The American Colony in Mexico
McCaughan, Ed & Baird, Peter
In this issue we are publishing the first of a series of articles written in conjunction with the Yanqui Dollar Project. The subject of American residential colonies abroad is particularly...
...According to even such an establishment source as World Bank President Robert McNamara, the poorest 40% of the Mexican population have seen their share of the national wealth shrink from 14% to 11% in the past 20 years, while the richest 10% now take over half...
...Anderson Clayton, International Harvester, Procter & Gamble and others enter Mexico with 100% U.S...
...And his job was to keep Latin America pro-Ally...
...capitalism...
...In a speech before the U.S...
...Interview...
...Govt...
...history is also distributed to workers by AmCham in an attempt to reduce anti-yanqui sentiments within the workforce...
...It forms part of a media network in Mexico which includes two radio stations, an American Cablevision channel brought from Texas, an array of American movies and television programs, and numerous publications of the American Chamber of Commerce, the American Society, and the American Embassy...
...1, 1971 tions, U.S...
...I. International Business Organizations...
...A journalist for the Los Angeles Times who has been in Mexico for a number of years summed up his feelings about The News in this way: I wouldn't get printed in The News...
...The school facilities are frequently used by Mexican public schools, in a variety of activities such as evening adult education courses in which several hundred Mexican national adults are enrolled...
...Many American School graduates find re-entry into the U.S...
...Venezuela...
...ruling class...
...1 3 In keeping with this theory, the American Society carefully organizes a monthly calendar of events to avoid overlaps and to assure that not a day goes by without something to occupy the American residents, especially the wives...
...One of the many projects sponsored by the American Society is the Hotline, a telephone counselling service which has become an increasingly impor- tant Colony institution...
...Panama...
...Salvatore P. Lio, (Regional Director of Monsanto and Vice Presi- 14 -dent of Industrias Resistol), is a member of the Council of the Americas, and has been president of the U.S...
...Earlier attempts to collectivize the land system, a principal element of the Revolution, have been frustrated, as capital, skills, and research have been poured into the "modern" agribusiness complex dominated by American firms like Anderson Clayton and Ralston Purina...
...loneliness in fact is often the underlying cause of other problems such as alcholism, family conflicts, drug abuse, depression, sex hangups and suicide...
...have also made them more visible at home...
...Census reports American population at 11,090 for entire republic...
...The Memorandum urged the immediate organization of U.S...
...VIII, No...
...American Society Bulletin, March 1973...
...ALSO INSIDE: TERROR SCHOOL & ARMS SALES $1 Vol...
...which prepare the women for participation in a wide range of service projects...
...1 9 The Gore Amendment (1970), which would have cut the annual income tax exemption for U.S...
...Ibid...
...Interview...
...The system of AmericanI imperialism, however, is not yet so sophisticated that the American Empire can be directed merely by remote control from Washington or Wall Street...
...Their desire is not to rock the boat...
...Japan...
...The Chamber's Government Liason Committee maintains direct contact with the Mexican Government and works especially with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce...
...AmCham has a private Liason Committee which maintains contacts with Mexican corporate leaders outside of the Chamber...
...Even here the Mexican...
...penetration in major sectors of the petrochemical industry: as of 1960, U.S...
...VII, #5...
...capitalists and the Mexican bourgeoisie have aborted the Revolution and institutionalized the Counterrevolution since the 1940's...
...1. The term "American" will be used throughout to refer to "U.S...
...imperialism, a target of public demonstrations, bombings, bad publicity, and other attacks by anti-imperialist groups -- attacks seldom suffered by the policymakers back in Washington and Wall Street...
...Guatemala Project), and please send money with order...
...The yearly 4th of July celebration, for example, brings the Americans and their "Mexican friends" together in the atmosphere of a county fair, complete with hot dogs, coke, baked beans, balloons and clowns...
...Why do they do it...
...An attractive feature for the mobile families of the American Empire is that, as an accredited institution, the American School can transfer credits to and from American Schools in other parts of the world...
...As one long-time resident commented, "If you let one of them on the board, they want to take over the whole organization...
...College Teachers...
...Business organizations, schools, churches, newspapers, social clubs and charity groups have been established by Americans, not simply for their own communities, but as "showcases" of modern American society in a developing nation like Mexico...
...helped establish the Chrysler Corporation in Mexico (Automex S.A...
...role throughout the years...
...Women and men alike are active in the Salvation Army, the American Benevolent Society, the Comite Americano Pro-Infancia and literally dozens of other American service organizations...
...Accountants, Price Waterhouse & Co...
...Australia...
...Ibid...
...The Mexican bourgeoisie looks at the American Colony, a caricature of upper-class American success, as a model for its goals and standards of behavior...
...Norvell Surbaugh (deceased, Sears), William Underwood (Anderson Clayton), Harry Wright (Servicios Ejecutivos), Samuel Bolling Wright (retired, La Consolidada Steel...
...The "Junior League of Mexico City Orientation Kit" explains that the young women (18-40) are taught the "skills and attitudes" of volunteer service...
...Strategies for Central America," NACLA's Latin America and Empire Report, May-June, 1973, Vol...
...1, Jan...
...Since World War II, however, powerful elements of the national bourgeoisie have allied themselves with U.S...
...1958 American School in Mexico City becomes subsidized by U.S...
...Embassy (because of its size, complexity, and high level of secrecy...
...Universities and Youth are among the prime targets of the AmCham's current propaganda campaign...
...A recent article in the American Society Bulletin urged women to join the Social Service Committee's sewing group, because "many of the volunteers have been trans-ferred to other parts of the world . . . . This is a most pleasant way to meet new people, and many lasting friendships have been made through the work...
...1921 700 American companies hold First International Trade Exposition in Mexico City...
...Mexico...
...The political role of the American School in Latin America thus becomes clear...
...o 1974 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...3 7 COLONY CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE GHETTO PRESS Running stories from the major U.S...
...Made up of 2,100 of the largest Mexican and North American corporations in Mexico, it is the largest and most powerful of the 31 American Chambers of Commerce located outside the United States...
...5. The American Colony works to integrate Mexico ever further into the U.S.-dominated capitalist sphere...
...The apparent short-term benefits of these programs must be juxtaposed with their long-run implications...
...domination...
...it offers that for my wife...
...These factors have made the Junior League the American Colony's most exclusive women's organization...
...State Department, and an organizer of American Schools in Mexico, Central and South America, sees one of the American Schools' important services as "helping to transcend the gap between the host country's cul ure and that of the United States of America...
...business throughout the world...
...Today there are nearly a million American civilians who permanently reside in foreign countries...
...and Canada...
...LMexican American Review (the largest and most widely read business magazine in Latin America), the Communications and Public Relations Committee works hard to place some 800 favorable press mentions a year in various news media...
...One of these programs was the establishment in 1962 of a food distribution center and day nursery where U.S...
...Outside one gate a doorman guards several chauffer-driven Fords and Mercedes Benz, while inside half-adozen servants await the orders of their master or mistress...
...1877 Porfirio Diaz becomes president...
...The government also gained majority control of several foreign industries, including American and British controlled tobacco interests...
...1905 Prosperity under Diaz means influx of Americans...
...and the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA...
...Rituals such as the 4th of July celebrations serve to unite and give strength and confidence to the Colony...
...In Mexico the threats to North American domination seemed particularly serious throughout 1972, as the Mexican Government attempted a series of reforms aimed at strengthening the national economy...
...Switzerland...
...and British-controlled oil industry...
...Romulo O'Farrill Sr...
...Israel...
...remains in power until 1910...
...He became the president of the Mexican Highway Association (Associacion Mexicana de Caminos) and is the life-long president of the Pan American Highway Congress...
...Promote professional relationships between educators 96 the U.S...
...Interview...
...It smooths the rough edges of the capitalist system, helping it to continue neglecting basic human needs...
...State Department reports $1.25 billion U.S...
...But these problems pale in comparison to the material hardship the Colony helps impose on the Mexican people...
...investments...
...Published monthly, except May-June and July-August, when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., N.Y., N.Y...
...2 0 The American Society claimed that the Amendment not only would have "hit all U.S...
...1866 Immigrants establish American Benevolent Society, American Hospital and American Cemetary...
...The Junior League is one of several organizations that organizes and directs the large amount of spare time of the Colony women...
...Missionaries...
...But The News does something that no U.S...
...From the perspective of the imperialist system as a whole, these managers are by no means the most important force...
...imperialism when the system comes under attack from within or from without...
...Readin' Ritin'& counter-evolution THE AMERICAN SCHOOL North Americans, convinced that their system of education is not only the best for their society, but for the entire world, have propaga- ted American-type schools in every part of the globe...
...Active in numerous uplift programs herself, she has praised the efforts of the Junior League and organizes seminars of Mexican and American leaders to discuss the future of volunteerism in Mexico...
...The "demonstration effect" of such organizations becomes exaggerated because their wealth and bureaucratic efficiency are in such contrast to the struggling institutions of a developing nation...
...corporations...
...Goodrich, General Tire, Uniroyal, General Motors, Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola...
...9-The News A principal source of information and instrument of influence of the American Colony is a Mexican-owned newspaper, The News...
...In 1965, for example, a main excuse for the U.S...
...Certainly this is an element of the Third World's "population explosion" which is unfamiliar to most of us...
...interests, both in the host country, as well as in the U.S...
...U.S...
...These government actions, combined with extremely harsh criticism of foreign investments in Excelsior, a major Mexican daily, moved the American business community quickly into action...
...It features U.S.-trained teachers, U.S...
...Business Leaders On the basis of press coverage, reputation within the Colony, and membership on boards of directors of Colony organizations, we selected a group of 28 business executives as being the top American leaders...
...2.9 million tourists (90% Americans) come to Mexico--spend $1.8 billion...
...a confusing, painful, and sometimes impossible experience, and they return to their "in-between world" of the American Colony...
...It's time to talk about it, to look at what private enterprise is doing, and figure out how to get it across and do it well . . . The basic problem is not foreign investment, but the survival of the free enterprise system . . Loretta [1972 President of AmCham] got mad and galvanized the Chamber...
...Not to be left out in the lucrative automobile industry, Romulo Sr...
...In this area they have the full support and cooperation of the wife of the Mexican President, Mrs...
...4 7 *Miguel Aleman is probably the best friend that foreign investors have ever had...
...After Jenkins' death, Espinosa Yglesias took over the multi-million dollar Jenkins Foundation and has used this power to become the president of the Banco de Comercio, one of the 25 wealthiest men in Mexico and leading apologists of foreign investment...
...8. Interview...
...10025 or Box 226, Berkeley, Ca...
...4 0 The event reflects the social context of much of the Colony's charity activities...
...Germany...
...Preparing Tomorrow's Managers Charles Patterson, Superintendent of the American School in Mexico since 1956, consultant to the U.S...
...invasion of the Dominican Republic was "to protect American lives and property...
...It serves as a mouth-piece for those leaders, a forum in which Romulo and Reams of Paper - 11 - NOW AVAILABLE FROM NACLA: A Spanish translation of the NACLA Report on Central America, "U.S...
...Francis E. Leslie, retired managing director 3M de Mexico.................Office Equipment The Colony's female leadership, usually the wives of business executives, are organized by neighborhood, and are given the task of soliciting donations from the prestigious residential zones of the American community...
...The News, November 16, 1970...
...Since 1931 the ASF has been a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools which allows American School graduates to enter U.S...
...capital, has resulted in an ever increasing concentration of wealth and power within the hands of the Mexican elite...
...All of these projects are designed as "model programs" to be turned over to community leaders after they are "operating smoothly...
...Where does the money collected in this highly publicized charity drive go...
...In a competitive world where business and social activities are often one and the same, a competent wife to administer parties and other social gatherings is an important element of an executive's success...
...In The Ugly American, Lederer and Burdick called them the "Golden Ghettos...
...4 8 VII...
...Conquistadores POR MARINO .1 0 -3 I 1From General Scott to General Foods The North American Colony had its origins in the manifest-destiny expansionism of the mid-19th century...
...Provide broad, bilingual education programs which may lead the students into business and commercial activities meaningful to U.S...
...Mexican executives, however large their number, play a conspicuously subordinate, almost apprentice-like role in the Chamber's activities...
...Ibid...
...Government Civilian Employees...
...3 5 The News has taken on the responsibility of educating its readers about the evils of communism, bolshevism, collectivism--anything which threatens U.S...
...press associations, printing established American columnists, and focusing almost exclusively on news events in the United States, The News provides the American Colony in Mexico with the kind of coverage it might get from a conservative daily in Texas or Bakersfield, California...
...occupation forces, American civilians gradually settled down to form a permanent community...
...Chamber of Commerce, with its membership of over 40,000 firms and individuals...
...We are the success story and people will copy success...
...One analyst of overseas Americans has written that, "The American administrators deliberately promote the social world to raise their employees' morale by keeping their families busy...
...He belongs to many organizations, including the prestigious University Club for American businessmen...
...Teams of businessmen, government personnel, educators, media specialists, and missionaries have been sent to far corners of the world to aid in the task of expanding American influence...
...He holds partnerships with U.S...
...It- also established the Office of Overseas Schools which, among other activities, coordinates exchange programs between the overseas schools and universities and high schools in the United States...
...In countries such as Mexico and Brazil, whose loyalty to the Allies could not be taken for granted, members of the American colonies became crucial agents in the "war effort...
...Alonso Aguilar M. and Fernando Carmona, Mexico: Riqueza y Miseria, Editorial Nuestro Tiempo, Mexico, 1972, p. 67...
...Ibid...
...The term "colony" is used to designate the American residents, to distinguish them from students and tourists...
...It seems apparent that the central power of the Empire rests in Wall Street and in Washington where general policy and direction are determined...
...Interview...
...94701...
...20,300 20,200 20,100 20,100 20,000 17,900 17.600 16,100 100,000 280,000 78,600 37,000 12,600 26,000 42,000 40,000 5,000 3,000 Source: U.S...
...penetration and domination within Mexico both to the host country and to themselves...
...With that anti-business sentiment prevailing among a substantial segment of the public, the free enterprise system is in jeopardy--in jeopardy in the United States from statisticoriented intellectuals and narrow-visioned protectionists, and in jeopardy in developing nations where desperate people pursue the whitewashed fantasy of Marxism...
...Yet its very wealth and exclusivity also reveal certain weaknesses of the Colony itself...
...In addition, academic and psychological test materials developed by the American School personnel have been adopted for use by all the public schools in Guatemala.33 As is the case with other Colony institutions, such as the American Chamber of Commerce or the Junior League, the size and the resources of the American School take on significant dimensions in the context of a developing nation such as Mexico...
...Why did this change...
...Roosevelt asked him if he wouldn't take all of Latin America...
...citizens, approximately one third are Mexican citizens, and the remaining students are of various other nationalities...
...1943 U.S...
...22 Loneliness of the Short-Distance Imperialist Despite the seemingly endless number of Colony activities and the public relations ef- forts of the American Society, the Colony is plagued with serious social problems...
...Zuaiga de Echeverria...
...In this year alone 52,000 farm workers and 23,000 railway workers are brought into U.S...
...affiliates) on strike...
...Richard Dillon, Marketing Dir..Pharmaceutical Johnson & Johnson de Mexico Emerson Downing...
...In a rare departure from its usual line, the American Society Bulletin recently printed a revealing article about the conditions leading to the establishment of the Hotline: It is, I think, generally conceded that something, perhaps quite alot is wrong with civilization as it now stands . . . we dwell in the midst of an alarming number of desperately unhappy people...
...Nevertheless, an American atmosphere prevails, with American schools, churches, synagogues, riding stables, and elegant restaurants...
...interests 5 These families have made their fortunes over the past three decades by trading the well-being of the Mexican people for a profitable partnership with foreign capitalists...
...The News interprets Mexican business trends to its readers in Mexico and the U.S...
...In 1973, for example, a partial list of the 28 captains of the men's division of the UCF drive looked like this: 16 Captains: Classification: Edwin H. Adams, president......Construction Contesca Assoc., S.A...
...Embassy opens $500,000 U.S...
...Government armed forces kill and jail hundreds and force the movement underground...
...1922 American developers purchase 3,000 acres for elite American suburb in Mexico City--Chapultepec Heights 1927 U.S...
...Colony institutions serve to socialize dissident or potentially disruptive elements within the American community...
...25 for profit-making and government organizations...
...The oldest and largest of these is the American School Foundation (ASF) in Mexico City...
...Civilian EmployeeA...
...Embassy in Mexico gathered forces in an attempt to exert public pressure on the Mexican government...
...American investment drops...
...16 for non-profit institutions...
...The Colony provides a network of all the institutions necessary for the American way of life: American hospitals, schools, clubs, business organizations, churches, newspapers, and cemetaries...
...5. Alonso Aguilar M. and Fernando Carmona, Mexico: Riqueza y Miseria, Mexico 1972, p. 85...
...firms in hotels, television and land Manuel Espinosa Yglesias began as bookkeeper and pistolero (hired gun) of the late William Jenkins, an ex-American consul who built a fortune and mini-empire in the state of Puebla...
...Interview...
...Trade Center in Mexico City...
...business...
...4 1 AmCham Mexico is certainly well-suited for the task it has set out to do...
...They called themselves the American Colony...
...1970 Luis Echeverria elected President of Mexico...
...while their leaders did not achieve this goal, they did initiate several important reforms, including the agrarian reform and the 1938 nationalization of the petroleum industry...
...A Presidential decree declared that 60% of all the parts used in the auto industry would have to be made in Mexico, while another bill called for strict controls over the importation of foreign technology...
...1964 Diaz Ordaz regime begins open-door policy toward foreign investors...
...As well as projecting its image and philosophy in its own publication, - 15 - "Time To Tell It Like It Is" "The private enterprise system throughout the world is menaced by the rising tide of opposition, with the consequent and imminent threat of being submerged by the advancing waves of collectivism . . . "I view this crisis as an opportunity to check the rising flood of opposition, not by temporary sand-bagging, but by a counter-tide of truth and fact which, if properly done, will leave our system stronger than ever before...
...1941 Leading American businessmen organize American Society of Mexico D.F...
...Had we had an active North American Association, had we had all these different things we are starting to do today in Venezuela, Cuba wouldn't be Cuba today...
...The Education Committee runs a "vocational orientation program" for students, sponsors visits to industrial plants, grants scholarships for graduate study in the U.S., and helped reestablish Empresas Juveniles, Mexico's Junior Achievement, described by its president as a "do-it-yourself training school for adventures in free enterprise and human dignity...
...This is the home of many wealthy American executives and site of the U.S...
...Patterson, op...
...Some American women who cannot adapt to this kind of ghetto world return to the United States...
...Mexico is no exception...
...5 3 These are only two examples of the many ways in which an alliance of U.S...
...The young are opting out of business...
...Today business is coming under a great deal of attack...
...The United States does not always have to occupy a country with tanks and armies in order to assure its subordination...
...Government has come to see the American School as a neces- sary part of foreign operations, a means of demonstrating to developing nations the American methods and philosophy of education...
...Harry Steel (H...
...They need us...
...These school-to-school programs keep the Colony schools up-to-date on the most recent developments in curriculum and techniques, and government funding provides them with the re- sources to put the new ideas into practice...
...Confederate officers retire to Mexico and Brazil...
...From: "Time To Tell It Like It Is" Speech by Frank Loretta, President, DuPont Mexico 1972 President of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, March 2, 1973...
...231,000 86,000 53,900 40,900 40,000 23,900 23,600 20,800 France...
...No Mexican has ever been president of the organization and no non-American sits on the executive board...
...American Consul in Guadalajara is kidnapped by Peoples Revolutionary Armed Forces...
...Army chaplains...
...For us, questioning business is like questioning motherhood or slice bread...
...The official Mexican Census of 1970 gives 97,246 as the number of Americans living in the entire Republic, with large settlements in Tamaulipas (17,000), Nuevo Leon (9,000), Jalisco (7,312), and Guanajuato (3,000...
...1, Jan...
...They take their furniture and appliances, their families, their schools and hospitals and churches, their supermarkets, drycleaners, carwashes, and restaurants, bookstores, newspapers, magazines and golf courses...
...Elsewhere they are referred to as "Little Americas" and in Mexico they are known as the American Colony...
...H. Carnes & Assoc...
...Several major dailies in the Capital may carry headlines criticizing Purina and Anderson Clayton's control of meat prices, or denouncing the denationalization of Mexican industry, while The News reports on Henry Kissinger's latest vacation in Acapulco...
...According to the Communications Director: Because the U.S...
...4. The Colony works actively to defend the interests of U.S...
...Thus, their business activities, their social world and their private life mutually reinforce their shared values, ideological perspectives and goals...
...The News presents a daily interpretation of carefully selected events which reflects the economic and political ties of its editors as well as the bias of its U.S...
...They're questioning...
...Always presenting a glowing picture of the "Mexican miracle," it gives special coverage to "progressive" friends of the Colony, like Manuel Espinosa Yglesias, the O'Farrils and Miguel Aleman (see below...
...For most Americans there, it is their principal source of news...
...The highest officials of the American Embassy are also the honorary officers of the AmCham Mexico, and several of the Embassy staff (the Counselors of Public Affairs, Economic Affairs and Commercial Affairs) are working closely with the Chamber...
...But the school is not totally successful...
...Ambassador and his wife officially head the UCF drive, as they do most all Colony organizations, giving the official stamp of approval and authority of the U.S...
...Within Mexico, the Colony tries to counter nationalist and socialist tendencies through propaganda campaigns directed at students and workers, through a U.S.-dominated media which bombards the public with anti-communism, and through its contacts with influencial leaders in the Mexican public and private sectors...
...Provide leadership and educational practices by utlizing and demonstrating modern methods of educational instruction, and through democratic organization, oper- ation and administration of the schools...
...Retired U.S...
...Ambassador demanded a clarification of the role of foreign investment...
...private enterprise and the capitalist system throughout the world has made necessary certain controls over foreign nations...
...3. To assist in developing cultural relations between the two countries...
...DON'T ROCK THE BOAT More than anything else, The News is a huge ad for the United States, the American Colony, and the Mexican bourgeoisie...
...Mexican news items which do make headlines are those which directly affect the principally American readership or its allies within the Mexican bourgeoisie...
...Nelson Rockefeller to Washington, and Mr...
...Foreign capitalists and their representatives and managers in Mexico flock to the inauguration to ensure the safety of their investments...
...Through social interaction in exclusive clubs, membership in American business organizations, involvement in American schools, and participation in the Colony's management training programs, significant sectors of the Mexican elite have come to emmulate the ideology and life-style of the American capitalist...
...Interview...
...Most of the schools enroll children from those families of the host country holding the highest educational aspirations and standards...
...All they do is print glowing handouts from the government...
...During the past year, the AmCham has continued to organize and strengthen its efforts to "correct" the image of American business in Mexico...
...An AmCham official explained that cooperation between the American business sector and the government was being "used to an optimum" in Mexico: Few countries have such a relationship as we do . . . The usual case, and the case before in Mexico, is that the businessmen see the Embassy people as bureaucrats who really don't know what's going on...
...Research on American Colonies and the power structure in general is only one element in the long struggle against U.S...
...depression...
...Interview...
...Bahamas...
...missionaries and retired Americans (because these groups are in many ways peripheral to the power structure of the Colony...
...2 In Cairo and Tokyo, in Manila and Buenos Aires, the overseas Americans and their dollars have established beachheads of American "culture...
...The American kids only infrequently elect courses about Mexico or Latin America.31 In Mexico, creating a bf-cultural experi- ence and bridging the "culture-gap" means so- cializing non-Americans to the ways of North American education, selling them curriculum, technology and the English language...
...military interventions...
...Instead, they have created their own institutions and attempted to bring Mexican elites into them, pulling Mexico into the sphere of U.S...
...With the troops came investors hungry for profits in land, mines, oil and manufactured goods...
...Nicholas Diez, Managing Dir...
...g.m...Travel American Express Co., S.A...
...Foreign investment curtailed and many foreigners leave...
...In March of 1973, Romulo O'Farrill Jr...
...Interview...
...Spain...
...Footnotes on page 32...
...And when Americans go to live permanently in a foreign country--to work in corporaCanada...
...Embassy and the venerable old University Club, meeting place for the Colony's business elite...
...Anxious to promote an image of the charitable, friendly, well-intentioned American, the American Society likes to stress the percentage of money which goes to Mexicans...
...Embassy, disproportionate to their numbers...
...Emphasis added...
...The school enrolls 2,500 students in its kindergarten through high school program...
...government by lobbying against legislation viewed as harmful to U.S...
...We feel this is an important study, not only for what it shows about the Nexican case, but also because it is (to our knowledge) the first of its kind and thus can serve as a model for similar studies in other countries...
...In the name of social service the Junior League helps boost the image of the U.S...
...will have to export more, the AmChams abroad will become more important...
...2 3 The article explains that the Hotline receives a "greater percentage of calls coming from lonely people than from any other single problem area...
...The greater portion of The News' coverage deals with events in the United States...
...Whether Junior League or charity bash, charity activities never lose their upper-class character...
...VIII, No...
...In large part because of the word from the new administration [Nixon] of 'be kind to businessmen.' The Embassy had been a closed ring of bureaucrats entertaining themselves, but now they've got the word...
...to meet the leaders of the U.S...
...The ASP, in cooperation with Michigan State University, operates in-service training and consultation programs to American schools in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica as well as its sister schools in Mexi-co...
...government...
...1942 State Department's USIS opens Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City...
...1929 American Colony grows smaller during U.S...
...Workers are another major source of concern for the Chamber whose members together employ an estimated 250,000 Mexican workers, 5% of the nation's total workforce of five million.49 It is these workers who, with demands for a 20% wage increase, recently have struck many of the largest U.S...
...But the American woman recently arrived to this world may find herself lonely, isolated and unoccupied...
...Mass movement led by militant students demands end to yanqui domination in Mexico...
...They also act as pressure groups on the U.S...
...1950 Census shows 83,391 North Americans in Mexico as result of post-war investments...
...capital...
...He has received wide recognition for his pro-U.S...
...This translation, 45 typed pages (legal size, single-spaced) can be ordered for $2.50 (to cover xerox costs) plus $1.50 postage...
...An American residing in Venezuela explained: - 5. . . we lost Cuba, million, and now we inside the Western hemisphere where communism is being embedded and terrorists are being trained to make our job harder...
...In Venezuela, for example, American businessmen revived their version of the American Society, the North American Association, not long after Vice President Richard Nixon's unpopular visit in 1958...
...Prominent clubs: American Club, Rotary, British club...
...In 1973, for the first time in its history in Mexico, the President of the League was a Mexican...
...investments in Mexico...
...In countries like Mexico where there is a scarcity of the skills and resources needed by modern capitalist enterprises, the Colony provides American lawyers, public accountants, advertising agencies, engineers, management training, economists, marketing research--whatever the multinational corporation may need...
...With these same ends in mind, the Chamber has donated over 50,000 books to educational institutions in the country...
...Having the Cuban Revolution fresh in their minds, they saw a stronger American Colony as crucial to the protection of American interests in other volatile areas...
...Foods & Equipmt Productos del Monte, S.A...
...12-16...
...1865 Defeated U.S...
...or U.S...
...g.m..Lubricants Texaco, S.A...
...influence in Mexico and in strengthening the Counterrevolution...
...A Chamber official told us: We're really concerned...
...But most American women go to countries such as Mexico as the wives of business managers...
...We have chosen to focus on five of the more important "home institutions": the American Society, the American School Foundation, The News, The Junior League, and the American Chamber of Commerce...
...Address all mail to Box 57 Cathedral Station, N.Y., N.Y...
...Now we're coming closer together and seeing that we do have a lot in common...
...Clearly the presence of the American Colony is a serious threat to Mexican autonomy...
...1974 Vol...
...In the fall of 1972, a high level meeting was called in Acapulco, where representatives of the AmCham, the Council of the Americas, and the U.S...
...In a January 1971 issue of the American Society Bulletin an article praised the defeat of the Gore Amendment which "automatically brought cheer to the American communities in Mexico and everywhere else in foreign countries...
...First public demonstration since 1968 Tlatelolco massacre is brutally repressed by pars-military forces and ultra-right...
...U.S...
...An American Colony in Venezuela was described as: a concentration of several thousand high-powered individuals--well-trained, self-confident, affluent, representing a major world power, securely linked to organizations of the first rank, facing specific threats and challenges, and thoroughly convinced that the best service they can do the host country is to effect a rapid transfer there of home institutions...
...As in the United States, the League has recruited its 150 or so members from among the wives and daughters of the most wealthy and powerful businessmen...
...The American Society's most important activity is organizing the United Community Fund, a million-peso charity drive for Colony and Mexican organizations...
...The editorial stance of The News is a staunch anti-communist, pro-U.S...
...The Counterrevolution, financed in large part by U.S...
...Charles Patterson, The First Handbook of Overseas Schools, The American School Foundation, Mexico City, p. v. 30...
...Public Relations), Frank Loretta (Dupont), Harry S. Mazal (Harry Mazal, S.A...
...He is presently the general manager of The News, and vice president of Automotriz O'Farrill and sits on the board of directors of six banks and corporations, including RCA Victor de Mexico, MACK S.A...
...In Mexico City key American School personnel serve as professors at the National University...
...I had 37 movie projectors going all over Mexico trying to keep Mexico pro-Ally...
...American Society Bulletin, March 1973...
...I'28 Patterson lists several specific functions which he feels contribute to this task...
...the American schools and churches, and the leaders and members of the Mexico City Colony's hundred-some-odd organizations...
...Moreover, these colonies have provided an excuse for overt U.S...
...13 - Requests for further information and additions or corrections to this study may be directed to: Ed McCaughan & Peter Baird c/o NACLA, Box 226 Berkeley, California 94701Outpost of American Business THE AMCHAM The first years of this decade have witnessed increasingly strong attacks from all sides against U.S...
...the kids are at the American school or with a servant...
...Students...
...curriculum, dress codes, PTA, football games, pom-pom girls, and many other trappings of a "real live American school...
...It offers an alternative to isolation and boredom, promising involvement in meaningful activities and contacts with other American women of the same class...
...2. Harlan Cleveland, Gerald J. Mangone, and John Clarke Adams, The Overseas Americans, McGraw-Hill, 1960, p. v. 4. Interview, Mexico City, July 1973...
...In addition, these people are prominent political figures, educators and businessmen...
...has followed in the footsteps of his father...
...Rapidly rising cost of living gives rise to land take-overs, riots, and thousands of strikes...
...Not included in this presentation are other groups and institutions: the U.S...
...At the level of fashion shows and cocktail parties, the contradictions and hypocrisy of upper-class charity are obvious...
...The Junior League also operates a Volunteer Service Bureau which helps place non-League volunteers in certain "charitable" programs...
...The important difference is that the Americans in Mexico and elsewhere have not only been able to bring their own institutions with them, but they have used them as tools of American influence abroad...
...Through the media, charity activities, philanthropic foundations, and public works projects, Colony institutions attempt to justify U.S...
...businessmen at home responded to the attacks with the publication of the Lewis F. Powell Memorandum, a study commissioned by the U.S...
...This fact decreases the need for overt control of Mexico by the United States, for it helps to assure that the national elite will cooperate in maintaining the structures of capitalism...
...Auditors Vernon I. Dwelly, v.p...
...It is one of : Leagues and the only branch outside of the U.S...
...The News, December 27, 1970, Editorial page...
...Most of these see membership in the Chamber as a requirement for trading with the United States, since it provides both the essential information and the personal contacts with American businessmen...
...1, January 1974 N A CLA ' S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORTIntroduction WHERE THEY LIVE (major countries) The successful expansion of U.S...
...American Chamber of Commerce founded in Mexico City...
...The 1971 figures listed below represent a 16% increase since 1968, and are 79% greater than the 1960 figures...
...imperialism...
...Robert D. Bailey, v.p..........Banks, investors First National City Bank Thomas Looney..................Automotive General Motors de Mexico, S.A...
...The News is sold each day in all major Mexican cities where Americans live, making its way into thousands of homes and offices...
...troops occupy port of VeraCruz...
...These schools, form an integral part of the American Colony and affect important sectors of Mexican society...
...Further study is necessary in every country where American Colonies, representing the interests of the American ruling class, work to subvert the legitimate aspirations of people in struggle...
...Besides the women of the Colony elite, the Junior League also selects women of the Mexican upper-class, usually those tied through marriage or business to the American Colony...
...staff and news sources...
...They are given courses on subjects which develop an "awareness of (their) community--its goals, needs, and its people...
...corporations controlled 92% of Mexico's chemical industry and 81% of the pharmaceutical sector...
...U.S...
...Steele y Cia, Industrias Steele), McNeil Stringer (Opinion S.A...
...1914 1,500 U.S...
...Likewise, the nationalization of petroleum has not prevented U.S...
...Behind stone gates and surrounded by manicured gardens are the fortress-like homes built in the French-colonial style of the Porfirio Diaz era...
...The O'Farrill family that owns and operates The News is one of the fifty wealthiest families in Mexico...
...Ibid...
...For the American families of several generations' residence in Mexico, the American School is the guarantee that their children will be brought up as North Americans, respecting the values of the American social system...
...As one Ford Foundation official explained: The Junior League at least offers a means of integration into life here...
...a history of the organization published by the American Society, Mexico City...
...Ibid...
...foreign branch of the American Empire...
...Cited in: Roselind Beimer, Degree of Interaction Between Mexican and American Students, unpublished thesis...
...F. Bonilla, The Failure of Elites, MIT Press 1970, p. 301...
...1945 Post-war flood of U.S...
...citizens residing abroad from $25,000 to $6,000, - 6-is an example of legislation judged "harmful" by the American Society...
...Recognizing the threat presented by the workers, the Chamber has organized a series of courses to teach factory workers the benefits and function of the free-enterprise system...
...1911 Revolution well underway...
...He told them what they should be doing -- providing a situation in which practitioners of free enterprise can perform We're acting now rather than reacting...
...It has been in continuous operation since then, closed only for short periods during the Mexican Revolution...
...interests in Mexico...
...and Mrs...
...All Colony organizations cite as one of their goals the improvement of MexicanAmerican relations, which in practice means the strengthening of ties between the Mexican bourgeoisie and the American capitalist class...
...1888 First American School established in Mexico City...
...line which has prompted one Los Angeles Times correspondent to label it "the worst of yellow journalism...
...Special courses such as English are structured and offered free of charge for Mexican government officials who desire to learn a second language . . . . A national (media) specialist has assisted . . . in the organization of the Educational Materials Canter of the College of Medicine National University of Mexico.32 The American School also reaches out to in-fluence the faculty, administrators and students of other major cities in Mexico and Central Amer-ica...
...The distribution center may reach a few people, but for the 70% of all Mexican children who suffer from malnutrition, the effort is lost...
...27 The American School greatly reduces the possibility of the feared de-Americanization, for it becomes the cultural umbilical cord, the life-line back to the U.S...
...Brazil...
...The annexation movement finally resulted in the military invasion and occupation of Mexico in 1847 under General Winfred Scott...
...American Chambers in other Latin American nations have been severely critized by members of the Council of Americas as "flag waving" interests groups which actually harm the image and effectiveness of U.S...
...1870 First Protestant missions established...
...Added to these are a million enlisted men and another half million of their dependents...
...38 Cheerleader and athlete at the American School...
...More difficult to analyze are the numerous service projects undertaken with a great deal of sincerity and desire to help others...
...1938 President Cardenas nationalizes U.S...
...United Kingdom...
...William Domhoff, The Higher Circles, Governing Class in America, Vintage, New York 1970, p. 33...
...It was certainly easiest for us to move into the American dinner-party circuit . . . After a couple of these silly-assed parties we found ourselves being sucked into it...
...Congress, President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the International Education Act by saying: We have a potentially rich resource in the American elementary schools and colleges overseas assisted by the Department of State and AID: Hoping to improve the quality of the Amer- ican schools abroad, the State Department pro- vides financial aid and helps coordinate a num- ber of ro rams beneficial to the s hods...
...The causes of this poverty - 12 -remain the same--the same U.S...
...Military Retirees...
...American Society Bulletin, March 1973...
...16 -Five top-level Mexican university administrators are now regularly attending seminars and other functions of the AmCham...
...Indicative of the awesome array of skills and resources at the finger tips of most Colony organizations, the American Society is able to call upon high level executives from every major industrial sector to solicit donations from U.S...
...Employees of Private Foundations...
...Ibid...
...24 Though hesitant to admit publicly that the American Colony might be anything less than a bastion of strength, confidence and optimism, many residents will confide privately that their world is full of self-doubts and fear...
...To this end, just about a year and a half ago, the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, in a fundamental change in its traditional posture, decided to undertake a vigorous campaign of truth and fact to demonstrate the positive benefits of the private enterprise system and direct foreign investment . . . "No successful operation can flourish in a climate of public and official misunderstanding of, first, the function of profit as an incentive to progress and development, and second, the function of the multinational corporation as the most efficient means of dispersing to all economic levels the fruits of its technology and its resources . . "The Naders and the Allendes and the Hartkes are seemingly successful because the public has been pre-conditioned to accepting business as the scapegoat for its real or imaginary misfortunes...
...Superintendent Patterson cites this example of how one of these programs has effected the entire public school system in Guatemala: In Guatemala City, Guatemala, the American School is actually employed as a laboratory and teacher-training institute on behalf of the National Ministry of Education, and the National University of San Carlos...
...Colony pioneer, Sam Bollings Wright, an American industrialist active in Mexico since the 1900's, tells the story of his work during the War: When World War II came along they called Mr...
...Borne by tides of goodwill and dollars," proudly writes Harlan Cleveland, apologist for overseas Americans, "the United States diplomat and technician, the preacher and the professor, are working hard to militarize, proselytize or to reorganize the lives of their foreign cousins...
...4. To promote acquaintanceship among its members.10 If the American Society was inspired by the threat of World War II, it has been kept alive and active by what it views as a communist attack on the "principles of the Declaration of Independence . . . [and] . . . freedom on a global basis...
...As determined as the early American pioneers who dispossessed the Native Americans and conquered the American West, these modern pioneers of capitalism are pushing the borders of the United States ever outward...
...Government surplus food is distributed to over 2,000 persons a week...
...Economic controls, political influence, advertising, and the mass media in general have facilitated the process of domination...
...A generation of Mexicans fought for socialism...
...In an isolated community where the cocktail circuit and the dinner party become the main social institutions, activities like those organized by the American Society can play an important role...
...businessmen and their corporations, foreign elites whose power and wealth is far the activities and personnel of the U.S...
...and Mexican governments initiate Bracero Program...
...was one of several Mexico City newspaper editors who along with Mexican Presidential Undersecretary, Fausto Zapata, hosted a luncheon in honor of visiting USIA Washington chief, James Koegh...
...The Volunteer Service Bureau is part of the League's drive to promote the volunteer ethic among Mexico's middle-class women as well as the elites, in this way multiplying the womanpower of the League's programs...
...1920 American Legion established in Mexico City...
...The new direction given the AmCham by its current leadership represents an important trend in the strategy of U.S...
...Congress and columnist Jack Anderson...
...1873 Anglo Saxon Church founded in Mexico City...
...the Council of the Americas, made up of 200 of the largest U.S...
...4 Since 1936, the value of this land has increased 180 times, making it the most expensive residential district in the Mexican Republic.5 Not only North Americans live here, but also the most wealthy Mexicans and members of other foreign elites...
...In its determination to recreate the American experience, the Ameri- can School produces an exaggerated world of half-truths and distorted myths...
...2. The Colony creates a sense of American community which reduces the psychological difficulties presented by the transient life-style of the Empire's managers and technicians...
...globals with operations in Latin America...
...Although the American School, and other Colony organizations, were created within a context culturally, politically, and economically distinct from that of Mexico, they frequently become the models of "progress" to be copied by Mexican elites...
...Married to a third generation American in Mexico who is an executive in the automobile industry, she speaks flawless English, was educated in American universities and is typical of the denationalized Mexican found in this organization...
...A central aspect of the celebration, held on the American School grounds, is the commercial tent where Dupont, Kodak, Quaker Oats, Goodyear and others pass out sample products and promotional materials...
...The News serves as a daily reminder that all Americans in Mexico are supposed to share a common purpose, common interests, and common leaders...
...But policy is implemented abroad by managers who are trained to deal with differ- ent foreign settings...
...1891 English language newspaper, Daily Anglo American, founded...
...Interview...
...Aristotle Onassis...
...The American Colony plays a key role in the construction and promotion of such institutions, and it is perhaps in this area that the Colony will exert its greatest long term influence on the development of Mexican society...
...and owns his own share of the market, Automotriz O'Farrill...
...And they think we are just in our business bag...
...The Mexican Government...
...ll The American Society is now a "multinational" institution organized by Americans thro-ughout the world as a means ot strengthening their positions in increasingly hostile environmentu...
...By making itself available to leaders in government, business and education, it presents itself as the dispenser of knowledge...
...AmCham Mexico receives no money from the parent organization, and, in fact, sees itself as the pace setter in many ways...
...Yet the Colony is reluctant to allow Mexicans to assume any position of leadership, especially when money is concerned...
...Six out of every ten American missionaries overseas are also women...
...U.S...
...When have you ever read anything critical to the United States in The News, or anything critical to Mexico in general...
...First establishing businesses and services related to the needs of the U.S...
...June 10th) 1972 AmCham Mexico begins its "Communications Program" to fight nationalism...
...Concretely, the American Colony provides American social institutions which minimize the need for integration into a foreign society and which strengthen the ties with the U.S...
...Colombian and Cuban students are treated as ''minorities...
...2 MACLA'S LATIN AMERICA EMPIRE REPORT Vol...
...l 8 Keeping Tabs on Congress Apart from its community work, the American Society is seen by some as an effective pressure group for citizens living far from the political center of the "mother country...
...Chamber of Commerce in early 1971...
...The 28 leaders include: Judd A. Austin (Goodrich, Dalton, Little & Requelme), George Blake (Anderson Clayton), Francis H. Carnes (F...
...With the exception of the American School in Cambodia, the ASF in Mexico City is the largest and most influential of the 134 American School Foundations spread throughout 76 countries...
...17The American Colony has played an important role in expanding U.S...
...Ibid., pp...
...It has become a "front line" of U.S...
...The hills of Chapultepec Heights were once part of a vast Mexican hacienda...
...corporations in Mexico, including Firestone, Goodyear, B.F...
...capitalism...
...4 -Dollars and Sense of Community: THE AMERICAN SOCIETY When the realities of World War II became suddenly apparent to the American public, not the least disturbed were those American living overseas...
...Sales Executive Club...
...Ibid...
...We showed pictures (The News Parade) to over 3 million people.8 Wright was not the only active Colony resident at the time...
...Government Aid Since the early 1960's the U.S...
...the husband is at work or on the golf course...
...The existence of American Colonies around the world means that, like a tool kit, these resources can be moved easily about the Empire as the need dictates...
...It not only attempts to Americanize the youth of the "leading families," but also brings their parents into one realm of the American Colony...
...People are questioning...
...3. The American Colony works to promote a positive image of the economic, social and cultural presence of the United States in Mexico...
...According to the Communications Director, "The man that sits in the office upstairs, Al Wichtrich (Executive Vice President) turned this thing from a secondrate luncheon club into a very important business organization with a gamut of services...
...The Colony's most influential and prestigious leaders are mobilized to engineer the campaign...
...Over half the students are U.S...
...18 - FOOTNOTES to "Golden Ghetto" (from page 18) NOTE: Due to last minute cuts for lack of space, several quotes and their corresponding footnotes (numbers 3, 6, 25, 26, 42 and 52) were omitted...
...During his reign as President of Mexico in 1952-58 and continuing to this day as Secretary of Tourism, he has championed the counterrevolution by opening up the country to foreign investment and made himself the richest man in Mexico...
...2. To foster friendly relations between Mexicans and Americans...
...American corporations are bombed in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Morelia & other cities...
...introduced the television to Mexico and now controls Telesistema Mexicana, one of the largest television monopolies in the world...
...l 1 5 Besides creating a sense of community-American community--the American Society works to promote a positive image of the United States in Mexico...
...In 1922, a group of American businessmen who formed the Mexican International Trust Company purchased 3,000 acres for $11.2 million...
...Write to NACLA, Box 226, Berkeley CA 94701 (attn...
...An American airline offi- cial living in Rome expressed a cmon fear of parents in the American Colony, "There was a period when my wife and I decided that if the time every came when our children no longer acted 'herican enough,' we would go back home...
...and Sears Roebuck...
...American Society Bulletin, June 1973...
...With an annual budget of $2.1 million, the ASF is set up to look and operate just like a school "back home...
...Their baggage consists of American travelers' checks, cameras, clothes and preconceived notions about foreign peoples...
...It is still supported and controlled by the Colony's business leaders...
...corporations abroad, seeking new methods of countering nationalism and anti-imperialism in foreign countries...
...Cited in Hugh O'Shaugnessy, "Mexico Awakens to Danger", in The Los Angeles Times, October 8, 1972...
...government offices, and church missions, or to simply retire--they take much more...
...Though most executive positions in business and government are still filled by men, women staff the government services, the international agencies, and form a large part of the students, teachers and scholars abroad...
...paper could do: it serves as an American Colonynewspaper--helping to establish a community con- they make public their views on free-enterprise, sciousness, a community of interests within this communism, foreign investments, and the like...
...After studying at St...
...Such integration requires the establishment of U.S.-style institutions -- economic, political, social and cultural -- throughout the world...
...A December 1970 editorial entitled "The Communist Threat" reads, - 10 - President-elect Luis Echeverria's forthrightness in talking about the communist menace to world peace should have a salutory effect on people in and out of government...
...The degree to which the AmCham is successful in unifying the private sector will play a crucial role in reinforcing the shaky U.S...
...She got her first contact with concerned American girls and her first contact with Mexicans...
...One of the effects of such programs is to reinforce the myth that the upperclass is the rightful guardian and distributor of the fruits of the capitalist system...
...What are the more important ties and areas of influence of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico...
...William McCarrick (Kodak), Austin Parker (Walter Thompson de Mexico), James Parks (Executive Search, Interamericana de Personal), Dale Raymond Perren (Goodyear-Oxo), Floyd D. Ransom (Floyd D. Ransom Group, AB Dick, Sistemas Ransom Safeguard), Edgar Skidmore (retired, National Paper & Type Co...
...The U.S...
...Colony population declines to 9,585...
...46a Of these 28 men, we found that at least 21 had been members of the Board of Directors of AmCham 21 were members of the University Club 16 live in Lomas de Chapultepec 14 had been Presidents of the AmCham 13 had been directors or officers of the American Society 12 had been invited to a pre-inaugural dinner for President Echeverria, hosted by Manuel Espinosa Yglesias 11 had lived in Mexico for over 20 years 8 had been members of the Board of Directors of the American School 7 had been "captains" of the United Community Fund 7 belong to the exclusive Chapultepec Golf Club 7 belong to the equally exclusive Campestre Golf Club 7 have wives or daughters in Junior League 6 are trustees of the University of the Americas Whatever their motives, these same men influence the direction of investments in Mexico, help determine the distribution of profits, set standards for education, and dispense charity donations...
...Chamber and to speak with influential Washington officials...
...He also built the newspaper empire of Publicaciones Herreria, which publishes two conservative dailies in Mexico D.F., Novedades and Diario de la Tarde, in addition to The News...
...Mexicans often remark that it is ironic that such a colony should sit atop Reforma, looking out across Revolucion (another large Avenue in Mexico City...
...III...
...An American education in Mexico means that children will be taught pride in the American Revolution, not the Mexican, taught to revere a Rockwell instead of a Rivera...
...3 8 The Junior League The Junior League was founded in Mexico in the early 1930's by a group of prominent American women to promote social welfare and charity in Mexico...
...THE MEXICAN CASE Aside from Canada, Mexico has the largest collection of North Americans of any country outside the United States...
...1960 Colony population tops 100,000 mark...
...Retirees Collecting Social Security...
...The existence of a strong, clearly defined, isolated American community is particularly important in generally hostile environments like Mexico where nationalism and anti-yanqui sentiments can be demoralizing to Americans...
...To a great extent it probably has to do with the social and psychological needs of the upper class, particularly in a foreign country...
...This makes the League an important ground for social interaction of the Colony and Mexican elites...
...Energetic propaganda campaigns have been aimed specifically at what the AmCham sees as the core elements of dissent--students and workers...
...There is a social...
...Rockefeller came here and he turned Mexico over to me...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...Government agencies like the Department of Tourism, the National Tourist Council, and the Convention Bureau also collaborate actively with the Chamber...
...Charity reduces the potential for rebellion and challenge to the system by socializing the poor into believing that the necessities of life come from the elite...
...t*n da NO - "M ggg2H 4de Conclusion: Any conclusive evaluation of the power and influence of the American Colony must be seen within the perspective of the larger U.S...
...citizens hard, but it would definitely be detrimental to the image of and interest of Uncle Sam...
...Together they serve to surround the American Colony and their Mexican allies with an American interpretation of culture, economics, and politics...
...9. "American Society of Mexico, A.C...
...In future issues of the NACLA Report, as well as in a separate monograph series, we hope to publish other studies in cooperation with or as part of the Yanqui Dollar Project...
...7 The American Colony in Mexico City is made up of a number of such "home institutions" which have carried their influence far beyond the Colony...
...We have shown them how to do it.4 Through the AmCham's Inter-American Economic Integration Committee, it also maintains direct communication and information exchanges with the major Latin American trade associations...
...1930 American women found Junior League chapter in Mexico City...
...Particularly in contrast to the poverty pervading Mexico, the Colony is highly visible...
...Government...
...37...
...Colony churches (for lack of room and because their functions greatly overlap with other social institutions...
...We're carrying the ball because we're organized...
...de C.V...
...and the host countries...
...The problems of Mexico--underdevelopment, malnutrition, illiteracy--are thus viewed as though they can be solved by the service projects and charity programs...
...The American Colony is the name they have created for themselves in Mexico...
...Like any community newspaper, The News plays the fundamental role of providing identity, coherThe News helps define, clarify, and streng- ence, and political direction to its community - then the Colony and its interests with its cover- in this case, a small privileged community of age of U.S...
...Media...
...The impact of the American Colony in Mexico becomes clearer when seen as part of a long struggle, initiated by the Mexican Revolution of 1910, between contesting models of socialist and capitalist development...
...This gave her a fabric to fit into, a social participation, not divorced from national life...
...government, while it presents itself to the Mexican people as the distributor of the benefits of the capitalist system...
...mgr.......Aluminum Alcomex, S.A...
...capitalism...
...Patriotism is not simply national chauvinism, it plays an important political role in maintaining bonds of loyalty to the parent country and its global interests...
...On the outside this life is glamorous: elegant homes, servants, private schools, vacations in Acapulco and membership in the high society of the American Colony...
...Most major stories are picked up from UPI, Reuters, and AP wire services, and these are selected to avoid anything critical of the U.S...
...split between the Latins and the American kids . . . The Mexicans who entered the school in elementary grades form a tight little inpenetrable circle...
...An editorial in the American Colony's English language newspaper, The News, described the organization as "the only group that represents all U.S...
...Interview...
...The increasingly frequent attacks against the American colonies in recent years (kidnappings, etc...
...They also live in the same neighborhoods, golf at the same country clubs, send their children to the same schools, and read the same newspapers...
...By end of December 200,000 workers in approximately 1,000 firms (including major U.S...
...imperialism...
...The United States has learned that military domination alone does not assure the integration of foreign areas into the sphere of U.S...
...1900 University Club founded by American industrialists...
...Those Orphans She Loves So Much . . The Junior League is not, of course, the only charity organization in the American Colony...
...citizens need representation...
...Several of the organization's functions serve both purposes...
...business interests abroad...
...Ibid., p. XII...
...More importantly, they never challenge the bases of power and privilege of this class...
...forces led by General Scott occupy Mexico City...
...State Department...
...Embassy residence...
...In 1971, tte itate Department granted 5164,000 to American Schools in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Durango, Monterrey, Pachuca, and Torreon...
...According to the Communications director, Mexican universities are pervaded by bias against free enterprise, and through these five university officials, the Chamber hopes to influence the hiring and curriculum development of the university...
...American Society Bulletin, January 1972, pp...
...The AmCham's annual budget is nearly $1 million, $240,000 of which is spent on the salaries and commissions of some 40 employees...
...The AmCham maintains close ties with the U.S...
...Subscriptions: $10 per year for individuals...
...1917 Revolutionary Convention drafts new progressive Mexican Constitution...
...Their stated purposes were: 1. To keep alive a patriotic spirit toward our country, the United States of America, and to promote its interests...
...Acting as spokesman for the group, the U.S...
...cit., p. XIII...
...1 2 The American Society in Mexico recognizes that the strength of the American Empire depends to a great extent upon the public image and social cohesion of the American capitalist class...
...in 1951 he received the Executive of the Year award from the U.S...
...The subject of American residential colonies abroad is particularly important because they can have a profound impact on the host countries...
...Philippines...
...WHO THEY ARE (not including active military personnel & families) Businessmen...
...It's just a booster paper like the Novedades, both of them owned by O'Farrill...
...It functions as a complement to the multinational corporation, and through its ties works to integrate the Mexican economy ever further into the U.S.-dominated sphere...
...News & World Report, Feb...
...Cincinnati Agreements divide Mexico into territories for various U.S...
...3 9 A gossip column of The News gives some insight into a charity ball: aEi Fors' annual bash to benefit Padre Angel's orphanage, Casa Hogar, as usual was a sell-out smash . . . The setting was Authentic Polynesia, with thousands of flowers and stalks of bananas--even an errupting volcano S. . Emi's party in behalf of those orphans she loves so much was a thrilling climax to a marvelous week in Acapulco...
...Census estimates 15,000 North Americans in Mexico...
...Taking its lead from the Powell Memorandum, the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham) began a major offensive designed to counter the barrage of attacks against U.S...
...annexation attempts in the 1840's, as the slave and non-slave states sought to maintain a power balance within the U.S...
...American Society Bulletin, January 1971...
...2 1 According to the article, the American Colony can take some credit for the Amendment'P defeat because "the American Chamber of Ccmmerce and American private citizens lost no time in letting representatives and senators know what they thought about Gore's amendment...
...Clearly the American businessmen are in charge...
...As a result of 2,000 miles of shared border and a steady flow of immigrants from her northern neighbor, Mexico now has some 50 U.S.-type schools, probably more than any other nation in the world...
...Charity work helps fill the need to make contacts and friends, to create a social world in a foreign setting, and also "to keep the upper-class a social class...
...The Communications Director of the AmCham--a third generation Colony resident-explained what lay behind the decision to mobilize: Traditionally businesses have taken a low profile in Mexico...
...But for Mexico and Mexicans, these managers and the Colony they have created exercise a crucial influence...
...A recent bit of newsin the New York Times entitled "Let's Be Friends" gives an indication of the O'Farrills' contacts: Among the people Henry A. Kissinger has been seeing on his vacation in Acapulco, Mexico, are Mr...
...One item carefully avoided by The News was Mexico's independence celebration of September 1972: bombs exploded in seven U.S.owned businesses, including IBM and Ford Motor Company in Mexico City, Coca-Cola in Guadalajara, Pepsi-Cola in Morelia, and a bilingual library in Oaxaca...
...Timeline of Events, 1847-1973 1847 U.S...
...4 3 Its growing influence has led people to describe AmCham Mexico as one of the more important pressure-groups operating in Mexico...
...as opposed to "Latin American...
...and tourists (who, despite their considerable impact and contacts with the Colony, remain a group apart...
...citizens in Mexico . . . U.S...
...Richard Cornew, gen...
...1973 Dollar Crisis causes Mexican Peso to devaluate by 20%(in relation to Europe, not USA) University of the Americas reportedly receives $10 million from U.S...
...Several other influential Americans gathered together in 1941, "with a view toward preparation for war work", 9 and established the American Society of Mexico...
...Curtis Fitzgerald, v.p...
...Protestant missions to avoid duplicating proselytizing efforts...
...Wives & Children of Businessmen...
...government and the same global corporations run by the husbands of these Junior League women...
...universities with proper credits and course requirements...
...Emphasis added...
...Stressing that the most effective and up-to-date methods in education come from the United States, it increases the dependence of the elite upon American institutions...
...In this suburb, the Reforma slows its pace, bordered by mansions that make passers-by stop and stare...
...But wherever they are, these outposts are comprised of the men and women who implement the policies and represent the interests of the United States at the local level...
...V. Mexican Business Leaders...
...Jess Dalton (Goodrich, Dalton, Little & Requelme), Emerson Downing (Price Waterhouse), Robert J. Easter (Dupont), Richard Ehrlich (retired), Michael Hazzard (Executive Selections) William Schiele (Dupont), Merle Hayes (Beckman Instruments), Robert Jenkins (Motorola), Charles H. Lee (Hooker Mexicana), Richard Lorden (RKL-Intl...
...American Chamber of Commerce Annual Report 1973, "Free Enterprise and the Responsibility of Business", p. 4. 46a...
...Harlan Cleveland, The Overseas Americans, p. 58...
...XIV, XV...
...Charity work, in fact takes up a good part of their leisure time, especially for the women...
...Greece...
...Maids keep the house clean...
...4 5 The Chamber also maintains contact with the Government in Washington through its Congressional Committee which lobbies for Colony interests back home...
...corporations for the purpose of mounting a massive propaganda campaign in defense of the free enterprise system...
...Despite the claims of having created a bi- cultural experience, a teacher at the American School revealed that there is a deep-rooted an- tagonism between the Latin American and the North American students...
...5 4 Among the hundred richest Mexican families listed by economists Aguilar and Carmona, appear the name of those allied most closely to U.S...
...But most do adjust, becoming involved in the wide range of social, recreational and charitable activities offered by the American Colony...
...10027...
...By having it and keeping their collective finger on the pulse of Mexican-American relations, they can do a lot to persuade congressmen on Capitol Hill to avoid legislation that might harm MexicanAmerican relations...
...Interview...
...The current leadership of AmCham Mexico has attempted to correct this situation through a multi-level propaganda campaign based on the overall interests of free-enterprise rather than the special interests of particular corporations...
...It is perhaps only natural that Americans should want to carry their American world with them when they go abroad, just as immigrants to the United States have wanted to retain their own language and traditions...
...After passing the Monumento de Petroleo, a national tribute to the 1938 nationalization of the foreign owned oil industry, Avenida Reforma leads into the most wealthy and prestigious colonia in all of Mexico, Lomas de Chapultepec...
...When Americans travel in other countries they carry America with them...
...The basic approach of the American Society then is that of a public relations agency whose job is to help strengthen, support and coordinate the activities of 19 of the Colony's organizations, including The American-British Cowdray Hospital, the American Legion, Boy Scouts, Daughters of the American Revolution, the Junior League, the American School and the University of the Americas...
...Ibid...
...1933 First graduating class of English-speaking Mexico City College (now University of the Americas in Puebla...
...omentito", The News, March 10, 1973...
...1974 NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORTMexico City's largest avenue, El Paseo de la Reforma, begins downtown, bordered on each side by tourist hotels, banks, and the high-rise office buildings that are the nerve center for multinational corporations...
...Patterson summarizes the impact of the American School upon the national bourgeoisie of foreign countries like Mexico: Increasingly the schools are being turned to by professional people among the national population for demonstration of teaching methods, materials of instruction, projects of innovation, school plant design, and such specialized services as library, educational materials center, counseling, and guidance, and academic testing . . . . The improving quality of American Schools in Latin America has gained the respect of many nations, particularly among the leading families of the host countries...
...Finally, these colonies are growing, as droves of American pensioners "retire" to Central American and other countries...
...AmCham Mexico officials travel frequently to the U.S...
...1st Protestant church services in Mexico held by U.S...
...7 -They should be show ses for excel- lence in education...
...The Daughters of the American Revolution, decked out in 1776 garb, hand out Americanism awards to winners of the American School's essay contest, while the Ambassador reads a statement from the President of the United States...
...The Training Center The official purpose of the Junior League is to promote trained voluntary participation in community work, in hospitals, convalescent homes, working class slums and in Mexican Government projects...
...The owner and editor of The News, Romulo O'Farrill (See box) reportedly has a list of "too hot to touch" items: guerrilla operations, anti-American demonstrations, scandals in the ruling PRI party, police brutality--in short, anything which might explode the myth of Mexican stability and its attractiveness to foreign investors...
...this list includes the following functions of the school...
...Most of them are directly involved in business, and an estimated 60,000 reside in Mexico City...
...with a view toward preparation for war work...
...What were we to do?14 The American Society is conscious of this problem and tries to provide alternative forms of social interaction...
...Founded in 1888 by American investors to educate their children...
...returned unharmed in exchange for $80,000 and release of 30 Mexican political prisoners...
...Empire, and within the context of Mexico as a nation in struggle...
...AmCham's Labor Affairs and Tax & Legislation Committees keep track of Mexican government moves that might affect the interests of the Chamber members (labor-management disputes, minimum wage laws, etc...
...Communism," fortunately no longer the officialy 'forbidden' word, can probably now be confronted here in a more reasonable manner, wherein youngsters will be taught why Mexico's Revolution is so much greater and more civilized than the Bolshevik one, and why foreign ideologies have nothing to offer this country.36 The values and goals of U.S.-directed capitalism are obviously not seen by The News as "foreign ideology," for they are promoted daily as the key to successful development in Mexico...
...The Gilded Guilt Corps: THE JUNIOR LEAGUE American women in foreign countries play an active role in maintaining and protecting the interests of the U.S...
...At a party the other night, President Nixon's national security advisor was with not only the Greek shipping tycoon and former Jacqueline Kennedy, but also a former president, Miguel Aleman, and a Mexican publisher, Romulo O'Farrill...
...Reforma passes the great marble monument of the U.S...
...They soon received official word that, as always, they were quite welcome in Mexico, though they would be expected to share the responsibilities as well as the benefits of Mexican development...
...VIII, No...
...And finally, it manipulates the goals of Mexican education to prepare the denationalized scientists, educators, managers and politicians of the future...
...The O'Farrills are not Americans, nor Irish, but Mexicans who have made themselves rich and powerful by introducing American capital, American technology, and in this case especially American culture and ideology into Mexico...
...From McBride down to the press attache, the Embassy officials are working closely with us...
...They take, above all, their American Way of Life and implant it on foreign soil, fortifying it with a network of American institutions that maximize their power, insulate them from the poverty they create, and protect them from kidnappings and other forms of the anti-imperialist struggle...
...foreign investment reaches $800 million...
...influence...
...Within the United States itself, sharp criticism of American corporations has come from such established sources as the U.S...
...One Ford Foundation administrator observed that when he and his wife came to Mexico, I found that many of the doors for meaningful social relations were closed to us...
...According to AmCham officials, 60% of their membership is made up of Mexican corporations...
...Americans in Mexico represent a minority group, yet unlike minority groups in other countries, Americans have not had to integrate themselves into Mexican society and institutions...
...It allies itself with the most powerful sectors of the Mexican bourgouise, such as Miguel Aleman, Manuel Espinosa Yglesias and Romulo O'Farrill,* while simultaneously seeking the sympathy of the more progressive sectors of industry in the government of President Echeverria...
...Of the AmCham's 29 committees in 1973, only 5 are headed by Mexican businessmen...
...Specifically, it performs a number of crucial functions which can be summarized as follows: 1. The American Colony overseas provides a global "tool kit" of human and technical resources necessary for the efficient operation of U.S...
...Anselm College in New Hampshire and the Business Institute in Detroit, he returned to take over the management of the television, newspaper and automobile empire of the family...
...And we can't understand it...
...A "popular" version of U.S...
...Patterson cites examples of the role of the American School in transferring these American values to Mexican adults, public school children, government officials and university students...
...The northern territories of Mexico became the central focus of U.S...
...7. Frank Bonilla, The Failure of Elites, MIT Press 1970, p. 303...
...Cited in Benicio Schmidt, "Dependency and the Mutlinational Corporation", in Frank Bonilla & Robert Girling, Structures of Dependency, East Palo Alto, 1973, p. 27...
...The U.S...
...From birth to death, Americans can live abroad without ever really leaving the U.S...
...New York Times, March 28, 1973...
...Romulo O'Farrill Jr...
...This research can be effective in revealing the power bases, the dynamics, and the weak points of imperialism...
...The projected distribution of funds for 1973 is as follows: 1 7 Organization: Amount (in US$) American Benevolent Society American Society Salvation Army Childrens Home American British Cowdray Hospital Boy Scouts American School Scholarships UCF Expenses Social Service Committee Comite-Pro-Infancia YMCA Hotline Girl Guides University of the Americas 40,000 28,800 26,400 16,000 8,400 6,000 3,500 3,200 2,800 2,000 1,600 1,280 800 All of the money goes to Colony-administered programs, many of which serve Mexican charities, but all of which are controlled by North Americans...
...These national families, in turn, are among the strongest advocates of continued improvement in the personnel, programs and services of the American Schools...
...Editorials in its own publication, Noticias, have "attracted comment in top echelons of the public and private sectors " according to the 1973 Am Cham Annual Report.46 The AmCham gets particularly good coverage from the English-language daily, The News, and from the Colony's American Society Bulletin...
...General Quitman proclaimed Military & Civil Governor of Mexico...
...interests and pushed Mexico along a road of dependent capitalist development, undoing most of the gains of the Revolution...
...1968 Mexican government spends $160 million to host Olympics...
...In Mexico City, The News can be found in tourist hotels, Sanborn's restaurants, and in the business and residential areas frequented by Americans...
...News & World Report, February 1, 1971...
...Chamber of Commerce, Am Cham Mexico, and the AACCLA, adding to the leadership and policy continuity of these organizations...
...The AmCham has trained some 136 teachers to carry the word of capitalism into the factory...
Vol. 8 • January 1974 • No. 1
