ABSTRACT
From a Mexican perspective, the idea that the three nations that occupy the northern region of the American continent can share something more substantial than a geographical location and economic and demographic exchanges is at best just a mere possibility in a distant future. North America as a common historical enterprise where the national interests of the US, Canada, and Mexico converge in a way that reinforces each other as a result of long term political arrangement is just a theoretical prospect and an almost impossible reality. North America as a common endeavour requires a significant and dramatic redefinition of each national interest, particularly in the case of the US, now an imperial superpower that has no counterpart in the international system. 1 At present there is no sign that such a redefinition is possible. Mexicans in North America cannot call this continent ‘our North America’ in the sense that many Europeans can call Europe their own common home and enterprise. On the other hand, Mexicans, especially poor Mexicans, are precisely the ones who are moving against the current from south to north as if North America had no borders and could be thought of and lived in as a unit.
