March 20, 2004

Memo From Mexico, By  Allan Wall

How Can I Live In Mexico And Write For VDARE.COM?

Is it right for me, an American citizen, to live in Mexico while publicly promoting a reduction of Mexican immigration to the U.S.A.?

I regularly receive email from people who are disturbed by this.

For example:

“If you are so against immigration in the US what the &%$# are you doing in Mexico? You are taking up room there the same way that you say immigrants are taking up space in the US.

Another asked:

“Why do you live in Mexico if you hate Mexicans?”

To another reader, though, I’m a traitor to my country:

“You should be shot for having a Mexican wife. You are one of the problems. I see you have a Mexican e-mail address, stay there PLEASE!”

Well, you can’t please everybody.

So how can I oppose mass Mexican emigration to the U.S. while living in Mexico?

The answer: It’s because I live in Mexico that I became an immigration restrictionist.

Who knows? Maybe if I’d stayed in the U.S. I’d be arguing the other side.

Multiculturalism is an enlightening experience. I’ve seen immigration from a Mexican perspective. And it helped turn me into an immigration restrictionist!

I’ve seen how our country is viewed by Mexico’s elite and by the potential immigrants themselves. I’ve learned what they want for the U.S.A. And it’s not what most Americans want. (See my “Education of a Gringo in Mexico” for details.)

Why is desiring a sane immigration policy for my country being “anti-Mexican?”

I see firsthand the devastation caused in Mexico by our pseudo-humanitarian immigration system. It breaks up families, depopulates the countryside, and encourages Mexico’s leadership to keep postponing reform.

I’ve lived here in Mexico since 1991. I am indeed married to a Mexican.

My in-laws are Mexicans. I’ve integrated into Mexican society more than most Americans who live here. And yet, I’m to be branded “anti-Mexican,” because I don’t support the ongoing immigration disaster?

Surely if I were “anti-Mexican” people here in Mexico would notice.

Real Mexicans, that is, not politicians or activists. Real Mexicans I live with, work with, teach, worship with and deal with daily. None of them consider me “anti-Mexican.” The only people who call me that are people on the internet who don’t like my articles!

I’m still an American citizen. Or have I lost my First Amendment rights, even on American websites?

But the angry letters continue. And they can be amusing.

Here’s another I received, entitled “The Worst of America”:

“How can you think Alien Nation is a good book? Is a racist book....Well if you are part of VDARE.COM, probably there is no remedy for you, even if you live in Mexico. I really don’t understand how you can have those ideas on immigration....”

This email, by the way, came from a gentleman in the SRE—the Secretaría de Relaciónes Exteriors—the Mexican Foreign Ministry! That means somebody in the Mexican State Department knows about Alien Nation and VDARE.COM.

Well, thanks for helping our Alexa.com rating!

I also got this missive from the self-styled “Nasstious.”

“How can you be so negative about the Mexican president (Fox) and be a guest in his own country?? It sounds like you are a security risk and you should be detained. I believe you are a spy of some sorts.............I will make your thoughts known to the proper authorities...”

“Nasstious” makes it sound as though I were a personal guest in the home of Vicente Fox. Let me clear this up: I have legal permission from the Mexican government to live and work in Mexico (my permit is up for renewal this summer). I am not, nor have I ever been, a personal guest in the home of Vicente Fox. (I tried to get onto his ranch once, but they wouldn’t allow it.)

In response to my article on Jorge Ramos, the immigrant anchorman for the U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network Univision, a Puerto Rican high school student wrote to chide me:

“After reading your commentary on Jorge Ramos, I immediately realized that your observations are hypocritical and unjust. First, don’t you think you should be grateful that you have been allowed to make these type of absurd observations in Mexico? You use Jorge Ramos to try to prove that the Hispanic population is confused and has bad intentions because the man works in the US but defends his roots. You are doing the exact same thing!”

The writer, in other words, likens me to Jorge Ramos.

So what do we have in common? I’m from the U.S. and live in Mexico, he’s from Mexico and lives in the U.S. We both have some sort of platform in the media.

But Jorge Ramos is a lot more famous than I am and a lot richer.

Jorge Ramos´skin is whiter than mine. Jorge has blue eyes and I have brown eyes.

But most importantly, I have more respect for Mexico than Jorge Ramos has for the United States. I respect the right of Mexico to control its own immigration policy. Ramos doesn’t respect the right of the U.S. to do the same.

Jorge Ramos is openly working to transform the demographics and politics of the United States. I’m not doing that in Mexico. If I were, the Mexican government would expel me, as they have done to gringos who involve themselves even marginally in politics.

Back in the U.S.A., Jorge Ramos publicly attacks Congressman Tom Tancredo because he has dared to emerge as the most prominent elected immigration reformer. What do you suppose would happen to me if I publicly attacked a Mexican congressman?

Another letter writer, displeased with my article on the Mexican rap group Molotov, directed this rhetorical question to me:

“Racist against Mexicans.....Then you wonder why Mexicans hate people like you?”

Writing back for clarification, I received this reply:

“I will keep it simple for you: Your article about Molotov was RACIST. If you don’t like Mexico, then leave. Did you understand this time?”

So criticizing Mexican rap-metal group Molotov is being racist? Well, a lot of Mexicans don’t care for Molotov’s music. Are they racist?

Living in Mexico and writing these articles provides me with a unique vantage point. I would invite critics to look over my VDARE.COM articles. They are not anti-Mexican. I have defended, and plan to continue to defend, positive aspects of Mexican society. Mexico has better immigration enforcement, and a better voter registration system than we do. Its presidential election in 2000 certainly went smoother than ours.

Some aspects of the Mexican educational system are superior to ours. Mexico has a more cost-effective and efficient system of free-market medical care.

Oh yes, the vanilla is sweeter here too!

Study my VDARE.COM articles more closely, and you will see that most of them are about Mexican government meddling in U.S. internal politics, Hispanic balkanization of the United States, or Mexican government hypocrisy in immigration matters. Furthermore, my articles are directed to American citizens, to better inform them.

I’m not trying to sway Mexican public opinion or public policy. After all, Mexicans are meddling in U.S. internal affairs only because we allow it. From the American standpoint, the real problem is in Washington D.C., not Mexico City.

Anybody who calls my articles “anti-Mexican” indicates either that (1) he hasn’t read them carefully, or (2) he is just trying to dodge the real issues. Or possibly both.

The Mexican government has the right to expel me anytime it desires. In fact, the Mexican Constitution, in Article 33, specifically authorizes the expulsion of any foreigner whose presence the Mexican Executive deems undesirable. (Does the U.S. need an Article 33?)

Sympathetic readers have asked me if I’m concerned about what the Mexican government might possibly do to me.

Yes, of course. But if they ever do kick me out, they would be publicly admitting that my articles speak the truth!

And so, by the grace of God and the permission of the Mexican government, as long as I remain here I plan to keep churning out these Memos from Mexico, for the readers of VDARE.COM.

Stay tuned for the next episode.... 

American citizen Allan Wall lives and works legally in Mexico, where he holds an FM-2 residency and work permit, but serves six weeks a year with the Texas Army National Guard, in a unit composed almost entirely of Americans of Mexican ancestry. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived here; his website is here. Readers can contact Allan Wall at allan39@prodigy.net.mx.