American Protestants, Civil Society Organizations, Temperance and Narcotics on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1920-1933.

This article explores how a coalition of American protestant churches, missionaries, and civil society organizations attempted to export their moral crusade for alcohol and drug prohibition, and other vices from the United States to Mexico. The focus of this analysis is the anti-alcohol activities of these groups at the U.S.-Mexico border during the period of Prohibition (1920-1933) when the manufacture and sale of alcohol were forbidden by the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A central purpose for these moral reformers was to contain alcohol consumption and trade at the U.S.-Mexico border. During Prohibition, Americans crossed into Mexico to drink and gamble, as well as to smuggle alcohol and drugs back home. In an attempt to contain these activities, American protestant groups tried to pressure Mexican and American authorities to close the ports of entry or to establish a dry zone along the border. Most of their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful; alcohol never became a part of the U.S.-Mexico formal diplomacy, and alcohol prohibition never gained enough popularity in Mexico. However, in 1898 with the U.S. acquisition of new territories in Asia, narcotics became part of the American global agenda; the federal government joined the social reformers' fight against drugs in the world arena. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, narcotics prohibitionist policies have remained as part of the U.S.-Mexico relations, with all the negative consequences of black markets, violence, and corruption that have resulted since their foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]