The North American Free Trade Agreement has a fourth member, the U.S.-Mexico border, with 22 million inhabitants, $300 billion in gross domestic product, $100 billion in trade, and a unique history and culture. In 1995, it witnessed some 225 million legal frontier crossings each way, mostly Mexican shoppers, who spent $22 billion in the United States, paid $ 1.7 billion in taxes, and generated 400,000 jobs but received no services. Balanced against the costs of Mexican illegals, American taxpayers made a 600 percent profit. This made Mexico the United States' second- (not third-) largest trading partner. Paso del Norte (Juárez-El Paso) is the border's capital, a binational metropolis of 2 million. Problems abound, from water, immigration, and drug trafficking to public safety, health, welfare, the environment, and infrastructure. But they are not being effectively addressed because they run east-west (from San Diego to Corpus Christi), while government authority and interests run north-south, to and from Washington, Mexico City, and nine state capitals. A binational bankable Border Authority is urgently needed.
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References
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1. Since the border has no official statistical service, these data are, of necessity, approximations. But lest readers niggle, they are reminded that the United States does not know within about 15 percent, and Mexico within perhaps 35 percent, what its gross national product is, and both countries have been widely accused of seriously miscounting their populations. For what I consider the best data available, readers are referred to David Lorey, United States—Mexico Border Statistics Since 1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
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2. With an appropriate bow to Mark Russell, who once called Washington, D.C., “a city of northern charm and southern efficiency.”
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3. This included tens of millions of commuters crossing north or south to daily jobs, but most were shopping trips, as will be discussed later.
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4. By 650 miles.
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5. In Puebla, Mexico, 28 Feb.-3 Mar. 1996.
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6. An alliance was later discussed privately.
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7. The Río Bravo, to Mexicans.
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8. “Maquiladora” is a term of preference for a factory in Mexico engaged in the partial manufacture of an end product for a foreign company. The Mexican input has traditionally been labor, although this is changing quickly. “Twin plant” is a near synonym, but usually refers to two factories of the same company operating in close proximity across the border.
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9. After forty years in and around Latin America, I am perfectly aware there are many who object to the label “American” for someone from the United States of America. Latin American intellectuals, especially those who are somewhat anti-American to begin with, and some of their more sensitive American colleagues often insist that “American” means anyone from the Western Hemisphere. In one sense, they are, of course right, just as “Asian” means anyone from Asia, whether Saudi Arabian, Chinese, or Japanese aboriginal Ainu, and “European” means anyone from Europe, be they Swedish, Greek, or Romanian Gypsy. But there is no better term. Some Latins use “Estadosunidense” (United Stateser), but that is both silly and very imprecise. Persons from the Estados Unidos Mexicanos, the Estados Unidos de Venezuela, and the Estados Unidos do Brazil are Mexicans, Venezuelans, or Brazilians and also Estadosunidenses, but none self-identify as such. The alternative “Norteamericano” (North American) is equally inaccurate, since everyone from the North American continent from Alaskan Eskimos to Panamanian Indians is also a North American. My country is the United States of America, so I call myself an American. Just as I would never dream of challenging the self-identity of a Mexican, Colombian, or Paraguayan, I reject attempts to strip me of mine, regardless of how supposedly pure the ideological motive may be.
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10. See Jonathan Kandell, La Capital: A Biography of Mexico City (New York: Random House, 1988), p. 58.
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On the perdurance of Indianness in Mexico, see Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, México Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996).
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12. “Anglo” is used here in the southwestern sense, a non-Hispanic of European extraction. Native Americans, Afro-Americans, and Asian Americans are, of course, also present.
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13. A piñata is a papier-mâché effigy filled with candy that is smashed open at a birthday celebration, to spill its tiny treasures to the delight of children. A Quinceañera fiesta is a fifteenth-birthday coming-out party for a girl turning young lady, elaborately celebrated with great joy and formality. Short of a formal wedding, it is a traditional Hispanic young woman's most cherished moment.
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14. Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California. The four U.S. border states are California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
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15. The Barrancos de Cobre in the Sierra Madre of Mexico have seven canyons, five of which are larger than the Grand Canyon.
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16. One of the few studies of the region is William V. D' Antonio and William H. Hands, Influentials in Two Border Cities: A Case Study in Community Decision Making (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1965).
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17. The numbers constantly change. Twin Plant News, published monthly in El Paso, publishes periodic counts. The Solutions Network, of El Paso, also maintains a database on the maquila industry.
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18. Most of this information comes from private interviews with informed persons in Paso del Norte on both sides of the border.
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19. Until the Mexican Revolution, the Terrazas were considered among Mexico's largest landowners. According to one story, when asked if his family had any large ranches in Chihuahua, Mexico's largest state, the family patriarch said, “Not exactly. But Chihuahua is one of our largest ranches.” On another occasion, a beef shortage supposedly developed in the United States, and Chicago's meat packers sent an urgent telegram to the Terrazas. “Can you send us 20,000 head of beef cattle immediately?” They shot back a reply: “Of course. What color?”
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20. Much of this is actually nonsense. The United States probably does not know within 15 percent what its gross domestic product is; Mexico undercounts its gross domestic product by 35-40 percent depending on hot money flows, tax collection efforts, and the “unregistered income” expectations of professionals, businessmen, and officials. Neither knows its population within about 5-10 percent. This suggests, for example, that real Mexican per capita income may be around $5000, not $3500. Still, they are the best numbers we have.
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21. Not a typographical error.
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22. Countertrade is minimal.
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23. As an aside, this suggests that NAFTA was negotiated between partners who did not know what their bilateral trade pattern really was.
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24. It is possible for them to obtain tax relief by filing Customs forms, but few do.
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25. According to Doña Ana County, New Mexico planners, the Solutions Network has identified 1693 maquila managers and engineers alone who live in El Paso but commute daily to Juárez. With the addition of non-professional border-crossing workers, an estimate of 6000 or more per day would seem conservative.
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26. More famous for General Francisco “Pancho” Villa's 1916 raid and General “Black Jack” Pershing's unsuccessful riposte (despite the presence of George Patton as the latter's aide de camp).
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27. A two-agent Customs outpost far from any city. In 1994, Antelope Wells averaged five or six vehicles a day. Since it is fifty miles from the nearest village, there were no pedestrians. When asked why Antelope Wells was still open, Secretary of State James Baker once replied, “Pete Domenici. If you ever want to get into a fight with Pete Domenici, just try to close Antelope Wells.” Domenici is New Mexico's senior senator. Actually, the outpost has a long history and present value as the only legal crossing point along a 150-mile stretch of border. A story is told that two U.S. Marshals escorting an armed Apache war party under Apache war chief Cochise back to their reservation were once stopped there by U.S. Customs agents. The Apaches had “borrowed” a large number of Mexican horses on the way home, and Customs demanded the payment of import duties. A three-sided Apache-Marshal-Customs standoff developed, with the Apaches far more numerous and better armed. The Marshals and Customs soon decided discretion was the better part of value. The Marshals gave Customs an IOU, and Cochise went home. It is said that the Department of Justice refused to pay and that the interdepartmental dispute is still discussed today at the occasional cabinet meeting in Washington.
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28. Private study for Santa Teresa Holdings.
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29. Technically, the administrator of the 1854 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo.
