Tonatiuh Guillén López*
The migration of Mexicans to the United States, as is well known, has a very long history and has gone through different stages and all possible difficulties. Also, it is true with numerous success stories of those who settled in the neighboring country, making their lives in other spaces and even having offspring.
However, until recently, our enormous population living in the United States and other parts of the world lacked the recognition of nationality that Article 30 of the Constitution now makes possible.
The reform to this article, effective as of May 18, 2021, had as its main consequence the recognition of nationality -with full rights- for persons of second, third, and subsequent generations who are descendants of Mexicans born abroad. Without going into details -which I have explained in the book Mexico, transterritorial nation, the challenge of the 20th century-, the result is that the Mexican nation is today made up of more than 166 million people; I reiterate, with full rights, like any other person born in the territory (except for some restrictions derived from dual nationality). In broad terms, 128 million of us are in the country and approximately 38 million abroad.
These are the real dimensions of the great Mexican nation, which requires a shift in our understanding as a nation to include in our cultural and institutional parameters -the State as a whole, all its institutions and policies- the Mexican population living abroad without discrimination or exclusion. It is not simply a matter of thanking for the remittances, which have become the country’s foremost social sustenance, but it is also necessary to strengthen and redefine our map of relations with the population abroad in practically all fields, starting with the simplest and at the same time the most complex: the cultural one.
The new great Mexican nation -unique and indivisible, as established in the Constitution- needs to permeate all consciences and recognize itself in its extraordinary diversity, which now includes everything from different (and mixed) languages to social practices that evolved in very distant spaces. Just as naturally as we recognize, for example, Yucatecan culture as an expression of Mexican culture, it is up to us to value and acknowledge in equivalent terms the cultural forms of Mexican heritage in Los Angeles or Chicago. And vice versa, a task that is equally complex and essential.
Knowing and recognizing the expanded universe of populations that constitute the current Mexican nation is neither a unique act nor a spontaneous process. It requires multiple and permanent initiatives, explicit actions, and positioning in all public spheres, beginning with the governmental sphere -which is still unaware of the remarkable evolution of the nation- and continuing through the cultural, educational, and public opinion domains that lead to the “natural” understanding of the new nation and the populations that make it up. The goal is to embrace and appreciate the nation’s trans-territorial dimension fully.
To begin with something simple and strategic, we should have an officially established day to celebrate the great Mexican nation, with events dedicated to presenting and applauding its vast cultural richness and populations in the territory and, especially, those outside it. It would be emblematic if the day of the Mexican nation were May 18, the date on which the latest reform of Article 30 of the Constitution, which is the cornerstone of its historic transformation, came into effect. It would be fantastic if, on that day, the cultural forms of the nation abroad were presented and celebrated in public spaces strongly symbolic of Mexican roots (such as Mexico City’s Zócalo, for example); it would also be valuable to hold equivalent events outside the country, especially in the United States.
While the cultural sphere is central to the future of the nation’s new stage, it is not the only decisive front. The State and its institutions require progressive adjustments to strengthen the nation’s relations with itself and, particularly, to avoid discrimination. Also, on the constructive side, reforms should update our traditional parameters of development and economic and social capabilities that usually end abruptly on this side of the borders. The transterritoriality of the nation, as a concept and because of its consequences on all public policies, demands new governmental practices. In generic terms, the expanded dimensions of the nation require a reform of the State from and for the new national structure.
In the immediate term, the most relevant task corresponds to the Mexican Foreign Service. It is up to our embassies and consulates to be the strategic instance of the new relations of the nation with itself from abroad. To begin with, the most challenging and large-scale function is the formalization of the recognition that the nation has been extended to the second and third (and successive) generations of Mexicans born abroad. The Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE) faces a monumental task and will require updating its rules and procedures, as well as modernizing its infrastructure and multiplying its operational capabilities. To put the challenge in soccer words, the game and the field are now very different.
The next time we commemorate Mexico’s Independence in many places worldwide, where a few or even hundreds of thousands of Mexicans live, the embassies and consulates should be excellent hosts, as they have been for a long time. On this opportunity, it would be more than pertinent to call the celebration with explicit reference to the new dimensions of the nation. The celebration should expand its usual list of invitations, opening a generous chapter for the second and third generations of Mexicans born abroad, offering them the dignified treatment as members of the nation that these days celebrates its Independence anniversary. There will be no better message to commemorate.
*Professor PUED/UNAM, Former Commissioner of the National Immigration Institute (INM)
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