“Press 1 for stupidity”
From Crooks and Liars:
There’s shameless right-wing pandering, and then there’s this level of shameless right-wing pandering.
Janice Easley’s fury over illegal immigration boiled over Saturday as she confronted Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson at the Music Man Square museum.
She said she recalled a film about Mexicans who wanted to take over California and New Mexico. Calling illegal immigrants a taxpayer burden, she wondered whether Americans could march in the streets of Mexico and demand welfare. When Iowans call up the power company, she said, “everything is in Spanish; it’s sickening.”
“You are so, so right,” Thompson responded. English should be the national language, he told the retiree, and immigrants bear some of the blame for the home-loan crisis. “A lot of them couldn’t communicate with the people they were getting the mortgage from,” he said.
I’ve seen the Republican field link immigration to national security (terrorist will sneak across the Mexican border), and link immigration to the culture war (Roe v. Wade allegedly made immigration necessary), but linking immigration to mortgages and sub-prime loans? That’s a new one.
Geeze, Wall Street has been taken over by Mexican farmworkers? Who knew!
Gold, frankincense, myrrh… and Greyhound tickets…
Whatever happened to the gifts of the Magi?
When José and María and made a run for the border (Matt. 2:13-23) — with little Jesús in their arms — did they leave the gold, frankincense and myrrh behind? Maybe some was sent off to Nazareth to be invested in a carpentry shop, but I expect tit went into false Egyptian work permits for José — and bribes for the the Roman cops and paying Egyptian polleros.
When the Family set off across the desert, did José have a job waiting in Alexandria? Did María expect to scrub Egyptian toilets for a few years? Did they have to deal with “Hieroglphics Only” movement conservatives, or were they lucky to find someone with rudimentary Aramaic.
Did they run into an Egyptian Andrea Peacock?
As we watched, the agent from the backyard marched four short, stocky men wearing layers of dark green and brown clothing, each with their hands on the shoulder of the man in front of him, into the van. … Four, Donna said, had gotten away.
We had a good half-hour before Donna knocked: “How’s your Spanish?” she asked….
The 30-minute drive to Tucson felt unreal, like a dream or a movie. The whole day has passed this way, as though the hours were lifted out of ordinary time….we see their tracks in the pecan groves, find their belongings discarded (backpacks, children’s shoes) and reason that they must have had to run… But other than these signs, their lives never cross with ours. The entire day, I realize, has been a gift.
… At the bus station, I went in first and bought the tickets. The agent wanted names: I was too tired to think on my feet and gave her my own, Donna’s too. …
Back out in the parking lot we gathered their gear. Wearing my clothes, Donna’s makeup and carrying some old travel bags and purses we pressed upon them, they looked like Americanas.
… The bus would make some stops, altos, para mas gente, mas personas. They should stay on. I had to look up this last word: quedarse. She understood. Donna bought a bunch of candy and stuffed it-along with a change purse full of cash-in their bags. We hugged, and Jessie held me in a long, strong grip. Their bus was called; they headed for the door: puerto tres. We stood back, held our breaths as they passed the ticket taker, then waved one last time as they passed the window on their way to board.
Whaaaaaa? 60.2 BILLION?
I was reading some wonkish sites, trying to get a handle on the big January event (no, not the Iowa caucuses — though I wish at least one of those mediocrities and corporate mendicants would pay attention to agriculture while pimping for votes in an agricultural state… and, since they’re talking about immigration, look at the root cause). Corn and bean subsidies end in Mexico — but not in the U.S. or Canada — on January 1.
U.S. farmers will be in the bizarre situation of selling corn at less than production cost, thanks to THEIR subsidies, to the motherland of corn. And putting even more Mexican farmers out of work, forcing them to emigrate to… oh… Iowa, maybe?.
I’ll have a lot more to say about that tomorrow or Sunday, but in the meantime, I wanted to pass this odd piece of data along. It’s something I discovered looking at the very few sites that have paid attention to this issue — and maybe, just maybe, one of those “progressive” (or even reactionary) political bloggers who’ve been wasting out time trying to convince us to give a rat’s ass about the Iowa caucuses will pay attention:
The United States improved its trade balance with 165 nations, when compared to the same period of 2006, and saw its trade position falter with 73 nations.
The United States increased its deficit with China by $22.8 billion, from $190.7 billion to $213.5 billion; with Mexico by $6.4 billion, from $53.8 billion to $60.2 billion; and with a handful of other nations by less than $2 billion.
Its not by much, but the U.S. debt to Mexico is growing even faster than our debt to China! Unless the corn exports balance this out (and they may not — if Mexico has to import corn, there’s no law that says it has to buy from the U.S. and — if there is significant support for keeping genetically modified corn out, it may opt to purchase elsewhere), Mexico is going to pressed to invest those dollars somewhere — and maybe they’ll just buy out Iowa corn producers.
Passages from India…
Indian photographer Prantik Manzumder spent last Christmas backpacking though the somewhat familiar, somewhat exotic country of Mexico.
He writes:
Although I was aware that Mexico is an extremely diverse and interesting country I was not ready for the depth and breadth of the cultural experiences I would encounter, especially the similarities with my homeland, India. In his classic “In Light of India” Mexico’s Nobel prize winning writer Octavio Paz noted, “The strangeness of India brought to mind that other strangeness: my own country”. I found in Mexico a mirror for reflecting on my own homeland. Everything about Mexico was fabulous. The people, the cultural diversity, the architecture, the riot of colors, the fascinating history, the modern socio-political ethos, the indigenous communities, the ruins, the food, the nightlife, the tequila (The music definitely has room for improvement), and the list goes on. I do not speak a word of Spanish except that I can pronounce my name with a cute Latino accent which didn’t make ordering food any less challenging. However, I discovered that if you order something right from the center of the menu, you will most likely get some well cooked mammal flesh.
(Guanajuanto)
Sombrero tip to Don Anonimo for uncovering this wonderful site.
Mexico City, April 2007
So, what’s your sign?
Boy, this is fun… Everything you ever wanted to know about Aztec calendars… and even a calculator to look up your sign.
In the odd even I find myself back in the age of disco (hey, calendars were circular for a reason … everything old is new again), I know what to say when asked:
Ome-Ozomahtli — which translates: “Hey, hey, we’re the monkeys…” (well, literally it’s “two monkey…” but same diff…)
There’s a handy-dandy calculator for those of us a little challenged by the conversion process… or just curious about our own Tonalli:
(… as to my Xihuitl — birth year — non of ya bizness!)
Up against the wall…
Tear-gas aside, people in Tijuana live as normally as tn — making the best out of a difficult situation. The real story (from “The Next American City“) isn’t that neighborhoods in Tijuana — despite some architectural “challenges” are real neighborhoods — but that it took so long for anyone to notice.
For several miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, the wall separating San Diego and Tijuana is made from old metal landing pads used by the U.S. Army during the first Gulf War. The metal sheets driven upright into the dirt are six inches north of the actual border, a half-foot into U.S. territory, creating a very narrow no-man’s strip for about 20 miles. Its width is roughly equal to the length of a new pencil.
It is these forgotten spaces that fascinate Teddy Cruz. A San Diego-based architect who was raised in Guatemala and educated in Mexico City, Cruz believes in loose design: If you indiscriminately give unstructured spaces over to the masses, they will find a use for them. As San Diego sets itself back from the wall, Tijuana crashes up against it, using it as a backyard fence, a fourth wall of a house or a memorial shrine….
“Look at this!” Cruz said as he waved out of the window. “A huge economy of small businesses! In the informal organization of these environments there is a strong entrepreneurial energy.” Cruz was quick to concede there are a lot of problems in these shantytowns that don’t merit romanticizing, but “There is a lot of opportunity here, people shaping their own economies.” He pointed out a three-story mall with every unit occupied.
Cruz wants to give that power to people in San Diego. He is developing a high-density, mixed-use housing development in San Ysidro, about 15 miles north of the border….
Taking somebody else’s idea and making money out of it? Sounds like Teddy Cruz is a REAL American to me!
Not exactly slacking off, but…
I’m on deadline to finish the final edits on my book — and have been under the weather as well. I’m not digesting much of anything right now, let alone these three issues that have caught my attention:
UNFAIR advantage: Xicanopwr has written extensively on John Tanton for his own site. Heidi Heidi Beirich of the Intelligence Report provides a detailed look at Tanton and “FAIR”, reprinted in Alternet .
Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico’s secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, FAIR President Dan Stein sought “advice” from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party.
Abusos y costumres: I’ve always been at a loss to explain the dichotomy between what we call “liberals” support for the “usos y costumbres” clause in the Mexican Constitution and the anti-liberal reality of a clause that makes all citizens equal before the law, except those who have to do what the community expects them to do. Citius64 agrees with conservative columnist Sergio Sarmiento, who writes about Eufrosina Cruz. Cruz won an election as a municipal presidenta, but under her community’s “usos y costumbres,” the voters cannot pick the candidate of their choice. Only a man can be a leader in that community — something of a contradiction in a nation that has recognized sexual equality before the law for quite some time now.
Mexican standoff: If I was writing on this outrage (but I haven’t), I might want to give a little history lesson about the start of the Mexican-American War. But since I didn’t write about it, Nezua had first crack at it.
Guadalupe – Tres Reyes
I had a student once explain to me why foreign English teachers never had any students in December. With the Virgin of Guadalupe Day on December 12, it really isn’t worth thinking about anything new (like English irregular verbs), not with Christmas (December 12) and Tres Reyes (January 6) in the offing.
It might as well be one looooong holiday.
I AM thinking about other things — finishing my book manuscript, and haven’t had time over the weekend to read anything else. Back… I hope… Monday or Tuesday.
Progress… not perfection
Sombrero tip to Duke, at Migra Matters.
Maybe another revolucíon IS in order…
… if only to preserve the Spanish language:
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts said Wednesday that Bald Mountain de Mexico’s ultra-luxury resort currently in development in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, will be a Rosewood Resort.
Opening in late 2009, Rosewood San Miguel de Allende will combine a resort, private residences and a spa, with the local charm and culture of San Miguel de Allende, a historical colonial town located in the mountainous state of Guanajuato in central Mexico.
WHAAAA???????
Rosewood San Miguel de Allende will have … amenities such as fireplaces, balconies and private outdoor terraces, many of which will include a plunge pool.
Plunge pools are part of Mexican colonial culture? Riiiiiiight!
I’m waiting to hear from my San Miguel spies on this one.
Iraq and roll… Tacos arabes
I was semi-amused, and semi-appalled when the anti-immigration folks hit on Iraqi “illegals” as a convenient way of lumping “terrorists” and “illegal aliens” together. They turned out to be Chaldeans (somewhat protected by the equal opportunity dictator Saddam Hussein and persecuted as a result of our “crusade) headed for Detroit and a future saying “Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger. Pepsi, no Coke.” You know, model illegals.
It worked out OK for those particular guys (a Mexican law from the 1930s gives automatic refugee status to people fleeing Fascist regimes, and Saddam’s regime fit the definition… plus Carlos Slim — of Lebanese Catholic heritage — picked up the tab for a few good lawyers). And, yeah, a lot of Arabs fleeing crappy conditions at home are coming to Mexico. Some are moving on to the United States, and not always on proper documentation. Try getting a green card in Egypt or Syria.
Back in the early 20th century, when the U.S. started restricting immigration to northern Europeans, people getting the hell out of the collapsing Ottoman Empire were not completely S.O.L. “Coming to America” didn’t always means the United States of. The Central American states and Argentina were favored destinations for middle-easterners, though a good number (especially Iraqis and Lebanese) ended up in Mexico. And prospered.
Cindy Casares, at Guanabee (“media, pop culture and entertainment for the spicy Latino in you” — and for the not so boring academic in you as well), notes that one particular Mexican-Iraqi had a huge impact on Mexican culture:
Here’s something those of you who enjoy tacos de trompo are not going to believe. Tacos de trompo or tacos arabes as they’re called in Mexico, (where taco filling is shaved off a beehive shaped lump of meat), were invented by an Iraqi immigrant in Mexico in the 1930’s! Says The Big Apple:
The dish was supposedly first served in the city of Puebla, Mexico, in the 1930s, when an Iraqi immigrant named Jorge Tabe opened an eatery that advertised both “tacos arabes” and “tacos estilo Doneraky.” However, the term “al pastor (shepherd style) [the term used in Texas] pre-dates the 1930s.
“Doneraky” somehow translates to döner kebab which comes from Turkey, another country that’s currently housing a lot of our service people. Can you tell the difference in these pictures? That’s döner kebab on the left. Trompo on the right.
We forget how much “Hispanic” culture and “Arab” culture have in common. The Spanish only showed up in the New World because they were bored after driving the Moors off the Iberian peninsula.
And, in case you haven’t noticed, a disproportionate number of U.S. soldiers have names like Gonzales and Ortega, AND, U.S. culture is slowing assimilating Latin culture. Cindy’s complete “Guide To Latino Cultural Survival in Iraq” puts it all together, and throws in a little salsa — and merangue, and cumbia….
It doesn’t add up, or maybe it does
Over the last eighteen months, seven different grupero singers have been murdered. The New York Times,
target=”_blank”>the Associated Press, the LA Times and even the British press are all trying to somehow create a pattern: which just ain’t there.
Apparently, according to the foreign press, any somehow related murder must involve drugs. Well, I checked today’s Prensa (the “best” source for crimes that make the national news) and found — besides the color photo of one of the grupero singers’ funeral (which was held in his hometown of Chicago, by the way) — three noteworthy crimes:
- A taxi driver raped passengers;
- A drunk-driving former Chiapas state legislator killed three people (two of them young children);
- and an unlucky gangster had his “noble parts” cut off before being shot… apparently he done her wrong, the her being under investigation.
I suppose there’s a trend of some kind — fucked up people do some fucked up things and people end up hurt or dead… but that’s about it.
Meanwhile, in Omaha, Nebraska eight Christmas shoppers are murdered in one store on the same day… and it doesn’t mean anything? I had to find an Australian news source for something in English that even tried to find a connection:
The number of victims was above average yet the United States has greeted this tragedy with a weary shrug of the shoulders. Gun crimes of this sort are now accepted as an ineradicable facet of modern life in the US. No new debate has begun over the need for tougher gun controls, and by the second day many newspapers did not even run a follow-up story. There simply seemed nothing new to say.
I guess it’s not worth reporting. Another four people were blown away at Church services the next day. Crazy people with guns were involved in all 12 deaths, but that doesn’t mean anything, does it?
mexfiles.net 
