Allegations Raised Over Mexican Government Textbooks Distributed in U.S. Schools

An investigative author alleges that Mexico distributes state-produced textbooks through its U.S. consulates to shape historical and political views among immigrant children, citing government programs, academic influences, and public reporting.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and author of the book The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon, alleges that the Mexican government distributes large volumes of state-produced textbooks inside the United States with the stated goal of maintaining political and cultural loyalty among Mexican migrants rather than encouraging assimilation into American society.

In his book, Schweizer writes that Mexico operates more than 50 consulates across the United States, a network he says exceeds that of any other country, and uses these offices to administer education-related programs aimed at migrants. According to Schweizer, the effort is rooted in what he describes as a political ideology known as “Reconquista,” which he defines as the belief in reclaiming territories in the American Southwest that were ceded to the United States in the 19th century.

“With this massive network in place, the Mexican government began ‘creating consulate programs to bolster migrants’ political, cultural, and economic loyalty’ to Mexico,” Schweizer writes in Chapter 2, citing a study he describes as “sympathetic” to Mexico’s objectives.

Schweizer argues that children are the primary focus of the program. “Indoctrination begins with children,” he writes. “Mexico does not want young migrants in the United States to be loyal to the United States; it wants them instead to cling to Mexico’s resentments about its northern neighbor. It accomplishes this by invading our classrooms. Local U.S. school administrators, either out of ignorance or sympathy for the cause, are happy to oblige.”

According to Schweizer, the Mexican government sends roughly one million textbooks into the United States each year. He states that these materials are the same textbooks used by students in Mexico and reflect what he describes as a “decolonial” framework influenced by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

To support his claims, Schweizer references a 2023 report published by the Associated Press, which examined controversy surrounding Mexico’s new national textbooks. The report described the materials as containing favorable references to the former Soviet Union and noted that one of the officials overseeing their development is named Marx, while another previously worked for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

The Associated Press report cited an introduction in a seventh-grade language arts textbook that states: “The Rabfak, the schools for workers in the former Soviet Union, were considered spaces of knowledge. The dream is that Mexican middle schools and their textbooks can achieve that quality.” The AP also reported finding “plenty of references to capitalism being bad in the textbooks, as early as fourth grade.”

Additional excerpts highlighted by Schweizer include passages in secondary-level books that teach students that “a fundamental cause of the origin of inequality [is] neoliberal socio-economic models [capitalism]” and that in modern capitalist societies, a small group “exploits” the majority. Schweizer also points to history textbooks that, he writes, “celebrate the troops who fought the Americans during the Mexican-American War” and portray the United States as an “enemy” that won the conflict and conducted a “flag wave at the National Palace.”

“Clearly, distributing such books to American schools to teach Mexican migrants in the United States is meant to foster Mexican, not American, patriotism,” Schweizer writes. He adds that the textbooks emphasize keeping Mexico’s interpretation of the Mexican-American War “alive in the minds of young migrants,” while some advocates praise the program as promoting “‘Greater Mexico’—one textbook at a time.”

Schweizer further quotes Raquel Romero, identified as the director of the Mesoamerica Foundation, a nonprofit involved in distributing the Mexican government textbooks in the United States. “This is more than an outreach program,” Romero said. “This is part of a concerted program to educate Hispanic children in the United States, and to help the United States make the transition into a bicultural society this century.” She continued, “It is a way of understanding that Mexican culture is expanding across the border, that it is in ascendance, and that Hispanic and Latino children in the United States will never be blond, blue-eyed Anglos.”

Schweizer also links the textbook initiative to economic factors, writing that Mexicans living in the United States send more than $60 billion annually to Mexico in remittances. He argues that migrants who develop stronger ties to the United States would be “much less likely to send money back to their home country,” providing, in his view, an additional incentive for the Mexican government to discourage assimilation.

A video presentation outlining Schweizer’s claims regarding Mexican consulates and textbook distribution is also referenced in public discussion of the issue, including a presentation titled “REVEALED: The 50+ Mexican Consulates Staging an Invisible Coup”, which summarizes the allegations raised in his book.