Coming together in a time of crisis

The role of connectors as agents of history.

The United States is facing a crisis of enormous proportions, and it would be easy to think that this is the time to become more insular and nationalistic. It would be easy to fall into the trap of believing that quarantine and stay-at-home orders mean a separation from others.

But keeping our homes safe, our computers charged, our toilets flushing and our refrigerators full requires the work of thousands of people at utility companies, police and fire stations, grocery stores, water and sewage and waste facilities, hospitals, retirement homes and health-care product factories. While presidents and governors and health gurus and news broadcasters capture our attention, those scarcely noticed workers on the front lines are teaming up to take care of us.

Many of the front-line workers have come from Mexico and are now citizens or green-card residents and risk their lives daily. And, south of the border, thousands of Mexican workers labor to produce surgical masks, incubators, disposable syringes and other medical supplies for our hospitals. More than half a dozen companies in Tijuana alone export hundreds of thousands of medical devices each month to facilities in the United States.

We often forget that it has been that way for quite some time. Even with anti-immigrant rhetoric at its height, and when Mexico and the United States might have seemed so far apart, according to some politicians, quietly and surely men and women of good faith have worked together to create a better and more hospitable world.

The United States invaded Mexico in 1846. As a result of the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the United States incorporated California, New Mexico, lower Texas, Nevada, Utah and parts of Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming. Mexican-U.S. relations were at an all-time low, full of bitterness, resentment and animosity. Abraham Lincoln, a congressman from Illinois, had vociferously argued against the war, but he was silenced. Fifteen years later, this rash young representative would become president.

In 1861, Lincoln was faced with another terrible war. He was not sure whether the nation that he had been elected to lead would even survive. Nevertheless, he made time to receive a 24-year-old ambassador from Mexico, Matias Romero, and to listen to his concerns. Lincoln wrote a letter of support to this young man’s president, Benito Juarez, to congratulate him on his own election and to assure him of his respect for the Mexican people. 

Two years later, France invaded Mexico, and a European army imposed an emperor in Mexico City. Romero again went to the United States. But now his own president was in exile in El Paso. And when he went to see Lincoln, the president was not available. It was 1863 and he was in consultations with his generals as the Confederate armies threatened Washington.

So, Romero met with Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, instead. He took her shopping in his rented carriage and explained to her the danger to both countries if the French army were victorious. It was feasible that the French could unite with the Confederacy and make the South more powerful, perhaps even victorious. Mary Todd introduced Romero to bankers and investors and to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who became a lifelong friend. Together they raised $18 million in Mexican freedom bonds, which supplied Juarez and his ragtag army with medical supplies, uniforms and, most important, the latest in military technology: Remington and Springfield rifles, Colt revolvers and grooved cannons that helped defeat the French. 

Mary Todd and Romero were not great figures who are remembered for their deeds in our history texts. They were, however, facilitators and connectors — people who made things happen. Without their help, the Confederate surrender at Appomattox might have been delayed for years and thousands more lives could have been lost. Without their help, Mexico might have remained part of a European dynasty and never become an independent republic.

We have the same opportunity today that those connectors had in the 1860s. We can come together and help each other, grateful for the facilitators who bring us food, provide our utilities and protect our homes. We can share our awareness about those businesses south of the border that have stayed open to provide our hospitals with surgical masks, respirators, syringes, incubators and other life-saving equipment. We can become facilitators ourselves and use this time to encourage our friends and neighbors to reach out with respect and gratitude to the people of all national origins who work to make our Americas, not just the United States, a safer place for all.