Mexico: Why a Few Are Rich and the People Poor / Edition 1

by Ramon Ruiz

Overview

Explicitly focusing on the malaise of underdevelopment that has shaped the country since the Spanish conquest, Ramón Eduardo Ruiz offers a panoramic interpretation of Mexican history and culture from the pre-Hispanic and colonial eras through the twentieth century. Drawing on economics, psychology, literature, film, and history, he reveals how development processes have fostered glaring inequalities, uncovers the fundamental role of race and class in perpetuating poverty, and sheds new light on the contemporary Mexican reality. Throughout, Ruiz traces a legacy of dependency on outsiders, and considers the weighty role the United States has played, starting with an unjust war that cost Mexico half its territory. Based on Ruiz’s decades of research and travel in Mexico, this penetrating work helps us better understand where the country has come, why it is where it is today, and where it might go in the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520262362
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/24/2010
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Ramón Eduardo Ruiz (1921–2010) was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, San Diego. He was author of many books, including Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People, Memories of a Hyphenated Man, and On the Rim of Mexico: Encounters of the Rich and Poor.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 Ramblings on Mexican Underdevelopment 1

2 El Mexicano 17

3 The Legacy 33

4 Free Traders and Capitalists 53

5 Colonialism's Thumb 83

6 Lost Opportunity 104

7 Internal Market 127

8 False Miracle 147

9 Death of a Dream 180

10 NAFTA 200

Epilogue 232

Notes 241

Bibliography 265

Index 275

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"Impassioned and stimulating."—Survival

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Impassioned and stimulating.

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