In the Shadow of the Giant: The Americanization of Modern Mexico (review)

In this book, Joseph Contreras traces the various ways the United States has influenced Mexico since the nineteenth century and argues that such influence reached a profound and unprecedented level with the advent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the institutional turn to neoliberal policies that powered a move toward free trade and divorced Mexico from protectionist economic policies. This shift, according to Contreras, radically accelerated the interaction and flow of information between Mexicans and Americans in the 1990s. While economically driven and powered by NAFTA, this heightened form of interaction spilled into other spheres, transforming various aspects of Mexican society, the country's political processes, and the nation's culture. The result, Contreras argues, has been the Americanization of Mexico within the last twenty years.

Making his case in an engaging journalistic style, Contreras takes various fragments of life in Mexico to show how Mexicans during this period have openly embraced American taste and consumer trends. He draws the reader into this argument with fascinating accounts that point to the presence of American companies like Wal-Mart, which has become Mexico's largest retailer, as examples of how U.S. consumer culture has penetrated deep into the social and cultural fabric of Mexico. He shows how Mexicans have increasingly adopted English phrases and a way of thinking that defines life in this country in relationship to its closeness to the United States. To illustrate this, Contreras provides an endless number of personal accounts of people in various parts of Mexico, with a good deal of regional focus on places like Monterrey, Mexico City, and Zacatecas. Contreras also talks about America's influence in the democratization of Mexico's political process in the last twenty years and the venues that have accompanied this process. This includes a description of changes in the way existing media companies operate, the infusion of new players that were modeled on the United States into Mexico, and the hiring of key U.S. political consultants that extended to Bill Clinton's advisor, Dick Morris, by Vicente Fox in the 2000 Mexican presidential election. The author contrasts this political atmosphere to the mid-1980s when he first took residency in Mexico on a four-year deployment at the Mexico City Bureau for Newsweek Magazine. He accurately explains how Mexicans defined the nation's foreign policy and domestic politics in contrast to the United States up to the late 1980s.

Contreras engages various actors in the Americanization of Mexico, explains how this process has impacted Mexicans across class and regions, and makes a conscious effort to point out that increasing American influence in Mexico has had mixed results. Besides crediting politicians, the media, and the business world for the Americanization of Mexico, Contreras writes rather extensively about how ordinary people from both countries shaped this process. This takes him into discussions of how Mexicans who migrate north of the border bring daily life in various parts of Mexico closer to the United States through various venues. Addressing one of these venues, Contreras explains how a decision in the state of Zacatecas to allow its expatriates in the United States to run for office has led to four electoral victories in mayoral and legislative posts in the state. He also writes about American citizens vacationing in places like Cancun and explains how retirees seeking a more affordable lifestyle south of the border have increasingly settled in different parts of Mexico, bringing capital and American culture into local communities. In other words, Contreras defines the Americanization of Mexico as a two-way process and argues that this process does not place Mexicans and Americans on an equal footing. On the contrary, he concludes that Americans think of Mexico as a "handy appendage attached to America's doorstep [that] will continue to absorb and imitate the values, vices, life style, and language of El Norte for the...