Mexican-US Relations: Water
Much documentation about US-Mexican problems is appearing; I receive a lot of it. I assume that the University of Texas and the University of California at San Diego are collecting it. Other universities should too, including Stanford, but there we run into the problem of the relations between Hoover and Green Libraries. According to the new dispensation, Green will collect books, while Hoover will concentrate on manuscripts and pamphlets, or so I asked was told. I asked Hoover Archivist Elena Danielson how "pamphlet" is defined and mentioned the Mexican documentation I receive. She said that Hoover was interested only in rare materials, not in things which can easily be found. This, I assume, would mean say material on the civil war in Georgia, in Georgian. and therefore incomprehensible to the ordinary American. The Hoover Archives are essentially a place for scholars engaged in advanced research.
Following Elena's advice, as I invariably do, I sent some documents on Mexican-US relations to Green Library, which I hope will accept them. How they will be organized I do not know. The Stanford Daily (5/24/02) encouraged students to use the Hoover Archives. Of more immediate concern to them will be the Mexicana in Green Library, since US-Mexican relations will be a major issue between our two countries for an indefinite time.
Ronald Hilton - 5/25/02
Public attention is focused on places like Afghanistan, where our troops are involved, but our closest problem is Mexico which, despite the apparently cordial relations between Presidents Bush and Fox, has serious disagreements with the US. Most publicized is the problem of Mexican migration to the US, but more intractable is the fight over water, notably of the Rio Grande. The protest "Tractorcade" at Pharr on the Rio Grande was sufficiently important to rate a feature article in the New York Times (5/24/02). It says that " the water crisis grows in a test of US-Mexico relations". The 1944 treaty, which was supposed to regulate the division of Rio Grande water, is falling apart. It was supposed to be one third to the US, two thirds to Mexico. Texans said that in thirty days they would be out of water if Mexico does not comply. It owes the US billions of gallons. Fox is asking the US to loan it $430 million, which infuriates the Texans, who see it as blackmail. Texas governor Rich Perry urged President Bush not to loan Mexico a dime. The desperate Mexican farmers of the lower Rio Grande accuse Chihuahua state, further upstream, of taking the water. They are reduced to praying to San Isidro Labrador, the Plower, a Spanish saint, the patron of his native Madrid. Unfortunately it is just a little late, since his feast day is May 15.
| Webmaster |