Gilberto López y Rivas: An Open Letter to Obama ... Learn Your History, Sir!
[Gilberto López y Rivas is a Mexican columnist.]
On April 21, just days after you will have left our country, comes the anniversary of the attack and occupation of the port of Veracruz in 1914, which was carried out by the U.S. Marines, an expeditionary force with a long tradition of intervention. The Marines anthem alludes to the aggressive war of conquest carried out by your country between 1846 and 1848, in which Mexico lost half of its territory ("From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli …").
Thus, Veracruz was bombarded twice by your navy - in 1847 and 1914 - with great loss of life among the civilian population who on both occasions, to be sure, heroically confronted the invading Marines in spite of their clear military superiority.
On that April 21 [in 1914], the cadets of Naval Military School, men and women of different social backgrounds and some members of Spanish expatriate community fought an unequal battle against the occupation forces while the regular Mexican army beat an ignoble retreat, withdrawing to Tejeria. Similar events took place during the occupation of the Republic's capital by the forces of General Scott, who on the 14th and 15th of September, 1847, was compelled to confront hundreds of civilians. These were people who decided - at the cost of their lives - to give value to the nation's dignity, left undefended by the army of Antonio López de Santa Anna [the Mexican-American War].
It wouldn't be the last armed invasion of Mexican territory by our "good neighbor." From March 14, 1916 to February 7 of the following year occurred the so called "punitive expedition" led by General John J. Pershing [photo, right], who chased our General Francisco Villa throughout the state of Chihuahua without managing to capture him. We aren't counting the over 100 incursions by the Filibusters and armed sorties along the Northern border, so masterfully recounted by our historian Gastón García Cantú in his book American Interventions in Mexico (1971) - a must read.
In the three above-mentioned invasions of Mexico, the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, i.e. the U.S. presidents of those times, James Knox Polk and Woodrow Wilson, belonged to your party - the Democrats. Surely you remember that your predecessor Polk was a lifelong slave owner and an enthusiastic proponent of your nation's territorial expansion at the expense of decimated and weakened indigenous people by the "decadent" Spanish Empire and the nascent Republic of Mexico - an expansionist process based on and justified by the idea of "Manifest Destiny," or the mission, "allotted by Providence" for the U.S. to extend its borders across the entire continent. Your Founding Fathers even thought of establishing the U.S. capital on the Isthmus of Panama....
Now with your visit to Mexico, you intend to close the circle of Santa Anna-like defeatism which characterizes the government that welcomes you. You should know that millions of Mexicans believe that President Felipe Calderón came to power through electoral fraud, with support from the military and with the complicity of the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI] leaders - who now admit to his face that they backed him for electoral reasons [Calderon is a member of the National Action Party, or PAN]. That ruling group [the PRI] seeks to consummate a silent annexation by the United States. They are the heirs of those who, to protect their class interests, allied themselves with the invaders in the war of 1847 [Mexican-American War], and who enabled the French intervention and the enthronement of Maximilian [photo right]. But you should also know, sir, that, as in 1847 and 1914, there are Mexicans who will defend their homeland, its natural and strategic resources, its social achievements and its sovereignty - and who will fight for an equitable relationship with the United States.
I pray that you not follow the example of your predecessors. Have a good trip.
Read entire article at http://worldmeets.us
On April 21, just days after you will have left our country, comes the anniversary of the attack and occupation of the port of Veracruz in 1914, which was carried out by the U.S. Marines, an expeditionary force with a long tradition of intervention. The Marines anthem alludes to the aggressive war of conquest carried out by your country between 1846 and 1848, in which Mexico lost half of its territory ("From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli …").
Thus, Veracruz was bombarded twice by your navy - in 1847 and 1914 - with great loss of life among the civilian population who on both occasions, to be sure, heroically confronted the invading Marines in spite of their clear military superiority.
On that April 21 [in 1914], the cadets of Naval Military School, men and women of different social backgrounds and some members of Spanish expatriate community fought an unequal battle against the occupation forces while the regular Mexican army beat an ignoble retreat, withdrawing to Tejeria. Similar events took place during the occupation of the Republic's capital by the forces of General Scott, who on the 14th and 15th of September, 1847, was compelled to confront hundreds of civilians. These were people who decided - at the cost of their lives - to give value to the nation's dignity, left undefended by the army of Antonio López de Santa Anna [the Mexican-American War].
It wouldn't be the last armed invasion of Mexican territory by our "good neighbor." From March 14, 1916 to February 7 of the following year occurred the so called "punitive expedition" led by General John J. Pershing [photo, right], who chased our General Francisco Villa throughout the state of Chihuahua without managing to capture him. We aren't counting the over 100 incursions by the Filibusters and armed sorties along the Northern border, so masterfully recounted by our historian Gastón García Cantú in his book American Interventions in Mexico (1971) - a must read.
In the three above-mentioned invasions of Mexico, the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, i.e. the U.S. presidents of those times, James Knox Polk and Woodrow Wilson, belonged to your party - the Democrats. Surely you remember that your predecessor Polk was a lifelong slave owner and an enthusiastic proponent of your nation's territorial expansion at the expense of decimated and weakened indigenous people by the "decadent" Spanish Empire and the nascent Republic of Mexico - an expansionist process based on and justified by the idea of "Manifest Destiny," or the mission, "allotted by Providence" for the U.S. to extend its borders across the entire continent. Your Founding Fathers even thought of establishing the U.S. capital on the Isthmus of Panama....
Now with your visit to Mexico, you intend to close the circle of Santa Anna-like defeatism which characterizes the government that welcomes you. You should know that millions of Mexicans believe that President Felipe Calderón came to power through electoral fraud, with support from the military and with the complicity of the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI] leaders - who now admit to his face that they backed him for electoral reasons [Calderon is a member of the National Action Party, or PAN]. That ruling group [the PRI] seeks to consummate a silent annexation by the United States. They are the heirs of those who, to protect their class interests, allied themselves with the invaders in the war of 1847 [Mexican-American War], and who enabled the French intervention and the enthronement of Maximilian [photo right]. But you should also know, sir, that, as in 1847 and 1914, there are Mexicans who will defend their homeland, its natural and strategic resources, its social achievements and its sovereignty - and who will fight for an equitable relationship with the United States.
I pray that you not follow the example of your predecessors. Have a good trip.