Book Review 1: Mexican Consular Diplomacy in Trump´s Era (Prologue and Introduction).

Mexico´s Consular Diplomacy has been developing slowly since the day that the country lost half of its land to the United States in 1848.[i] As a result, many of the Mexicans who stayed in the new U.S. territory needed consular assistance from the government to protect their rights.[ii]
 
Since then, it has had to deal with different crises, from the mass deportation of even U.S. citizens from Mexican descent during the Great Depression and the operation “Wetback” of 1954, as well as from the immigration reform of the mid-1980s which granted status to millions of Mexicans, to September 11, 2001, and the current anti-immigrant, anti-Mexicans sentiments headed by the U.S. President.
 
However, little has been written about it, particularly in English. Only two studies have been published about Mexican Consular Diplomacy, both in Spanish. First, the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior No. 101 titled Consular Diplomacy: Service Calling and Strategic instrument of Foreign Policy in 2014; and second, the 2018 book La Diplomacia Consular Mexicana en tiempos de Trump, (Mexican Consular Diplomacy in Trump´s Era).
 
As the coordinator of the book, Rafael Fernández de Castro,[iii] clearly states, “This book could fill the existing void in the scholarly literature about the concept of Consular Diplomacy. Indeed there is no bibliography related [to the topic] as it is a concept that has been developing thru a unique practice: the consular activity displayed by Mexico in the United States.”[iv]
 
To expand the audience of the book and the knowledge about Mexican Consular Diplomacy, in the coming weeks, I will be posting a review of most of the chapters of the book.
 
But before going further, let´s contextualize the moment of the publication, as it is very focused on the current situation in the United States with the Presidency of Donald Trump.
 
On June 15, 2015, the well-known businessman Donald Trump announced he was running for President in the 2016 elections. In his speech, he accused Mexico of “bringing their worst people,” including criminals and rapists, and promise to build a “great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall.”[v]
 
Against all the odds, Trump was not only the Republican Party presidential candidate, but he won the presidency thru the Electoral College on November 8, 2016. In addition to his offensive language towards Mexico and Mexicans, during the campaign threatened to suspend the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and he pushed for a very aggressive anti-immigrant policy, including regular immigrants, not just the undocumented ones.
 
After his inauguration in January 2017, one of Trump´s first acts was issuing several Executive Orders, mainly focused on immigration issues.[vi] It has been said that Trump´s speeches and actions are one of the reasons for the increase in hate incidents and crimes across the country even before he took office.[vii]
 
So, let’s say that the implications for a Trump presidency were a clear and present danger for Mexico, particularly for the millions of Mexicans who make the United States their home, regardless of their immigration status.
 
After Trump´s election, the group of people that originally met in August 2016 to review the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, was invited to write a chapter for the book.
 
Prologue: The evolution of migration and its effect on consular work
 
In the book´s prologue, the then Under Secretary for North American Affairs, Carlos M. Sada, the only person in Mexico’s modern history to head the three biggest Consulates and the Embassy in the U.S., describes that the growth of the Mexican community north of the border pushed the government of Mexico to intensify its consular protection and documentation[viii] activities, during the latter part of the 20th Century. And later on, at the onset of the new millennium,[ix] to expand them to facilitate their integration to the host country.[x]
 
Sada explains that at the beginning, Consular Diplomacy “was a necessary tool rather than a deliberate strategy.”[xi] And it entailed “expanding the reach of consular activities by the Consulates with the objective of offering better and more options, not only for an enhanced consular protection but as defense, response, and visibility mechanisms.”[xii]
 
The Undersecretary also describes the consular rapprochement with state and local actors with influence for the benefit of the Mexican community, that in some cases, developed in the creation of several non-governmental organizations such as Cien Amigos in Sacramento, Mexico Innova in Los Angeles, or Aguila Alliance in Austin, Texas.
 
The prologue also includes a brief description of what the consulates have done after the inauguration of President Trump, emphasizing the partnership developed between the consulates and all types of authorities, companies, trade and non-profit organizations, lawyers, and the civil society that recognize the valuable relationship with Mexico.
 
Introduction: the Concept of Consular Diplomacy and the organization of the book.
 
In the introduction, Fernández de Castro details the origins of the book and gives a general overview of its content. He indicates that Diplomacia Consular Mexicana is divided into two sections. The first part focuses on three topics: the development of the ´alt-right` movement in the U.S., the emergence of ´fake news´, and Trump`s relationship with the press and the cooperation and conflict at the border. I will not review these chapters at this time.
 
The second part of the book has ten chapters, which were written by mostly Mexican diplomats who have extensive consular experience in the United States. Here is a list of the chapters and their authors.
 
         4. Lessons from consular protection for consular diplomacy / Daniel Hernández Joseph.

​     5. Consular Diplomacy:  A paradigm in the Mexico - U.S. relation / Reyna Torres Mendivil.

     6. Mexico`s Integral Consular Management in the United States. Its evolution for the service of the diaspora and its strategic objectives / Francisco Javier Díaz de León and Víctor Peláez Millán.

           7. Consular Diplomacy in the face of U.S. demography and society in the 21st Century / Juan Carlos Mendoza Sánchez.

         8. The synergies with other communities: the case of Tricamex / Jorge A. Schiavon and Guillermo Ordorica R.

      9. Consular diplomacy and outreach to strategic partners / Vanessa Calva Ruiz.

​  10. Mexican consular diplomacy and the risks of administrative hydrocephaly / José Octavio Tripp.​

     11. Staying at the forefront: the challenge of the consulates of Mexico in the United States / Rafael Laveaga Rendón.

     12. The meaning of a special relation: Mexico´s relationship with Texas in the light of California´s experience / Carlos González Gutiérrez.

​     13. The role of Consular Diplomacy in a transborder context: The case of CaliBaja / Marcela Celorio.
* As mentioned, the first section of the book with three chapters won’t be reviewed at this time. This is why the list starts with chapter 4.

Also, he briefly analyses the development of Mexico´s Consular Diplomacy. He explains that “…in the last 25 years, the consulates have deployed a series of activities that resemble that of a regional embassy: in addition to the traditional [consular] tripod (consular protection, documentation and communitarian work) [they] develop economic promotion, political lobbying and what is known as Public Diplomacy…meaning thru different actions in the media and cultural promotion [consulates] work to improve the image of Mexico.”[xiii]
 
He concludes that even though “Consular Diplomacy resembles that of diplomatic endeavor… it still maintains a special affinity with Mexicans in the United States.”[xiv]
 
Overall, the prologue and the introduction set the stage for the experiences that seasoned Mexican diplomats share in the second part of the book. However, there is no review of scholarly literature about Consular Diplomacy as well as lacks any discussion of theoretical approaches on the subject.
 
What the book does undoubtedly is to share with the reader the wide variety of initiatives and activities undertaken by consulates, some unique and localized, and others instrumented throughout the consular network. With these examples, one could eventually develop a conceptual basis for consular Diplomacy as practiced by Mexico.
 
Now let´s move on to the chapter written by Ambassador Hernández Joseph, titled “Lesson from consular protection for consular diplomacy”, which I will review in the next post.

[i] Hernández Joseph, Daniel, Protección Consular Mexicana, México, 2015, p. 49-50.
[ii] Hernández Joseph, Daniel, “Lecciones de la protección consular para la diplomacia consular” in La Diplomacia Consular Mexicana en tiempos de Trump, 2018 p. 94-95.
[iii] He is a well-known Mexican foreign policy analyst and currently is the director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies of the University of California, San Diego.
[iv] Translated by the author. Fernández de Castro, Rafael ,“Introducción” in La Diplomacia Consular Mexicana en tiempos de Trump, Mexico 2018, p. 17.
[v] Neate, Rupert, “Donald Trump announces US presidential run with eccentric speech” in The Guardian, June 16, 2015.
[vi] To see a comprehensive list of changes made to immigration laws and policies since the start of Trump´s presidency see Pierce, Sarah and Bolter, Jessica Dismantling and Reconstructing the U.S. Immigration System: A Catalog of Changes under the Trump Presidency by the Migration Policy Institute, July 2020.
[vii] See for example Hassan, Adeel, “Hate-Crime Violence Hits 16-Year High, F.B.I. Reports”, in The New York Times, November 12, 2019, and Folley, Aris, “Hate crimes rose by 226 percent in the countries where Trump hosted campaign rallies in 2016: study” in The Hill, March 23, 2019.
[viii] Consular documentation or documentary are services that the consulate provides, such as issuing passports, visas, birth registrations and powers of attorney, as well as authentication of documents.
[ix] In 2003 the Institute of Mexicans Abroad was established and that greatly expanded the community affairs activities of the consulates, including the establishment of “Ventanillas de Salud” (Health Windows), the inclusion of educational programs and the use of remittances for the development of local communities. To learn more about the government of Mexico´s engagement with its diaspora, read some of the multiple publications of Alexandra Delano included in Google Scholar. See also Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior # 107 Comunidades Mexicanas en el Exterior, May-August 2016; de Cossío Díaz, Roger, et. al., Mexicanos en el Exterior: Trayectoria y perspectivas 1990-2010, Instituto Matías Romero, 2010 and Laglagaron, Laura, Protection through Integration: The Mexican Government Efforts to Aid Migrants in the United States, Migration Policy Institute, January 2010.
[x] Sada, Carlos M., “Prólogo: La evolución de la migración y su efecto en el trabajo consular” in La Diplomacia Consular Mexicana en tiempos de Trump, Mexico 2018, p. 9-10.
[xi] Sada, Carlos M., “Prólogo” p. 11.
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] Fernández de Castro, Rafael, “Introducción: El concepto de Diplomacia Consular y la organización del libro” in La Diplomacia Consular Mexicana en tiempos de Trump, Mexico 2018, p. 18.
[xiv] Fernández de Castro, Rafael, “Introducción”, p. 19.
 
 
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