HispanicVista Columnists

Memin Pinguin is not racist – the postage stamps are OK.

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

July 4, 2005

 

    

Two recent events in Mexico have been interpreted in the US as racist towards black people. African American leaders entered the foray in denouncing the events. They were quickly joined by various Latino (mostly Mexican-American) leaders and organizations and the White House.  The events exposed the huge cultural misunderstanding between the two countries.

First, President Fox made the remark that Mexican immigrants in the US were willing to do work even Blacks wouldn’t do. That set off Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton into a frenzy of news media activity including a trip to Mexico demanding an apology from the president. In Mexico, politically it was too good to pass up, so Fox’s political rivals and enemies were quick to follow denouncing his remarks.

Granted Fox’s remarks were internationally culturally insensitive but not domestically. Such a saying as Fox used, has long existed in numerous forms – “Trabajo como negro” (I work like a black man), “Me trabajan como negro,” (I am made to work like a black person). These and other similar in meaning sayings are, at least until this flap, recognition of how hard black men work dating to Colonial times when Spaniards claimed, “an African can do the work of five Indians.” So Fox’s remark was in the old sense – ‘Mexican US immigrants are willing to do work that even the historically hardest working people, Blacks, are no longer willing to do.’

The newest event – the issuance of a set of five postal stamps honoring a black child comic book character. Memin Pinguin by name first appeared in 1945, going on to selling up to 1.6 million copies per week. Though in the US it can be referred to as a ‘comic-book’ in Mexico it was more than that – it was more an in-print soap opera, pre TV days. The character became a Mexican icon credited during its peak period for motivating hundreds of thousands of poor people to learn to read so as to keep up with his adventures. Memin went beyond Mexican borders into Central America and the Phillipines. Today sales still top 100,000 a week, and Internet fan clubs are very active.

Memin is the main character in a group of children from various social and economic positions attending public school. Memin as the most disadvantaged had the most obstacles, but his good humor, loyalty, perseverance and moral qualities wins over the other children. Each edition always has a moral; readers laugh and cry, and are motivated to be better and more tolerant.

Africans have been in Mexico long before one of them set foot in what today is the US. Throughout Mexico there are pockets of black Mexican citizens. Some dating back to the Colonial period brought to Mexico as slaves after the Spanish Crown forbade enslavement of Mexican Indians. Others are descendants of slaves bound for the US who jumped ship and hid in the jungles.

They have quite a history including their own rebellions to gain their rights and freedom. The first recorded Africans’ rebellion in Mexico took place in 1537. By 1608/09, the Colonial governor of “Nueva España” (Mexico) was forced to negotiate the establishment of an African community that exists to date bearing the name of the rebel leader who forced the negotiations – Yagna in the state of Veracruz.

Descendants of those early slaves were among the first to answer the call to arms at the onset of the war of independence in 1810. Second only to Friar Miguel Hidalgo Costilla, whose “grito” started the war of independence, in revolutionary importance, was Jose Maria Morelos, a Mulatto; and Mexico’s second president, Vicente Guerrero, was a Mulatto. A year after winning independence in 1821, Mexico abolished slavery – 42 years before the US.         

While in the US black people have suffered every conceivable form of racism, discrimination, bigotry, segregation, denial of civil and constitutional rights, the lot of Mexico’s black people has been different. In modern times their plight has been one of indifference towards their existence as a separate race not of open racism or victims of crimes as those suffered by US blacks. Mexican historians ignore their unique history and contributions – it’s like US historians ignoring the contributions made by US minorities.

After the US flap, Mexico’s Terra News poll indicates that 89 percent are in favor of the Memin Pinguin postage stamps. A clear indication that Mexicans feel the stamps are not racist.

Should the French complain to the US for having a skunk (Pepe le Pew) be French? Or Mexico about Speedy Gonzalez? Or how about all those exaggerated bandidos in so many motion pictures? Are they racist? Only in the United States are there those who think they are.

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Patrick Osio, Jr. is Editor of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com). Contact at PosioJr@hispanic.sdcoxmail.com

(The opinions expressed by Patrick Osio, Jr. are solely his and do not necessarily reflect those of HispanicVista.com, editorial board of advisors or it’s contributing writers.)

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive manual on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The manual is an in depth primer on the culture and protocol for better understanding Mexicans that in turn allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals.

The manual is available through Electronic delivery for $9.95 making it possible to download the manual to save on your hard drive, printing its entirety or particular sections while reaping considerable savings over printed copies.