Immigration, Mexican history
 

During the late 1930's then Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas had this to say about immigration to Mexico:

Obey our immigration laws.

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To ramble somewhat, because it is so churning in my head...

Cardenas was a very humane person - incredibly so for having taken part in the Mexican Revolution, and while Mexico has been described as a democracy, Cardenas WAS the government as was any president from mid 19th century President Benito Juarez until President Ernesto Zedillo left office in November of 2000. The notable exception was Francisco Madero, who declined power with the democratic purpose of legally bound consensus, who misjudged character and failed to clean out the snakes left over from the Porfiriato. He was assassinated by General Huerta's henchmen, which touched off the greater horrors of the Revolution. If power is rejected, then power will destroy the man who rejects it.

The presidential legacy to Cardenas was post 1810 liberation turmoil caused largely by Santa Anna (a political chameleon who even schemed against his own administrations) and general creole ineptitude for 30 years, and the separation of Texas as well as the further loss of the northern half of its territorial claim (overwhelmingly populated with nomadic Indian tribes largely hostile to Spanish and Mexican intrusion - land mostly not possessed by Hispanic occupation); civil wars, rebellions, and foreign invasion during the Juarez years; the Porfiriato from 1876 to 1910 in which Porfirio Diaz sold his nation to foreigners whilst the poverty stricken masses sunk lower into starvation and serfdom; something like thirty years of senseless killing including the firing squad, mass murder of civilians and prisoners, treachery, and assassinations during and following the official 1910 Mexican revolution. There had been comparative calm from Cardenas's time until madman Echavarria perpetrated the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre of students and the 1971 Corpus Cristi massacre in Mexico City. Those public killings were a part of the "Dirty War" on political dissent.

I am struck with the feeling that Huizilopochtli, the blood thirsty Aztec war god, was not vanquished with the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica, that he still demands that blood be spattered and spilled the length and breadth of Mexico.

Octavio Paz said that the reason that Mexico has so many fiestas is because it is such a sorrowful country. I am inclined to agree.

Even with Manifest Destiny, the divisive institution of slavery and historical notions of race in America, I believe that US history pales concerning injustice when placed side by side with Mexico.

And the thing that troubles me so is the probability that the only way to cure the current cartel killing spree in Mexico is to hunt down and execute on sight every last drug trafficking bad apple in Mexico because Mexican history has shown that arrests, trials, and incarceration will not work on such a large scale Mexican disturbance - the kid glove, nice guy approach simply won't work. The modern world will cringe at that thought, but Mexico is not a modern nation concerning how power is wielded and stability is achieved in Mexico. Just as blood spattered Huizilopochtli is still hanging around, Mexico still needs the Aztec autocratic leader Tlatoani to be firmly in control. The kids seeking true democracy in Tlatelolco were a sacrifice to the reality of how the Mexican past is also the present.

Mexican history is so cyclical.

And why should Americans care about any of this? Because at the very least an unstable Mexico means internal problems within America.