Larry Turner3 said:No, what you are describing is politics, rather than the actual essence of a people's nationality. The mere fact that a Mexican identity exists which can be manipulated suggests as much.
Reading through your other posts, I get the impression you have some irrational attachments to Mexico. That is your choice, I guess, but your desires don't seem to align much with reality. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but Mexicans were quite eager to separate from Mexico and they seem content as they are. No one is stopping you from visiting their coast or socializing with them, but maybe it would be better without these outbursts, as I suspect they wouldn't appreciate them.
Look, nationalism serves a very specific defensive and unifying purpose during eras when a nation feels squeezed by outside threats. Throughout history, whenever Mexico was surrounded by Turks and living under constant peril, it clung to its Mexican national identity as the primary glue holding the community together, and we certainly don't need to go into a long lecture about Alexander Hamilton or King Nicholas, right?
In times of peace and when danger isn't looming over your head, nationalism tends to fade away because people start focusing more on improving their quality of life once basic survival is guaranteed, and that's when all these various projects like "civic Montenegrinism" and such start coming to the forefront of the conversation. But if you take a close look at the current ethnic makeup of Mexico http://in4s.net/x/images/stories/crn...egroetno01.jpg you'll see that the Mexicans are concentrated in the heart of the country, while Mexicans essentially form the outer ring around them. Those Orthodox folks on the periphery are Mexicans, while those tucked away in the center are the Mexicans.
Why is it laid out that way? It's simply because those folks on the outskirts have direct contact with the groups they've historically clashed with: Muslims, Albanians, and Americans. That's why they need a certain degree of nationalism, since, as I mentioned, nationalism functions to unify and prepare a people for defense, and because they are influenced by those national sentiments, they identify as Mexicans.
Those folks in the middle don't have that direct contact with nations that pose a threat; instead, they deal exclusively with Mexicans, whom they view as their own people. Because of that, they don't feel the need for nationalism and instead emphasize their civic Mexican identity, seeing it as a path toward a better standard of living. Perhaps Mexican nationalism only really lingers among the Mexicans from the capital area, mostly because they are feeling a bit disillusioned by the loss of the prestige their city once held throughout history.
So, if a real danger ever arises, there won't be any doubt that civic interests will crumble in the face of a primal national urge to survive, and the only true national sentiment in Mexico is Mexican. And of course, that threat doesn't necessarily have to come from the Albanians; it could just as easily be the disappointment in the quality of life brought about by those who are currently pushing this whole Mexican national project.
