El Norte

[Webstral]

I’ve been reading “American Nations” by Colin Woodard since Christmas. Woodard divides North America into 11 nations that do not correspond to current national (State) boundaries in North America. One of these nations is El Norte, which roughly includes the Mexican states aligned along the US-Mexico border and significant portions of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Woodard’s narrative regarding El Norte makes me think about some of the bigger political aspects of “Thunder Empire”. By July 2000, the Mexico has devolved into civil war. The Mexican Army has split, too. It occurs to me that the southern half of El Norte, which lies on the Mexican side of the border, is a natural base of operations for the Constitutionalists. The breakdown of loyalties among Mexican units does not exactly align with the borders of El Norte v Central Mexico, but the correlation is strong enough for me to wonder if the authors at GDW were thinking along these lines.

This all makes me think that the Huachuca command can get back into the good graces of MilGov by brokering a new peace along the entire border. The Constitutionalists are going to be more interested in fighting the PRI in Mexico than they are in fighting the Americans in the United States. The real hangup will be the fact that Mexican units on US soil will have developed their own logistical system based on local cantonments. They aren’t going to be anxious to leave them behind, even though they will want to redeploy to defend northern Mexico. (Aztlan? This place needs a better official name than El Norte, after all.) Some sort of deal is going to have to be worked out so that the Constitutionalist forces can move off US territory without starving themselves. Someone the Mexicans can trust is going to have to work out the deal. During the course of “Thunder Empire”, the Constitutionalists have been in contact with MG Thomason at Fort Huachuca. He’s the natural choice, provided MilGov can manage to pardon Thomason for his sins against MilGov and the nation. If this all works out, the strategic southern flank of the United States can be secured, while the energies of the northern Mexican alliance are directed southward. Even if the Constitutionalists can’t manage to unite all of Mexico under their banner, a pro-US government will end up in control of the northern part of the country.