannon O'Neil at the Council on Foreign Relations, or Edward Schumacher-Matos at Harvard.

Here are some reading lists we think you may enjoy --
Shannon O’Neil’s reading list on Mexican Politics
National Geographic’s recommended reading on Mexico
The World Affairs of Houston recommended reading list

What is on your Mexico reading list?

About this blog

The purpose of this blog is to engage Houston students in a discussion on Mexico in preparation for the VivaMexico student forum on January 27th. We will examine our perceptions of the country, Mexican identity and culture, our sources of information on Mexico, young people, the internet and more. We hope to deepen students’ understanding of the country and to encourage further exploration and study.

We invite Mexican experts, journalists, artists, teachers, Mexican Peace Corps volunteers, and most importantly, students to contribute to this blog. It is a chance to ask questions, consider points of view, and leave with new questions.