Letter from Mexico

President Vicente Fox, a “lame duck” executive with five years into his one and only six year term—Mexican laws do not allow for re-election—has been a lackluster and ineffective voice for internal change. Hampered by a strong opposition bloc in the legislature, his plans for further globalizing Mexico have not fared well, nor has the welfare of his people.

Only when raising his voice to defend the Mexican culture against “Yankee Cultural Imperialism” does he resonate with the electorate, and nothing illustrates this better than the recent flap over Memin Pinguin.

Memin is a cartoon character. He has very exaggerated facial features and is long-suffering and much put upon. Through it all, he maintains his sunny disposition, and in the end he comes out—if not on top—at least “OK.”

Mexican children read his books with great glee. They keep reading them when they grow up. Memin represents all the not-bright, not-handsome (in Mestizo terms), not-well-off citizenry (about 90 percent of them), all of whom suffer some degree of victimization at the hands of those with just a little more (or a lot more) power than they have. Except Memin never becomes a victim, at least not in his own head. He perseveres. He takes what he is given, and transforms it into a happy life.

Coming as it did after an unfortunate remark (revealing more about his upper-class outlook than about his racism) about Mexicans being willing to take jobs the “even blacks would not take,” the issuing by Fox’s government of a stamp to celebrate Memin, part of a series of cartoon-honoring stamps, brought down a firestorm of criticism by virtually all African-American civil rights leaders. Memin was equated with Sambo, the main character in a clearly racist series of U.S. childrens books. Tensions ratcheted up another notch between U.S. African-Americans and Latinos.

Meanwhile, the Memin stamp issue sold out in hours to crowds that lined up all night waiting for post offices to open. How does one explain the apparent racism of the Mexican people?

First, let’s get one thing straight: Mexico, like the United States, is a fundamentally racist country. Color of one’s skin is still a major issue, and “white” facial features and straight non-black hair are prized. “Guero” (whitey) is a term of approval, and even of jealousy. “White” children are more prized than dark ones. This is the heritage of 500 years of colonization and terroristic cultural warfare by the Spanish conquistadors and their descendants.

There are “black people” in Mexico, and they are largely invisible. Escaped—and later freed—slaves settled on both coasts, mostly in the Gulf state of Veracruz, and the Pacific coast of eastern Guerrero and western Oaxaca. They intermarried with local indigenous folks. They mostly make their living as fisher-folk, and their villages—like those of their Mestizo and indigenous neighbors—tend to be small, rather simple and not much noticed by the rest of the country.

There is a movement among them—promoted in large part by non-governmental organizations endowed from outside the country—for more recognition, and more bicoastal interchange between their communities. In this, they are not unlike the hundreds of thousands of isolated mountain villages throughout Mexico that are struggling to maintain their cultural identity, as they have for over 500 years.

For 11 years, I have been observing the behavior of my Mexican neighbors when confronted with foreign people of clear African descent, and when in the presence of Afro-Mexicans. The reaction appears to me to range between curiosity and pleasure. There doesn’t appear to be the same up-tight defensiveness that white folks often emit in the United States. If anything, African-Americans appear to get better treatment than our guero co-citizens, who are more likely to be associated with oppression and an undeserved attitude of superiority. Certainly, nobody crosses the street to avoid them.

In the context of Mexican life, Memin is, because he is “black,” less threatening culturally than if he were indigenous. A character like Memin with “indio” features would be much more controversial, since the treatment (or, more accurately, the lack of treatment/recognition/opportunity ; the “oblivion” that the Zapatistas talk about) afforded to Memin, if he were more indigenous, would be a matter for all kinds of “politically correct” controversy.

I think it fair to say that a lot of the enmity between “brown” and “black” people can be explained as the results of equal-opportunity exploitation by the (generally lighter skinned) folks in power, but to let it go at that would be to do the issue a disservice. Still, I think that the power of the Memin issue to further divide people who should be working together (and are, in many cases) can be diffused by a slightly refocused point of view.