Myths and [mis] perceptions : changing U.S. elite visions of Mexico

Abstract

Few neighboring countries are as diverse as Mexico and the United States. Their differences are not merely economic. The two countries also have widely divergent worldviews, the products of dramatically different histories. Following World War II, the United States emerged as a global superpower, the center of an unprecedented network of riches and influence. Mexico, meanwhile, remained virtually unchanged-an insular society locked in its own reality and dominated by an authoritarianism that regulated day-to-day existence and interpreted the past, present, and future to suit its own ends.