History of Mexico
The last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading a rather extensive history of Mexico. I’ve traveled pretty much all over the country, it’s where I learned Spanish, we lived there a while when I went to language school, I have a son-in-law from there, I have four grandsons who are half Mexican. Mexico’s had a rather large impact upon my life. And of course, we lived on the border in El Paso for 21 years. And as I often say, “hágale cuenta que si vives en El Paso, prácticamente estás viviendo en Mexico! (Be aware, if you live in El Paso, you practically live in Mexico.)
I’ll write a review of the book eventually, but I just want to share a few things right now. (I’m sure some of you know all I might share, and much more, so I hope you’ll bear with me.) First of all, I learned more about a lot of leaders I’d heard only a little about; general (then president) Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, of Alamo fame (and a whole lot more), Benito Juarez, Porfirio Dias, Francisco Madero, Pancho Villa. I found out where the names of so many places I’ve visited came from, (Creel, Janos, Casas Grandes, Namiquipa, Ricardo Flores Magon, and others. I learned that the Aztecs never called themselves Aztecs but rather Mexica (pronounced Meh-she-kah). (Who knew?!) I read about the so-called Black Legend (La Leyenda Negra) that is supposedly the accepted narrative all Mexicans are taught in school, which tells about how the terrible Spaniards were so cruel and horrible to the noble and wonderful indigenous folks, and I found out this narrative is mostly false, because, though the Spaniard Conquistadores were indeed a terrible bunch, the Mexicas were even more terrible. If you understand Spanish, check out what Mexican professor Juan Miguel Zunzunegui says in his books and on YouTube. I found out that Mexico wasn’t called even Mexico until the mid-1800s really. Before that, it was only known as Nueva España, because the country wasn’t independent and had no unified national identity until after the various revolutions.
What struck me in all this reading though, is how divided Mexico has always been. I thought only we Americans were that divided, and only in recent times! Oh no, different sections, Yucatan, some of the northern regions, and different groups (the Tarahumaras) have actually seceded or stayed separate from Mexico over the years and have been forced back, just as the American South wasn’t allowed to secede and was forced back into the union against its will. There have been so many visions for how Mexico should be organized and governed since its inception, and many times these differences have boiled over into violence. There have been dictators and conspiracies and uprisings and full-on wars and revolutions over and over in Mexico’s history. I knew Pancho Villa raided New Mexico, but I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know he was fighting other Mexicans all over the place and almost won. I didn’t know Santa Ana won at the Alamo, lost at San Jacinto, but that wasn’t the end of him by any means! He became president after all that, then fought many battles with other Mexicans.
Then of course, there was Cinco de Mayo, the battle when Mexicans beat the French who supported emperor Maximilian. But some Mexicans wanted an emperor. Some wanted a king. Others wanted liberal reforms and more power for the people. Many were socialists. I thought it very interesting to discover that liberals in Mexico were people who wanted what we might think of as more American values, liberal democracy, human rights, a republic, self-rule, all that sort of thing, whereas the conservatives were the religious people, who wanted the Catholic Church to have greater power along with other institutions like the Army. Here in America, liberals are usually those against religion and conservatives are believers. Those terms, conservative, liberal, progressive, they mean different things at different times and in different places. Interesting, no?
I often tell people in the US to stop using terms like liberal and conservative for precisely that reason – they are meaningless! What do you think about this issue, that issue, this is what’s important, not the label you apply to yourself!
But anyway, details are important and if I ever get around to doing a review, I’ll supply more of them. I just thought it was interesting and kind of encouraging to find out that all countries are divided. All leaders fight amongst themselves. Any time you have strong leaders, they have strong personalities, and strong opinions about what is the best direction to head and the best way to do things. You put a lot of people like that together to try and form a government, and it’s not going to last long! There will be fights and disagreements and breakups. Let’s face it, even Christian churches fight and break up, and so do denominations. Even a monolith like the Roman Catholic Church has and has always had all sorts of different viewpoints and groups within it, so divergent in fact that they constantly battle and vie for position and it’s hard to imagine they belong to the same church. It was inevitable that eventually, many would break away in the Reformation. (All the reformers were Catholics originally.)
I know that India is terribly divided and has always been. They formed an independent country from the British colonies, but there was no way Muslims and Hindus could live together, and in no time, they split from each other into East Pakistan, West Pakistan, and India, and then, East Pakistan became Bangladesh.
Division, factions, conflict, disagreement, different opinions, different visions for the future. Man, it’s a wonder the human population didn’t destroy itself a long time ago!
I guess the reason this stands out to me is we have all this incredible upheaval in the US right now, all these huge changes. We have such different visions for America, what would be best, what would produce the best results. The high-powered leaders around our president, and Mr. Trump himself, they’re liable to have conflicts and disagreements. Not all of the cabinet members will last there for long. Elon may not last there for long.
We have people who think Trump is destroying the country, and others who think he’s the greatest president ever. I never cease to be amazed at how very differently we see the world! We all look at the same set of circumstances, yet come to totally different conclusions about them! It’s wonderful! It’s terrible! Greatest president ever! A dictator who’s destroying democracy! China is our enemy! No, China is peaceful! Russia is our enemy! Nonsense, Putin has no intentions, nor is he capable of taking any other territory! Of course he does! He’s going to take over all of Europe and reconstitute the Soviet Union! China is the greatest power! China is going to collapse in less than a decade!
I read and listen to podcasts and experts, and I hear all these things. I suppose we’re all doing that these days? Or do some people only listen to what they agree with?
Anyway, to me, it was encouraging to find that all this turmoil and division isn’t new, and it’s not only in America! It’s the history of Mexico, the history of every place, it goes on all over the world, and it always has. It’s the human condition really. Even in the Church, Paul says we have to strive to walk in peace with one another. It takes a lot of godly character, patience, love, wanting to keep things together and not see them fly apart. It takes God’s grace and His Spirit, even in the Church. In the world, there will only and always be tribulation and turmoil! Too many egos, too many wrong ideas, not enough love or wisdom.
There isn’t even unity and order in the Church unless we really keep ourselves aligned with God and His Word.
The only real peace, the only real confidence we can have is found in God. He never changes, and only His way is perfect. He has warned us about all these things happening around us. Amazingly, He’s able to even use the turmoil of humanity to accomplish His purposes as we see in the crucifixion, when the very worst of humanity did its very worst to the Son of God, and He bore it for us, and used it to atone for sin and bring us eternal redemption. What a God we know and serve!
I still read and study and listen, and I try to discern what’s right and what’s best, most of all, what God wants and what He would have me do in the midst of this madness. But it’s at least comforting to know that He knows all about it, and He is still Lord! I’d be interested to hear what you think about the history of Mexico, or how I’ve applied it here…