Tough Questions for Vicente Fox

MIDLAND, Texas -- I spent the 16th of September, Mexican Independence Day, with a former president of Mexico -- and tried to figure out which U.S. president he reminded me of.

Vicente Fox is as effective a communicator as Bill Clinton, except he speaks both English and Spanish. Fox has the emotional intelligence and people skills of George W. Bush, without the swagger and sharp tongue. And, after making history -- by dethroning a rival political party that had a 71-year grip on the presidency -- he fell short of expectations, just like Barack Obama.

Americans in both parties know the feeling of loving their country but disliking a particular president.

Last week, at a special event in this small West Texas city of just over 120,000 where crude is king and "W" is their favorite son, I experienced the opposite.

As a Mexican-American, I like Fox personally. But sometimes his country, my grandfather's homeland, gets on my nerves.

As I sat down to interview the former president of Mexico and his wife, Marta Sahagun de Fox, in front of about 1,200 people as part of the Davidson Distinguished Lecture Series at Midland College, I realized my assignment would be tricky.

If the conversation was going to be just about Fox, I could afford to be largely complimentary. He's a straight talker, a savvy marketer and a skilled politician. There's a lot to admire, not the least of which that he opened up Mexico to a more vibrant form of democracy.

But if the dialogue was going to be about Mexico and its relationship to the United States, Fox would face some tough questions from me.

It's impossible not to like Fox, and for U.S. audiences -- to whom he speaks often these days -- it doesn't hurt that his ancestry is part American. In 1895, about 20 years before my grandfather went north from Chihuahua and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, Fox's grandfather Joseph left Ohio and migrated south to Guanajuato. One patriarch found his American Dream in the United States, the other found it in Mexico.

The interview lasted about 45 minutes, and it was no fiesta for Fox. At several points, he said exasperatedly: "This is why they say you're very provocative."

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.