Word: stillness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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That may be so, but Mexicans will insist that such negotiations involve a true and fair partnership, allowing both sides to profit. South of the border it is still remembered that Mexico lost half its territory to the U.S. in 1848. There is also the bitter memory of American companies that exploited the country's cheap labor and abundant resources during the 31-year reign of Dictator Porfirio Diaz, whose excesses touched off the revolution that led to the creation of the present republic. Those episodes have fostered a reflexive suspicion about yanqui motives that lingers to this day. Says...
That revolutionary rhetoric is the product of the 1910 revolution, which lasted eleven years, and, by some accounts, killed more than 1 million Mexicans. One of its lasting products was the constitution, written in 1917, that is still the country's basic charter. To prevent the rise of another Diaz-like strongman, it prohibits the re-election of most public officials, including the President. To protect the country's "patrimony" from foreign domination, it limits the ownership of land and natural resources to Mexican citizens. In the name of social progress, it promises free universal education and the restoration...
...nowhere more glaring than in Mexico's long heralded land redistribution program. Since the 1910 revolution, about 38 million acres have been expropriated from huge haciendas and given to 25,000 communal ejidos (peasant associations) composed of families who have occupied the land for centuries. Nevertheless, there are still 4.5 million landless campesinos. The gap is partly attributable to the fact that the rural poor are among the fastest-growing segments of Mexico's population. But the plight of the campesinos has been made worse by government support of agribusiness. Only about 15% of Mexico's land is suitable...
...women of child-bearing age have been persuaded to use some form of contraception. Although the Catholic church has not directly attacked the program, population control is resisted in some parts of Mexico. There are men who feel that having many children is a proof of virility. Village mores still dictate that girls should be married at twelve and have large families before they are out of their teens...
Most U.S. officials, but not all, took a dim view of Jackson's personal diplomacy. Said one: "If nothing else, Jackson's trip will show the Israelis that there is growing curiosity in the U.S. about why the Palestinians are still refugees...