Before Swine Flu and a deadly drug war, the biggest story out of Mexico was its immigrants to the United States. This thoughtful book by a former Mexican foreign minister explores the people and reasoning beyond the current wave of immigration.
Ex Mex
by Jorge Castañeda
Find it in the Library at call number E184 .M5C368 2007
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From Publishers Weekly
Mexico's foreign minister from 2000 to 2003, now a political science professor at New York University, delivers a timely consideration of the complex contemporary relationship between Mexico and the United States. Going beyond the importance of undocumented workers to the American economy, Castañeda (Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara) tackles the effects of migration on Mexico, as well as root causes such as multiple, destabilizing financial crises and the exacerbating influence of the North American Free Trade Agreement. A member of President Vincente Fox's administration, Castaneda goes inside the bold reformer's attempts to improve the lot of his people, including the ups and downs of negotiations with an enthusiastic, freshly elected Bush administration. Honest about both progress and setbacks-occasionally belying official reports-Castañeda considers the larger issues ignored by the White House's more recent anti-immigration rhetoric and 2006's "hateful Secure Fence Act," which calls for 700 miles of fencing along the border. The structure may make Castañeda's argument difficult to reference (though an index helps, chapters lack titles or headed sections), but his authoritative primer contends convincingly that all the "barriers, checkpoints, and lighting" in the world will solve nothing.
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Product Description
A fascinating and revealing look at the United States' largest, most controversial group of immigrants, by Mexico's former foreign minister.
In the wake of the massive, nationwide rally in support of immigrant rights in May 2006, which drew a record number of participants, one thing has become clear: in the United States today, no domestic issue sparks as much public debate or is as politicized as immigration, with the spotlight focused on Mexican immigrants above all others.
In Ex Mex, former Mexican foreign minister and well-known scholar Jorge G. Castañeda draws on his experience in both capacities to dispel some of the most widely held and mistaken ideas about the United States' largest immigrant population. Through Castañeda, we learn who the newest generation of immigrants from Mexico is, why they've chosen to live in the United States, where they work, and what they ultimately hope to achieve. Castañeda also offers an insider's account of the intricate and secret negotiations that took place between Mexico and the United States in 2001-2—contradicting some of the official versions published here—and the unilateral actions that were taken by his government to improve the conditions of Mexican migrants when talks between the two countries became stalemated.
This timely and authoritative book will be required reading for the debates about immigration that will soon be part of the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
Looks like a good read. Wish I had time to check it out.
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