Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans

I read this several years ago while traveling in Oaxaca and Chiapas. Purchased again for a reread.Just as relevant today as it was in the mid 80's. Gives you a new mindset, not every Mexican is longing to move to the U.S.The people I met were lovely, welcoming andhappy. They had so little and were honored to share what they had with you. Of course this was the small Indian. villages in the southern mountains and Pacific coast. The Big City is just like anyplace else. The Mexican Indians are looked down upon .by the Mexicans of Spanish descent. I saw it for myself. Lived in SouthernMexico for 2 years. I can say though I am not of Spanish descent and was very happy to cross the Border and be back to my home in the USA. Read it and get some insight into our Distant Neighbor.

It's a sign of how essential this book is that older reviews express frustration that it's twenty years out of date. But this paperback comes with an extensive Afterword about the historic peaceful surrender of power by the dominant party [which created euphoria depressingly like the hopeful Obama election], and I hope Riding finds time to cover the Fox years and the tragic unraveling of Mexico following the bitter Bush vs Gore-like elections of 2006.I have just re-read this book - a good one for skipping around to different topics if that's your bent - and the puzzle was how an economist could write so well and so engagingly. Riding, it turns out, is a Shakespeare scholar! Reader comments in his "Essential Shakespeare Handbook," written with Leslie Dunton-Downer, could apply to "Distant Neighbors":"... also a good read (a quality lacking in most books of this type)"!Riding is too good an historian to be judgmental, but he's a bit hard on the Mexican father. Fortunately, there's a very different book that shines a bright light on the Mexican mindset in a realm Riding hasn't lived, having been ambassador and dealt mainly with the upper echelons. "Con Respeto... An Ethnographic Portrait" by Guadalupe Valdes plumbs the depths of the financially struggling but deeply committed, famously strong Mexican family. The couples she follows rely on each other far too much to be abusive. To his credit, Riding does point out that the higher up the socio-economic ladder, the more likely husbands are to physically "correct" (and cheat on) their wives. "Con Respeto" studies the poignantly steadfast marriages on the lower rungs of that ladder.(In our nation of spoiled brats, we have a great deal to learn from Mexicans, something no one seems eager to point out.)"Distant Neighbors" has become a classic because it's so well informed and reads like a novel. A must-read.

I read this book years ago and still use it as a reference. I have traveled and studied in Mexico for many years and speak Spanish. So few Americans really understand Mexico, especially the roots of corruption, things like Mordidas, the military, police etc. This book enlightens and explains. A number of Mexican friends (certainly not those in the Government)agree. The sad fact is there are many things about Mexico that the Mexican government would rather not discuss or have us know. One of the reasons so few books deal honestly with the problems of Mexico. This book or (any book) that deals honestly with the problems of Mexico must necessarily risk engendering some feelings of hopelessness among some readers but such is, often, the nature of truth.

I first got an introduction to this book in 2006. I was supposed to read it for a literature class and never finished the first chapter, but I was thoroughly impressed by what I did read. Being Mexican myself and having grown up in the U.S., I did have a craving for an understanding of the culture I did not get to thoroughly know. This has clarified so many aspects of Mexican life and custom to me, it really is an incredible read.

Had to rebuy this book for a friend since I had lent mine out. Was a masters program reading assignment that I remember enjoying, so I recommend it to others, thus having to buy it again. Worth reading.