Driving While Mexican; Today's "Hair"

[Dennis R. Preston]

This bite is lethal!

dInIs

>My brother just retired as a teacher in Bogota after something over 35
>years in that part of the world. He once told me that the "muerta" (bite;
>my Spanish is not atrocious, it's non-existent) is practically universal
>throughout Latin America. Maybe some
>of our cultural quirks do rub off :-)
>
>Bob
>
>Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
>> DRIVING WHILE MEXICAN
>>
>>    Yes, while I was in Mexico, we were stopped four times to pay bribes
>>to the local police, but this is not about that.
>>    In today's New York Times, 26 January 2000, pg. A17, col. 2, is
>>"Pulled over for "driving while Mexican"?  Obviously, a borrowing of
>>"Driving While Black."  Col. 1:  "Why were you stopped?" asks the local
>>joke.  The answer: "Driving while Mexican."
>>


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736