Maria Echaveste responds to Prof. Fernández de Castro’s report from a U.S. policy perspective
Imagine what Lou Dobbs or Samuel Huntington would say if they read Dr. Rafael Fernández de Castro’s statement that “there really is a Mexico inside the United States.” Certainly, the sheer number of Mexicans and U.S. citizens of Mexican ancestry living within the United States is enough to raise eyebrows: over 30 million people, about 10 percent of the U.S. population. But numbers alone do not cause fear or raise the specter of a country within a country. For example, there are over 34 million U.S. residents who claim Irish ancestry — nine times the population of Ireland. Yet no one today argues that Ireland or the Irish have taken over American society.
