One man's take on his culture's stereotypes

Conquest, The: Refers to the Spanish conquest of the Americas during the 1500s. Centuries later, Mexicans still can't get over it – but having about 100 million of your ancestors slaughtered will do that to you.

One man's take on his culture's stereotypes

By Gustavo Arellano

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Dear Mexican: My wife and I have an argument going on about pirates. While I know there were Spanish and Portuguese pirates back in the early 1600s and 1700s, were there EVER any MEXICAN pirates? Not pirates from Spain who pirated in Mexico, but REAL HONEST TO HAY-SOOS MEXICAN PIRATES! Would be interesting to know! Pirates Pat McGroin and The Right Reverend One Eye

Dear Gabachos: It depends what your definition of “pirate” is. If you’re looking for a famous swashbuckler from the days of Blackbeard, tough tamales: historians never bothered to glorify the numerous buccaneers who ransacked Spanish galleons laden with the gold and silver of Mexican mines off the Mexican coast. The most famous Mexican pirate was Fermin Mundaca, who operated a contraband empire from the island of Islas Mujeres off the coast of Quintana Roo during the mid-1800s – but Mundaca was a Spanish native. Why look back in the past, though, when so many Mexican pirates exist in the present? Piratería is as Mexican an industry as tortilla-making and immigrant-smuggling: the International Federation of Phonographic Industry, an international organization that fights music piracy worldwide, estimates Mexicans make more than $220 million off of illegal CDs, most sold at the nearest swap meet, bodega or taco truck near you. And before you start insinuating that such a startlingly large amount is indicative of the Mexican culture’s tendency to steal, what would you call file-sharing?

Do Mexicans get annoyed that whenever a Hollywood movie calls for a Mexican character actor, Cheech Marin gets the job? This is great for Cheech, but must be bad for Mexican actors struggling to land a good part in Hollywood. Danny Trejo gets the badass roles, Antonio Banderas gets the leading man roles, and character roles go to Cheech. With the blooming careers of truly great Mexican directors Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, don’t you think Hollywood should give some other Mexicans a chance in the limelight? Cheech is already rich – let someone else have a slice of the pie! Celluloid Culero

Dear Gabacho: No argument from me, except Tommy Chong and Antonio Banderas ain’t Mexican!