Politics Across Borders: Mexico's Policies Toward Mexicans in the United States‪.‬

President Vicente Fox's 2000 characterization of the Mexican community in the United States as "heroes" delighted most of his paisanos on both sides of the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande. The Mexican diaspora in the United States had finally come of age. The heroes of the Mexican diaspora had braved the hardships of migration to define a new life for themselves in the United States. Many had achieved marked success and had supported their Mexican families (and the Mexican economy!) by remitting about $10 billion annually by the onset of the new millennium. In the Foxista view, they were a credit to the raza and a boon to the Mexican economy. Fox's accolades helped bestow increasing dignity and credibility upon the Mexican diaspora in the United States. Their new status differed from the disdain frequently voiced of old by posturing Mexico City pseudo-aristocrats and their super-nationalistic brethren. But Fox's declaration was hardly an abrupt break with the past. Rather, it capped an evolution embedded in Mexican history and pursued consciously and consistently since the early 1970s.