Enrique Krauze
MEXICO: AN OUTPOST OF THE WEST
Only active volcanoes are newsworthy. During the Revo–
lution (1910-1917) and in the twenties, Mexico attracted the atten–
tion of a wide spectrum of American society: Wall Street bankers,
Hollywood filmmakers, journalists of romantic inclinations. Drawn
first by the violence, and later by revolutionary promises, a number
of artists and intellectuals who had become disillusioned with the
American dream traveled south to play their part in the construction
of a new society. Their visionary fervor was short-lived, replaced by
folklore. For the next fifty years Mexico produced more postcards
than news. In the midseventies, the oil crisis brought Mexico into
the spotlight again. In 1982, Mexico's ballooning debt crisis carried
other ominous signs in its wake: increasing illegal emigration, prox–
imity to the Central American conflict, the risk of political instability.
Suddenly, there was a simmering volcano in America's backyard.
The publication of
Distant Neighbors
1
therefore has been timely.
Alan Riding (correspondent of
The New York Times
in Mexico for a
number of years) points out that the need to understand Mexico has
become "a matter of self-interest and even of national security" for the
United States. With the aim of making one culture more intelligible
to another, of "[making] Mexico more accessible to non-Mexicans,"
Riding offers "a journey through the history of the country, through
the minds of its people and through the diverse sectors of
society~:
a
journey which goes "beyond the surface crisis to the inner subtleties
of an ancient, complex and unpredictable nation." No easy task, as
Riding admits: "Mexico does not surrender its secrets willingly."
Distant Neighbors,
unfortunately, confirms this.
Portrayal is one thing, understanding another. In reality, Rid–
ing's studies of and contact with Mexican culture, history and society
were of limited scope: what he legitimately portrayed with great in–
sight was Mexico's political elite, which comprised his principal source
of information. The heart of
Distant Neighbors
lies really in the tradi-
1.
Distant Neighbors: A Portrait ofthe Mexicans
by Alan Riding. Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
