Mexico and the United States: The View from Vuelta (1976-1998)

The Mexican monthly review Vuelta was founded by Octavio Paz in 1976, shortly after a conflict with the government had forced Paz and his collaborators to abandon Plural, a periodical he had edited since 1971. For almost twenty-two years, until August 1998, when it ceased publication in the wake of Paz's death, Vuelta occupied a preeminent position in Mexican intellectual life. Over the years, Vuelta consistently presented itself as an independent publication, with a strong literary and cosmopolitan orientation, and a clear commitment to modernity, a concept Paz himself, in his seminal essay Posdata (1970), had firmly linked to the notions of criticism and democracy. Given that Paz once described the United States as "the most perfect expression of modernity" ("La democracia imperial" 36), it is not surprising that Vuelta's inclination towards modernity produced, among other things, an ongoing interest in developing a dialogue with the United States. Indeed, in a 1988 interview with César Salgado, Paz stated that Vuelta had two complementary aims: "on the one hand, to reflect on our culture, our tradition and our history; on the other hand, to engage in a dialogue with the world, especially the United States" (Poesía de circunstancias" 14). As a result, one encounters in the pages of Vuelta frequent commentaries on society, culture, and politics in the United States. In addition, Vuelta published the work of countless U.S. writers, especially poets and critics. True, the interest shown in the United States pales in comparison with the interest shown in France. Nevertheless, in Vuelta's map of the world, the United States always loomed large.

The United States has, of course, loomed large in the history of Mexico itself. Moreover, if recent events are any indication, the relationship between the two nations is likely to become of increasing importance on both sides of the border in the years to come. Consider, for example, the fact that one of Vicente Fox's first moves, shortly after being elected President of Mexico in July 2000, was to announce that one of his Administration's priorities will be to push for an expansion of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), following the model of the European Union. Or the fact that Fox's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jorge G. Castañeda, has authored books about the United States and about U.S.-Mexican relations, and indeed has held in recent years an academic appointment at New York University. But the huge shadow cast by the United States over the historical experience of its neighbor to the south has often led Mexican intellectuals to avert their eyes, to either look inward, to Mexico itself, or outward to Europe. It is precisely because Vuelta did not hesitate to take up the challenge of developing an intellectual conversation with the United States that an examination of the nature of this conversation may be of some interest. Naturally, in an article as short as this one, it is impossible to provide an exhaustive overview of the topic. What I do instead is identify and analyze three important strands in Vuelta's dialogue with the United States: the magazine's coverage of the Central American crisis in the 1980s; its responses to the images of Mexico produced in the United States; and its exploration of the theme of U.S. multiculturalism. An examination of these three topics helps us see the fluctuations in Vuelta's views of the United States, fluctuations that can be attributed at least in part to whether in any given situation the United States appears as helper or opponent in Mexico's struggle to achieve modernity. I conclude with a brief examination of perceptions of the United States in Letras Libres, a magazine founded after Paz's death by a number of prominent members of the Vuelta group.

Spotlight on Central America

Even though Octavio Paz continued well into the 1970s to make statements that were supportive of certain key tenets of Marxist thought, and indeed maintained a kind of sentimental attachment to socialism until the very end of his career...