MEXIFORNIA Victor Davis Hanson

38

MEXIFORNIA Victor Davis Hanson

39

didean exegesis: it is a proud state that was invaded twice by the
United States and defeated, losing a great amount of its own ter-
ritory—land which then thrived due to the very fact of its separation
from Mexico. Those realities are not forgotten by Mexico. Japan
might be defeated and humiliated by the United States, have its
citizens in America incarcerated, its leaders hung and jailed, and
its entire culture altered by American fiat—and then build an
economic powerhouse to compete with and rival its former con-
queror, all without constant tutorials about the evils of Okinawa.
But Mexico seeks salve for its self-inflicted wounds in the history
of a century past, rather than embrace honestly its own failures
in the present.

The Irish government perhaps once regretted, but still

accepted that its population had to leave or starve. Eastern
European states were glad to see the Jews go on their journey to
America. These governments lost control of their immigrants the
minute they arrived in the United States. Such is not the case with
Mexico, which both deliberately exports its unwanted and, once
they safely reach American soil, suddenly becomes their champion
and absent parent, as much out of resentment toward the United
States as in real concern for people whom they apparently are so
gladly free of.

At the heart of the problem with Mexico are class, race, poli-

tics and economics. Simply put, Mexican elites rely on immigration
northward as a means of avoiding domestic reform. Market capi-
talism, constitutional government, the creation of a middle-class
ethic or an independent judiciary will never fully come to Mexico
as long as its potential critics go north instead of marching for a
redress of grievances on the suited bureaucrats in Mexico City.

Supporters of financial bailouts and unrestricted immi-

gration perhaps err when they claim that such engagement is
necessary to prevent a Mexican catastrophe. Unfortunately, the
opposite is more likely to be true: there is always

catastrophe in

Mexico, and our complicity—in addition to protecting Ameri-