The Mexico I Know (Part 1)

Feb. 25, 2025

The Mexico I Know (In two Parts)

Part 1

Mexican immigrants and Mexico have become stalking horses for Republican politicians and America First conservatives for years now. They have found a scapegoat for their version of America’s problems that are not the fault of Mexico or Mexicans or Mexican Americans. And now, President Trump has accused the Mexican government of having an alliance with the drug cartels. If you believe in those erroneous accusations about immigration, the murderers and rapists flooding the United States or Mexico stealing jobs from hard-working Americans or that all our drug problems are the result of Mexican government policies, you’ll probably stop reading right now.

But let me tell you about the Mexico I know.

I have lived in Mexico for a total of nearly 20 years of my life, in two distinct eras. The first was from 1978 to 1985; I first arrived in Mexico City as a correspondent for the Associated Press and then I opened a news bureau there for the San Jose Mercury News, part of the now defunct Knight-Ridder newspaper chain. During that stay, my wife and I, college sweethearts, married in Tepoztlan, Morelos and after eight years, we nearly opted to remain in Mexico City. For many reasons, we didn’t stay. The second sojourn began remotely in 2011 when my wife and I purchased an 18th-century colonial house in need of renovation and then transitioned to full-time residency in October 2014 after the renovation was complete. I retired from Cigar Aficionado magazine that month and embarked on a new adventure. We felt we had come home.

My wife and I had decided to leave our comfortable American life to spend more time together and for each of us to pursue dreams and life goals that had languished in that routinized suburban life tethered to demanding 9 to 5 jobs in New York City. For me, it was to write novels, a life-long goal that I was determined not to let slide until it was too late.

In both eras in Mexico, I have enjoyed a privileged vantage point. In the 80s, my role was first as a wire service reporter and then as a newspaper bureau chief charged with explaining Mexico to the world and the United States. In this second time around, which started 10 years ago, we have integrated into a deep and complex culture with mostly Mexican friends. I believe that has happened because of our previous experience here and our fluency in Spanish and the resultant deep affinity for Mexico and its culture and in part due to our socio-economic advantages. Our old perspective from 40 years ago and of the new Mexico we are living in today have melded into a deep understanding of this country.

Let’s address the elephants in the room.

Yes, there is horrific drug cartel violence in this country. The cartels have morphed over the last 50 years into a separate power inside the country and almost certainly have corrupted government officials and law enforcement both in the past and today, not just in Mexico but in the United States too. But there is not a serious drug abuse problem here. Oh, there’s consumption but let’s be clear: the cartel’s principal drug markets are north of the border or across the oceans. Cartel violence receives headlines and causes worry but it is usually limited to areas of the country that they control and usually the violence is among rival cartels or people perceived as undermining or confronting their power. Tragic? Yes. Dangerous? Absolutely. (Is it really credible to believe that a government would support a criminal enterprise that has resulted in over 100,000 disappearances?) One other key issue; the current president of Mexico cited the fact that 70 percent of the arms carried by the cartels come from America. So, is the problem solvable? Not under any current policies on either side of the border.

Secondly, corruption is still endemic here. I live in a state where it is, relatively speaking, not as extreme as some other parts of the country, such as Mexico City. For instance, I have not been stopped once in 10 years by the local municipal or state police looking for a quick bribe to overlook some imagined infraction. Not once. My Mexican business friends speak of kickbacks and payoffs as part of the price of doing business in this country, especially when the government is involved, regardless of the party in power. (Honestly, I’ve concluded that corruption is just more above board here instead of under the table as it is in the United States where everyone turns a blind eye to corruption.) Two wrongs don’t make a right but let’s be clear, corruption is not unique to Mexico.

And thirdly, there are still large, impoverished rural areas of the country. The most indigenous populations there have benefited very little from the country’s progress since the 1970s from a third-world country into something closer to a player in the first world. But Mexico today ranks as the 11th largest economy on the planet and the largest trading partner of the United States. It’s economic and social progress, while not fast enough for all, has been steady, especially since the advent of NAFTA in 1994. But the underclass remains poor and often without opportunities to advance. It is probably safe to say that the more progressive administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the current one of President Claudia Shinbaum have been a necessary accommodation to those poverty-stricken regions. The jury is still out on whether or not their policies have substantially impacted the poverty rate inside the country and whether they will avoid future unrest. The flip side of the issue is whether or not those policies and programs antagonize the middle and upper classes to the point where they abandon their own country. The jury is still out on both sides of the debate.

The truth is Mexico today has enjoyed some of the most advanced socio-economic progress in the Western World in the last 50 years. When we lived here in the late 70s, electrification of the rural areas was a project in process…today, there is not only electricity even in the smallest villages but there is cellphone coverage nationwide, better on average than what we experienced in New York. The birthrate was nearly 5 children per child-bearing age woman; today it is 1.98 per woman. (Source: U.N. World Population Trends). According to the World Bank, the number of persons living below the poverty line has dropped from over 10% of the population in 2000 to 1.2% in 2024.

Mexico is a different place today than when we lived here in the 1980s. The socioeconomic transformation is visible and in some categories quantifiable. Mexico’s middle class has become a vibrant, powerful segment of the population, up from about 10 percent of the country in the early 1980s to at least 40 percent of the population today. Homeownership is up. Car ownership is booming. In big metro areas like Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puebla, Monterrey, San Luis Potosi, Oaxaca and Queretaro, the cultural and culinary opportunities match many cities in the United States and Europe. The middle class aspires to advance and improve their lives, and the federal infrastructure — education, health care, government subsidies and even price supports for the basic commodities — is in place to help them make it happen without excessive personal burdens. That’s good for any country. However, in the real world, the kind of progress Mexico has experienced is a generational process, not an overnight phenomenon. No one would argue enough has been done. But without revolution, the economic growth and social accommodations have moved Mexico towards a more modern, equitable society. Slowly, but steadily. That augers well for the future and suggests it is in the U.S. interest to keep economic and social development moving forward. An ill-conceived, fear-mongering U.S policy could screw that up and hurt the U.S. too.

We also should understand the problem of illegal immigration. It is not just poor Mexicans trying to cross the border today. In fact, since the 2008 economic crisis in the United States, the net cross-border flow has been Mexicans repatriating to their own country. Yet people are coming from all over the world. Venezuela’s collapse from a once-wealthy country into a dysfunctional state leads the wave. Central Americans, other South Americans, Africans, Asians, especially Chinese, are all fleeing the growing oppression in their homelands; they are leaving behind dehumanizing poverty and oppression with no prospect of a humane life.

What does that suggest?

The American Dream is alive and well outside the country. People still think we are the planet’s best hope! Imagine yourself making that choice of packing up a nap sack with the belongings you think are necessary for the trip (let’s be clear, this is not a choice between one checked bag or two…it is a living example of the idea “The Things They Carried.). Then, there is a payment to some criminal organization involved in human trafficking; I can’t tell you what the price is today from Africa but from personal experience of people we happen to know, the price can be over $3000 here in Mexico with no guarantee of safe passage. Do you know what the minimum wage is in Mexico? Currently, it’s about $14 a day…so, a ticket north can take over 200 days of work, if all you do is save your money for the journey. Then, you face a long trek over dangerous desert or jammed-packed trailer tractors in blazing heat or bone-numbing cold. Even then, the rate of deportations, or ‘interventions” as the Border Patrol describes, was higher under President Obama and President Biden than Donald Trump;— we are talking millions every year turned back to Mexico or deported to their home nations. So even after saving for years, paying a criminal organization as your guide, traipsing or riding across an unforgiving landscape, you can still get caught and expelled to start from scratch all over again. If you can’t see the desperation behind the decision to head to America, you aren’t thinking clearly.

Part 2 comes tomorrow