No Me Gusta

As I do every morning, I just went to the home page of The New York Times to see what’s new in the world. Holy crap. My high from the inauguration lasted 48 hours, and just ended with the sound of a balloon releasing air and flying across the room, before landing limply and empty on the floor:

Microsoft Plans to Lay Off 5,000 Workers

Home Construction Ends Worst Year Since 1959

Sony Expects $3 Billion Loss for the Year

Dismal Economic News Drags Oil Prices Down

New Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected to 589K

Study Finds New Evidence of Warming in Antarctica

Falling Pound Raises Fears of Stagnation

Shares Fall on Housing Worries and Microsoft Layoffs

Cringe-Alert: Mexican Tabloid’s Coverage of Obama

El Grafico, a tabloid publication put out by newspaper El Universal, is perhaps better known for its photos of barely-clad women and bloody dead people maimed in traffic accidents (whereas El Universal is more of a thinking man’s paper).

Today, however, they have a jaw-dropping message for Pres. Barack Obama (I know that Mexicans will argue this is not racist, it is normal — and as I’ve reported before, it can be weird just to be a light-skinned person in Mexico. As highlighted by the Olympics, racial sensitivity is QUITE different in Latin American than in the U.S. Still, I can’t get used to this):

[Update: ANOTHER Mexican magazine takes the racial insensitivity a step further!)

The caption reads "To work, my black person."

The Election Scene in Mexico City

Erik, Uncle Sam, me and Jesica celebrate.

Last night I attended a giant election night party at the Camino Real Hotel in Mexico City, thrown by the U.S. Embassy. I had no idea what to expect before the party, but it definitely surpassed all my expectations — except for one thing: the crowd wasn’t very excited.

Perhaps because only moments before the important poll results starting coming in, a small jet crashed over Reforma, one of Mexico City’s main avenues. It killed two top government officials, plus about six more people. It left behind general mayhem, snarling traffic as people called in reporting seeing “body parts in the streets.” Yeah, not exactly something to put you in a celebratory mood. Also, it meant my better half had to leave the party (as soon as we arrived) to go into the office to work on the story.

Thankfully, I now know a few Americans, so I made the best of it sin esposo. I wore a stupid hat and dressed in red, blue and white. I was friends Jesica and Erik’s third wheel, and we went downstairs to have delicious tacos de pato y margaritas (it truly is amazing I don’t weigh 840 pounds living in this incredibly culinary-inclined country) after we realized the Embassy party food was bland hamburgers and hot dogs. I met new blogger friend Julie, who is as funny in person as she is on her blog. And, best of all, it was great to see Obama get elected; I am most of all proud that Americans can see past skin color and vote based on factors that really matter. It was satisfying watching McCain/Palin walk off stage (and they did it very gracefully, I’ve got to hand it to them). However, as I told a TV reporter who interviewed me (in English), Obama and the new Democratic Congress is inheriting a huge mess – a terrible, ill-prepared war and a frighteningly erratic economy. There’s no way I’d take the job.

The general scene at the Mexico City Election Night party.

Erik and Jesica try to console a sad McCain.

We congratulate our new President. (Well, technically just my president, since Jesica is Mexican - but I'm sure Obama welcomes her support).

How My Husband Is Just Like Barack Obama

Besides their good looks, charm and intelligence, the huzzband and Barack share something else in common, I learned today:

“I admit that I am not always great about hanging up my clothes,” Obama has said.

(To create your own crank call with this quote, go here.)

Hey White Girl, Wanna Buy a Sofa?

When Brendan and I attended language school in Cuernavaca, we stayed with a family. One of my favorite people in our large pseudo-family was the abuelita, the grandmother. She was diabetic, well into her later years, wore thick glasses that frighteningly magnified her eyes, and shuffled around in house shoes and a housecoat. Since she spoke with a garbled lisp, I couldn’t really understand most of what she said, but she smiled and laughed a lot. (She instantly taught me the word mosca (fly) by dramatically swatting away any gnats and warning everyone around her that “moscas!” had snuck inside.)

One night, as we wrapped up watching a telenovela with the entire family, Brendan and I stood up to go upstairs.

Us: Buenos noches a todos!
Abuelita: Buenos noches los gueros! (Good night white people!)

OK, I thought. She’s old.

Then, on another evening, Brendan needed to go back downstairs for some water. The family was still sitting around the kitchen table, chatting. Abuelita spotted Brendan first and warned the family that he was approaching by semi-shouting not his name, but Guero!

Abuelita, in other words, was the first person to introduce me into the weird world of racial relations in Mexico.

—–

But then, as my Spanish improved, I noticed it wasn’t just abuelita who called us out on our skin color, it was also vendors, including the guys who roam around in trucks trying to sell complete furniture sets.

“Pssss….Guera, guera, blanca, blanca,” one man said to me, “Quiere comprar una sofa?” (wanna buy a sofa?)

As I’ve learned to do with all street peddlers, I smiled and said “no gracias.” And tried to not fume over the way he got my attention.

—–

Mexicans handle race and skin color much differently than we Americans. It clearly takes some steeling-of-the-soul to be called “white person” so pointedly, and I’ve been assured many times over by locals that it’s meant as a term of endearment. You could say I’ve come to accept my lot in life here. Sometimes I blend in (people ask me for directions somewhere, in Spanish) and sometimes I don’t (“hey whitey whitey whitey whitey, wanna buy a sofa?”)

I have often wondered what it would be live to here as an African-American (or even just visit as a tourist) both because it’s rare to see a black person in Mexico, and also because, like white people, black people too are called out for their skin color.

Case in point: An extremely wealthy Mexican bread company has started selling “Negrito” twinkies, and they’re as every bit as tacky as they sound.

Another Reason the Mexico Border Fence Is Worst Idea Ever

(Armadillo crossing the road. For more wildlife photos of South Texas by yours truly, click the photo.)

Of all the dumb and hostile things the U.S. government has done in the past few years, the construction of a fence along the Mexican border is the most pathetic. It’s a symbolic representation of our inability to think beyond knee-jerk, xenophobic, medieval solutions. Hate illegal immigration? Let’s build a wall! And not think about how immigrants can (and do) take boats across international waters. We’ll wait until that becomes overly problematic (decided arbitrarily, of course) — then put giant nets at sea, snagging their boats before they cross international boundary waters! Or, um, something...America, f yeah!.

Anyway, of course, an idea this bad is bound to have far more consequences than just making Americans look stupid. Its impact on nature (something that a lot of Americans don’t care about, especially if it means brown people will be in their country) is potentially devastating.

For those of you who think of South Texas as a dry, dusty place, it is. But that doesn’t mean it’s a wasteland. South Texas, in spite if its many problems, teems with biodiversity, and like all things wonderful and worth preserving in Texas, it transcends the border with Mexico; you can’t have one without the other.

The Sabal Palm Audubon Center is one of many areas that will be potentially damaged if the wall makes its way down to the mouth of the Rio Grande. This area, according to an article today in The New York Times, houses “rare birds of impossible colors… snakes…tortoises… and the occasional ocelot” (a gorgeous type of large feline). Not to mention native palm trees.

One of the guardians of the center, Jimmy Paz, is rightfully worried about the fence. From the Times:

“[Paz] says the Fence would create a twilight zone out of a swath of distinctive American soil, disrupt and damage wildlife and have the opposite of the intended effect: it will be the birders and other tourists — not the illegal immigrants — who stop coming. It may also put him out of a job.”

An audio photo slideshow of the Sabal Palm Audubon Center.

Thanks to Spitzer, My Political Disillusionment Is Complete

Holy hay-zeus, could Eliot Spitzer be more stupid? Ain’t no lady of the night worth what he’s experiencing right now!

When the first news broke, I was emailed and IMd by a barrage of friends. Friends who remembered how I loved Spitzer when he was running for governor. Example, from my friend Connie:

“Spitzer your favorite gov was involved in a prostitution ring…oy vey! What a scam he is! I had so much faith in
him in the beginning…. “

And from my friend Marc:
“hear about NY governor elliot spitzer? best scandal of 2008″

And of course, from my better half: “sorry that your hero has fallen.”

Anyway, to make a sad, pitiful story short, I hate American politicians. All of them. As I’ve said before, and I guess I’ll keep saying it again, Politics…Primaries…Blah, Blah, Blah.

Politics…Primaries…Blah, Blah, Blah

Lately, when I’m in a social situation, someone brings up the current political news in the U.S….and (usually) who they want to win the Democratic side of things, and I zone out…way out…oh, what’s that? It’s a pretty bird!

I live in Mexico for a reason: I don’t care about current U.S. politics. Seriously, the two most interesting things I’ve read about this year involving politics were about animal abuse: Romney’s tendency to tie his dog up on the roof of his car, and Huckabee’s tendency to cook squirrels in popcorn poppers.

I don’t have ANY idea who I would vote for, because I can’t convince myself that any of them are worth my vote, nor that they will do anything they promise. However, I have to vote, if at least to give one less vote to Romney/Huckabee, or whichever animal abuser wins the Republican seat.