Encuentros y desencuentros. Ensayos sobre la cercana lejanía con Estados Unidos

The United States is a country that has welcomed many people from different parts of the world, with their respective cultures, idiosyncrasies and languages, resulting in a country in which diverse ethnic, social, and religious groups are mixed. However, this plural nation has not been built without difficulties. The United States is also a territory of exclusion, of racism, of xenophobia; Chinese, Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Latinos of various origins, were seen and judged as inassimilable... until they were assimilated.

Herein lies the great paradox of that country, which has a fragmented social fabric, but at the same time is endowed with a great capacity for integration.

The complex and often tormented relationship between the hegemon of our time and its southern neighbor, Mexico, is well known. Both countries share a border of almost three thousand kilometers; a border which, by the way, is the busiest in the world. Currently, the American population of Latino origin outnumbers the African-American population.

Undoubtedly, the destiny of both nations, whether they wish it or not, has been interwoven for at least two centuries.

This book is the result of the academic collaboration agreement between the Instituto Franklin-UAH and the Centro de Investigación Sobre América del Norte of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CISAN-UNAM). It includes a collection of essays on different topics —society, economy, political system, culture and religion—, written by researchers from CISAN-UNAM. This multidisciplinary mosaic of texts seeks to provide the reader with some keys to better understand the close distance that exists between those two countries.

Although from different perspectives, there is something that certainly links the Instituto Franklin-UAH and CISAN-UNAM: their deep interest in the United States as an object of reflection and study.