What "Race" Exactly Are Mexicans?

President Trump Is Having Too Much Fun to Care

The media, here and abroad, have made their minds up. Putting a sombrero on Democrat House Leader Hakim Jeffries in a parody video is “racist,” or worse, in Jeffries’s opinion, “disgusting.”

Guardian: “White House plays racist deepfake video of Democratic leaders on loop.”

CNN: “Trump posts racist, AI-generated video of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.”

Independent: Trump posts vulgar and racist AI video on government shutdown with Schumer saying: ‘Nobody likes Democrats anymore.”

What no one in media has bothered to ask is to which racial group do Mexicans belong. With just 15 minutes of research, even the Des Moines School Board would have understood that “Mexican” is no more a race than “American,” maybe less so.

Like the sombrero itself, Mexico has its origins in Europe, Spain primarily. The Mexico that we know today started taking shape in 1519 with the arrival of Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. Although he played by 16th century Spanish rules—no holocaust, no foul—Cortes played brilliantly. Within two years, Cortes and his crew of 600 had conquered the Aztec Empire and made Mexico a Spanish hacienda.

Although there was some racial mixing around the edges, Europeans remained in control of the country and the culture for the next 300 years. Mexico formalized its independence from Spain in 1821, but the culture had changed little. A Spanish ruling class still held sway in the 1830s when young Bostonian Richard Henry Dana spent months traveling throughout Spanish California. Dana would prove to be as honest and amusing an observer as ever visited those golden shores.

“La Academia,” a popular Mexican TV show not overly concerned with diversity

There was much that Dana liked. The countryside was beautiful and so were the women. The Californians of Spanish descent had good manners, nice voices, and danced well. The frijole was “the best bean in the world.” The Hawaiians he worked with, and there were many in California at the time, were “the most interesting, intelligent, and kind-hearted people” he had ever known. Young and open-minded, Dana was not given to easy prejudice.

In those halcyon days before Mexicans had mutated into a racial group, Dana felt free to evaluate them as he saw fit. “The Californians,” he would write, “are an idle, thriftless people, and can make nothing for themselves.” That they actually had to buy wine from Boston appalled the young man. Even before California’s beautiful people started squandering their fortunes on Napa vineyards, the country abounded in grapes.

“Mexican Dynasties” follow three wealthy families, none of them “of color”

“Among the Spaniards there is no working class,” observed the budding sociologist. The Indians had grown resigned to “being slaves and doing all the hard work.” Dana bemoaned a “caste” system determined solely by one’s Spanish blood and a legal system that deprived Protestants of civil and property rights. “In fact,” he wrote in summing up his hosts, “they sometimes appeared to be a people on whom a curse had fallen, and stripped them of everything but their pride, their manners, and their voices.”

Dana nicely anticipated California’s future. He described the Yankees, who had converted to Catholicism and married into the culture, as “having more industry, frugality, and enterprise than the natives” and notes that they had already begun to dominate trade and even civic life. “In the hands of an enterprising people,” he enthused, “what a country this might be!”

Today, Mexico’s dominant ethnicity is “mestizo,” meaning a mix of European and Indian blood. but a sizable percentage of the population, both Indian and European, remains unassimilated into the mestizo mix. As a case in point, the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is the daughter of two immigrant European Jews. As to blacks, there is no more African DNA in Mexico than there is in the Vermont of Bernie Sanders.

Mestizos may be the most numerous ethnic group, but from the looks of things, those controlling the culture are either European or mestizo of the Elizabeth Warren variety. As Wikipedia reminds us in a rare moment of honesty, “Although phenotype is not as important as culture, European features and lighter skin tone are favored by middle- and upper-class groups.” In watching Mexican TV shows, you will see nearly as many blondes as on Fox News.

Alas, America has Richard Nixon to thank for turning “Mexican” into a “race.” As Nixon’s Commerce secretary Maurice Stans remembered, he approached Nixon with an idea to advance the cause of any number of ethnic groups, “I’d like to wrap them all together into one program,” he remembers, “and call it ‘Minority Business.’”

Nixon did not need much prompting. He saw the idea as a way to attract a range of minority voters, particularly Hispanics. Said he in response, “All right, let’s do it that way.” And that was that. Without vote of the people or of Congress or even discussion in the cabinet, an arguably unconstitutional race-based spoils system sprang into full flower, and the. Democrats have been milking it ever since..

Say what you will about Mexico, but unlike the United States, its leaders have chosen not to overly worry about “diversity.” DEI, it seems, is a gringo thing.

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