Mexico Archives - Public Seminar

Activism

Memorials Against Violence in Mexico

A conversation on memory activism for truth and justice

March 25, 2025 • by Alexandra Délano Alonso, Natalia Mendoza and Benjamin Nienass

Since 2006, Mexico has seen more than 300,000 murders and more than 110,000 people disappeared. Faced with a constant increase in violence, activists have turned to a new strategy: collective actions and demands centered around the work of memory. In their new book Las Luchas por la Memoria Contra las ...

Migration

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Both political parties say they care about families—so why would the Biden administration return to a family separation regime?

April 19, 2023 • by Rachel Ida Buff

And yet, in the absence of new legislation that makes it easier to cross the border legally for work, the Biden administration has defaulted to a hard line on immigration that continues to separate families and promote border security. ...

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

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How the North American Free Trade Agreement ruined Nourishment

A Review of “Eating NAFTA”

June 13, 2019 • by Alexandra Délano Alonso

Eating NAFTA demonstrates the urgency of responding to a clear and yet mostly invisible health crisis that manifests across borders. It offers tools for rethinking existing approaches to trade and food systems from a transnational, intersectional and structural perspective that shifts the blame that public institutions have placed on individuals (particularly ...

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A Regional Approach for Central American Asylum Seekers

The U.S. should pursue a policy that strengthens ties with neighbors

June 11, 2019 • by T. Alexander Aleinikoff

The White House leaked documents to the Washington Post yesterdaytrying to show that Mexico has in fact agreed to a significant crackdown on its southern border and that Trump remains ready to impose the tariffs, or insist on the safe third country agreement, if the numbers at the U.S. border do not decline ...

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After the ‘American Dream’?

How Mexico Responds to U.S. Deportations

February 6, 2019 • by Guadalupe Chavez

“Fixing” the “illegal” immigration “problem” has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s rhetoric from the first weeks he took office until today. Despite Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, undocumented persons across the U.S. are taking to the streets in protest, demanding that politicians uphold their rights, and seeking sanctuary ...

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Reconsidering the History of Race through Peyote

How categories of belonging are made in Mexico

January 31, 2019 • by Alexander S. Dawson

Loyalties begin with a sense of belonging, a sense of who is on the inside and who is on the outside. I suppose that historians almost invariably interrogate notions of loyalty as we imagine our historical subjects; how they experienced their connections and obligations, and how this in turned shaped ...

Reconsidering the History of Race through Peyote

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When Food Becomes Political

The Netflix series Chef’s table shows why we take cooking seriously

November 8, 2018 • by Veronica Alfaro Ahumada

Cooking shows, as a genre, have long fascinated the American public. From the beloved figure of Julia Child cooking French food, to the travel adventures of Anthony Bourdain, the genre is continuously evolving and attracting a growing number of followers vicariously experiencing foreign cuisines and cultures. Netflix’s documentary series, Chef’s Table, is ...

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Who Are We Now?

AMLO, Trump, and American Opportunities

July 27, 2018 • by Rogers M. Smith

On July 1, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly called AMLO, won the presidency of Mexico. What does his election mean for relationships between the U.S. and Mexico? What should it mean? There is much agreement on the first question: the outlook is troubled at best. There is little agreement on ...

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From Here and There: Diaspora Policies, Integration and Social Rights Beyond Borders

An excerpt and interview from Alexandra Délano Alonso and her latest book

May 27, 2018 • by Alexandra Délano Alonso

In From Here and There, Délano Alonso, Associate Professor and Chair of Global Studies at The New School, offers an exclusive insight into and a critical evaluation of an area of migration governance that is rarely discussed: the processes through which Mexico and other Latin American countries are establishing programs to give ...

From Here and There: Diaspora Policies, Integration and Social Rights Beyond Borders

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The Trump Executive Orders on Immigration Enforcement

How a wilfull disregard for facts has produced disastrous policy

January 28, 2017 • by T. Alexander Aleinikoff

The problem, of course, is how to move from premises to policies, and the particular problem for Mr. Trump is a fundamental misunderstanding of the current facts on the ground. Let’s start with the facts. Since the beginning of his campaign for President, Mr. Trump has painted a picture of a ...

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Donald Trump On Mexico-U.S. Ties

An Open Letter

January 5, 2017 • by Alexandra Délano Alonso

Dear President-Elect Donald Trump, I write to you as a citizen of the United States and of Mexico, and as a fellow New Yorker. My American grandmother was brought to Mexico as a teenager when her father was commissioned with the expansion of a soda business there. She met my Mexican ...

Education

Understanding the Bio-Logic of Mexico’s Fight for Equal Marriage

October 5, 2016 • by Paula Landerreche Cardillo

This post is part of the Bodies, Gender, and Domination OOPS Series. On Saturday, September 24, 2016, the National Front for the Family organized a march in Mexico City asking the Mexican government to revoke its decree to legalize gay marriage and adoption nationwide. Members of the Front defend what they ...