Band Aids for Hemorrages

As if I have nothing better to do with my time, I write in the comments section of the NYT.
You should know that there are a lot of crazy Mini Sheriff Arpaios out there clamoring to deport, shoot to kill, seal the border, build a wall, etc. They sound like crazy crackers.
Here's what I wrote. Except here I may use more colorful language because this is my blog.

Sending 1200 National Guards to the border is a joke.
Giving Mexico millions of dollars for their futile war on drugs is useless.
All the measures taken by the Obama administration so far seem like a band aid trying to contain a full blown hemorrage. I am a Mexican American citizen.  I don't believe in the Minutemen or Sheriff Arpaio's illegal tactics and I am appalled by the hypocrisy of all those people screaming bloody murder against the immigrants but saying nothing against the legitimate businesses who hire them.
The measures needed to start solving this problem need to be long term.
First, the vermin of both parties who sit in Congress need to pass some immigration legislation pronto. Unless there is a coherent federal immigration policy in this country, nothing is really going to change except the rising level of anti-immigration hysteria. States coming up on their own with their racist, unconstitutional solutions are not going to help nor make a dent in the influx of immigrants. This is not a states' problem, it's a federal, foreign policy problem.
Secondly, the war on drugs that Mexico has been asked to undertake singlehandedly, in which thousands of Mexicans have died due to the endless voraciousness of American drug consumption needs to be reframed. Prohibition encourages criminality and outrageous profits for the drug mafia. 90% of Mexican drug production is consumed in the US. Is anybody going to do something about this? I'm sick and tired of the bully gringos whining about Mexico. Look at your own meth-infested backyard. That is not Mexico's fault, you spoiled crybabies.
Third, Mexico needs to get its act together (the nerve!). It cannot expect to continue farming out its poor, uneducated, desperate citizens to a country that does not welcome them, except to exploit them. It needs to improve the rural standard of living and education, It needs to give its own citizens a future.

May Day

                                                     La Pasionaria, Jr.

Fuck Arizona

Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law whereby Arizona police can demand immigration papers from people that look to them like they could be illegal. That is, anyone brown. Perhaps Paddy Moloney, a recent illegal immigrant from Ireland is in Arizona illegally, but no one is going to stop him, because he doesn't look like he could be illegal.
What asshat law is this?
As Chief Justice of my own Fantasy Supreme Court, here's my beef. Fair enough if a state wants to curtail the presence of illegal immigrants. They have every right to do so. There are surely ways to do it, however, without restoring to racist discrimination.
My ruling is: if immigrants are forced to carry immigration documents at all times, then so should everyone else.
But because of this law, American citizens of Mexican or Latin American descent, or legal immigrants are going to be discriminated on the basis of the way they look. Mind you, long before the first paleface arrived, the first inhabitants of Arizona were Native Americans, followed by Mexicans. There must be American citizens in Arizona whose brown ancestors have been there for hundreds of years, but who could now be mistaken for a wetback.
I read somewhere that the Arizona police are not happy about this law, because it's none of their business and it puts them in a terrible position. And they are right. But there is a minority of racist cranks that makes a lot of noise. And Gov. Brewer and John McCain are having primary challenges soon, so there you have it: Republicans caving in to their basest instincts once again.
In many countries in Europe people have a national id and you are supposed to carry it with you. Let's see if all Americans are willing to be forced to carry and present a national id that is not a drivers' license. But to demand of only one group to carry papers, there is something highly disturbing, undemocratic and un-American about it. 

The Amigo Country...

...apparently has set up shop here in the US. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 30.7 million people in the US are of Mexican origin. 19.3 million of those were born here, and 11.2 million are foreign born, like me.
Mexicans represent 65.7% of all Hispanics in the US, estimated at 46.8 million, and 37% of all foreigners. Hispanics are now 15.4% of the total population of the United States. So más respeto, vatos.
These numbers are huge. They are radical. Mostly, because considering how many Mexicans we are, we certainly do not have the political influence or make the noise we should be making (compared to the four Cuban cats who have held US foreign policy hostage from Miami since forever, for example). We are way too silent. Too busy working to complain. But that's because most of us have little education and even less money.  With these numbers, we should be seriously influencing immigration and foreign policy, among other things, both here and south of the border. We can no longer be ignored by both governments. And wait for the Census results...
There are many important corollaries to these significant numbers:
1. Are these numbers to blame for the recent improvements in Mexican food in New York City? You bet. Is this why we can now buy churros at the subway? Indeed. Is this the reason for the recent ascendancy of chipotle flavored everything? You gringos are very lucky.
2. I work in Hispanic advertising. It has always frustrated me that someone always asks whether the Dominicans, the Puerto Ricans, the Cubans or the Ecuatorians understand expressions that come from Mexico. Frankly, who cares? If they don't understand them now, they will soon, just like the Korean deli owners and anybody who works at a restaurant now speaks Mexican inflected Spanish.
I have always said that Mexican Spanish should be the Spanish used in national Hispanic advertising by virtue of its majority. Period. Number one, it is pretty good Spanish. Number two, I don't care if you think this is arrogant. Me vale madres.

 These numbers are from 2007. I rest my case.

3. I suggest that we scrap 5 de mayo, which is a bullshit holiday and celebrate instead September 15, which is our Independence Day. 
We seem to have taken back the territory that Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana sold to the US in the 19th Century. Karma.
Speaking of which, I was informed through Facebook that there is a petition going on to declare a national holiday honoring César Chavez, the Mexican civil rights dude who  originally coined the phrase "sí se puede", yes we can. I say, why not?

Plus ça change

Not to ruin your lovely weekend or anything, but here are some fresh remnants of the depravity of the Bush administration.  Immigrant detainees dying in private jails and officials scrambling to cover up their deaths and mistreatment.
Every time stuff like this surfaces, I wonder how is it that Bush and Cheney and their despicable minions roam the Earth unscathed.
Instead of jail, why don't they just deport the people? Do you know that they have detained legal immigrants because of bureaucratic technicalities that then disappear into a nightmarish rabbit hole from which there is no way out? 
Enjoy the outrage!

Census Madness

I was reading an article in the NY Times about Evangelical churches helping the US Census count illegal immigrants and the comments section was unbelievable. Hysterical anger about illegals being counted. Mostly, the screaming was along the lines of "go back to your own country, you parasites".
People are under the wrong impression that only citizens get counted. Everybody needs to be counted. That is precisely the reason for a Census.
I find it amazing that these hateful, spiteful Americans conveniently forget why immigrants are here. They are hired by people who are also breaking the law. How come nobody is outraged by the employers, but everyone wants to chase out the employees? Racism, pure and simple. And cowardly, to boot. So this is what I had to say:

Wow! Tell us how you really feel about the hard working people who do the jobs that American businesses are not willing to give to legal citizens because the salaries and benefits would become too expensive to pay. People will continue to come here illegally as long as American businesses continue to hire them under the table. If you want that to stop, you should penalize those who hire illegals first.
But you are all a bunch of hypocrites. Why don't you show the same outrage about the corporations who profit from hiring illegals?
Who is going to pick your strawberries, and slaughter your pigs and clean your toilets without charging 7 bucks an hour and expecting insurance and a 401K? Who, do you think, helped clean up after hurricane Katrina? Do you know what FEMA stands for in Louisiana, Senator Vetter?
Find Every Mexican Available.
So GET REAL.
The Census is a count of the people who are living in the US, legally or not. It is important to know who lives here, because that is REALITY, not IDEOLOGY. And as long as the conditions are here for people to come looking for a better life, they have every right to organize and every right to benefit from being counted.

Meanwhile, that I can buy churros on the street outside a NY subway station is to me, a sure sign of the wonderful contribution of immigrants to this land. To judge from the brisk business going on, I am not the only one. 

They Are Closing Hutto!

I wrote about this disgraceful prison for illegal immigrant detainees (and their children), after reading an alarming article in the New Yorker.
Apparently, the Obama administration is going to "reform" and make "more civil" the detention centers for illegal immigrants. I find it interesting that these news appeared exactly two days after the NY Times claimed that the Obama administration is continuing the inhumane policies of Bush's persecution of illegals. Things that make you go hhhmmm...
This is one case in which public outcry can bring about changes in policy and I feel like screaming hurray!, but I am wary of the Obama administration's claims of reform. Lately, they seem to be applying this word too liberally to stuff that isn't really changing all that much. Like health care, for example. Or torture. In Hutto's case I was exultant, until I read that they are going to transform it into a detention center for illegal female immigrants. Hutto was conceived as a maximum security prison, and the premises are not fit for the detainees, who are not dangerous criminals.
Still, it looks like we should count our blessings with this administration.
It's not change; it's change, kind of.

Department of Jerks

Great, well deserved hatchet piece on racist, criminal sheriff and celebrity and publicity whore, Joe Arpaio in The New Yorker this week. This man is a narcissist, a psychopath and a liar in uniform. If he were on the other side, he'd be a gangster.
Arizonians love him because he targets and humiliates illegal immigrants instead of fighting crime. His abuses are costing these bozos millions of dollars in lawsuits. Serves them right.
My Mexican friends, try not to cross over via Maricopa county. There is plenty of border to choose from. Avoid this asshole like the plague. He is the plague.
President Obama should tell his Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, to get over her croniness to Arpaio and investigate him for civil rights abuses.

Last week another interesting profile of Angelo Mozillo and his coworkers at Countrywide. In short: a bunch of jerks with huge egos running the show.

Anyone tired of Type A Assholes running rampant, say I.

In Celebration of Cinco de Mayo...

...I propose Mexico annex the US. We're already halfway there anyway.

And let's toast the Supreme Court's ruling on identity theft as it pertains immigrants who use false social security numbers:

Stephen H. Legomsky, a professor of immigration law at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said Monday’s decision would have a major impact on the strategy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, making it more difficult for the agency to press criminal charges against immigrants with no other offenses but working illegally.

“In the ordinary immigration case, this will no longer be a weapon,” Professor Legomsky said.

The Obama administration has said that it will shift the focus of immigration enforcement to employers who intentionally hire unauthorized immigrants in order to pay lower wages or otherwise lower costs. But last week the administration said agents would continue to detain illegal immigrants found in raids.

Obama, you can't have your tamale and eat it too.
And I don't say happy Cinco de Mayo because I object to this festival. Nobody in Mexico gives too much of a fuck about it. Here it's just an excuse for inexcusable behavior due to overconsumption of margaritas. Our national holiday par excellence is September 15 -- Mexican Independence Day.

Don't Be Blaming the Mexicans, Yo!

Apparently, a poor little 5 year old named Edgar ("yo soy el pequeño Edgar"*) from the pig farming town of La Gloria (talk about irony), Veracruz has been identified as patient zero. That is, he is the culprit of the widespread paranoia we feel today and of my burning desire for an astronaut suit.
From the nutty comments section of the New York Times, I like this scenario much better:

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, operates a massive hog-raising operations in Perote, Mexico, in the state of Veracruz, where the outbreak originated. A Smithfield subsidiary, Granjas Carrol, raises 950,000 hogs per year.

Residents of Perote believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. A municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.

According to community residents the organic and fecal waste produced by Granjas Carrol isn’t adequately treated. Area residents complain of “fetid odors” in the air and water, swarms of flies hovering around waste lagoons and respiratory ailments.

Mexican health agency Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social has acknowledged that the original carrier for the flu could be the “clouds of flies” that multiply in the Smithfield subsidiary’s manure lagoons.

— Lawrence, Glendora

Of course, you always have your racist nut jobs that blame everything on Mexico (drugs, immigration, viruses, violence, etc) and want to build a wall at the border (by all means, be my guest). One nutcase is convinced this thing happened in Aruba first in March. Another thinks it's all a conspiracy by the pharma industry in order to raise the price of flu shots. I'm telling you... I think it's a conspiracy by gringos to besmirch the image of Mexico. Or maybe by Jews and Muslims to besmirch the image of pork. But I find Lawrence from Glendora's argument very compelling.

* This was the famous last line of a fabulously campy Mexican soap from the 80's called Cuna de Lobos (The Wolves' Cradle). El pequeño Edgar was the bad seed. But poor little Edgar from La Gloria. Imagine the entire world blaming you for a pandemic!

Blame the Gringos instead!

Common Sense about Immigration

Unions are for legalizing illegals. And they are being smart about it.

Treat my president well

Dear Mexican compatriots:
Now that Obama is in Mexico, it is not enough to receive him with mariachis (very cool though). You have to show the brother some love like only Mexicans can give.
That is: get the man a good tequilita, and some nice taquitos de carnitas, a nice sopita de tortilla, chicharrón with guacamole, un pozolito, un molito de olla, and some pepto just in case, and I can assure you the relationship between our countries will never ever falter.
Once he eats our food, he will never think again about turning Mexicans away.

International Incident sparked by Burger King

Thanks to Cynthia for alerting me to the incident that threatens war between the US and Mexico. It's not the drug cartels or even immigration. It's a Burger King ad about their new Texican burger. As the copy says, "the Whopper with a little spicy Mexican".
Quite literally, as it turns out. The ad is startling. It shows a tall, handsomish Cowboy and a tiny Mexican dressed as a lucha libre fighter (can we please declare a moratorium on lucha libre? It's really getting OLD). They become roommates and share a house. It's obvious that the creatives scoured their brains thinking of ways in which a tiny little Mexican would not be offensive, so there is a cute scene in which he opens a big jar of pickles for the cowboy, and another one where he is swimming in the pool while the gringo cleans the pool, for a change. I think it's great. I actually find the fact that they are living harmoniously in the same house very sweet and wonderful and symbolically very potent, given the climate of persecution against illegal immigrants nowadays.
The problem is the little tiny Mexican. It's a stereotype.
The creatives will counter that the cowboy is a stereotype too. And they are right, but the cowboy is tall and handsome and the Mexican is tiny and ridiculous. So not everybody will get the postmodern wink of the spot.
I don't find the spot offensive and, according to many comments in You Tube, many other Mexican Americans don't either. But the ad comes at a juncture of dramatic strain between Mexicans and Americans and one wonders whether the creatives and the Burger King executives are either blissfully unaware of this or they thought they could comment on it in their trademark ironic way. As a creative myself, I applaud them for taking the risk. I'm sure, or at least I hope, they predicted the possibility of a shitstorm. Maybe they hoped it'd be a shitstorm that sold tons of burgers.
In any case, it's controversial.
In Spain where they are utterly clueless when it comes to talking about foreigners, for instance, in a print ad of the same campaign the little tiny Mexican is wearing a cape with the Mexican flag (because otherwise Spanish people may not get the lucha libre reference), which prompted our ambassador to object to the campaign in a formal letter. Nothing better to do, I guess.
More offensive than the wearing of the Mexican flag (which the US creatives were smart enough to know was taboo), are the ingredients listed in the Spanish ad: Cajun sauce, cheddar cheese, and beef taco with beans. EEEWWWW!
This is not only offensive but repulsive and I think good grounds for a new Spanish-American-Mexican war.
Remember the Alamo!

Social Phobias

I'm reading some little books about Freudian psychoanalytic theory and now I am obsessed.
Check this out:

"Periods of social transition or fragmentation are ideal conditions for the spewing forth of phobic objects. Witches cavorting with the Devil and bringing every misfortune into their communities; Jews killing innocent children and drinking their blood; Reds under the bed plotting to brainwash your neighbors: the language of disgust and horror is used for political ends to subjugate, disenfranchise, incarcerate and destroy. Closer to our own time, single mothers, homosexuals, beggars, and foreigners have all been used by governments to help maintain the status quo or provide a convenient scapegoat in times of crisis. ...Inchoate fears could conveniently coalesce around the main templates of racism".
Ivan Ward, Ideas in Psychoanalysis -- Phobias.

In short, when I read the hysterical comments against the legalization of immigrants in the New York Times, with accusations about these people taking American jobs and destroying the fabric of society and other paranoid complaints, this is what it reminds me of. The outrage at their illegality seems quite disproportionate, considering that most of the illegal immigrants are just trying to make a living. People like Lou Dobbs just help demonize and dehumanize the immigrants. Families are being incarcerated in former privatized maximum security prisons while their cases are pending. Someone profits from putting children in jail. This is happening in this here country. It is appalling.

It's about time!

Obama has finally pledged to do something about immigration. Of course, all hell is breaking loose. People worry that this will be political suicide for him. Maybe, but something must be done.
Republicans and xenophobes scream hysterically about not allowing illegal immigrants to take American jobs. This is a huge fallacy. The jobs offered to illegals are designed for illegals. Not for American citizens, who expect at least the minimum wage and a benefit package.
You want the job of an illegal? You can have it if you are willing to work for bad pay, no unions, and no benefits. No recourse to the law either. Still interested? I didn't think so.
If we expect to curtail illegal immigration, instead of punishing these hardworking people, who are just taking opportunity where they see it (and isn't that the all-American mantra?), we should expect American businesses to stop employing illegals and start employing Americans.
And until this happens, everything else you hear is utter bullshit. It is so much easier to demonize the immigrants (and pretend the blatant racism is actually outrage at their illegality) than to call to task those businesses who profit from this state of affairs. However, these businesses could not survive without these low-wage, low maintenance workers, so what gives?
But Americans are the absolute masters of hypocrisy. As long as business is booming, it's simpler to persecute the workers and their families, and create social chaos, rather than address the issue pragmatically and intelligently, without an ideological agenda.
Go Obama. Good luck, buddy. You are going to need it.

The real superheroes

Check out this cool photo gallery by the talented Dulce Pinzón.
These are the real heroes of America. Legal or not.