Brass Knuckles

Michelle Malkin writes about an ad campaign that is destined to be remembered as one of the  biggest cultural gaffes in advertising history.  Absolute manages to take the American out of Mexican-American.

One of my earliest memories I have of one of my aunts was getting juice from her in the kitchen, and her leaning down and telling my cousin and I that we should always be proud, because we are Juarez; we have the blood of the first president of Mexico flowing through our veins.  We were just kids, but that I remember it some forty years later is testament to the impression it made on me.In college, I found my home in the political science department of the University of Texas at El Paso, to this day the largest major university on the US-Mexican border.  I found my Chicanismo there at UTEP, in the library among stacks on Chicano political philosophy and culture. I learned about MEChA, about the Zoot Suit Riots, about  Corky Gonzales, Reyes Lopez Tijerina, Ramsey Muniz, Ruben Salazar, and the others that were instrumental in developing Chicano political thought and philosophy. 

At its best, Chicano political thought sought to restore the dignity of Mexican-American community, foster the appreciation and celebration of our culture and sought to elevate those who achieved success in this world as examples of what could be achieved.  It sought to break the psychological chains that enslaved the children of a conquered nation; to bring the community up and to the level of the conquerors, to supplant despair with hope.That was at its best.

At its worst, the Chicano movement has promoted the same “victim mentality” that assures a community a subordinate role in society by stripping away its responsibility for its shortcomings and pinning them “on the man”.  It’s the same siren song that has delivered the Mexican-American vote to the Democrats, who from one side of their mouths proclaim how much they love Hispanics, even as they torpedo Manuel Estrada for the Supreme Court, and Alberto Gonzales as US Attorney General.

Even at its craziest, even at its most frenzied, the Chicano movement was never crazy or stupid enough to suggest that we secede, leave the USA and rejoin Mexico.  Aztlan was the symbol of the dream of a community taking control of its own destiny; a dream that eventually got lost as we battled even over what to call ourselves.  Were we Chicanos, Latin-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Latinos, Hispanics, Hispanos, Tejanos, Tex-Mex?  Some of us were some of all those names, and we grew up to understand that there is no consensus even among ourselves; there is no monolithic Mexican-American archetype.  Chicanismo, Brown Power; these are cultural movements and are best understood in that context.

Culturally, we are a thread in the fabric of American society.  We have our own cuisine apart from Mexican food, we have our own Pocho dialect and culture.

The term is used abusively in Mexico to describe Mexican Americans living in the United States who are thought to be badly educated and without a “proper” sense of Mexican culture, having forgotten or rejected their Mexican heritage. It is used specifically for those Mexican-Americans that do not use Spanish in a proper way but with a particular series of mistakes related to their English education. Some Mexicans believe that pochos speak a bastardized hybrid of English and Spanish (often called Spanglish). They fault pochos for using quasi-Spanish words (called “pochismos”) such as “mopear” (”to mop”), “chequear” (”to check”) and “parquear” (”to park”).The term does, however, imply different meanings. In San Diego/Tijuana, “pocho” carries no negative connotations. The word simply refers to one who has both Mexican and North American roots. By contrast, in Ciudad Juarez, the moniker is very much a term of abuse, referring in particular to (what residents of Cd. Juarez see as) “uncultured” Mexican-Americans living across the border in El Paso, though this is certainly not universal.  

Absolut is far off the mark, and are completely wrong in their assumptions about Mexican-Americans, if that is even who they are targeting with their ad.  Mexico is our heritage; but it’s culturally and politically a different planet.  We as a people have worked hard to be here and make our way as Americans.  I have living relatives who have served in have served in every US conflict since WWII; even today I drove past the Roy Benavides National Guard Armory on the way to our rig in South Texas.  MSG Benavides was one of 43 Hispanic recipients of the Medal of Honor.

The Absolut concept is patently stupid and offensive; in a perfect world the Southwest would be reclaimed by Mexico?  We’d give up living in the USA, give up our freedoms, give up our dreams to be part of Mexico?  Why?  I can’t think of a single time in my life that I wished that Mexico would reclaim Aztlan – I have never known reconquista to be a Chicano concept. 

UPDATE:   Deborah Bonello and Reed Johnson from the LA Times blog La Plaza speak to an executive from the ad agency that produced the ad.

The campaign taps into the national pride of Mexicans, according to Favio Ucedo, creative director of leading Latino advertising agency Grupo Gallegos in the U.S.Ucedo, who is from Argentina, said: “Mexicans talk about how the Americans stole their land, so this is their way of reclaiming it. It’s very relevant and the Mexicans will love the idea.”But he said that were the campaign to run in the United States, it might fall flat.  

That’s a bit of an understatement.  What’s surprising to me is that Mr. Ucedo didn’t seem to factor in the distributive power of the internet, even though he knew that the ad had the potential to flop in the US market.  

I’d be furious if I were Absolut; the ad agency knew that the ad carried a certain amount of potential risk of failure or controversy in the US market,  but did nothing to convey his concern to Absolut in advance of publication.  Seems like that should have been a “what-if” consideration.

UPDATE:

The LA Times blog “La Plaza” is running a poll to get reader opinion.  Guess what readers in Los Angeles think?