Dear Mexican: My fiancé is trying to learn Spanish so he can speak to my grandmother when we get married next month. Lately, he's been listening to CNN en Español to get an ear for the language. A couple of days ago, he told me that, after several weeks of seeing the channel, he noticed that there are ALWAYS chickens clucking in the background of the commercials. He wants to know, "What's up with the chickens?" and "Is worshipping chickens a Mexican thing?"
-Madre Hen
illustration: Mark Dancey
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Dear Wabette: Does your gabacho not speak English, either? Can't he ask the Mexican a question on his own? Not only that, but your gabcho is either a liar or mistakenly tuned into the Rural Farm Network for his Spanish lessons. I see CNN en Español and have never once heard chicken clucks during a commercial. In fact, the only time I can recall hearing chickens in the background of any program is when gabacho talk show hosts rant about Mexicans. That sound clip cliché isn't used exclusively for Mexicans, though: entertainers have associated chickens with the poor since the days of vaudeville, and even famed reporter Borat Sagdiyev unleashed a chicken on unsuspecting New Yorkers in his recent documentary to hilarious results. As for the chicken worship question, your gabacho is wrong again: the Mexican reverence toward gallus domesticus is reserved for the gallo giro, the fighting cock. Rural Mexicans treat their hens as they treat their women: as purveyors of breasts, eggs and little else.
Why do Mexicans claim that the United States stole the American Southwest from them? Mexico took it from Spain, which took it from the Indians. So when the United States marched into Mexico City after the Mexican-American War and drew up new boundaries that Mexico agreed to, it was no different than any other conquest in history. All's fair in love and war, right Mexican? -Mexicans Are Clueless
Dear gabacho: Right—so tell your gabacho countrymen to stop whining about Mexicans.
Why do spics and micks get along so well? Is it because both races are drunk, fornicating, degenerate Catholics? -Don Mulletino
Dear Mick: Get your racial slurs correct—Mexicans are wabs, not spics. Otherwise, you nailed it on the cabeza, cabrón. And the similarities don't end there. The Irish were the Mexicans of the United States before the Mexicans. Millions of them migrated to this country destitute, as indentured servants (the precursor to the bracero program) and even as illegal immigrants. They were fleeing a homeland under siege by evil Protestants only to find similar treatment in the States. gabachos here maligned the Irish for their Catholicism, their funny English, big families and constant state of inebriation, stereotypes popularized by the mainstream press. The Irish fought back: they formed gangs, voting blocs and—in the case of the Saint Patrick's Battalion—hundreds of soldiers defected to the Mexican side during the 1846 Mexican-American War.
But the Irish in America, to paraphrase Noel Ignatiev's famous 1995 book, eventually became white, while Mexicans will forever remain Mexicans in the eyes of gabachos. Nevertheless, the spic-mick connection continues. I know many children of Irish-Mexican heritage who call themselves "leprecanos" a miscegenation of the words "leprechaun" and "Chicano." Many Irish-American civic organizations support amnesty for illegals since about 50,000 Irish immigrants have no papers. Mexico and Ireland have harsh laws against illegal immigration and must constantly deal with their idiot cousins across the border, Guatemala and Northern Ireland. And gabachos have warped our precious St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo holidays into bacchanals of booze and women—on second thought, that's a compliment. Our races are brothers in depravity, Don Mulletino, so let's unite and throw the gabachos down the well, ¿qué no?
Got a spicy question about Mexicans? Ask the Mexican at garellano@ocweekly.com. And those of you who do submit questions: include a hilarious pseudonym, por favor, or we'll make one up for you!
