On page 226 of Brechin's Imperial San Francisco, there is a picture of an article first published May 28, 1916 in Hearst newspaper. The article's heading reads "The Greater United States" with a sub-heading reading, "If Mexico is annexed we will have- 31 new states and territories, 15,000,000 new Americans and 767,290 square miles of picturesque, historic and rich lumber, agricultural, and mineral lands."
First off, this picture falls under a chapter entitled "The Thought Shapers", and that's the first thing I thought of when I saw this picture. To me the article falls right into the category of propaganda perpetuating the idea of American Manifest Destiny. The text I have quoted above does not mention anything about the people of Mexico, or what their feelings of being annexed are. The article is all worded positively; the people of Mexico are not taken over, they simply become "new Americans". And all the historic land in Mexico, pertaining to Mexican history suddenly becomes American. The monuments and buildings of their history become landmarks of American Imperialism. The monuments are even shown in the picture, portrayed as aspects of what a "Greater United States" would include.
Brechin spends a great deal of time discussing Hearst throughout his book, describing his efforts to expand the United States and "his policy of America First" (which I found funny how similar it is to McCain's campaign slogan "Country First"), which dictated that the US be first in all fields, including weaponry. The picture I chose to examine falls right with the picture Brechin paints of Hearst. Hearst's readers are led to believe in American supremacy, and the right to annex whatever they want. He promises new valuable land, new Americans without any trace of repercussions.
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2 comments:
Propaganda, indeed! I think you're right on about the positive spin on the absorption of Mexicans and ancient structures... What do you make of the wording "...miles of picturesque, historica and rich lumber, argricultural and mineral lands"? The ad seems to want to say that the expansion respects native/ancient spaces and culture, and that these will be just the same picturesque and historical sites even after expansion...
Interesting to think of how destruction is justified, as you say...even the way the print looks on the page seems to be saying something positive about taking Mexico.
The title of the chapter, "The Thought Shapers," really does sum up its contents well. Hearst was a shameless propagandist. The manner in which the article you are talking about oversimplifies the imperialist aims of Hearst is disgusting.
Something which confused me slightly was that the ruling class, Hearst included, were aware of the complications of 15m Mexican "subjects." Especially with the racial prejudices of the time, you can see how complicated this would be. Yet in the article, this seems to be completely glossed over, and they are referred to as new Americans.
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