One man's take on his culture's stereotypes

buen sabio de una demostracin de charla popular: Al mal paso, darle prisa

One man's take on his culture's stereotypes

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Dear Mexican: It’s one of the worst times ever to be a Mexican, worse than Santa Anna and Cortés, worse than the Zoot Suit riots – man it is worse now than when frickin’ Pete Wilson was California’s governor, and Proposition 187 passed. The reason is the conflicts in the border towns of Juarez and Tijuana, and the racist law in Arizona, and Minutemen. It’s just crazy. I feel that in the past, we could look at either the United States fondly or Mexico fondly, when times were rough on one side of the border. Right now, it just feels like a double-edged sword. Yet the saddest thing about it, I just don’t see either side of the border letting up any time soon. Dude, ¿cuando vivaremos en paz? --Condenando Here, and damned Allá

Dear Damned Aquí, y Condenado There: When will we live in peace? NEVER. But don’t think these are the worst times in the history of raza. Gabachos aren’t lynching us in the same numbers they did after the Mexican-American War; they’re not deporting us en masse like the días de Operation Wetback and the Mexican Reparation of the 1930s. The hatred for us today is less bloody than in the past – hooray! Down south, the narcos… well, you want your humble columnist to keep his head, don’t you? Really, all Mexicans can do is what we’ve always done: persevere, get on with life, and throw the f*****s out with a good old-fashioned uprising. Let’s show those Tea Baggers what a true revolución is about – but no guns this time! Just the beautiful force of the ballot box.

Do you know whether Mexicans are known to hike (besides hiking across the border)? I know Mexican friends of mine hike for the purpose of picnicking in the wilderness at Temescal canyon or in Mexico (for leisure), but otherwise, are we known to be hikers as a general population?

Dear Wabette: Chingao, you stole my border joke! The Outdoor Industry Foundation published a 2006 study called “The Hispanic Community and Outdoor Recreation” that estudió the matter closely. They found we barely hike, and concluded “a concerted effort now must be made to involve Hispanics – a population representing an avenue of high growth for the outdoor industry.”