Good piece in today's LAT about the busloads of deportees dumped in Nogales, Mexico after their border-crossing plans go belly up. Author Nicholas Riccardi finds that Nogales residents -- like so many of their neighbors to the north -- are complaining about how these newcomers are putting a strain on city services, and that they're bringing a criminal element to a region that's "very clean and quiet and proper." Akin to our language-barrier issues, communication can be difficult between Spanish-speaking northern Mexicans and indigenous southern Mexicans.
I have a hard time tolerating comedian Carlos Mencia's incessant death-to-P.C. hobby horse, but this article seems to agree with his claim that Mexicans hate other Mexicans (is this like the self-hating Jew syndrome?). It's pretty hilarious that after leaving their native country for the promised land and being told "we don't want 'em," Mexicans are booted back over the border to find that no one at home wants 'em either. It's kind of a Stroszek scenario in reverse: In Herzog's movie, the titular character is a newly released German prisoner who is greeted with pure disdain by his fellow countrymen, and when he gets to America to start his life over from rock bottom, he learns that his adopted homeland is equally hostile and inhospitable.
I don't pay much attention to Mencia. It's not that I find his type of humor unfunny, but more that I don't have cable. Nevertheless, to say that Mexicans hate other Mexicans is rather simplistic.
We have class and race issues similar to the US. Basically, dark skin is looked down upon and lots of indigenous people are still seen as backwards. This hasn't changed much since the 16th century despite a movement in the 1920s to embrace most Mexicans' indigenous roots.
Posted by: cindylu | July 26, 2006 at 11:53 PM