Slogans against the US-Mexico-Canada Treaty

128

August 2, 2022

Published in Milenio
(Mexico) on 26 July 2022
by Héctor Aguilar Camín (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Patricia Simoni. Edited by Michelle Bisson.

Does the president of Mexico want to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement?

Will that be the last step he takes in his quarrel with the energy chapter of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement?

Or is his rhetoric on the matter just a way to raise the stakes for his partners, so that they will stop demanding that Mexico comply with his government’s commitment to USMCA?

Near the end of my recent vacation from journalism, a friend called me to ask, half seriously, if the president’s speech on USMCA, scheduled for Sept. 16, Independence Day, might be the four-letter version of Fidel Castro's Havana Declaration in 1960 — when he broke with the U.S. and threw himself into the arms of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ rockets, in the name of the island's independence.

I had enjoyed my vacation. I was reading “War and Peace,” and was in that imaginative state of mind in which anything seems possible. So I had entertained the idea.

I wondered if the speech to be made on Sept. 16 would really be an incandescent equivalent to that of the catastrophic Cuban independence slogan: 'Homeland or Death. We shall overcome.”

I thought that it would not be quite that grand, that speechwriters might come up with a slogan more like: "Pemex* or USMCA. We will win,” thus including patriots who support Pemex and traitors who lean toward USMCA.

I searched for another slogan: "Sovereignty or USMCA. We will win.” But the word “sovereignty" seemed too long to me, while “USMCA” seemed too short as an adversarial acronym.

Then I thought: "Sovereignty or neoliberalism. We will win.” The two words both seemed too long to me. They competed with each other. They cancelled each other out.

I looked for short words: "Homeland or USMCA. We shall overcome.” Maybe that would do, I thought.

But "USMCA"? What is "USMCA"? USMCA is nothing: It is merely an acronym and technocratic jargon.

I shifted to geography: "Mexico or North America. We shall overcome." And that sounded weak to me.

I made another shift: "Mexico or United States: We shall overcome.” Also weak.

And I came to this, historical and popular: "Homeland or Gringos. We shall overcome.”

Then I continued reading Tolstoy.

*Editor’s Note: Pemex is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government.

¿Querrá el Presidente de México salirse del tratado de libre comercio con América del Norte?

¿Será ése el último eslabón que busca en su querella con el capítulo energético del T-MEC?

¿O su retórica al respecto es sólo una manera de subirle las apuestas a sus socios, para que dejen de exigir que México cumpla con lo que su gobierno firmó en el T-MEC?

Al final de mis vacaciones periodísticas de estos días, me llamó un amigo para preguntar, entre burlas y veras, si el discurso sobre el T-MEC anunciado por el Presidente para el 16 de septiembre, día de la Independencia, no iría a ser la versión cuatrotera de aquella Declaración de la Habana de Fidel Castro, en 1960, donde rompió con Estados Unidos y se echó en brazos de los cohetes de la URSS, a nombre de la independencia de la isla.

Yo gozaba mis vacaciones, leía La guerra y la paz y estaba en ese modo imaginativo donde todo puede suceder, así que me entretuve con la idea.

Me pregunté si realmente el discurso anunciado para el 16 de septiembre tendría una incandescencia equivalente a la del catastrófico lema de independencia cubana: Patria o Muerte. Venceremos.

Pensé que no sería tanto, que el discurso mexicano podría llegar si acaso a un lema tipo: “Pemex o T-MEC. Venceremos”, siendo aquí patriotas los partidarios de Pemex y traidores los simpatizantes del T-MEC.

Busqué otro tumbo: “Soberanía o T-MEC. Venceremos”. Pero me pareció larga la palabra Soberanía y poca cosa, como sigla adversaria, la palabra T-MEC .

Entonces discurrí: “Soberanía o neoliberalismo. Venceremos”. Me parecieron largas las dos palabras, competían entre sí, se anulaban.

Busqué palabras cortas: “Patria o T-MEC. Venceremos”.

Por ahí, pensé. Pero, ¿“T-MEC”? ¿Qué es “T-MEC”? T-MEC no es nada: sigla y jerga tecnocrática.

Resbalé hacia la geografía: “México o Norteamérica. Venceremos”. Me sonó flojo.

Resbalé otro poco: “México o Estados Unidos: Venceremos”. Flojo también.

Y llegué a esto, histórico y popular: “Patria o Gringos. Venceremos”.

Seguí con Tolstói.

This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

Hot this week

Block title

Thailand: Appeasing China Won’t Help Counter Trump

September 2, 2025. Published in Bangkok Post

Australia: Donald Trump Is Taking Over the US Federal Reserve and Financial Markets Have Missed the Point

September 1, 2025. Published in ABC News Australia

Israel: From the Cities of America to John Bolton: Trump’s Vendetta Campaign against Opponents Reaches New Heights

September 1, 2025. Published in Globes

The elderly president, vengeful and bearing a grudge, is conducting an all-out war against individuals, private and public institutions, cities and against U.S. states.