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this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
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she's a step in the right direction and not the ultimate answer. she's also a lightening rod since her demographic tends to vote conservative; but she's much more progressive than any democrat we currently have that can be president.
like americans, mexicans are in their own pivotal moment in history and the hegemonic forces that keep mexico in its violent settler state condition is waning as much in mexico as american imperial designs are waning in the the united states and the world; since they both rely on the same source of power. don't get me wrong; those hegemonic powers are still very strong the closer to the american imperial core you get and mexico is close enough to be stuck in that orbit for a long time without help from anyone else; as they've always done.
mexican settler colonialism would have died long ago where it not for the american hegemony propping it up on life-support and, once that's gone; mexicans' indigenous identities will be free to re-assert themselves instead of perpetually boiling near the surface and then beaten back again as it has been for generations and; if the mexican state survives it; it will come out as a very different country that the one we have now.
I do worry however, I'm not sure if she can really be considered qualitatively more progressive in any actionable way. Mexico's anti-US imperialism has always run hallow ala Turkey and Sheinbaum is still collaborating with the US on the border and aiding deportation while killing indigenous protesters at home and continuing the long tradition of Mexican appropriation of indigenous culture etc. etc.
I also worry due to the unique aspects of mexican settlerism, particularly the strength of indiginismo and that settler move to innocence present among mestizos that in the event of the inevitable US downfall there may be a continued Mexican settler nationalism, possibly even a strengthened one under a project like Atzlan or just reclamation of "occupied Mexican territory". I can't imagine it would be a long lived project past the lifespan of US imperialism but Mexico's unique history of settler-colonialism tells me that it's more than the US keeping the indigenous and black populations of the area oppressed and hyper exploited and would take further dismantling
there's little she can qualitatively do at this stage; but she's taken quantitative steps that prove her intentions in weakening the american empire's iron grip in examples like making judges answerable to public vote and re-nationalizing pemex. to be clear: she's going to make mistakes like amlo did with the new police force; but she's trying to affect change in a system that is completely captured (aka the same thing that the moderates keep insisting is possible to do within the american system).
there will always be a settler background to any country in the americas because it's now our heritage; it will never fully go away and it's up to us to keep our mental gardens de-weeded of such thoughts and she must play ball with the americans on immigration lest she be regime-changed for someone else like what happened with pena neito. (you have to accept the reality of the american's empires actions are causing an immigration crisis and you also have to accept your country's livelihood is attached to same empire -- for now at least).
like turkey and the republicans; the mexican settler classes recognize the bad optics that american support carries with it and have successfully co-opted pushes to excise american influence throughout the country to help launder public their image, which always ultimately leads to an increase in the manufactured cultural rift between mexicans and mexican-americans; this settler consciousness too will be our heritage going forward and we must always likewise be on guard for it as well; like liberal americans try to do today.
finally: that marginalization and suppression of the indigenous protesters is exactly what i was referring to when i mentioned competing mexican identities are perpetually boiling to the surface only to be beaten back down again. the mexican's state's federal core in mexico city is constantly at odds with the people it want's to claim ownership over so they beat it back as hard as they can whenever they can (eg the yaqui or tarahumara or zapotec or mixtec or etc.) and pretend it doesn't exist whenever they can't (eg zapatistas); they would be ineffectual without american support as they were in the past before the americans starting making it a habit to intervene on their behalf.
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