The (Laughable) Times They Live In
IT WOULDNT BE WORTH MY TIME to highlight yet one more slanderous, lazy, slimy, fictionalized piece of anti-Mexican propaganda but for the fact that it comes at such an egregious time and under such a prestigious banner…
IT WOULDNT BE WORTH MY TIME to highlight yet one more slanderous, lazy, slimy, fictionalized piece of anti-Mexican propaganda but for the fact that it comes at such an egregious time and under such a prestigious banner. Today, when countless families are suffering behind anti-Mexican racism, in a time when deaths are piling up on the border and our nation is in desperate need for intelligent and humane immigration talk, and non-hypocritical government, we get mierda like this from the timesonline.com TRAVEL section:
Mexico is a great big beautiful country. But not near the border with California. Here, it’s a dirty, tawdry stinkpot, infested with partying Americans and unscrupulous Mexicans who will provide anything for them. It’s a place where morals don’t seem to count and anything goes. At least, that’s what I hoped as I headed across the border on a bus, in the first days of my long student holiday.
At dusk, I reached Ensenada, a town about 75 miles south of the border, threw my bags in a friendly hotel and walked across the dirt road to the nearest bar.
There was a woman standing just inside the door, so I said hello politely. She lifted her top, showed me her breasts and asked how much I was prepared to pay for a good time. This was a bit more than I had expected. I was only saying hello.
—Confessions of a Tourist: everything goes down Mexico way; No money, no morals, but Cael Weedon still had his pride – for now
You get the point. Firstly, it is written under a pseudonym. Secondly, the hit piece polishes up every single disgusting stereotype you can fish out of your bag of 1940′s anti-greaser bag (bad water, amorality, two-dimensional women here for our amusement and sexual engagement, thieves, drunkenness…). Thirdly, it’s just inaccurate. As a blogmigo spit out right away “the cantina district of ensenada doesn’t have dirt roads, it’s all cobblestone/colonial design..”
The cowardly “Cael Weedon” hides behind not only a pseudonym, but one insincere opening sentence: “Mexico is a great big beautiful country.” And then launches into the sleaziest piece of “journalism” I’ve read in quite a long time. In fact, it’s not even Journalism. It’s made up. It doesn’t ring true at all.
Up against a wall at the back of the bar, we started to make hot Mexican love. We started, but we never finished. Something I’d drunk (perhaps everything I’d drunk) disagreed with me, and what began as a rumble in my tummy turned into a violent, volcanic rush. I was sick all over myself, narrowly missing my Spanish lady. Even down Mexico way, some things are beyond acceptable – as I crouched in the alley, my last memory of my lady was her leaving in a hurry, pulling up her knickers as she went inside.
I staggered back to the hotel and flopped onto my bed. For about a minute. Then I had to get up, stagger to the bathroom and carry on. For two hours. Empty and exhausted, I finally got back to my bed and slept, on and off, for 48 hours.
The final insult came when I went to check out on Monday morning, after being rescued by a money transfer. The friendly hotel manager turned out to be a little too friendly. He told me that he hoped I didn’t mind, but while I’d been sprawled there stark naked on the bed, he’d been watching me through my window. Anything goes is fine in theory, but not when it’s your wallet, pride and dignity that are heading south. I grabbed my stuff and headed north.
Yeah. It reads like some disgusting romance novel meant to invoke the amorous repulsion of ignorant USers.
And the takeaway message is that South of the border is where you go for disgusting, vile lewd experiences, amorality, loose women, and illegality, and North of the border is for pride. Dignity. Law. (And gringo college students who need to get it all out once in a while.)
What a joke.
And I’d let the joke go, see, because I’m used to hearing this view. Be it subtle or blatant, this is the view of Mexico from most of the USA (and clearly, some of the UK, too). Even from “good” people. I am thinking now of one person last year I talked to about wanting to move to Mexico in time and this intelligent, kind, progressive person was worried about…well. All the things you’d imagine if you read only English language “news” “about” Mexico (some English Lang sources are good but not most). Or watched most US movies on Mexicans. And so on. And it’s not so much about them as a person. It’s about the strong tide of anti-Indian propaganda this nation has long employed and has needed to, to continue the occupation and continued theft of indigenous land and resources.
To talk about this chaotic and criminalized and militarized and exploited area of Mexico-meets-USA, la frontera—but to leave out the causes and simply riff on old hateful stereotypes is more than stupid and lazy. It’s criminally negligent work as a journalist.
“Articles” like this are the virtual equivalent of gasses escaping the bloated carcass of yesterday’s ignorance.
Have a problem with the timesonline.com portrayal of the border issue, Latinas, or Mexico in this sensitive and transitional time we are living in? Tell them how you feel.
Tags: Ensenada, Mexico, timesonline.com
Posted in Accion, Blogs, Borders, Citizen Journalism, Cultura, History, Human Rights, Internet, Latinos, Liars, Mexico, MSM, Native Americans/Indians, Putos, Raza, The Long War on the Indigenous, U.S.A., White Supremacy
i have to post this email (to the timesonline editor) that a reader sent in:
hilarious.
hey, if anyone sends an email in, feel free to post it here.
I’m drafting one now. Here’s the start…
To the editor, The Times:
I realize that on your cramped, damp island, known mostly for poor dental hygene, inedible food and pasty heroin addicts, “Confessions of a Tourist: Down Mexico Way” was meant to be another in the pathetic tradition of what is sometimes called British “humour.” However, it might be noted that the streets of Ensenada have been paved since at least the 1950s. Those in the tourist district are cobbled, and have been since the community was founded in the 19th century.
… oh, and I’ll try to find the famous article on the world’s most hated tourists. Unsuprisingly, it’s the British.
Ugh, amazing! The colonial mentality runs deep and sour. Sometimes it just has to spill out.
Say, I have a white American friend who loves the Zapatistas and wants to visit them. Do you think that’s a safe idea?
i have to laugh for a minute. alice, i dont know. there are so many variants. why does you friend want to visit? how do they plan to do it? when? where are they from? and finally, how could i know?
i cannot. my father did it years ago and wrote a book…a lot has changed. and mostly, i would question what their goal is. to stop by and talk shop? to ask “what is it like to be a zapatista?” to impress them? i guess you can tell right away i’m feeling it may not be the best idea, but then again, i think the way you told me about it sort of set that up.
i can’t tell you. but i’d just offer a guess that it might be best to at least study up on whats going on, history, current, causes, how they feel about gringo visitors, etc, for a good while before even thinking about doing it.
good to see you, thanks for commenting.
thanks richard! i like the letter so far. “humour” thats good.
Thanks nezua, glad you got some laughs. My friend does know the history very well already. She’s young and idealistic, and wants to know about better ways to live. She’s sick of being a product of the American empire, and she wants to know firsthand what that sincere difference that the Z’s express is really all about. She’s wary of coming across as a tourist. There are apparently some outfits that offer package, well, “tours,” of the Zapatistas, but I don’t know much about such visits. Yeah, Mexico is portrayed here in America as dangerous, especially that area, and I’ll admit that’s probably scaring me for her sake.
well the way you set it up was funny. not laughing at your friend’s eagerness or idealism. at the same time, it also reminded me of this recent tragedy that befell another young, idealistic, hopeful and helpful woman. which does not make me laugh at all of course.
so yes, there is danger of course. especially for people coming into an area as a total outsider with ideas that may or may not mesh with reality on the ground. especially idealistic ideas. and nowadays, there is more violence than normal since the Mexican Govt is squeezing the Cartels. people are dying every day in big numbers. this is outside the normal happenings. so perhaps now is a rough time to think of such things…
but i’d not know more. and i leave it to your friend and her fate to feel it all out. i hope your friend finds her path.
[...] 8, 2008 · No Comments Nezua got a bit bent out of shape about the The Times (of England) On-line 7 December “Confessions of a Tourist: everything goes [...]
Alice: It is possible to visit the Zapatistas in Chiapas. Here’s a link to a visit I took earlier this year: http://m-grace.blogspot.com/2008/04/nuestra-lucha-no-entiende-de-fronteras.html.
Terrible news about Sally Grace. Absolutely tragic. I am sure her family and friends are devastated. (My last name and hers are the same, although I am unrelated to her and we had never met.)
last night i heard about a study done that showed mexico, puerto rico, and cuba to have the happiest of people, and the united states to be closer to the unhappiest of people in a country, and russia, took dead last. i also heard that mexico’s canines are seen as much happier than their neighbor dogs in the united states. (this is attributed to the people of course).
i’m not sure the correlation of this, to this slanderous, false, biased, piece of crap “journalism?”, except as i read it, i thought it reflected the character of the writer more than what he wrote about. also what came to mind is, the border is under the major influence of the white side and demonstrates this slime accordingly, as did this weeden dude.
i heard about the above study when watching a video with deepak chopra. he explained the source of this (as also described by a local in cuba), is the peoples focus is on relationships and not consumptive, commercial, wasteful, activities that is prevalent in this country.