Manana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans

Why are Mexicans so successful in individual sports, but deficient in team play? Why do Mexicans dislike living in skyscrapers? Why do Mexicans love to see themselves as victims, but also love victims? And why, though the Mexican people traditionally avoid conflict, is there so much violence in a country where many leaders have died by assassination?

In this shrewd and fascinating book, the renowned scholar and former foreign minister Jorge Castañeda sheds much light on the puzzling paradoxes of his native country. Heres a nation of 110 million that has an ambivalent and complicated relationship with the United States yet is host to more American expatriates than any country in the world. Its people tend to resent foreigners yet have made the nation a hugely popular tourist destination. Mexican individualism and individual ties to the land reflect a desire to conserve the past and slow the route to uncertain modernity.

Castañeda examines the future possibilities for Mexico as it becomes more diverse in its regional identities, socially more homogenous, its character and culture the instruments of change rather than sources of stagnation, its political system more open and democratic. Mañana Forever? is a compelling portrait of a nation at a crossroads.

From the renowned scholar of Mexican culture and history and former foreign minister, a book that sheds much- needed light on the puzzling paradoxes of his native country, the fate of which is inextricably intertwined with our own.

Although its people traditionally avoid conflict, Mexico is plagued by violence. It has an ambivalent and conflicted relationship with the United States and yet is home to more American expatriates than any other country in the world. Its people tend to reject foreigners, yet they have made their nation one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. And while Mexicans have historically preferred isolated living, as the country’s population swells past 100 million, a bourgeoning middle class is clamoring for affordable housing near major cities. It is these kinds of contradictory characteristics of the place and its people that Castañeda considers in this shrewd and perceptive study, examining both the ways in which they helped forge the nation, and the ways in which they may dramatically hinder its progress.

Jorge G. Castañeda was born and raised in Mexico City. He received his B.A. from Princeton University and his Ph.D. from the University of Paris. He has been a professor of political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., and a visiting professor at Princeton University and the University of California at Berkeley. He was Mexico’s foreign minister from 2000 to 2003, and is now Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at New York University. He is a member of the board of Human Rights Watch and lives in New York and Mexico City.