U.S.-Mexico Tourism and Power: A Review of Holiday in Mexico

Introduction: Tourism as a Lens on U.S.-Mexico Relations

American tourism in Mexico provides a window into understanding U.S.-Mexico relations. By promoting tourism as a path to economic development, Mexico demonstrates that it remains dependent on the United States — the same country that fought a war with Mexico, took land from Mexico (the Southwest region of America), and continues to treat Mexico with condescension through threats of border walls, derogatory characterizations of Mexican immigrants, and dismissal of Mexican culture. Yet Mexico's leaders behave as though relying on Americans for tourism revenue is a sound strategy. Instead of depending on the tourism industry for economic development, Mexico should be developing its own industries. After all, the development of industry is what helped America build a strong economy. As Berger and Wood note, "tourism as a modern social practice first gained popularity with the advent of the railroad and steamship" (Berger & Wood, 2010, p. 2). Without the railroad and steamship, Americans would not have had the capacity to travel en masse to Mexico for leisure. Mexico is being too passive in its relationship with the U.S. and should be more assertive. It should not rely on American goodwill to stake its economic growth, but should instead build its own innovative products and service lines.

Tourism in Mexico adds to our understanding of the country by filtering it through a lens of privilege. Tourists see the host country as existing for their own benefit — as honored guests whom the host nation is lucky to receive. The tourists enjoy the hospitality shown to them, but there is no equality in the exchange. There has never been equality between the U.S. and Mexico. The history of the two nations has generally been one of antagonism. During the Mexican Cristero War of the twentieth century, the U.S. supported the authoritarian regime against the Cristeros. It warred with Mexico over Texas and beyond. It has used Mexican labor cheaply so that inexpensive products could be manufactured and shipped back across the border, allowing corporations to generate greater profits than they could have by hiring American workers.

Labor Exploitation and the Tourism Industry

In the chapter "Cancun and the Campo," this dynamic is made especially apparent: "Employees are offered short-term contracts rather than the previously common long-term contracts, are expected to work longer shifts, and must forgo vacation time during the high tourist season. As a result of this shift in labor practices, Kuchmil residents have come to equate tourist work with slave labor during the colonial period… due to the long work hours, double shifts that left them sleep-deprived, low wages, limited vacation time, and, in some instances, hazardous work conditions" (Berger & Wood, 2010, p. 254). As this chapter shows, the tourism industry produces what amounts to the "social death of man" (Berger & Wood, 2010, p. 254), and the same can be said of how the U.S. has historically treated Mexico.

The ideology of Manifest Destiny has long been embedded in the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) belief system in America, and that belief system has allowed a racist, ethnically and culturally biased view of Mexicans to shape policy. The WASP belief system perpetuates the stereotype that Mexicans are inherently servile, and as long as Mexico's leaders do not challenge that identity or work to instill a stronger sense of national self-determination, the stereotype persists. In other words, the tourism industry does not make Mexico strong; it makes Mexico weak.

Conclusion

Holiday in Mexico tells the age-old story of U.S.-Mexico relations and shows that nothing has changed since the two nations became neighbors. The U.S. has always pushed its own agenda — whether through territorial seizure, the use of Mexican labor on exploitative terms, or the conversion of Mexican regions into tourist destinations. Mexicans continue to be subjugated in different forms, with local communities treated as a labor resource to serve the visiting wealthy, as the book's chapters repeatedly demonstrate.

Mexicans may initially benefit from exposure to American wealth and view the tourism industry as a welcome development that will grow their economy. But the arrangement is not sustainable. Mexico needs a sustainable product or service — one that it can offer to other countries without having to transform its own regions to accommodate outsiders. Those outsiders bring new ways and new lifestyles that alter the environment in which Mexicans live. They reshape the landscape, drive internal migration, and change the culture. It is not a healthy relationship for Mexico to inhabit, yet Mexico, like a partner in an abusive relationship, remains out of a sense of commitment or a fear that leaving will leave its economy worse off. Only by breaking that cycle and asserting genuine economic independence can Mexico escape the colonial logic that tourism, for all its apparent benefits, continues to reinforce.

Works Cited

Berger, Dian, and Grant Wood, editors. Holiday in Mexico: Critical Reflections on Tourism and Tourist Encounters. Duke University Press Books, 2010.