President Claudia Sheinbaum says Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own, after President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican goods.
It’s hard to have hope that she really wants to dismantle these structures of oppression. I can understand she expresses Mexico’s need for a nationalism away from the dying US state, and I can even believe she wants a Mexico free of US imperialism, but even if settlers will always be a part of the area’s history the solution is going to be in a reassertion of native sovereignty and active decolonization thus eliminating settlers through the removal of their exploitative relationship with the land and its people. The reform she does is in the interest of maintaining the Mexican state which I believe is adverse to these goals and the “mistakes” of police violence are not mere accidents but in the intended design.
I do agree with your assessment that it’s a show that US imperialism is fading and that without it Mexico will be more able to progress beyond its settler colonial past and present. But Sheinbaum’s collaboration with the US isn’t one of using the time to build an alternative non-exploitative economic base (socialism) and building up material strength of the oppressed nationalities within Mexico as China does, but rather one of kinship, shared history and goals towards oppressing the natives as to maintain the settler state.
I do agree with your assessment that it’s a show that US imperialism is fading and that without it Mexico will be more able to progress beyond its settler colonial past and present. But Sheinbaum’s collaboration with the US isn’t one of using the time to build an alternative non-exploitative economic base (socialism) and building up material strength of the oppressed nationalities within Mexico as China does, but rather one of kinship, shared history and goals towards oppressing the natives as to maintain the settler state.
we agree on this part. in the same way that i don’t expect a republican to understand the of civil rights movements within the united states; i don’t expect a mexican who has lived their entire life in the federal district to have an understanding of mexico outside of mexico city’s borders. views like hers have a stronghold in mexico city; but in hermosillo and chiapas alike those views are controversial at best.
i meant it when i said that she was a step in the right direction; but not the ultimate answer. the federalist mexicans are the biggest and most well financed cohesive group that can buck american imperialism right now in mexico and that strength can open the doorway to change; but there’s no guarantee of what the change can look like. she’s a stepping stone and she, like amlo, know that.
… even if settlers will always be a part of the area’s history the solution is going to be in a reassertion of native sovereignty and active decolonization thus eliminating settlers through the removal of their exploitative relationship with the land and its people…
that is one way that mexico can change and; if mexico’s ruling classes behave the same way americans’ classes currently are; this is the most likely path forward if you’re on the outside looking in; but i think mexico is just as likely to setup a spanish style democracy with self-governing regions; but more devolved than spain’s.
the people in those examples i shared earlier (of the larger indigenous groups rebelling against mexican control) identify as mexicans now like it’s another one of their identities. that plus the rancheria based cultural revolution from the late 20th century helps to solidify that identity; they want to be mexican just as much as anyone from mexico city wants to be mexican. i think that this mutual desire to be mexican will help ensure that mexico survives in the future in a recognizable form and i think it’ll be in a form that more realistically & practically harmonizes its indigenous roots and it’s recent colonial past. (or at least more so that the popular “fakeness” that they do now).
I’m coming in from the sidelines here, but do you have any resources you’d recommend to better understand Mexican soceity and political struggles? As a US Californian Marxists I want to have a more well rounded understanding of the conditions just south of us and improve my own analysis.
i get my information from enduring relationships that i’ve cultivated over the decades due to our matching existence at the intersection of our identities (eg lbgt, indigenous, neuro-divergent, immigrant, leftists, etc.)
in your shoes; i would either watch more telemundo or univision with the assumption that it’s as much propaganda as it is news too and reach out to your mexican-american friends that are well connected enough to mexico to have a opinion on current events. if those opinions are the same as the ones on telemundo, then ask someone else; luckily, you’re in california so there are plenty and they’re also americans so they can understand your perspective since it’s closer their own than a mexican’s.
literary works translated into english can help too; but ime it’s usually about a decade behind the times and it’s always from a mexican federalist pov; so you’ll only get the feeling of the political zeitgeist in mexico city from ten years ago if you go with literary translations and it’ll be up to you to fill in the missing context and up to date information.
It’s hard to have hope that she really wants to dismantle these structures of oppression. I can understand she expresses Mexico’s need for a nationalism away from the dying US state, and I can even believe she wants a Mexico free of US imperialism, but even if settlers will always be a part of the area’s history the solution is going to be in a reassertion of native sovereignty and active decolonization thus eliminating settlers through the removal of their exploitative relationship with the land and its people. The reform she does is in the interest of maintaining the Mexican state which I believe is adverse to these goals and the “mistakes” of police violence are not mere accidents but in the intended design.
I do agree with your assessment that it’s a show that US imperialism is fading and that without it Mexico will be more able to progress beyond its settler colonial past and present. But Sheinbaum’s collaboration with the US isn’t one of using the time to build an alternative non-exploitative economic base (socialism) and building up material strength of the oppressed nationalities within Mexico as China does, but rather one of kinship, shared history and goals towards oppressing the natives as to maintain the settler state.
we agree on this part. in the same way that i don’t expect a republican to understand the of civil rights movements within the united states; i don’t expect a mexican who has lived their entire life in the federal district to have an understanding of mexico outside of mexico city’s borders. views like hers have a stronghold in mexico city; but in hermosillo and chiapas alike those views are controversial at best.
i meant it when i said that she was a step in the right direction; but not the ultimate answer. the federalist mexicans are the biggest and most well financed cohesive group that can buck american imperialism right now in mexico and that strength can open the doorway to change; but there’s no guarantee of what the change can look like. she’s a stepping stone and she, like amlo, know that.
that is one way that mexico can change and; if mexico’s ruling classes behave the same way americans’ classes currently are; this is the most likely path forward if you’re on the outside looking in; but i think mexico is just as likely to setup a spanish style democracy with self-governing regions; but more devolved than spain’s.
the people in those examples i shared earlier (of the larger indigenous groups rebelling against mexican control) identify as mexicans now like it’s another one of their identities. that plus the rancheria based cultural revolution from the late 20th century helps to solidify that identity; they want to be mexican just as much as anyone from mexico city wants to be mexican. i think that this mutual desire to be mexican will help ensure that mexico survives in the future in a recognizable form and i think it’ll be in a form that more realistically & practically harmonizes its indigenous roots and it’s recent colonial past. (or at least more so that the popular “fakeness” that they do now).
I’m coming in from the sidelines here, but do you have any resources you’d recommend to better understand Mexican soceity and political struggles? As a US Californian Marxists I want to have a more well rounded understanding of the conditions just south of us and improve my own analysis.
Apologies if this is out of left field.
i get my information from enduring relationships that i’ve cultivated over the decades due to our matching existence at the intersection of our identities (eg lbgt, indigenous, neuro-divergent, immigrant, leftists, etc.)
in your shoes; i would either watch more telemundo or univision with the assumption that it’s as much propaganda as it is news too and reach out to your mexican-american friends that are well connected enough to mexico to have a opinion on current events. if those opinions are the same as the ones on telemundo, then ask someone else; luckily, you’re in california so there are plenty and they’re also americans so they can understand your perspective since it’s closer their own than a mexican’s.
literary works translated into english can help too; but ime it’s usually about a decade behind the times and it’s always from a mexican federalist pov; so you’ll only get the feeling of the political zeitgeist in mexico city from ten years ago if you go with literary translations and it’ll be up to you to fill in the missing context and up to date information.
Thank you very much