Ask a Mexican
Introduction
Cultural Understanding via Wetback Jokes
Mexicans! Spicy, wabby, drunk, dreamy. The downfall of the United States. Its salvation. Mexicans mow our lawns, graduate from college, fleece us dry. They're people with family values -- machismo, many kids, big trucks. Our neighbors south of the border. Our future. Tequila!
Who doesn't love Mexicans? Whether they're family, friends, or the gold-toothed wetbacks you (heart) to hate, Mexicans have been the focus of America's obsession from the days of Sam Houston to today's multinational corporations. We give them jobs, ridicule them, and devour Mexican food as quickly as they do our social services. But we never bothered to know Mexicans. There never was a safe zone for Americans to ask our amigos about their ways, mainly because we never bothered to learn Spanish. Besides, how exactly would you ask a Mexican in person why, say, so many of them steal or why they use accents without earning a kick in the cojones? A word, by the way, that no Mexican uses.
With this in mind, OC Weekly editor Will Swaim c ... read full excerpt from Ask a Mexican ebook
