He wrote of history (America's Conquest that we called "Manifest Destiny" was so different from Mexico's strange domination by a small band of Spanish conquistadores). They came as gods and found a civilization that thought they were. They enslaved and burned books and knowledge and tried to destroy all the old religions. Instead they made one of the most successful societies of mixed ancestry in the western hemisphere (and perhaps the eastern).
Riding also writes of politics from the viewpoint of a knowledgeable foreign correspondent. He presents a complex story of interlocking parties and battles in a way that the myriad political parties can be almost understood. He presents a picture of the way the political society works that is now being changed but is ingrained in the culture.
Best, I think, is that he tries to explain the culture of a complex society in a way that an American can grasp. That is not an easy chore.
Today, more than ever, America must understand the forces of nationhood, pride, honor and desires of the nations of a shrinking world and especially those of our two closest neighbors.
I leave Canada to American expatriates there and Canadians to explain. I once listened to the CBC on shortwave about a battle memorial where a great defense was made against the invaders. It took quite a time before I realized that the invaders were us.
Article comments
1 - Victor Lana
Good points made here about the "other" country that shares the continent with Canada and the US. It sometimes seems that Americans (and aren't all three countries part of North America and thus all their citizens Americans?) are divided by borders, and it would do us all well to make some sort of effort to understand and relate.
I don't think the problem is so much to the south of the border as it is right here. Instead of trying to seal up everything from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, we should be promoting a new relationship, sort of like what the EU has done.
I know people are worried about terrorism and all, but there is more to it than that. Good fences don't make good neighbors; they only make people alienated.
2 - Phillip Winn
The EU is trying to keep Turkey out for many of the same reasons people here would want to keep Mexico out of any EU-like arrangement here in North America. It would not be perceived as a union of equals, or even close-to-equals.
I grew up in SoCal, and so have a different view of Mexico that I suppose northerners do.
I'm very interested in reading this book now.
3 - alpha
It is amazing how easy it is to agree with both of you.
Victor Lana writes of alienation. We are certainly in the midst of that. It is also true that we are educated to understand Anglo-American culture, law and history. The history and culture of our other neighbor south of the border is totally ignored.
I am afraid to admit that there is not only America as the world power in that equation; but more of the ignorance of any culture that has been made by "people of color". We are awfully good at that in the US.
Phillip Winn writes that he is a from "SoCal" and therefore feels differently.
He is concerned with a tripartite continent where one country is not equal to the others and, like Turkey and the EU; not ready to hold up its end of the stick.
True. Mexico did not progress as the two other countries did for a number of reasons that Alan Riding writes of far better than I could. I live here and am bound by laws for resident foreigners.
My review was a suggestion to read a passionate but multi-faceted view of the dichotomies of a society so different in history, temperament, culture, and feelings than ours.