Rating: 
Summary: A very worthy but not authoritative contribution.
Review: "Opening Mexico" is a timely reminder of the importance of Mexico to foreign policy makers and citizens of the United States. It is also another chronicle reminding the reader of the great political progress made in Mexico during the last decade. This political progress still sits upon uncertain foundations.This book is an important contribution to the study of Mexico since the revolution, spanning the post-Diaz years to the mid-point of the Fox presidency. Since such a broad span of history is captured in the 500+ pages of this book it is easy to understand that its content may be brief in depth and comprehensive in scope. The reader should supplement this book with other texts dealing with the same great changes that took place in Mexico in the past decade. "Mexico: A Biography of Power" by Enrique Krauze offers a broader evaluation of Mexican history sexenio-by-sexenio going back to the revolution. "Bordering on Chaos by Andres Oppenheimer" explores in some greater detail some of the high drama in the events of the crucial 1993-1995 time frame. "La Herencia" by Jorge Castaneda also discusses in greater detail the political and historical changes than "Opening Mexico" (it may not be available in English). Another possibility would be to read Carlos Salinas de Gortari's book (I have not) to gain his view of events. "Opening Mexico" offers the reader some new insights not found in the previously mentioned texts. The inner sanctums of the 1988 election are depicted to a level of detail I have not read before. "Opening Mexico" also covers the careers of several key figures in Mexico who have brought about, or attempted to thwart, change. The writers wrote what they saw; this could explain some of the gaps in "Opening Mexico." One may fill these gaps by reading the other books I recommend. Though by reading this book, one will read much of the same content covering events such as the Zapatista revolution or the Colosio assasination. In the end, "Opening Mexico" is a very worthy contribution on the recent history of Mexico and should be part of the library of any serious observer of Mexico.
Rating:
Summary: The price of democracy and who paid
Review: "Opening Mexico" is a very readable and thought provoking work on the 30+-year process of democratic reform in Mexico. As many will know, Mexico has developed its own unique form of democratic governance. Yes, a single party controlled the government since the revolution and all power flowed from the president, selected by the prior incumbent; but this arrangement was flexible enough to encompass most social, labor, business and popular sectors of society. This highly adaptive system survived and indeed brought a modicum of order to what had been a highly chaotic and often barely governable society.
The authors describe how this system began to break under the weight of its own size. The election of Diaz Ordaz, a stern and cold authoritarian figure who rather than negotiate with student radicals, orders their suppression, is the beginning of the end for the old line regime. This event, the Tlatelolco Massacre (1968) begins the slow process of loss of legitimacy that culminates in the election of the first opposition politician Vicente Fox in 2000.
In between, the authors take us on a survey of corruption throughout all levels of public life, mainly bred by drug money. Further, we see the incredible flexibility of the PRI system as well as its ruthlessness in holding on to power. Bribery, strong arm tactics, ballot box stuffing, intimidation, beatings and murders are all tools in the repertoire of the ruling party. While dissent is officially encouraged, we also see the aggressive co-opting of opposition politicians of all stripes. This results in a political environment where political alternatives have been either infected by corruption or have become so indebted to the current system so as to lose all legitimacy.
A good book not a definitive history but certainly a well written account of a tumultuous time in the history of Mexico and a fascinating view of an authoritarian regime struggling with democratic change.
John C. McKee
Rating: 
Summary: Living in Mexico
Review: Although the authors of this book are accurate in many ways, I find myself wondering just who they talked to...especially after seeing Julia Preston on CNN, defending the effects of the NAFTA in Mexico, together with the benefits brought by President Fox. Anyone who knows the horrific effects of the trade agreement on states such as Chiapas and Oaxaca will quickly see that the authors are part of an elite and never really felt the aching heartbeat of a people driven half-mad by a relentless poverty and loss of dignity. Little, if nothing, has improved with free trade, no matter what they say.One needs only look at the Zapatista movement, and the scandal of Ciudad de Juarez to see that the Fox regime simply blames the PRI in order to do nothing to help nor address what does not serve the USA. There are still dissidents "disappearing", daily strikes and hopelessness throughout the country, especially in the south which the north ignores.
I was in Oaxaca when Fox arrived a week before the election, and wondered if he cared at all about the indigenous people. But at least he was a little gracious. He returned a few days after, and swaggered. There is an intense dislike among the common people for his wife, who has alienated even members of the party. - something Julia Preston failed to mention on CNN.
One reviewer suggests the high-handed "Bordering on Chaos" as a companion-piece, and this is a sad commentary on what passes as correct research on the state of the Mexican people. American journalists sit on high and pronounce their so-called truths, but do they ever, such as Preston and Dillon, really open their hearts instead of their minds to what is passing as "life" in the Third World - in this case, in America's garbage dump?
Rating: 
Summary: Opening Mexico and its politics to a wider audience
Review: Hats off to the team of Dillon and Preston who give us a bird's eye view of one of the most interesting times in modern history, not only in Mexican or Latin American history. The authors do a tremendous job of communicating the unprecedented and complicated events leading up to the election of Vicente Fox. But the added value is in their appreciation of the historical and cultural context in which many of the otherwise well-known facts occurred. I was working in Mexico also during this period. Given the limited coverage in both Mexico and the US of so much of what happened - in the former due to the one-sided view of the media and in the latter due to the wrongheaded disregard in the US for events that occur in our not so distant neighbor - I was reading many of the details for the first time. "Opening Mexico" will stand as a more than worthy attempt to introduce a larger audience to the importance of these events to both the US and to Mexico, and to frame discourse on critical political changes to come in both countries over the next few years.
Rating:
Summary: Opening Mexico and its politics to a wider audience
Review: Hats off to the team of Dillon and Preston who give us a bird's eye view of one of the most interesting times in modern history, not only in Mexican or Latin American history. The authors do a tremendous job of communicating the unprecedented and complicated events leading up to the election of Vicente Fox. But the added value is in their appreciation of the historical and cultural context in which many of the otherwise well-known facts occurred. I was working in Mexico also during this period. Given the limited coverage in both Mexico and the US of so much of what happened - in the former due to the one-sided view of the media and in the latter due to the wrongheaded disregard in the US for events that occur in our not so distant neighbor - I was reading many of the details for the first time. "Opening Mexico" will stand as a more than worthy attempt to introduce a larger audience to the importance of these events to both the US and to Mexico, and to frame discourse on critical political changes to come in both countries over the next few years.
Rating:
Summary: This is THE book on the past 40 years in Mexico
Review: Having lived in Mexico for 38 years, I would say that this THE definitive work. Another reviewer insists on looking at only the negative side of what happens in Mexico, as do so many Mexicans themselves. However, there is a positive side - a very positive side. Things are happening, and Mexico is, indeed, opening to a whole new way of life. No, it is not happening in a single day, but what does?
I arrived in 1966. I have witnessed all the changes that Preston and Dillon depict in their book. It is a true picture of those events - and a pretty gutsy one at that.
I once heard Julia Preston speak at the school where I am working. I was impressed at her intelligence and how knowlegeable she was. She was one of the most open-minded and objective Americans I had ever heard on the subject of this country. And that is exactly what I saw in her book.
I don't wear a hat, but, if I did, it would certainly be off to these journalists who have done such a fine job.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating - amazing portrait
Review: I agree with the positive reviews on this page. In addition, the book is a really good read and hard to put down if you have ANY interest in the topic. Each chapter contains some absolutely amazing scene or portrait which is interesting in its own right and also serves well to illustrate general topic of that chapter.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, but longer than it needs to be
Review: This book traces the gradual development of multi-party democracy in Mexico during recent decades, particularly since the massacre of students in Mexico City in 1968. Preston and Dillon are chillingly effective when they describe the brutal techniques of the PRI's "perfect dictatorship," ranging from stealing ballot boxes to assassinating opponents of the regime. They give us sympathetic brief portraits of individual democratic activists, including many women. President Zedillo emerges as something of a hero in enabling the emergence of a more democratic political system, though even he sometimes acted in the authoritarian way of a PRI dinosaur. For the most part, Preston and Dillon tell this story in a clear and interesting way. However, they get a bit carried away with personal vignettes, as if they wanted to include as many of their contacts as possible. Their first-person insertions (Julia writes, Sam writes) are distracting and interrupt the flow of the narrative. The more than five hundred pages of text could have been cut to four hundred by judicious editing.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, but longer than it needs to be
Review: This book traces the gradual development of multi-party democracy in Mexico during recent decades, particularly since the massacre of students in Mexico City in 1968. Preston and Dillon are chillingly effective when they describe the brutal techniques of the PRI's "perfect dictatorship," ranging from stealing ballot boxes to assassinating opponents of the regime. They give us sympathetic brief portraits of individual democratic activists, including many women. President Zedillo emerges as something of a hero in enabling the emergence of a more democratic political system, though even he sometimes acted in the authoritarian way of a PRI dinosaur. For the most part, Preston and Dillon tell this story in a clear and interesting way. However, they get a bit carried away with personal vignettes, as if they wanted to include as many of their contacts as possible. Their first-person insertions (Julia writes, Sam writes) are distracting and interrupt the flow of the narrative. The more than five hundred pages of text could have been cut to four hundred by judicious editing.
Rating:
Summary: Detailed account of a slow-motion Mexican democratic change
Review: This is an essential reading to understand the presidential polling results of July 2, 2000, i.e., the first time in almost 70 years a non-official party candidate reached the Mexican Presidency. Notwithstanding the authors ignore the influence of the rail workers' and GP's strikes of 1958 and 1964, respectively, the book details objectively the events that took place between 1968 and 2000, which transforms -very slowly, indeed- the perception of the Mexican middle class, basically, giving democracy a chance. I'm afraid the epilogue, yet to be written, will not be a happy one.
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