Mexicans are seen as dark-skinned and Catholic. Latin Americans stereotype Americans as bigoted, with beliefs having largely to do with American expansionism. Zinser partly attributed strained U.S.-Mexico relations, and a lack of understanding among politicians and the public about Mexico, to the lack of coverage about Latin America by the American press, which focuses its international reporting on Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and other distant nations. Again, we see an historical pattern in which the U.S. has centered its international dealings around an Atlantic foreign policy. In the Middle East, it's about oil.
Japan has to do with competition.
The whole ethnocentric view of U.S. foreign policy has always been a factor in the diminishing attention to Latin America. They need to expand their horizons. The U.S. will have to confront the certain difficulties of a neighboring country becoming more democratic. Copyright 1997, The Regents of the University of California. Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley .