And you have the monumental task of imbuing national pride and self confidence in your people.The whole of your country's history, from independence onwards, has been having its teeth kicked in by its neighbor. The only victories people celebrate were against themselves, their own country. No invader has been triumphantly destroyed, just made to loose interest in holding the country. Not even in civil wars have there been massive pitched battles like in europe, only long drawn out guerrilla campaigns. Your language and religion come from abroad, but you cannot be accepted as part of that foreign community because of racism; youre not ethnically spanish, youre just culturally so.What do you do to convice these people who have been constant victims of history, to feel anything but self pity?
Heroic small-scale narratives work better than grandiose myths, especially ones about ordinary people surviving, because surviving is itself a victory.
Stress how the Mexican people have always had the deck stacked against them, and that defeat was often inevitable, but nonetheless against these odds have acted with courage and fortitude and should take pride in having done so. It's a cope perhaps but it's the best they've got
