Reading Mexico, understanding the United States: American transnational intellectuals in the 1920s and 1990s

Journal of American History

Volumn 86, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 641-667

  Velasco, Jesus ^a  

^a CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN Y DOCENCIA ECONÓMICAS   (Mexico)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 3242768753     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2567050     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Russell Jacoby, The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (New York, 1982), 5, 7, 221.
2. Robert J. McMahon, "The Study of American Foreign Relations: National History or International History," in Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations, ed. Michael J. Hogan and Thomas G. Paterson (New York, 1991), 12-13.
3. Also see Emily S. Rosenberg, "Walking the Borders," Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations, ibid., 24-54.
4. Akira Iriye, "The Internationalization of History," American Historical Review, 94 (Feb. 1989), 2.
5. See also Ian Tyrrell, "American Exceptionalism in an Age of International History," American Historical Review, ibid., 96 (Oct. 1991), 1031-55;
6. and a criticism of that article, Michael McGerr, "The Price of the 'New Transnational History,'" American Historical Review, ibid., 1056-67.
7. Alan Knight, U.S.-Mexican Relations, 1910-1940: An Interpretation (San Diego, 1987), 131.
8. Josefina Zoradia Vázquez and Lorenzo Meyer, México Frente a Estados Unidos: Un Ensayo Histórico, 1776-1980 (Mexico and the United States: A historical essay, 1776-1980) (Mexico City, 1982), 145-46.
9. For an example of the unfavorable political climate, see Mark T. Gilderhus, "Senator Albert B. Fall and the 'Plot against Mexico,'" New Mexico Historical Review, 48 (no. 4, 1973), 299-311.
10. On Venustiano Carranza's propaganda campaign in the United States, see Michael M. Smith, "Carrancista Propaganda and the Print Media in the United States: An Overview of Institutions," America, 52 (no. 2, 1995), 155-75.
11. C. Dennis Ignasias, "Propaganda and Public Opinion in Harding's Foreign Affairs: The Case for Mexican Recognition," Journalism Quarterly, 47 (Spring 1971). Ignasias's comments on the relationships between the Obregon administration and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) acquire more relevance if we see them as a part of the efforts of the Mexican government to form coalitions with domestic interest groups.
12. For a review of recent publications on Mexican and American intellectuals and artists in Mexico during the first half of this century, see Mauricio Tenorio, "The Cosmopolitan Mexican Summer, 1920-1949," Latin American Research Review, 32 (no. 3, 1997), 224-42.
13. See also Mauricio Tenorio, "Ciudad de Mexico, Capital de un Siglo de Veinte Años" (Mexico City, capital of a century of twenty years), unpublished paper, 1998 (in Jesus Velasco's possession).
14. Steven Biel, Independent Intellectuals in the United States, 1910-1945 (New York, 1992), 98, and in general chapter 4.
15. Warren I. Susman, "The Expatriate Image," in Intellectual History in America from Darwin to Niebuhr, ed. Cushing Strout (New York, 1968), 154.
16. Tannenbaum letter quoted in Helen Delpar, "Frank Tannenbaum: The Making of a Mexicanist, 1914-1933," Americas, 45 (Oct. 1988), 159.
17. Gruening quoted in Helen Delpar, The Enormous Vogue of Things Mexican: Cultural Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1920-1935 (Tuscaloosa, 1992), 26.
18. Beals quoted The Enormous Vogue of Things Mexican: Cultural Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1920-1935 (ibid., 31.
19. See Eugenia Meyer, "Espionaje por Carambola: El Caso de John Kenneth Turner" (Espionage by carom: The case of John Kenneth Turner), Eslabones (Mexico City) (no. 2, July-Dec. 1991), 30-34.
20. John A. Britton, Revolution and Ideology: Images of the Mexican Revolution in the United States (Lexington, 1995), 38. Ramon de Negri to Alvaro Obregon, Feb. 22, 1921 (in Spanish), Grupo Documental 209-K-1 (Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico City).
21. Henry C. Schmidt, "The American Intellectual Discovery of Mexico in the 1920s," South Atlantic Quarterly, 77 (Summer 1978), 338.
22. John A. Britton, "In Defense of Revolution: American Journalists in Mexico, 1920-1929," Journalism History, 5 (Winter 1978-1979), 125.
23. John A. Britton, "Journalism History, Ibid., 125-26.
24. My comments about Tannenbaum's life are fundamentally based on Charles A. Hale, "Frank Tannenbaum and the Mexican Revolution," Hispanic American Historical Review, 75 (no. 2, 1995), 215-46. For a good analysis of the Masses, see
25. Leslie Fishbein, Rebels in Bohemia: The Radicals of the Masses, 1911-1917 (Chapel Hill, 1982).
26. Hale, "Frank Tannenbaum and the Mexican Revolution," 238-39.
27. Frank Tannenbaum, "The Miracle School," Century Magazine, 106 (no. 4, 1923), 499.
28. See Hale, "Frank Tannenbaum and the Mexican Revolution," 228.
29. Hale, "Frank Tannenbaum and the Mexican Revolution," Ibid., 231.
30. Hale, "Frank Tannenbaum and the Mexican Revolution," Ibid., 232;
31. Delpar, Enormous Vogue of Things Mexican, 27-28.
32. Survey Graphic instructions quoted in Delpar, "Frank Tannenbaum," 158.
33. Frank Tannenbaum, "Mexico - A Promise," Survey Graphic, 52 (no. 3, 1924), 129, 132.
34. Carleton Beals, "The Obregon Regime," Survey Graphic, ibid., 135.
35. On Morones, Vasconcelos, and Carrillo Puerto, Carleton Beals, Mexican Maze (Philadelphia, 1931), 12.
36. On Chavez, Carleton Beals, The Nature of Revolution (New York, 1970), 118.
37. Beals, "Obregon Regime," 189.
38. John A. Britton, Carleton Beals: A Radical Journalist in Latin America (Albuquerque, 1987), 44. Most of my biographical remarks come from Britton's book.
39. David W. Levy, Herbert Croly of the New Republic: The Life and Thought of an American Progressive (Princeton, 1985), 212, 256.
40. Britton, Carleton Beals, 234.
41. Britton, Carleton Beals, 49.
42. Ernest Gruening, "The Man Who Brought Mexico Back," Collier's, Sept. 29, 1923, p. 7.
43. Ernest Gruening, "The New Era in Mexico: A Study of President Calles," Century Magazine, 109 (March 1925), 658.
44. Plutarco Elias Calles to Ernest Gruening, Aug. 31, 1923 (in Spanish), File Ernest Gruening, Expediente 64, Inventario 2516, Gaveta 38, Archive Plutarco Elias Calles (Fideicomiso Archivos Plutarco Elias Calles y Fernando Torreblanca, Mexico City).
45. Ernest Gruening to Plutarco Elias Calles, June 21, 1924 (in Spanish), File Ernest Gruening, Expediente 64, Inventario 2516, Gaveta 38, Archive Plutarco Elias Calles.
46. As an example of jointly written articles, see Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, "Mexican Labor and the Mexican Government," Liberator (Oct. 1920), 20-23. Plutarco Elias Calles to Adolfo de la Huerta, June 27, 1922 (in Spanish), File Robert Haberman, Expediente 2, Legajo 2/2, Inventario 2615, Gaveta 39, Archive Plutarco Elias Calles.
47. Gregg Andrews, "Robert Haberman, Socialist Ideology, and the Politics of National Reconstruction in Mexico, 1920-25," Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 6 (Summer 1990), 190.
48. Barry Carr, El Movimiento Obrero y la Politica en Mexico, 1910-1929 (The labor movement and politics in Mexico, 1910-1929) (Mexico City, 1976), 94-95.
49. Bertram Wolfe, "Gompers, Agente del Imperialismo Yanqui: Mexico se Prepara a Recibirlo" (Gompers, agent of Yankee imperialism: Mexico prepares to receive him), El Machete (Mexico City), Oct. 30-Nov. 6, 1924, p. 2.
50. Gregg Andrews, Shoulder to Shoulder? The American Federation of Labor, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1924 (Berkeley, 1991), 167.
51. Gregg Andrews asserts that Obregon used the "CROM'S friendship with AFL to assure the 'pope in the White House' that his movement posed no threat to the United States." Andrews also argues that Gompers made the arrangements for a meeting between Morones and Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. See Andrews, Shoulder to Shoulder?, 100.
52. On the topic of American business and the recognition of Mexico, see N. Stephen Kane, "American Businessmen and Foreign Policy: The Recognition of Mexico, 1920-1923," Political Science Quarterly, 90 (Summer 1975), 293-313;
53. and Randall G. Hanis, "Alvaro Obregon, the Mexican Revolution, and the Politics of Consolidation, 1920-1924" (Ph.D. diss., University of New Mexico, 1971), 179-89. For the support of American chambers of commerce for the Obregon administration, see Atholl McBean to Secretary of State, Feb. 16, 1921, Grupo Documental 104-R1-E-2 (Archivo General de la Nacion). Similar letters from other chambers of commerce can be found in the same file.
54. Haberman quoted in Everett J. Ford, Educational Committee, Erie Central Labor Union, to Secretary Plutarco Elias Calles, May 29, 1922, File Robert Haberman, Expediente 2, Legajo 2/2, Inventario 2615, Gaveta 39, Archive Plutarco Elias Calles. 35 Robert Haberman to Plutarco Elias Calles, July 30, 1921 (in Spanish), File Robert Haberman, Expediente 2, Legajo 1/2, Inventario 2615, Gaveta 39, Archive Plutarco Elias Calles. Samuel Gompers, "The Mexican Government Should Be Recognized," American Federationist, 29 (March 1922), 199.
55. Carlos Macias Richard, "Diplomacia y Propaganda Mexicana en Estados Unidos" (Mexican diplomacy and propaganda in the United States), Eslabones (no. 2, July-Dec. 1991), 58.
56. For anti-Mexican immigration policy, see Harvey A. Levenstein, "The AFL and Mexican Immigration in the 1920s: An Experiment in Labor Diplomacy," Hispanic American Historical Review, 48 (May 1968), 206-19.
57. For immigration concerns in PAFL, see Sinclair Snow, The Pan-American Federation of Labor (Durham, 1964), 106.
58. Lorenzo Meyer, México y los Estados Unidos en el Conflicto Petrolero, 1917-1942 (Mexico and the United States in the oil conflict, 1917-1942) (Mexico City, 1981), 187. Jose W. Kelly to Plutarco Elias Calles, Aug. 30, 1921 (in Spanish), File Jose W. Kelly, Expediente 3, Legajo 1/17, Inventario 3034, Gaveta 45, Archive Plutarco Elias Calles.
59. John P. Diggins, The Rise and Fall of the American Left (New York, 1992), 94.
60. Eugene E. Leach, "The Radicals of the Masses," in 1915, the Cultural Moment: The New Politics, the New Woman, the New Psychology, the New Art, and the New Theater in America, ed. Adele Heller and Lois Rudnick (New Brunswick, 1991), 28.
61. Britton, Carleton Beals, 231.
62. Richard Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years (New York, 1973), 5.
63. Britton, Revolution and Ideology, 19.
64. I further elaborate this issue in Jesus Velasco, "Selling Ideas, Buying Influence: Mexico and American Think Tanks in the Promotion of NAFTA," in Bridging the Border: Transforming Mexico-U.S. Relations, ed. Rodolfo de la Garza and Jesus Velasco (Boulder, 1997), 125-47.
65. Mexican politician interview (in Spanish) by Velasco, Mexico City, Oct. 13, 1995, audiotape (in Velasco's possession).
66. Ibid.
67. Rosalva Ojeda interview (in Spanish) by Velasco, Mexico City, Sept. 28, 1995, audiotape (in Velasco's possession). Hermann von Bertrab interview by Velasco, Washington, D.C., Aug. 16, 1993, audiotape (in Velasco's possession).
68. It would be possible to find corporations that supported pro-NAFTA think tanks and were against the agreement because of the particular nature of their business. But this was the exception more than the rule.
69. Second Mexican politician interview (in Spanish) by Velasco, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Oct. 9, 1995, audiotape (in Velasco's possession).
70. Jose Luis Bernai interview by Velasco, Mexico City, Feb. 20, 1996, audiotape (in Velasco's possession). I obtained a copy of the Delal Baer-Sidney Weintraub letter from a person who used to work in a think tank and preferred to remain anonymous. (In Velasco's possession.)
71. Baer-Weintraub letter.
72. Ibid. See "Scholars for a Free Trade with Mexico," III/352 (72:73:71)/42900, Tratado Trilateral de Libre Comercio collection (General Archive of the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mexico City).
73. Second Mexican politician interview by Velasco, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Oct. 9, 1995, audiotape (in Velasco's possession).
74. Delal Baer, "Lo que es Ser Mexicanologo," (What is being a Mexicanist), Reforma (Mexico City), July 14, 1995 (Internet).
75. Jose Luis Bernal interview by Velasco, Mexico City, Oct. 7, 1995, audiotape (in Velasco's possession). "Informe Mensual de la Embajada de Mexico en Washington" (July 1994), 42247 General 7a Parte Pasa 8a Parte (General Archive of the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs).
76. "Informe Annual sobre los Acontecimientos Mas Relevantes Ocurridos en Esrados Unidos asi como en la Relacion Bilateral durante 1990," 42247 General 4a Parte Pasa a 5a Parte (General Archive of the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs).
77. See Michael G. Wilson and Wesley R. Smith, eds., The North American Free Trade Agreement: Spurring Prosperity and Stability in the Americas (Washington, 1992).
78. From EMBAMEX-EUA to C: Secretary, Fernando Solana, fax, Jan. 15, 1991, III/110 (VIII) 39738, Correspondencia para la Direccion General de Asuntos Economicos Multilaterales (General Archive of the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mexico City).
79. See Mexican Action Network on Free Trade, Memoria de Zacatecas (Mexico, Feb. 1992).
80. Adolfo Aguilar Zinser telephone interview by Velasco, Mexico City, March 1, 1999 (notes in Velasco's possession). Carlos Heredia telephone interview by Velasco, Mexico City, March 2, 1999 (notes in Velascos possession). Ralph Nader et al., The Case against Free Trade: GATT, NAFTA, and Globalization of Corporate Power (San Francisco, 1993).
81. The term ideological sympathizer is used by Friedrich Katz to analyze secret agents of revolutions in other countries. See Friedrich Katz, "El Espionaje Mexicano en Estados Unidos durante la Revolution" (Mexican espionage in the United States during the revolution), Eslabones (no. 2, July-Dec. 1991), 10.
82. For a history of American think tanks, see James A. Smith, The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite (New York, 1991); and
83. David Ricci, The Transformation of American Politics: The New Washington and the Rise of Think Tanks (New Haven, 1993).
84. Thomas Bender, Intellect and Public Life: Essays on the Social History of American Intellectuals in the United States (Baltimore, 1993), 85.
85. Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams, 23.
86. Susman, "Expatriate Image," 157.
87. Theodore J. Lowi, "American Impasses: The Ideological Dimensions at Era's End," in The American Impasse: U.S. Domestic and Foreign Policy after the Cold War, ed. Michael Minkenberg and Herbert Dittgen (Pittsburgh, 1996), 8.
88. I obtained this citation from the web page [http://www.iie.com/ADMINIST/aboutiie.htm] of the Institute for International Economics.