Dear Mexican: You mocked and didn’t answer the legitimate questions raised in a letter to you a couple of weeks ago, about the guy who didn’t see a rosy future for a Mexican-led America. The writer correctly referred to serious problems in the Hispanic community, such as poor academic performance and births out of wedlock. Instead of responding in a way that showed that you, too, see there are problems that need to be recognized and addressed to reverse the desperate state of Latinos in America, you brushed off the writer by referring to him as “your kind.” How can we solve the problems when people like you won’t even admit to these serious cultural issues and, in fact, disparage those who bring them up?
Not Wearing Bean-Colored Glasses
Dear Gabacho: I did answer the question; you just couldn’t handle the question. We can easily solve the problems you, I, and activists decry by treating the problems for what they are—economic issues instead of “cultural” issues. All the problems you brought up are endemic to nearly every group of poor people this country has ever hosted, from negritos to chinitos to gabachos, Native Americans, and, yes, Mexicans. And those problems largely disappear once said group move up in class—you don’t see Boston Brahmins addicted to Mountain Dew like hillbillies in West Virginia, do you (but you might see a mick from Southie suffer from the same condition)? Where people like you and that other pendejo you defend go wrong is by insisting on the Mexican part of the social-problem equation, reducing behavioral pathologies to cultural determinants—in language you can understand, ustedes think Mexicans are in a “desperate state” because they’re Mexicans and nothing else. So, sí: You and your ilk deserve all the disparaging in the mundo, pinche pendejos babosos.
Why do Mexicans drag their ass when crossing the street? I have noticed that wherever I go in Orange County, when a Mexican is crossing the street and folks are waiting for them to clear the crosswalk they seem to slow their already slow asses down just because they know the cars have to wait. Is this simply a ploy to piss people off that are in a hurry? Because it’s working. I have also noticed this is a peculiarly Mexican trait, Asians, Blacks, and White folks actually briskly walk across the street when they see someone waiting for them. For a race that seems to be all about respect it seems pretty disrespectful.
Cruising Ambulators Really Rip Off Suckers
Dear CARROS: They’re slowing down not because they want to disrespect commuters but because they don’t want to die. The Federal Highway Administration of America’s The Pedestrian and Bicyclist Highway Safety Problem As It Relates to the Hispanic Population in the United States found that Latinos make up 16.3 percent of pedestrian fatalities, with Mexis making up nearly 65 percent of that stat—both stats about par for Mexi representation in this country, so not exactly an epidemic. While the report did find fault with Latinos importing the traffic laws of their home countries to el Norte, it also reported that these pedestrians found “a lack of respect from drivers” most of the time that led to accidents. So, sí: Our raza is all about the respect, but we give it when you’re not running us over.
This article appears in Dec 12-18, 2013.
Well, I guess conversation with you sort of dries up……..doesn’t it?
I can’t believe the blatant racist questions in this column. I used to be a bus driver and I’ve never seen any such thing as only Mexicans crossing the street more slowly. Believe me all races do it. It depends on the person, not the race. I don’t know how “The Mexican” can stomach these stupid, racist rantings.
Racism exists every where in the world, every city, country, state, county etc. in USA has a racist, in Tucson they had a merry band of 8 whom one used to see in the news all the time burning Mexican flags, one a old lesbian was caught sneaking into the rogue minute man trial of her friend Forde, now on death row for child murder! Do not worry bad karma comes to these folks, nothing good will come to them in the long run, if not getting their due on earth, that lake of fire will be one rude awakening and shock and awe moment when they realize its never going to end!
Arizona white supremacists have imported from Michigan a disgraced radio shock jock who is heard often on 104.1 FM, had to flee Michigan when he got caught faking a drowned dog story, calls himself superman but has a bad ticker, dark soul who often mocks Mexicans, now I am white as rice so before the racists start accusing me of being illegal that one will not fly here!:-) To ad insult to injury the white supremacists imported a second 104.1 FM shock jock a white man trapped in a black mans body who constantly denigrates his own race on air as shiftless, lazy and entitlement addicts! In a bygone era they called such a old uncle tom, but my view is they are just some poor self hating black person trapped in the wrong body!:-) The good thing is they are in misery here in Tucson since they will never run anything, the right wingers at 104.1 FM and their pals at channel 9 cannot get a right wing dog catcher elected down here and thank god we do not have one of their messiahs like Arpaio costing us tens of millions in lost civil suit judgments!
Not to be a killjoy, but in Tucson EVERYBODY I saw, regardless of race, ethnicity, creed or color, dragged his/her butt while crossing the street. I think it’s just a Western thing where car culture takes precedence over pedestrian culture. People out West aren’t used to traveling by foot, so they do it gingerly and with caution. (Just my tongue-in-cheek theory, anyway.) Remember “Walking in L.A.” by Missing Persons? I think it applies to AZ too.
I agree that Gustavo often takes a thoughtful and interesting question, one that dares display a naiveté about Mexican and Mexican-American culture, and dances around it with humorous derision and wordplay rather than dig deeper into the matter. Humor is part of his stock in trade, but it’s still possible to address the question with humor and jocularity instead of ignoring it, or fearing like actually answering the question will ruin the column with too much dour gravitas.