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208 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. ix (1940)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0208 and id is 1 raw text is: INTRODUCTION

THE articles comprised in this vol-
ume discuss salient features of the pres-
ent situation in Mexico. Attention is
focused on the internal affairs of that
country, and only one of the articles
deals specifically with its foreign rela-
tions. And yet one of the strongest im-
pressions produced by the volume as a
whole is a sense of the international sig-
nificance of these domestic concerns;
above all, their significance for the fu-
ture development of inter-American re-
lations. In this sense, it drives home
the point, already borne in upon us by
the European war, that no nation lives
to itself alone, and that in this age of
revolution domestic affairs tend increas-
ingly to become foreign affairs.
I shall not try to summarize the con-
clusions that emerge from the following
articles, for this is an introduction, not
a concluding chapter. Each of our con-
tributors has spoken for himself, and
each of our readers will prefer to draw
his own conclusions. I should like,
however, to call the reader's attention
to three points of general interest in the
volume. The first is that the diversity
of criterion and method which marks all
symposia, including this one, is a posi-
tive virtue in the present case. The
reader will note that this diversity ex-
ists among the Mexican contributors
and among the contributors in the
United States as well as between the
two groups. This may be regarded as
a hopeful sign, since it indicates that
opinions are not sharply divided along
national lines. At the same time it is
a sobering sign, for it illustrates not
only the complexity of the subject but
also the urgent need for a closer meet-
ing of minds and wills if even this one
problem in inter-American relations is
to be solved.
The second point is that, in so far as
the articles in this volume have a cen-
ix

tral theme, it is the clash between the
rising tide of economic nationalism in
Mexico and the entrenched (and, shall
we add, embattled) interests of eco-
nomic imperialism represented mainly
by the United States and Great Britain.
The third point is that, while this
clash is occurring in many other semi-
colonial countries, in the case of Mexico
it has been due in large measure to his-
torical, environmental, and social forces
peculiar to that country. The unique-
ness of the Mexican environment and
experience is brought out in several of
these articles. To be sure, the pattern
of Mexico's experience in the past cen-
tury has been very similar to that of
other semicolonial countries, especially
in Latin America. Since the time of
Diaz, however, and especially in the
past few years, the Mexican pattern has
diverged from the common pattern,
mainly because Mexico has developed
a distinctive method of attack on the
common problem created by this for-
eign economic penetration.
Is it likely that the two patterns will
be merged again through the adoption
of Mexican methods by other Latin
American countries? The belief that
they will do so dismays many conserva-
tives and delights many radicals both in
this country and elsewhere; and both
sectors see in this community of interest
and method the possible basis for the
development of a Latin American bloc
that would, by definition, exclude the
United States and emasculate inter-
Americanism.
The careful reader of the following
pages will probably find reason to doubt
whether these expectations are likely
to be fulfilled in our time. At any rate,
he will note that Mexico's present
modes of action have grown out of a
cultural complex that is in many re-
spects unique, and he may conclude

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