Guest Column

By Rodolfo Acuna
 
 The minting of the Memin Pinguin stamp in Mexico points out the gap between civil rights conscious Mexicans and Latinos in the United States and Mexican officials who defend the minting as part of Mexico’s past. According to them, Mexicans loved Memin Pinguin during the 1940s and that makes it okay. As proof a representative from the Mexican embassy made the ridiculous statement that “Speedy Gonzalez has never been interpreted in a racial manner” in Mexico. But perhaps that’s the problem.
 
 Mexican officials claim that Memin Pinguin “"is a traditional character that reflects part of Mexico's culture." Yes, but so is the Confederate flag part of American culture and so are stereotypes about Mexican bandidos and Mexican whores.
 
 Memin Pinguin is a cartoon boy that represents the worse Jim-Crow-era stereotyping and reinforces the racism that exists in Mexico today where caricatures of Indians are common.
 
 Start with Mexican President Vicente Fox who is tall and white. To this day criollo families control Mexico’s social, economic and political culture and it doesn’t matter that Benito Juarez was a Zapotec Indian. Although they are less than 10 percent of the total population of over 106 million people, criollos control the country. Thirty percent of the population IS Indians and they are disenfranchised. Indians make a majority of the Mexican population living below the poverty line.
 
 Racism is embedded in Mexican culture and history. It is internalized through institutions and innocuous characters such as Memin Pinguin construct social perceptions. Jose Agustin Ortiz Pinchetti wrote in La Jornada, “During the last 100 years, the racism in Mexico has shown 3 characteristics: 1) it has slowed the process of modernization; 2) it  has contributed to the dissolution of public consciousness 3) it has damaged the moral assets of the nation.” Racism is the product of colonial Mexico when people were categorized by race and rewarded according to how much Spanish blood ran through their veins.
 
 Most sociological studies conclude that there is a correlation between income and race. Bonfil Batalla "Mexico Profundo" is one of the rare Mexican books looking at race issues in Mexico and the difference between what Mexican law says and the reality that is expressed in the minting of Memin Pinguin. The truth be told, Mexican officials see nothing wrong with Speedy Gonzalez because they are in denial. (or maybe they associate Speedy Gonzalez with the peon who crossed over the border?)
 
 Racism does psychological and cultural damage. Laughing at it is like laughing at a sick race joke. To say Memin Pinguin’s cartoon funny is simply racist. Look at Spanish-language television commercials in Mexico that promote racial dominance.
 
 Since the founding of Mexico those in power have attempted to create the illusion that all Mexicans are equal when in fact class can be distinguished by just looking at who drives new cars and who drive the clunkers.
 
 The lack of race consciousness allows the hegemony of criollos and light skinned mestizos. It is a testament to a decadent public education system that ignores racism. You would have thought that the revolt among the Mayan population of Chiapas would have been a wake up call.
 
 Moreover, Mexicans just don’t know their own history. Up until 1700 more Africans entered Mexico than Spaniards and in 1810, ten percent of the population was listed as Afro-mestizo which means that between a fifth  to a quarter of all Mexicans had African blood.
 
 The stamp is not just “injurious to black people who live in the United States and Mexico;” it hurts Native Americans on both sides of the border; it hurts the poor. Unfortunately, poor Mexican immigrants come  to the United States often lacking a race consciousness and enroll in public school systems equally inept in teaching people their rights. We live in a country where racism is accepted and to do anything about it  is “reverse discrimination” against privileged white males.
 
 Letters to the editors imply that the rhubarb has been stirred up by opportunists who want to win votes. They make personal attacks on the Rev. Jesse Jackson and say that Memin Pinguin is the symbol of Mexico like “el Chavo del Ocho, Cantinflas and Capulina.” Give me a break!
 
 This just tells me that we have a long way in educating people for whether Latinos recognize it or not, they owe a huge debt to the civil rights movement and the principals of the Chicano Movement and Mexican American organizations before them. Mexicans are no longer in segregated schools because of a race consciousness. Latinos are
 in the universities in large numbers because of this race consciousness. And there are immigrant rights organizations because of race consciousness.
 
 I remember when Mexican intellectuals looked down on Chicanos as pochos
 and believed that the violation of immigrant rights was ok because they  had abandoned the motherland. Well, that represents stupidity.
 
 As to Memin Pinguin, the ignorance of Mexican officials does not make it right.

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