When it comes to gringo-bashing - berating the US for its imperialist policies in Latin America - no native nationalist can compete with an impassioned gringo. Mexico, which historically has been the chief victim of such policies, has produced plenty of such nationalists: but it is the occasional gringo heretic - like the muckraking journalist John Kenneth Turner who, in 1909, blew the whistle on Mexican neo-slavery, alleging that his compatriots had 'transformed Mexico into a slave colony of the US' - who has often made the biggest impact. Such auto-critiques carry special weight; they exude indignant sincerity; and, compared with the native nationalist's rant, they are less easily deflected by the old one-liner, 'he would, wouldn't he?'

LRB 10 November 1988 | PDF Download