My son had a bit of culture shock in Mexico City, where he learned that 4-to-6 year-olds there take fútbol seriously. None of this everybody-wins bullshit we have back here in D.C. Nope, kids in Mexico play fút the way kids here play basketball. My son overreacted to that realization: he started to play dirty, like Luis Suárez dirty. The professors (that is what the coaches are called!) could deal with it, but the other kids would complain to my wife and me after practice.
Fortunately, nobody ever attributed the boy’s dirty pool to his nationality. He scored a lot and made saves, albeit diosmio the red cards. Whatever image the other kids had of American children was not affected by this crazy American fond of fouling, handballs and other Suárez-like program activities. He was the youngest kiddo out there and represented nobody but himself. (And maybe his parents, but the other kids’ parents came across as amused and sympathetic, not judgmental. Much like the reaction of soccer fans when they talk to Uruguayans about Suárez. Which is fortunate for Uruguay’s international reputation.)
And that brings us to the impact of another individual at about the same maturity level as my 4-year-old son: President Donald J. Trump. Earlier this summer, I noted that there seemed to be very little anti-Americanism among middle-class chilangos, certainly when compared to the wave of hate-America that passed over the same group in 2001-02. Mexicans realize that the current American president is unpopular and does not represent the American people as a whole any more than my son represents all American children.
A former Mexican ambassador to China initially shared my views but now fears that the Trump administration is doing permanent damage to Mexicans’ view of the American people:
I believed Mex people can tell diff btwn Trump & Amer people & would revert to normal once he's gone. Now afraid damage will be long lasting
— Jorge Guajardo (@jorge_guajardo) August 27, 2017
How can we know who is right? Polls are not helpful. The standard question asks about Mexican views of the United States, and those views, obviously, depend greatly on the current government. Consider the below results from the Economista poll. They are obviously influenced by the policies of the American government-of-the-day. The U.S. was highly unpopular in early 2004, only a year after Gulf War 2 and while the Iraq insurgency dominated the headlines. By late 2005, that had passed from Mexican headlines (albeit not American ones) and people’s view of the United States recovered.
I would like pollsters to ask Mexican respondents a different question: “What is your view of the American people?” or “What is your view of American society?” Asking them about the “United States” invites conflation with the current administration. What we want to know is the damage that Trump has done to the relationship between the two peoples, not to the image of his administration.
Does anyone have any data on this? I would also like to know qualitative impressions. Please, comment below.
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