Tough Questions for Vicente Fox

Here is what made Fox uncomfortable.

-- My question about whether he understood the anger that many Mexican-Americans in the United States feel toward Mother Mexico for mistreating our immigrant parents and grandparents and sending them north, and why that made us reluctant to now embrace the country. He doesn't understand.

-- My insistence that Mexico was divided by class, color, geography and politics and always has been, with Mexicans warring against each other and taking advantage and preying on one another. He disagreed.

-- My question about why -- if, as Fox wrote in his book, "Revolution of Hope," Mexico did in fact help the United States seal the border after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- it couldn't do that every day, and help the U.S. stop illegal immigration from Mexico. He chuckled nervously and shook his head, insisting that Mexico can't stop its people from leaving.

-- My recollection that he dillydallied after 9/11 and did not come soon enough to America's aid, waiting as long as three weeks before offering assistance while polls showed that as much as 62 percent of the Mexican population wanted his administration to "stay neutral" in the war between the United States and al-Qaeda. He claimed that he did try to reach President Bush right away, and eventually got through, but he dodged the question about the delay in offering help.

Fox made mistakes. All chief executives do. But he also got a few things right, including his admirable attempts to reach out to Mexican migrants in the U.S. that the motherland had previously ignored.

Much has happened since Fox left office in 2006, including a drug war launched by President Felipe Calderon that resulted in the death of more than 50,000 Mexicans, and energy reforms pushed by President Enrique Pena Nieto that will allow foreign investment in Mexico's petroleum industry for the first time since the 1930s.

It's a new day south of the border, and it's hard to imagine the dawn of it without Fox's political ascendance 14 years ago. That's a legacy to be proud of.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.