ABSTRACT
Sovereignty is a key factor to consider when studying Mexico’s relations with the United States. It has been at the center of the relationship since 1822, when Washington became the fi rst capital to recognize Mexico’s independence. Within 30 years of its political emancipation from Spain, though, the country had lost over half its territory to its northern neighbor. During the last decades of the 19th century and the fi rst of the 20th, U.S. economic presence in Mexico grew rapidly, with Washington becoming Mexico’s main foreign investor by 1910. Anti-Americanism was by then a widespread phenomenon, with the territorial loss looming large in the country’s collective memory.1 However, the Porfi rio Díaz regime (18761910) policy toward Washington was rather accommodating-sometimes bordering on the subservient.2 In 1899 Foreign A airs Minister Ignacio Mariscal went as far as to say in a speech before U.S. President William McKinley: “It is not only our proximity that unites us; we have adopted your institutions; we have modeled our political being after yours; and the symbol of our nationality is almost identical to yours-Jupiter’s famous bird, the eagle. Let both eagles soar heavenward, always together, slicing through the skies in parallel lines: The American eagle guiding, the Mexican following the example of her older sister”.3
