OPINION
It was excruciating to watch Vicente Fox tangle with Bill O'Reilly as part of the media tour for the former Mexican president's engaging memoir, “Revolution of Hope.”
The arguments of the Fox News host were as porous as the U.S.-Mexico border. For instance, O'Reilly demanded to know why the Mexican government wasn't stopping people who are fleeing that country for the United States.
Fox pointed out that this isn't Mexico's job and that there is obviously a demand for illegal immigrants in the United States or they wouldn't come. Besides, he pointed out, people will follow opportunity as part of the natural order.
Exhibit A: his grandfather, Joseph Fox, who migrated to Mexico from Ohio in the 1890s to work for a company that made carriages. Incidentally, Joseph never bothered to learn the language of his adopted country: Spanish.
What would the nativists in this country say about that? Would they be outraged?
Right-wing radio hosts reacted that way when, in an interview with The Associated Press, Fox argued that it is “the xenophobics, the racists, those who feel they are a superior race” who drive U.S. immigration policy.
That's overstating it. Of course, there are racism and xenophobia in the immigration debate – and there have been going back to the late 1700s when Benjamin Franklin worried that German immigrants wouldn't blend into the new world created by the English. Today, most of the anxiety is over cultural influences emanating from south of the border, and that's part of what gives the debate its anti-Mexican flavor.
But it's not as if bigotry drives the entire discussion. There are plenty of other emotions at play. President Bush learned that the hard way when he tried to push immigration reform.
In the book, which Fox co-wrote with one of his top advisers, Dallas-based political consultant Rob Allyn, Bush is credited with having a keen understanding of the immigration issue and a refreshing sensitivity toward Hispanics.
While the media made much of Fox's reference to Bush's “grade-school Spanish,” the former Mexican president submits that many Hispanics appreciate it when those who don't normally speak Spanish brave a few words to make someone else feel comfortable. After all, people in Mexico have long spoken English to accommodate Americans.
In fact, I met with Fox three times at Los Pinos (the Mexican White House) with other journalists, and, each time, someone in my group pleaded that the conversation proceed “en ingles por favor.” And Fox – whose English is pretty good – accommodated us.
The book is just as accessible. It is full of charming stories and insights into everything from Mexico's fledgling democracy to its trade with Asia to its precarious relationship with the United States. It should be required reading for anyone who is curious about the effect Latin America will have on the United States for years to come, and who prefers facts and firsthand recollections to demagoguery.
“A big part of the purpose of writing this book was to correct all the misinformation out there about Mexico,” Allyn told me in an interview.
Yet one of the few things missing from the text was the one thing I went looking for – an explanation for why Fox dillydallied before coming to the aid of the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Seems the Fox government was paralyzed by a nasty internal debate about whether to support the United States or stay out of any retaliation Washington might take against al-Qaeda and its allies. A poll taken at the time by a Mexico City newspaper found that 62 percent of Mexicans believed Mexico should stay neutral.
Eventually, Fox did pledge his support – and some of Mexico's oil – to help the United States in Afghanistan. However, when the Bush administration set its sights on Iraq, Mexico stood in opposition. And the relationship cooled.
O'Reilly should have asked Fox about Sept. 11, Iraq and the war on terror. Instead, the interview was largely about immigration and drugs. And ironically, what the host said about one issue applies to the other. While conceding that American demand fuels the drug problem, O'Reilly gave Fox some advice that one can easily imagine Mexicans giving us on immigration: “If you keep blaming us, you're never going to solve it.”
Exactly.
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