13 Comments
Mar 20, 2023Liked by Mike Leavy

Thanks Mike, I appreciate how you repeatedly qualify the shortness of your description and at the same time, you convey a lot of information well. 🙏🏼

Expand full comment
Mar 20, 2023Liked by Mike Leavy

this is the stupidest thing i have ever read

Expand full comment
Mar 20, 2023Liked by Mike Leavy

I can see why you like Mexico so much :-) The more I learn, the more I appreciate its roots in values that I too share, such as inclusivity. Thanks again for an article that I can actually absorb in a subject (history) that I have traditionally struggled with.

Expand full comment

Your response

simply float away" reminds me of a saying from my Mexican upbringing, "Tablita de salvación". I bet I could float and be saved from the ocean's (life) turbulent waters from any piece of your flotsam and jetsom.

Expand full comment
Mar 21, 2023·edited Mar 21, 2023Liked by Mike Leavy

Interesting article and fascinating difference with the inclusion / exclusion of the native population. We discussed the life of Benito Juárez in the University, but I don't think we touched on this overall cultural aspect. And certainly not the difference between how Mexico and the U.S. treated the indigenous population.

Still I wonder sometimes what the overall attitude is today. I'll never forget a conversation I had with a rather well-to-do Mexican woman one day in a plaza principal. My early days in Mexico like 12 years ago. Okay, I'll name the town: SMA. After learning I was from the states, she said: Oh, you did it right. You exterminated your Indians.

I didn't get into it with her, but I was shocked and soon left.

Thanks for the article Mike!

Expand full comment

Where were you, Sir, when I needed to fulfill my university History 101? I might have changed my major to history. "I wasn't born yet", you say. OK. I forgive you, then.

"Mexico is a civilization defined by the inclusion of cultures from the Americas and Europe." Sadly, I suspect the tendency may be motivated by a wish to be more European. Perhaps, evidence might be revealed when you share your "recklessly light-on-detail" story of Maximiliano y Carlota and who and why invited them to Mexico.

ps. I might borrow "The Variegated Paths" expression for the title of my memoir.

Expand full comment