El exilio incómodo: México y los refugiados judíos, 1933-1945. DANIELA GLEIZER: México: El Colegio de México, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana- Cuajimalpa, 2012.

Abstract

Daniela Gleizer declares, not once, but twice in El exilio incómodo that “México no es, ni ha sido, un país de inmigración” (pages 15 and 41). This statement surely would surprise the 30,000 Spanish Republican exiles in the 1930s and appreciable numbers of Central and South American refugees during the Cold War, who fled their homelands and found safe haven in Mexico. It likely will come as a revelation to many Mexicans. But as Gleizer makes clear, nations can be welcoming to some and inhospitable to others. Jews during the 1930s and 1940s fit into this latter category. In this, they were not alone: during the period between the World Wars, the Mexican government found Asians, Eastern Europeans, gypsies, and blacks undesirable as well. President Lázaro Cárdenas’ generous offer of political asylum to Spanish political refugees in the aftermath of their Civil War was the aberration.