What Gringophobia?

Are we facing a new wave of anti-Americanism in Mexico?

Andrew Paxman, a Brit who teaches history and journalism at Mexico City’s CIDE, thinks we are.

“Mexico today is ripe for overt gringophobia,” he told a gathering at the Mexico Institute of the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. yesterday.

That’s been assumed since 2015, when Trump threatened Mexico with economic warfare, slandered its people with accusations of criminality, and insulted their integrity by promising to wall them off.

He’s still doing all that as U.S. president. 

So where’s the gringophobia? Have you noticed a spike? I haven’t.

Anti-Trumpism, sure. There’s plenty of that. But there’s plenty in the United States too, not to mention in most of the world. If cooler heads prevail, is it out of the question that Trump’s aggression could unite decent Americans and Mexicans against a common enemy?

Maybe I should get out more, but in the year since last November’s apocalypse, I’ve run across exactly nobody who resents Americans as individuals because of Trump. Instead, there’s usually a tacit understanding that we’re in this together, that the threat of Trump’s insanity goes beyond mere bilateral issues.

Paxman has done a lot of research into historical anti-Americanism in Mexico, much of it for his recently released (in English) biography of William Jenkins, the U.S.-born 20th-century industrialist who spent most of his life in Puebla as, at times, the richest man in Mexico. Paxman’s concern about a surge in anti-Americanism has to do with next year’s Mexican presidential elections.

It’s a safe bet the candidates will compete in the tough-on-Trump category (though smart-about-Trump would be more helpful). Mexican politicians have a long history of stoking the electorate’s indignation at the actions of the U.S government, just as the U.S. government has a long history of deserving it. Now Trump is the U.S. government. Buckle up.

Still, voting based on an ongoing threat from a U.S. president is not the same as gringophobia, which is personal and implies disgust at all things American. The candidate who can stoke such visceral feelings may have an advantage, but the stoking won’t be as easy as it once was. Unless I’m wrong (God help us all if I am) he or she won’t be able to fire up the mob, but instead will have to find politically legitimate enticements to snag the anti-Trump vote.

There are a number of reasons why that’s true, most of which were mentioned by the Mexico Institute’s Christopher Wilson at that same conference yesterday. Put simply, Mexicans have a better opinion of Americans than they used to — because they know them better.

The number of Mexicans who have lived in or visited the United States and then returned has soared. As anybody who’s ever traveled knows, there’s nothing like actually being somewhere to change how you perceive it.

The economies have integrated after two decades of NAFTA and Mexicans approve of that. Learning English, once unhip, even unpatriotic, is now common in Mexico, even officially encouraged. 

Young people in general have a positive opinion of the United States. So do the wealthy. So, especially, do those living in the northern part of the nation.

Social media has demystified much about the northern neighbor. As a result, Mexicans, especially the young, are less likely to think negatively about it just because a magazine or politician or activist tells them they’re supposed to.

We can be fairly sure the Trump card will continue to be played in Mexico as long as that man is in the White House. But the gringo card? No longer a sure thing.