I have always liked ranchera music. As of late, I have wanted to get deeper into it, as far as the history, the culture, and especially the songs and lyrics. The older I get, the more rancheras seem like poetry to me . . . sounds cursi, i know. So…
What do we need to do to make the güeros understand we come in peace? As Mexicans, we are from this great American continent as well, but in the average closed-minded English-speaking folks’ definition of “American,” it’s amusing to see they don’t understand what it really means. As in, unless…
We’re in state testing this week at the high school where I teach. After the students finish a section, they can only sit and read or just sit. I did an experiment: I chose the cholo-est, tatted, pierced non-reader and dropped your book on their desk. Students who never read…
Please explain to me why so many mexicanas seem to think it more important to stay home and baby-sit than to attend school (so that they may become more in life than producers of offspring). As an educator (lately of students identified as “at risk” for failure in high school),…
About six years ago, my wife and I adopted a little baby boy. He is “pure” mestizo and we are complete wabs. I’m a little dark because of my mixed Arab heritage, but my wife is a major-league blanca. He is a sweet little gabacho growing up in wab world…
I’m living in Mexico part of the year. I’m learning Spanish but can’t say I understand or speak well. I read several books about the history of Mexico and think I’m reasonably well-informed. I’m curious about a phrase on a T-shirt in an expensive shop in Puerto Vallarta. It had…
I would be most interested in hearing your point of view regarding our raza always voting for someone with a Latino last name, without even considering whether the vato/vata is qualified for a particular office. Often, I hear comments like, “If he is Latino, it makes up for all the…
Dear readers: The Mexican is currently dealing with deportation issues but will return next week once he builds his 15-foot escalera to climb over that pesky 14-foot wall. In the meantime, here are some oldies but goodies to tide you over like yesterday’s menudo. Enjoy! It seems that whenever Chicano…
You mentioned in the past that your dad is against illegal immigration, but that’s a voice you never hear. Why aren’t the legal immigrants and legal aliens “vocally outraged” about the illegals who drive down wages, drive up housing prices, use government services, give all immigrants a bad name, and…
In the past, you have defended illegal immigrants by arguing that they (paraphrasing one of your previous columns) will do the jobs gabachos won’t do for the same wages. I agree. I have a white-collar job, so I’m totally content to benefit from the low prices brought about by an…
I’m 39. My stepdad — who raised me — just died. This freed my mother to tell me (stepdad always forbade it) that the man I thought was my biological father all this time was not. The man who is my biological father is Mexican . . . totally (i.e.,…
The pinche Republicans are making a gigante ruido about their “Hispanic” senators in Congress. Wachale! Let’s call a pendejo a pendejo. Please discuss with tu audiencia what Mexicans really think about Cubans in these Estados Unidos. El Güero Tejano (no Cubano) As a recent transplant from Miami to Albuquerque, I…
Grammar question/rant. If Spanglish is a legitimate dialect/language, why do you feel the need to italicize every instance of code switching? I seriously doubt that when you speak you emphasize every puta palabra (emphasis intended here), but that’s what your article reads like. We all know that you are speaking…
In 1983 or 1984, I was walking home from work down Haight Street in San Francisco one evening and stopped into Watusi Records to look through the dollar cutout bin. I flipped through it for a bit and then stopped dead when I saw the Jonny Chingas Pachuco LP. I looked…
Can you please tell me something? How do you think it’s fair that all the people who come to our country and stay get treated far better than some of the people who have busted their butt all their lives here? Tell me how is that fair! You people take…
What is it about Mexicans and collecting old cars? I have three Mexican neighbors with middle-class incomes but in each case, when the old car or truck wouldn’t run anymore, they would buy a nearly new replacement and then just let the old clunker sit in the driveway up close…
My muchos apologies for this Best Of edition—I’m still in the rancho getting faded on the Herradura and stuffed with tamales, pozole, birria and empanadas. But this is an oldie-but-goodie even Art Laboe would appreciate: a 2007 piece ripping apart former CNN personality Lou Dobbs, who I hear does magic…
Longtime reader, first-time writer. I need some advice. My wife (who’s a half-Mexican L.A. native, just so you don’t think we’re a couple of white hipster dickheads) and myself (who’s white, but an immigrant, so I hope that lowers my dickhead factor a little) have had it up to our…
Many of my friends think I’m loco for playing with my dad the way I do. See, mi padre is now retired and living in Mexico and is very worried that I am now 30 and not married yet, so he wants me to go back to where he lives…
Dear Readers: Behold your favorite Mexican’s annual Christmas gift guide, where I give shout-outs to some of my favorite books that deserve your money this holiday season! And for once, I won’t recommend my books — ¡Ask a Mexican!, Orange County: A Personal History, and Taco USA: How Mexican Food…
Why is it that many Mexican women hate on me for having an Asian (Korean, to be exact) novia? I notice this in a lot of places. We go to the store and I get looks. We go to the movies and people look or say things like “Mira la…
Lately, I’ve noticed a few bands, como Voodoo Glow Skulls, have embraced ska music in both at home and in Mexico. I was curious what the appeal is for Mexicans to ska music? Also, if you had to turn people to Mexican ska, what would be your top five recommendations?…
