A reader writes:

Dear Mr. Dreher,

Gratia copiosa et pax! Receive my regards from Chihuahua, Mexico, where my fellow countrymen gallantly fought the Battle of the Sacramento River, defending their homeland from the invading yankees. Everytime I drive the Chihuahua – Ciudad Juárez highway, I see the monument honoring their memory. I see it and have flashbacks to my childhood where, as any Mexican kid, I would ask my Dad about Texas, California, New Mexico and what could have been. He’ll blame it on the freemasons, more worried on destroying the Church than in organizing the defense of the country. I learned from my father that only one decent American has ever lived: Henry David Thoreau. Now, thankfully, I know better. He taught me to love the Irish, who switched sides because they were Catholic. This is my first hint for you into the Mexican soul: the wound of 1848 hasn’t healed; it might seem it has, but it hasn’t.

As one of the few Mexican readers of your blog, I have been appalled by the comments to your post. I would have expected that level of animosity toward Mexicans on the comments section of Fox News or Breitbart. I have been appalled by the hubris, the ignorance and the lack of charity. The hubris: “sinkhole of corruption”. For Mexico, you call it “corruption”. For your own country, you call it “lobbying”. Didn’t Trump promised to “drain the swamp”? Have your readers forgotten the Clinton Foundation? The ignorance: “the Prime Minister of Mexico”. I can’t recall Emperors Agustín and Maximiliano having Prime Ministers… The lack of charity: “victory by humiliation is a lot cheaper than victory by tanks and bombs”. Really? If we don’t pay the wall you are going to invade us? Again, this is not what I would have expected from the readers of TAC. And yes, there is corruption and violence in Mexico, but that doesn’t automatically translate in us paying whatever silly project your President might have. As for the cartels, as bad as they are, they haven’t killed as many children as Planned Parenthood in the US.

Now on to my predictions of what Trump will achieve. The winner of our 2018 Presidential Election will probably be the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, since he is an old school “antigringo”. Not good for Catholics. He has always been careful not to alienate Catholic voters, but he surrounds himself with people that have supported abortion and the LGBT agenda. Irony of ironies: Evangelical voters in America bringing the Mexican Left to power.

Scrapping NAFTA would destroy the livelihood of millions of Mexicans — mine included, since I work in the auto industry. It’s gonna get ugly for both sides: no guacamole on Super Bowl Sunday!. I’ll give you a second hint into the Mexican soul: we have a knack for glorious defeats; we can’t go away quietly. Expect our children to learn Chinese or Russian in elementary school. We’ll stop the war on drugs. If the gringos want pot, let them have pot. It’s kind of silly that Mexicans are shooting at each other on the streets when pot is already legal in California…

One of the first posts I ever read from your blog was about how an article by Anthony Bourdain had spurred your interest in visiting Mexico. I think you should come. Mexico is part of the West. We’re poor Westerners from the Hispanic branch, but Westerners nonetheless. That guy on the bus stop has part of the DNA of sailor in the Armada. That guy’s lastname is Matamoros (Moor-slayer); each of its syllables smells like Old Castile. Our first Saint was a Franciscan crucified in Japan. We don’t require “extreme vetting”. Come visit. As you like to write: it’s important.

UPDATE: A comment from reader TimG, an American who lives in Mexico:

This is a topic pretty close to home to me, and I’d say that the comments here aren’t up to their usual standards of courtesy or reliability (no fault of Rod’s, of course).

A few corrections:
– Having dealt with Mexican immigration a lot over the years, it is a fairly straightforward and easy process both to get in on a tourist card and on other short-term visas as well as a permanent residency. I know the rules and they are not onerous. I would ten times rather work with Mexican immigration than US INS.

– Buying property is fairly simple as a foreigner in Mexico. You do sign a waiver agreeing to abide by Mexican law but you can even buy land as a tourist. The restrictions have to do with coastal property. I write as a foreign landowner in Mexico.

– I live and serve in a neighborhood where drug use is rampant. Unfortunately Mexicans DO use drugs and young people and families and society does pay a price. Heroin is the biggest destroyer here.

– I would point out that when in neighboring countries you can earn in an hour in one hour what you would earn in a day or even a week in the other, immigration is inevitable. While the US gvt has the right–even the obligation–to control its borders, that control has to be undertaken realistically. A quick check of Wikipedia (Mexico-United States barrier) indicates that the border wall approved in 2006 covers about 25% of the border but was stopped because of…cost. I was pretty skeptical of its effectiveness when it was built but it seems that it has been somewhat effective (along with other economic factors influencing immigration). A solution involving enforcement AND visa reform is the only possibility and I doubt that’ll ever happen in the US.

– US intervention in Mexican history did NOT end in 1848, neither politically nor militarily (Henry Lane Wilson, 1913; Veracruz, 1914). I would say, however, that most Mexicans are about as uninformed about their history as Americans are of theirs and most people here don’t go about lamenting Texas and the southwest.

– It would be an impossible task to fit informative comments on Mexican culture and the history of US-Mexican relations into a blog post and comments. Rod’s correspondent touched on very real issues here in Mexico. It’s complicated. Suffice it to say that (as in all the rest of life as well) it’s possible for BOTH sides to be messed up in a dispute. That’s why it’s important to keep the focus on the issue at hand. In this case, maybe: Listen a bit more to someone on the other side of an issue. That’s why we come to Rod’s blog, because he’s facilitated that so well here.
To that end, here are some books that may lend perspective on Mexico-US relationships:
1. Distant Neighbors by Alan Riding. A study of Mexicans and some leaders. A bit dated now.
2. The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz. If you want to understand the Mexican mindset you start here.
3. Barbarous Mexico by John Kenneth Turner. An exposé from 100+ years ago. Nobody comes away good in this one.

Thanks for letting me write so much, Rod. This is obviously an emotional issue, but we can do better than some of theses comments.