As Mexico has become more significant to the United States in the past decade, political leaders on both sides of the border have raised questions regarding the role that the Mexican-origin population of the United States will play in U.S.-Mexico relations. Will they become, as many Americans fear and Mexican officials hope, an ethnic lobby mobilized around policy issues affecting Mexico? Or will they abandon home-country political interests while maintaining a strong cultural identity? This article examines Mexican-American attitudes toward Mexico and toward the public policy issues that shape United States-Mexico relations. Our analysis suggests that Mexican Americans have developed policy attitudes that diverge from those of Mexico. Yet, the relationships of Mexican Americans to the United States and to Mexico are sufficiently volatile to suggest caution in concluding that Mexican Americans will take no role in shaping relations between the two countries.
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