In recent decades, immigration to the United States has reached historic proportions. Many observers liken this large and sustained wave of immigration to the Great Migration at the beginning of the 20... read more

Below are some archives of letters to the editor that Stan has chosen to answer with open responses. August 23, 1996: A Border Resident Shares Her Experiences Sandy Weisel writes: Hi, I just love ... read more

Below are some archives of letters to the editor that Stan has chosen to answer with open responses. November 30, 1995 The Struggle Curious, it seems. My wife and I were on a bus... read more

This beautiful detail is from a mural painted inside the state government palace of Oaxaca. The artist, Arturo Garcia Bustos, finished the mural, which actually occupies three spaces in and around the ... read more

Stan offers relevant comments by readers -- and sometimes answers them   Since going on the World Wide Web, I have received many letters from readers of my column. Reprinted below i... read more

"BORDERING ON CHAOS": READ IT, BUT BE A SKEPTIC Andres Oppenheimer, a Central America hand reporting for the Miami Herald, has put out a very interesting book on the roots -- and likely outcome -- of ... read more

Born in Parras, Coahuila on October 30, 1873. Son of a wealthy landowner. Family was devoted to ranching, farming and commerce. Studied commerce and economics in France and agriculture in the U.S. Saw ... read more

Mexconnect writers explore the many faces of Francisco "Pancho" Villa, a key figure in the Mexican Revolution. read more

This is page 5 of seven on MexConnect which come originally from the website of CEDEX (Center for Historic Studies of Public Works and Town Planning) in Madrid, Spain. (Links to the other six pages ar... read more

Revolution is the ultimate test for survival of the fittest. In times of stormy social change, intense competition is generated among leaders of forces seeking that change and, inevitably, one man emer... read more

The election that brought Miguel de la Madrid's successor to power was clearly fraudulent. On July 6, 1988, when the first results began to arrive at the interior ministry's office on Avenida Bucareli,... read more

Late last year (2001) the Mexican Congress decided to get off their behinds and bring about a badly needed tax reform. Not liking what President Fox proposed, they waited until the very last days of of... read more

Mexico's upcoming elections in July will be scrutinized by everyone in the nation and the world, including the national and international press, academics, research institutions, and Mexican intellectu... read more

ELECTION 2000 Rate the Partys' webmaster skills before the 2000 elections Mexico's most important elections of the year (for President, Mayor of Mexico City, and Governors of Morelos... read more

On a balmy summer evening in August 1940, a young man gained admittance to the study of Leon Trotsky's heavily guarded house near Mexico City. He asked Trotsky to read something he had written. While T... read more

This is the story of a group of men who have become known as the Yuma 14. They are the fourteen illegal immigrants who died attempting to cross the Arizona border in May, 2001. And what a terrible and upsetting story it is. Unknown numbers of these illegal immigrants die every year making the dangerous crossing on foot over one of the most inhospitable stretches of terrain in the world. But the Yuma 14 constituted the largest known number of such immigrants to die at one time. read more

The action never stops at the border. There is no other place like it on the globe. The international boundary stretches for almost two thousand miles, from the Pacific Ocean through the mountains, the deserts, the valleys of the Rio Grande to the Gulf of Mexico. The region is a vast world unto itself. And the westernmost, fourteen-mile strip between San Diego and Tijuana, the border's biggest and richest cities, is the most intense microcosm of that world. The U.S. Border Patrol records half a million yearly arrests of illegal immigrants here, accounting for almost half of all its arrests. read more

Author Oster's portraits make this an excellent account of a timeless and yet changing Mexico. His approach is to focus on twenty varied individuals and use them as a reason to discuss the larger issues they represent. read more

Here is the history of Mexico in the last two or three decades - and what a history it is. It's the story of how a dictatorship eventually found its way toward becoming a democracy. As stories go, this one has everything - political corruption, student demonstrations leading to a massacre, earthquakes, citizen crusades, an Olympics and, as they say, much, much more. It looks as though it might even have a happy ending. read more

Although there's heavy duty immigration going on, there's not a whole lot of integration taking place. read more

There's no good news in Joel Simon's book. It's a catalog of the awful things that have happened in Mexico since the time of the Conquest. read more

Bob Culbertson, a Border Patrol chief, is chasing Mexican border crossers somewhere in Texas when a light aircraft in obvious difficulties flies overhead and then crashes in the scrub. Culbertson and his partner go to investigate and find two dead men and 40 or 50 bags of cocaine in the aircraft. One of the men has a satchel with a pouch in it. When he examines it, he finds a collection of government documents which he believes are CIA papers. read more

Ross, a social activist, poet and working reporter based in Mexico City, has a lively and irreverent style. It makes his book an enjoyable read, despite the sometimes heavy material. His thesis is that outsiders, and most especially the United States, have never stopped trying to control or annex "this enormously rich, indescribably poor nation" in one way or another for centuries. Usually this was accomplished through plain old land-grabbing. Today the process continues through economic instruments such as indebtedness, NAFTA and the war on drugs. read more

Author Pindell and Dr. Lourdes Ramírez Mallis, who served as Pindell's interpreter, collaborator and researcher, set out together on a lengthy train journey covering all of Mexico. I should also add that Terry Pindell has written similar books about train journeys in Canada and the U.S. As they travel, we're treated to dissertations on the various locales as well as a fairly serious coverage of Mexican history and the character of the people. read more

Juan O'Gorman was born on July 6, 1905, in Coyoacán, Mexico City. His father, Cecil Crawford O'Gorman, was a mining engineer and artist of Irish origin; his mother was Mexican. Juan was educated at th... read more