Fox’s Tunnel Vision of U.S. Mexicans

Mexico’s President-elect Vicente Fox is boldly reaching out to Mexicans in the United States. But despite his best intentions, he has a skewed vision of people of Mexican origin in the United States, and thus most of his proposals and rhetoric are ill-conceived. It will be up to Mexican American leaders to straighten Fox out, if they dare.

Both before and since his breakthrough election July 2, Fox has pledged to be president not only of the 100 million Mexicans in Mexico but also of the “18 million Mexicans in the U.S.” and to “incorporate” the latter into “Mexico’s national project.” He wants them to send billions of dollars more to their kin and hometowns in Mexico, vote in Mexican elections and be represented in Mexico’s Congress. He promises to wangle an open border between Mexico and the U.S. within five to 10 years.

Many people of Mexican origin in the U.S., long ignored by Mexican society and government, welcome Fox’s rhetoric and even see radical change in it. But, in reality, Fox is amplifying the existing Mexican policy of acercamiento, or approach: closer ties with Mexican Americans and immigrant Mexicans. Fox’s innovation is that he is, true to form, pumping up the volume and adding more than a little of his trademark irrational exuberance.

The latest version of Mexico’s policy toward “Mexican communities abroad” began two administrations ago, when Carlos Salinas de Gortari was president. Initially, it was a response to opposition political activism north of the border. Later, it was a way to build support for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The policy vastly improved and expanded consular services, cracked down on official abuse of Mexicans returning home for the holidays, stepped up defense of immigrant rights in the U.S. and instituted a range of cultural, educational and health programs on both sides of the border.

President Ernesto Zedillo moved the policy along another step, at least rhetorically, when he proclaimed a doctrine of “la nacion mexicana” that transcends the border and even incorporated it into Mexico’s national development plan.

By the time Fox became governor of Guanajuato in 1995, the Mexican government had a well-developed strategy for encouraging ties between Mexican states and their emigre “colonies” in the U.S., including regular visits by Mexican governors and a network of hometown associations. Gov. Fox aggressively expanded his tiny state office of emigrant affairs and created a network of Casas Guanajuato to service his state’s colonies across the U.S.

His efforts paid off. According to one study, Guanajuato, the third-biggest sender of emigrants to the U.S., rose to the top among Mexican states as a receiver of emigre remittances, which are variously estimated to total from $6 billion to $8 billion annually for all Mexico.

From the start, the acercamiento policy was supposed to develop initiatives aimed at both Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, who constitute the majority of people of Mexican origin in the United States. But since the federal Program for Mexican Communities Abroad was run out of an expanded network of consulates, whose major work is directed toward immigrants, Mexican policy increasingly focused on the poorest of its emigres.

Mexico certainly needed to improve and expand its services to the burgeoning Mexican immigrant population of the late 1980s and early ‘90s. The U.S. has had virtually no immigrant-absorption policy to speak of since the early 20th century. (The 1986 amnesty was simply a change in legal status for immigrants.) But battles over U.S. immigration policy and politics have increasingly led Mexican leaders to think of Mexican-origin people in the United States as mainly undocumented migratory workers, augmented by more successful others, but all of whom are in the U.S. to work to support families remaining in Mexico.

Fox is both a product and a promoter of this sort of Mexican tunnel vision. One consequence is that he sounds blissfully unaware that the better part of the 18 million Mexicans in the U.S. he would govern are, in fact, U.S. citizens, the vast majority of whom were born in the U.S and are thus more American than Mexican. Meanwhile, his rhetoric belies a woeful indifference to the real needs of his emigre compatriots.

If Fox were attuned to what Mexican immigrants are fighting for in America, he might support amnesty for the undocumented, rather than pursuing a pie-in-the-sky dream of an open border between Mexico and the United States. If he knew of the proportion of Mexican immigrants classified as working poor--and, in particular, the deplorable numbers of Mexican immigrant children living in poverty and working in the fields--he might see his desire for a larger flow of remittances differently.

Perhaps if Fox knew that the school-dropout rate among Mexican immigrants approaches 50%, he might take a more sober view of an ethos that too often values unskilled work and short-term earnings over putting down roots and building a life in America. If the president-elect understood that Mexican children are jamming into classrooms across the U.S., he might realize that it would be more helpful for their parents to become American citizens and voters rather than retain their franchise for Mexican elections.

Fox has earned unprecedented legitimacy and authority as a result of his brilliant electoral victory. He has slain the “Institutional Revolution” and triumphed over traditional Mexican nationalist political correctness--and he shows it by freely speaking English to the U.S. media. If he so chose, he could encourage Mexican immigrants to do everything they can to learn English, as he did for his own benefit, and press the United States to adequately fund the language classes they need.

Fox has accepted an invitation from California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to return to the state before his inauguration in December. This constitutes an opportunity for Fox and his team to learn about the Latino political project. He urgently needs to hear Bustamante’s signature message that “the Latino agenda is an American agenda.” When the 6-foot-5 conquering hero makes his triumphant return, will Latino leaders have the fortitude to convey that message?