"Strangers to each other": The American encounter with Mexico, 1877-1910

The U.S. and Mexico engage in a profound level of economic, political and physical contact, yet the American cultural relationship with Mexico is characterized by ignorance of the history or contemporary condition of the neighboring nation and marked by two seemingly contradictory attitudes: Mexico is simultaneously condemned for not imitating the American model of development and idealized as a timeless haven from modern life. This dissertation argues that this stereotyped pattern of ignorance, villification and romanticization is not an impediment to communication, but a form of communication itself. It persists despite the past century's expansion in trade and tourism because it provides Americans with a satisfying vision of U.S. interaction with the outside world and alleviates American anxieties regarding the direction of U.S. development. The origins of this pattern can be found in the early Porfiriato, when both the U.S. and Mexico sought the benefits of new economic links. This dissertation examines three areas of cultural interaction that reveal the competition between the two nations to characterize the changing relationship. Part I explores diplomatic competition by examining the myth and reality of U.S. Minister John Watson Foster's confrontation with Porfirio Diaz. Although Foster was consistently outmaneuvered by the new Diaz administration, he achieved renown as the architect of the subsequent U.S.-Mexican alliance, reflecting the long-term failure of the early Porfirian foreign policy objectives. Part II examines Mexico's efforts to strengthen national sovereignty by altering American images of Mexican economic and political life. once again, the Mexican overtures confronted American assumptions of leadership and the resulting compromises did little to promote the long-term interests of Mexico. Part III examines the realms of tourism and world fairs. Although Mexico sought to use the new forms of interaction to raise American regard for Mexico, the Americans elaborated a "wonderland" vision of Mexico that served their own psychological needs and discredited evidence of Mexican progress as unnatural.