On April 1, the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies department and the College’s Dialogue Project co-hosted Arizona State University Latin American history professor Alexander Aviña and University of Houston history professor Adela Cedillo for a panel titled “Mexico As Border? Power, Violence and the Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations.” The panelists discussed the impact of Mexico’s ruling Morena party on immigration policies and the history behind the conflict between the United States and Mexico.
Throughout the discussion, moderator and art history professor Mary Coffey asked the panelists questions about the leftist Morena party’s rise to power in Mexico, its ability to maintain support and its approach to challenges related to immigration and Mexico’s drug crisis. Coffey said that the event was important to her because of the lack of information that most Americans have about Mexico.
“It’s very hard to get that information from the U.S. media because Mexico’s just not a priority and most of what we see in the U.S. media is very stigmatic and focusing almost exclusively on U.S. political perspectives on immigration,” she said.
The talk was tied to an article published by Aviña and Cedillo, titled “Truth and Memory in Mexico,” which was published in Mexican cultural and political magazine “Nexos” in January 2025, Coffey said. The article focused on human rights violations committed by the Mexican government between 1965 and 1990. The dossier is one of the first scholarly assessments of the Morena party, according to the event website.
Approximately 36 people attended the event in Filene Auditorium, with another 69 watching the livestream on YouTube, according to department administrator Paula Holwerda. The Dialogue Project — part of Dartmouth’s effort to facilitate political discourse — previously announced a 2025 special topics series centered around the themes of border and immigration.
Aviña and Cedillo began by discussing the history of the Morena party in Mexico, which was founded by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the early 2010s in preparation for his presidential campaign in 2018. Morena candidate Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as Mexico’s first female president in 2024.
However, the success of the Morena party in Mexico is often misunderstood by the media in countries like the United States, whose commentators tend to view the party’s success as “an illiberal or authoritarian project,” Aviña said.
“[Morena] has won two presidential elections either at or over 60% of the popular vote,” Aviña said. “Usually the way that political success has been translated by commentators here in the U.S. is to say ‘Mexico is moving from a democratic to an authoritarian state,’ when in actuality … I think [Morena] is not a cause but an effect of Mexico’s failed democratic transition.”
Focusing on the role that the drug wars play in Mexico and in Mexican politics, Coffey asked the panelists how cartels and state violence have influenced rhetoric surrounding immigration. According to Cedillo, Mexican immigrants to the United States “usually come from states with high rates of violence.”
“Most migration from Mexico to the United States started in the 19th century, most of the time for political reasons or war-related reasons, so immigrants have multiple identities,” Cedillo said.
Coffey also asked about the role that the United States and Mexico play in maintaining their shared border.
“One of the economic and political functions of the border is not to keep people out,” Aviña said. “It’s to keep people in.”
Aviña then referenced the “forceful” deportation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans back to Mexico during the Great Depression as an example of Mexico’s historical role in immigration both to and from the United States.
“[The Mexican government] was actively participating along with the U.S. government to facilitate the return of many people who were U.S. citizens but got caught up … and sent to a country they didn’t have much contact with at all,” he explained.
According to Aviña, since the end of 2023 the Mexican government has been “very aggressively going after migrants” and preventing them from reaching the U.S.-Mexico border.
Aviña said he views the immigration policies of the United States as a bipartisan project between the Biden and Trump administrations, calling it an “anti-migrant brutalization campaign that fundamentally and actively depends on the collaboration of the Mexican government.”
Cedillo said she “has never seen this level of disregard for human life” in the treatment of migrants by the United States under the Trump administration.
“These people –– who have already suffered so much, that are already treated like subhumans –– are completely dehumanized and treated like trash,” Cedillo said “…This government is setting a new low.”
The panelists also discussed how Mexico’s war on drugs has had adverse effects on the country’s citizens and reputation. According to Cedillo, the first major anti-drug campaign, known as the “Great Campaign,” began in the 1940s as a coordinated effort between the United States and Mexican governments. However, the “Great Campaign” ultimately failed as violence and drug trafficking increased and the War on Drugs took off in Mexico.
“War is a business –– killing people is a business –– so there was no real incentive to end this war,” Cedillo said.
However, she argued that Mexico does not hold full responsibility for drug-related corruption and violence because of the high volume of arms trafficked into Mexico from the U.S..
“95% of weapons that enter Mexico illegally come from the United States,” she stated.
Attendee Nina Bouche ’27 said she decided to attend the event after it was recommended by her LALACS professor. She added that the event “ended up being super super interesting and [she] enjoyed how there was a bit of intersectionality.”
“I’ve learned a lot about Mexican history and the Mexican Revolution before, but this is the first time I’ve actually tied together that history and what’s actually going on in Mexico, and also the relationship between Mexico and the U.S.,” she said.
Attendee Molly Mendoza ’28, who is also enrolled in the same class, said she “really liked the event” because she learned a lot about Mexico and its relationship with the United States that she wouldn’t have known otherwise.
“My professor asked my class to name the primary political party of Canada, the U.S. and then Mexico, and I didn’t know what it was, and most people didn’t know what it was,” she said. “It brought up a good point to me that we don’t know that much about our southern neighbors, and I want to learn more.”
