Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans [Paperback]

Alan Riding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 1989

A study of Mexico - political, social, cultural, economic - by a journalist who was for the past 6 years the NYT bureau chief in Mexico City. With portraits of Mexico's top leaders, about a nation whose stability is vital to our national well-being.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A former Mexico City bureau chief for the New York Times, Riding shows himself to be a sympathetic, informed observer of the complex changes wracking Mexican society and is especially insightful about recent political and economic turbulence and the tension between the Mexican majority and the "Americanized" minority. PW called Riding's analysis "broad, absorbing and up-to-date." January
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A spectacular piece of work. Alan Riding has a rich under-standing of [Mexico]: anthropology, history, economics, politics, culture, and--not least--psychology."--Anthony Lewis

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 23, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679724419
• ISBN-13: 978-0679724414
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ALAN RIDING is a Brazilian-born Briton who studied economics and law before becoming a journalist and writer. Working successively for Reuters, The Financial Times, The Economist and The New York Times, he reported from the United Nations in New York, Latin America and Western Europe. During much of his career, Riding covered political and economic affairs. During the final 12 years before he retired from journalism in 2007, he was the European cultural correspondent for The New York Times, based in Paris. In 1980, Riding was awarded the Maria Moors Cabot Prize by Columbia University for his coverage of Latin America and he has also been honored by the Overseas Press Club and the Latin American Studies Association in the United States. He is author of the best-selling book, Distant Neighbors: Portrait of the Mexicans, and co-author of Essential Shakespeare Handbook and Opera. His most recent book, published in 2010, is And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Minor Classic on Mexico and Mexicans, September 28, 2000

By 

Carlos Mejia (Silver Spring, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans (Paperback)

For too many Americans, Mexico is terra incognita. Even most U.S. visitors have only partial impressions of this vast and variegated country based on a quick trip to the border, a holiday in Cancun, or a brief stopover in Mexico City. To make Mexico less of a distant neighbor for Americans, Alan Riding has written a superb, highly readable synthesis of Mexican psychology, history, politics, social issues, and regional diversity. Sure, "Distant Neighbors" is a bit dated at 16 years old, but it's still well worth reading today.

The first chapter is a lucid description of national character to rival Thucydides or de Tocqueville. Mexicans may object to Riding's stereotypes but he's dead-on 95% of the time. Equally insightful is the way he deals with social issues (land, Indians, social well-being, and the family) and regional diversity. These six incisive chapters get to the heart of the nation's urgent problems and survey the country's dramatic contrasts. The historical and political sections are models of brevity and perspicuity. Even though the Mexican political system has changed out of all recognition since 1984, Mexico will be a long time dealing with, coming to terms with, or ridding itself of the 71-year legacy of one-party rule that Riding describes so well.

Of course, every book has its weaknesses. The last chapter, a sort of "whither Mexico" postscript, should be read as an object lesson on the pitfalls of prognostication. The chapter on Central America is interesting but irrelevant. Although the overview of U.S.-Mexico relations provides good historical background, NAFTA has overthrown most of Riding's judgments on that score. The economy and culture sections are lucid but superficial.

In sum, I highly recommend "Distant Neighbors" as a first-rate work of formidable breadth and depth written with exceptional grace and edited with meticulous care (amazingly, I couldn't find a single solecism).

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prophetic!, April 4, 2001

By 

Joel Quezada (Chihuahua, Chih, México) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans (Paperback)

I bought and read this book twice in a time span of ten years. I was fascinated since I read it the first time. Being a mexican, Distant Neighbors provided me with insight from a foreigners perspective. It is not a plain book and can not be differet. As Mr. Riding explains so clearly, mexicans complexity and contradictions are due to the mixture of occidental and indian concepts.

I can see myself in this book.

In practice, the author speculates, the PRI would not survive in a democratic environment without provoking its own destruction. In theory it would have to change so much to the point of becoming unrecognizable. As I write this line, the PRI is in such stages! The words of Alan Riding are becoming a prophecy.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, March 15, 2001

By 

Rick Oliver (LCF, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans (Paperback)

I had to read this book as part of a foreign study program in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It is a brilliant social history of the perception on the Mexican people. Our educational system is built around a brief New World history on top of an extensive European tradition; unfortunately the lands south of our borders generally aren't a part of our perception of history.

Alan Riding makes this very plain early on in the book; in the first paragraph, he states, "..nowhere in the world do two neighbors understand each other so little. More than by levels of development, [these] two countries are separated by language, religion, race, philosophy and history."

Perhaps Riding can summarize his own purpose best when he wrote that "the purpose of this book is to make Mexico more accessible to non-Mexicans. It is inspired not by a desire to expose the country's vulnerabilities, but by the belief that Mexico would be served if better understood by its northern neighbor."

If you're interested in putting Mexico in a perspective complimentary to your boiler-plate knowledge of world history, read this book. After you read it, your mind will begin to "look south" when examining issues close to home (especially if you live near the US-Mexican border).