Graduate students Lucas Novaes and Sinaia Urrusti Frenk report on historian Lorenzo Meyer’s irreverent assessment of the legacy of Mexico’s War of Independence and Revolution.
This year, Mexico is commemorating its two most important historical landmarks since Spain’s conquest in 1519: the bicentennial of the War of Independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution. While the Calderón administration has planned an elaborate national celebration with thousands of events across the country, in his talk for the Center for Latin American Studies, Mexican historian Lorenzo Meyer was adamant that there is little to celebrate. The nation is suffering from low growth, inequality, and a tsunami of crime related to drug trafficking. Indeed, Meyer, one of the country’s most active political analysts, echoed a 2008 report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command that characterized Mexico as being in danger of becoming a failed state.
