Early Mexican Experience in the U.S.

Anglo Americans viewed Mexicans as lazy and poor stewards of land, much like Anglo Americans viewed all cultures unlike their own. I hear similar forms of racism in today’s dialogue surrounding immigration, which is largely (whether explicitly or implicitly) focused on immigrants from South America.

Americans were treated fairly hospitably when they immigrated to Northern Mexico. Many of Mexico’s elite appreciated their presence. However, when numbers of Americans in Mexican territories began to vastly outnumber the Mexican presence, people sought to limit immigration of folks from the U.S. Despite that, Americans continued to immigrate illegally to Northern Mexico, a reality that seems paradoxical in light of current political realities.

As Mexican immigrants take the brunt of racist anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. and many U.S. citizens seek to limit and deport undocumented immigrants, the reality that many are residing in land that used to belong to their people, speaking a language that used to be the language of the land, and disobeying laws similar to those that were disobeyed by the population that would ultimately violently take their land, speaks to the short memory and willful ignorance of many Americans, as well as the pervasiveness of the kinds of mentalities that led Americans to discriminate and wage war against people unlike them and to continue to devalue the lifestyles and cultures of those even nominally unlike them.

This undoubtedly creates strained relationships between the U.S. and our political and cultural neighbors. Not only does our history of violence and oppression color our current interactions, it continues the narrative of white colonialism and racist governing. Many of our laws and trade agreements (NAFTA comes to mind) continue to exacerbate our relationship with other countries as we leverage our national power in ways that continue to impoverish and oppress other communities, whether by forcing western models of industry on countries who have little desire for them, invading countries to plunder resources and gain advantageous trade agreements under the guise of good will, or gerrymandering political districts and pushing minority populations within our own country into ghettos where they lack the resources and agency afforded to those in dominant circles.