There may be no story today with a wider gap between fact and fiction than the relationship between the United States and Mexico. Wall or no wall, deeply intertwined social, economic, business, cultural, and personal relationships mean the US-Mexico border is more like a seam than a barrier, weaving together two economies and cultures. Mexico faces huge crime and corruption problems, but its … corruption problems, but its remarkable transformation over the past two decades has made it a more educated, prosperous, and innovative nation than most Americans realize. Through portraits of business leaders, migrants, chefs, movie directors, police officers, and media and sports executives, Andrew Selee looks at this emerging Mexico, showing how it increasingly influences our daily lives in the United States in surprising ways — the jobs we do, the goods we consume, and even the new technology and entertainment we enjoy.
From the Mexican entrepreneur in Missouri who saved the US nail industry, to the city leaders who were visionary enough to build a bridge over the border fence so the people of San Diego and Tijuana could share a single international airport, to the connections between innovators in Mexico’s emerging tech hub in Guadalajara and those in Silicon Valley, Mexicans and Americans together have been creating productive connections that now blur the boundaries that once separated us from each other.ho were visionary enough to build a bridge over the border fence so the people of San Diego and Tijuana could share a single international airport, to the connections between innovators in Mexico’s emerging tech hub in Guadalajara and those in Silicon Valley, Mexicans and Americans together have been creating productive connections that now blur the boundaries that once separated us from each other.ho were visionary enough to build a bridge over the border fence so the people of San Diego and Tijuana could share a single international airport, to the connections between innovators in Mexico’s emerging tech hub in Guadalajara and those in Silicon Valley, Mexicans and Americans together have been creating productive connections that now blur the boundaries that once separated us from each other.ho were visionary enough to build a bridge over the border fence so the people of San Diego and Tijuana could share a single international airport, to the connections between innovators in Mexico’s emerging tech hub in Guadalajara and those in Silicon Valley, Mexicans and Americans together have been creating productive connections that now blur the boundaries that once separated us from each other.
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There have always been two traditional ways of viewing Mexico in the modern era: Harry S. Truman’s “good neighbors,” and John Foster Dulles’s caution that the US did not have friends or neighbors, only “interests.” What seemed clear until the most recent presidential campaign was that the relationship was a symbiotic one, and that the two countries cooperated in ways that made the hemisphere more secure, more profitable for its inhabitants, and culturally more deeply connected through a wealth of music, art, cuisine, and literature. Since the campaign and the inauguration of the new administration in Washington, however, anti-Mexican rhetoric has risen sharply, and the complexity of our relationship has been largely obscured. Even the more responsible news outlets have been complicit except for the occasional op-ed piece by Enrique Krause in the New York Times or Andrew Selee in the Wall Street Journal.
So, this full-length study of the US-Mexico relationship by the latter is particularly welcomed. It is a clear, balanced, straightforward account of the mutual dependencies of our two nations, and a counterweight to the hyperbole and rhetoric which has captured the headlines over the past few years. Selee, who is well-known for his work on migration policy and as a scholar with the Wilson Center, has received praise from both parties for his evenhanded analyses. In this fascinating new work, he shows us that Mexico and the US are defined not by any border fences or future walls but rather by the bridges that have been painstakingly built over the years by business leaders, technicians, teachers, artists, investors, and ordinary working folks who have helped blend the two societies in ways that have deepened our cultures, enriched our lives, and created new opportunities for prosperity on both sides of the border. For the past twenty-eight years as a teacher at the American School Foundation in Guadalajara, I have been blessed by students, both US and Mexican, who have completed careers in medicine, journalism, law, international relations, and the arts, and have enriched the lives of those in the communities they serve on both sides of the border and throughout the world. So Seeley’s words and descriptions resonated for me with the clarity of experience and daily observation.
While the old rhetoric persists that Mexicans are taking US jobs, Selee points out that Mexican companies now provide many jobs for Americans on US soil. The Mexican baking company known as Bimbo produces Entenmanns, Sara Lee, and Thomas´s English muffins. Another Mexican company produces Wise potato chips which is the official snack of the Boston Red Sox. These firms and others like them provide jobs for thousands of American workers and are completely integrated into the life of the US economy.
The US and Mexico share an interdependence for energy. The US is a major importer of Mexican oil, while Mexico is a major importer of US natural gas which it uses to generate electricity. As far as border protection is concerned, the US would be overrun with Central American immigrants (many fleeing violence for which past US policies are partly responsible) were it not for Mexican interdiction efforts on the southern border with Guatemala. The Mexican government has provided sanctuary to thousands of them, and deported hundreds of others who had questionable backgrounds.
“Vanishing Frontiers” should be required reading for all policy makers and policy shapers from US senators to newspapers editors and journalists. It should be a mandated text in classes on international relations, border studies, and US-Mexico history. But one would also hope that this important book finds a larger audience: all of us who live and work in the US and Mexico that we all might have a clearer, more realistic view of how our self-interests and that of our neighbors are inextricably intertwined. –Michael Hogan, PhD. Author of Abraham Lincoln and Mexico.