“Providential” Partners: Mexican Diplomacy in Canada and Québécois Nationalists during the Second World War

The institution of independent diplomatic relations between Canada and Mexico was a complicated process. Up until the Second World War, Ottawa essentially relied on London for political representation in that country, and Mexico's invitations in the 1930s to join the Pan American Union and create a formal diplomatic relationship received a lukewarm reception in Ottawa. When London severed ties with the Cárdenas administration over the nationalization of oil in 1938, Mexico saw a chance to re-establish its connection with the British Empire through Canada, giving a renewed impetus to the creation of direct ambassadorial relations. The literature on the subject agrees on the importance of the Second World War in providing the necessary incentive for Ottawa to finally acquiesce to that request. While my paper does not challenge this version of history, it offers a different perspective on exactly how Mexico pressured Canada, with an emphasis on its informal diplomacy with Catholic and nationalist groups in Quebec. Montreal was more fertile ground than Ottowa; through the 1940s, the province of Quebec was host to an important number of cultural and political activities promoting stronger links with Latin America. This was largely due to La Unión Cultural México-Canadá Francés, a transnational organization that invoked common Latin identity as the basis of alternative relations between Canada and the region. The Mexican consul in Montreal, Carlos Calderón, collaborated with the association and facilitated their endeavors despite the nationalist overtones of its French Canadian leadership. Far from being inconsequential diplomatic pandering to a national minority, I argue that this collaboration played a crucial role in pressuring Canadian Federal authorities to react and to supplant these bonds with French Canadian nationalists by finally formalizing its relationship with Mexico.