mexico

"Despite internal conflicts, the church grew because it offered something many Mexicans sought. They had welcomed the Mexican Revolution and were critical of the Catholic Church’s involvement with the old, reactionary order. However, they were not atheists and did not support the secularist or Marxist ideas of some revolutionary leaders. They were wary of Protestant churches from abroad, especially the United States. La Luz del Mundo was critical of Catholicism, deeply spiritual, and proudly Mexican."

"The idea, repeated today, that Aarón was guilty of immorality but protected because of his connection with , is absurd. It is doubtful that Calles even knew of La Luz del Mundo during his time in office. Later, some local politicians in Guadalajara did speak favorably of the early church—not to win votes, but because they saw its impact. Members in their Hermosa Provincia settlement avoided alcohol, promoted education, and lifted themselves out of poverty. They were, in short, model citizens. Yet the rumors persisted. As the church grew, so did its internal tensions."

"Will make good soldiers, very devoted to the government of Emperor Maximilian."

"The enterprise that Archduke Maximilian will attempt remains what it was on the first day, an adventure where, besides a lot of energy, tact and resources, we must add a lot of happiness to succeed."

"Will you believe that I am not convinced that all the Mexican debt holders will be paid, that the Archduke will obtain from the Holy Father a concordat which satisfies the faith of the bishops and the population, that the silver mines will pay floods of this precious metal in the coffers of the emperor, that the Mexicans will become good and placid bourgeois like the Tyroleans of Brixen or Botrena."

"but we must still expect long local resistance on distant points, struggles with bodies of supporters much more numerous and dangerous than the insurrectionary bands whose clerical and legitimist newspapers have made so much noise on the occasion of the difficult establishment of the new Italian monarchy in the kingdom of Naples."

"It remains to be seen how far Mexico spontaneously and voluntarily rallied to the new empire and whether the republic of Juarez was not, despite all its vices, the true national government, the one that had, at the time of its establishment, the sympathies of the majority of the population."

"Congress declares that it cannot recognize the founding of a monarchy on the ruins of a Mexican republic with the help of a European power."

"The day when the conflict of the two belligerent Americans is ended by the defeat of one or the other, or by the reconciliation of both, that day French troops will be needed more than ever to defend the new empire. of an aggressive interpretation of the doctrine of Monroë."

"Certainly, in such conditions there is enough to seduce those of our young officers whom Belgian neutrality condemns to a rest of which they are somewhat impatient. The honor of carrying with dignity abroad the name of the fatherland and that of defending the august daughter of a beloved sovereign will soon, we have no doubt, fill the ranks of the Belgian-Mexican legion."

"In a very short time, the monarchy will be so firmly established in Mexico, that one will only be surprised not to have tried it sooner."

"It is understandable that a colonial establishment organized under such conditions cannot fail to prosper. We are also convinced that the example of the Empress' s guards will be followed by a large number of our compatriots who, trusting with reason in the new situation in Mexico, will take advantage of all this set of circumstances so exceptionally advantageous, to to go bring the contribution of their arms and their intelligence to the beautiful work of civilization undertaken by the emperor Maximilian and the empress Charlotte, his august companion."

"This is no proof that our Belgian people are not as foolish as some think, and that there are few in Belgium who voluntarily play soldier."

"Between the imperial government and the clergy, which is the highest expression of the conservative party in Mexico, there is only one possible occasion for conflict: it is the question of ecclesiastical property."

"The most enthusiastic members of the Liberal Party are seduced, but the clergy and their party have for some time shown a kind of mistrust, which is explained moreover, for the moment is approaching when the question of the property of the clergy will have to be resolved, and the 'we are anxiously awaiting the decision that must be made to settle this big affair."

"It is not likely that such an important and energetic step could be taken without great results for his rule and his popularity. At the moment we are hardly in a position to judge the success and extent of it, but it certainly contains within itself the means to regenerate Mexico. The first problem that the new emperor will now have to solve will be that of satisfying the Liberal Party without alienating the affection of the Church."

"This is how the Mexican Empire will perish, a creation based on the assumption of a southern triumph and which today finds itself singularly compromised by the opposite result. Even with a president less democratic than Mr. Johnson, the United States would never have tolerated the establishment at its gates of an absolute monarchy under the rule of a foreign dynasty. The misfortunes of the civil war did not allow them to oppose it when the facts were unfolding. Perhaps in order to avoid a war with France they will not attack the new order of things directly, but certainly they would do nothing to support it, and the disbandment of their armies will provide them with all the desirable means to overthrow it indirectly."

"The latest news from Mexico presents an encouraging picture of the consolidation of the Mexican Empire. The Emperor and Empress are tireless in their charitable work, and they are supported by the elite of the people."

"Whatever opinion one forms of the enterprise to which Archduke Maximilian has just devoted his life, it is not possible for us Belgians to forget that the princess who shares the destinies of the new emperor is also the beloved daughter of our king, that she grew up among us, that our homeland is her own, and that she has the right to count on the sympathies and the wishes of her compatriots ."

"If the Mexicans second the lofty views of their new ruler, soon Mexico will have recovered its former splendor and soon also order will resume its empire where anarchy and evil passions have exercised their disastrous influence."

"Mexico has always defended the right of its people to freely forge their destiny. It searches incessantly for new social and economic formulas within the frame of its Constitution. We hold that true development derives the impulse toward production from an equitable distribution of wealth and the satisfaction of social demands. We believe that growth without justice ends in the annulment of democracy and that freedom is only possible through equitable progress. We cannot divide the personality of man and think that we can solve his material problems without solving the problems that make up his whole composition. The instruments that man has created within the economic industrial field and his whole contemporary civilization in general in which he lives must be placed in the service of the whole man. That is why dictators attempt to divide man, to try to standardize him, and to try by compulsion to divide his very personality."

"Hitmen working for murderous drug gangs are turning Mexico, a top U.S. oil supplier and trade partner and a prominent emerging market economy that has scored points for political stability, into a conflict zone that is alarming Washington, tourists and foreign investors."

"Mexico has scored dozens of drug-war “wins” over the past several years, with cartel kingpins apprehended anywhere from secret tunnels to bustling restaurants, and paraded in front of news cameras as a sign of progress."

"México no se explica: se cree en México, con furia, con pasión, con desaliento."

"No hay ni un sólo héroe que haya triunfado en México. Para ser héroes, han tenido que perecer: Cuauthémoc, Hidalgo, Madero, Zapata."

"The facade of the Conquest, severe yet jocund, with one foot in the dead Old World and the other in the New."

"[The Mexican revolution] was a break with the past to recover the past. We were trying to deny we had an Indian and a black and a Spanish past. The Mexican Revolution accepted all heritages. It allowed Mexico to be mestizo."

"Mexico's most lucrative natural resource are the people who leave home. Remittances help drive Mexico's economy, from paying for new home construction to schools, especially in low-income areas."

"The Mexicans are a good people. They live on little and work hard. They suffer from the influence of the Church, which, while I was in Mexico at least, was as bad as could be. The Mexicans were good soldiers, but badly commanded. The country is rich, and if the people could be assured a good government, they would prosper. See what we have made of Texas and California — empires. There are the same materials for new empires in Mexico. I have always had a deep interest in Mexico and her people, and have always wished them well. I suppose the fact that I served there as a young man, and the impressions the country made upon my young mind, have a good deal to do with this."

"When I was in London, talking with Lord Beaconsfield, he spoke of Mexico. He said he wished to heaven we had taken the country, that England would not like anything better than to see the United States annex it. I suppose that will be the future of the country. Now that slavery is out of the way there could be no better future for Mexico than absorption in the United States. But it would have to come, as San Domingo tried to come, by the free will of the people. I would not fire a gun to annex territory. I consider it too great a privilege to belong to the United States for us to go around gunning for new territories. Then the question of annexation means the question of suffrage, and that becomes more and more serious every day with us. That is one of the grave problems of our future."

"I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day, regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory."

"The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. We got our punishment in the most sanguinary and expensive war of modern times."

"After Mexico I shall always associate balconies and politicians — plump men with blue chins wearing soft hats and guns on their hips. They look down from the official balcony in every city all day long with nothing to do but stare with the expression of men keeping an eye on a good thing."

"No hope anywhere: I have never been in a country where you are more aware all the time of hate. Friendship there is skin deep — a protective gesture. That motion of greeting you see everywhere upon the street, the hands outstretched to press the other's arms, the semi-embrace — what is it but the motion of pinioning to keep the other man from his gun? There has always been hate, I suppose, in Mexico, but now it is the official teaching: it has superseded love in the school curriculum. Cynicism, a distrust of men's motive, is the accepted ideology."

"Violence came nearer — Mexico is a state of mind."

"The biggest mass beheading in recent history caused widespread revulsion in Mexico but little surprise. Decapitations have become as commonplace in the increasingly vicious narco turf battles as stabbings are in London."

"The Spanyards have notice of seven cities which old men of the Indians shew them should lie towards the Northwest from Mexico They have used and use dayly much diligence in seeking of them, but they cannot find any one of them. They say that the witchcraft of the Indians is such, that when they come by these townes they cast a mist upon them, so that they cannot see them."

"I'm going way down south; Way down to Mexico way. Alright, I'm going way down south. Way down, where I can be free."

"Deaths remain at very, very high levels in Mexico. They haven't really dropped. The only thing that has changed is that the press doesn't talk so much about the numbers. But the cartel violence is still there."

"Once a realm of Indian glory, Famed in Aztec song and story, Fabled by Tradition hoary As an earthly Paradise; Now a land of love romances, Serenades, bolero dances, Looks of scorn, adoring glances, Under burning tropic skies."

"In their desire to escape from the horrors of industrial reality, — to escape from, and at the same time to find a remedy for, them some American thinkers have run forward into the revolutionary future; others back into the pre-industrial past. But in Mexico the pre-industrial past still exists, is contemporary with the industrial depression across the border. ... Since the depression, books on Mexico have been almost as numerous, I should guess, as books on Russia. The Marxes flee Northwards, the Morrises towards the South. ... Morris gave his contemporaries News from Nowhere; his successors give us news from Mexico."

"It is a land of violence. Thunder and avalanches in the mountains, huge floods and storms on the plains. Volcanoes exploding. The earth shaking and splitting. The woods full of savage beasts and poisonous insects and deadly snakes. Knives are whipped out at a word. Whole families are murdered without any reason. Riots are sudden and bloody and often meaningless. Cars and trucks are driven into each other or over cliffs with an indifference which is half suicidal. Such an energy in destruction. Such an apathy when something has to be mended or built. So much honour in despair. So much weary fatalism toward poverty and disease. The shrug of the shoulders and the faint smile of cynicism. No good. Too late. It's gone. Finished. Broken. They're all dead. Ignore it. Use the other door. Sleep in another room. Throw it in the gutter. Tie the ends together with string. Put up a memorial cross. What is cooking in there, with such ominous sounds, nobody now alive will ever know. A new race and a new culture, certainly. Perhaps an entirely different kind of language. But whatever it may be, it is cooking. And it will go on doing so, mysteriously, noisily, furiously, through all the bad times that are coming."

"The government of the republic will fulfill its duty to defend its independence, to repel foreign aggression, and accept the struggle to which it has been provoked, counting on the unanimous spirit of the Mexicans and on the fact that sooner or later the cause of rights and justice will triumph."

"Mexicans: let us now pledge all our efforts to obtain and consolidate the benefits of peace. Under its auspices, the protection of the laws and of the authorities will be sufficient for all the inhabitants of the Republic. May the people and the government respect the rights of all. Between individuals, as between nations, peace means respect for the rights of others."

"In 1910 Mexico had been a labyrinth of political chaos and social injustice. Centuries of inept colonial rule followed by corrupt dictatorships and foreign occupations then culminated in thirty years of one-man rule. After years of chaos, the dictator Porfirio Díaz offered stability. But in 1910 he was eighty years old and had arranged for no successor or any institutions to outlast him. There were no political parties, and he represented no ideology. Mexico was divided by different cultures, ethnic groups, and social classes, all with dramatically different needs and demands. When the country erupted into what was called the Mexican revolution that year, it was an endless series of highly destructive civil wars, most of them fought on a regional basis. There were many leaders and many armies. But this was the Mexico Hernan Cortes had found in the early sixteenth century. The Aztecs had ruled by managing a coalition of leaders from different groups. Cortes had defeated the Aztecs by dividing this coalition, gaining the loyalty of some of the leaders. That was how politics was played in Mexico."

"Some can be bought off, and some have to be shot. That became the Mexican way. "No general can withstand a cannonade of a hundred thousand pesos," Obregon once said. By 1924 a fourth of the national budget went to paying off generals. But many other "generals," local chieftains with their bands of armed followers, were shot. Starting with the 1917 constitution, a system of government was established who primary goal was not democracy but stability. In 1928 Mexico almost slid back into revolution. Obregon ran for president without an opponent and was elected. He might have been on his way to dictatorship were it not for the artist who, while sketching him as president, took out a pistol and shot him to death. The assassin was immediately killed. It seemed the changing of presidents was forever threatening the national stability. The Mexican solution was the PNR—the National Revolutionary Party—formed in 1929. Through this institution, a qualified president could be chosen and presented to the public. For six years the president would have almost absolute power. There were only three things he could not do—give territory to a foreign power, confiscate land from indigenous people, and succeed himself as president. During World War II, in an attempt to appear more stable and democratic, the PNR changed its name to that uniquely Mexican paradox, the Institutional Revolutionary Party. This is what Mexico had become, not a democracy but an institutional revolution—the Revolution that feared revolution. The PRI bought out or killed agrarian leaders, all the while paying verbal homage to Zapata and carrying out as little land reform as possible. It bought out the labor unions until they became part of the PRI. It bought out the press, one newspaper at a time, until it completely controlled them. The PRI was not violent. It tried to co-opt. Only in those rare situations where that did not work would it resort to killing."

"Yes, U.S.A., you do put a strain upon the nerves. Mexico puts a strain on the temper. Choose which you prefer. Mine's the latter. I'd rather be in a temper than pulled taut. ...The old people had a marvellous feeling for snakes and fangs down here in Mexico. And after all, Mexico is only the sort of solar plexus of North America. The great paleface overlay hasn't gone into the soil half an inch. ... It's a queer continent. The anthropologists may make what prettiness they like out of the myths. But come here, and you'll see that the gods bit. There is none of the phallic preoccupation of the old Mediterra-nean. Here they hadn't even got as far as hot-blooded sex. Fangs and cold serpent folds, and bird-snakes with fierce cold blood, and claws. .... And this is what seems to me the difference between Mexico and the United States. And this is why, it seems to me Mexico exasperates, whereas the U.S.A. puts an unbearable tension on one. Because here in Mexico the fangs are still obvious. Everybody knows the gods are going to bite within the next five minutes. While in the United States, the gods have had their teeth pulled out, and their claws cut, and their tails docked, till they seem like real mild lambs. Yet all the time, inside it's the same old dragon's blood. The same old American dragon's blood. And that discrepancy of course, is a strain on the human psyche."

"It is a country where men despise sex, and live for it," said Ramon. "Which is suicide."

"Mexico has a faint, physical smell of her own, as each human being has. And this is a curious, inexplicable scent, in which there are resin and perspiration, and sunburned earth, and urine, among other things."

"Mexico continues to be a theater of civil war. While our political relations with that country have undergone no change, we have at the same time strictly maintained neutrality between the belligerents."