Mexico: Miss USA ’s Fall Echoes in Spanish-language Blogosphere

[Harold Schiffman]

Miss USA's Fall Echoes in Spanish-language Blogosphere

New America Media, News Feature, Elena Shore, Posted: Jun 10, 2007

*Editor's Note: Miss USA's tumble at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico has
taken on a life of its own in Spanish-language blogs triggering discussion
of hot-button issues like immigration, the wall and regional politics,
writes Elena Shore. Shore monitors Spanish-language media for New America
Media. *When Miss USA slipped and fell at the Miss Universe pageant in
Mexico last week, some members of the mostly Mexican audience booed her and
began to chant, "Mexico! Mexico! Mexico!" The reaction prompted Donald Trump
to call the incident a reflection of Mexicans' sentiment toward U.S.
immigration policy. [image: Miss USA]

Long after the story made headlines in the international press, it took on a
life of its own in Spanish-language blogs. As the video clip of Miss USA's
fall made the rounds in blogs this week, it went from being a source of
entertainment to a subject of debate, as viewers voiced their opinions on
the incident and its political ramifications. In her syndicated column,
Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas wonders why members of the crowd booed
the young American. Perhaps they felt that Miss Mexico should have been one
of the finalists instead of Miss USA, she writes. Some say the motive was
political. She quotes one Mexican analyst as saying, "Her presence reminded
them of the absurd wall being built along the border. This was a
demonstration of their rejection of the foreign policy of the United
States."

Whatever the reason, Salinas writes, the incident sent a message about
Mexicans' lack of respect and tolerance to an audience of 600 million people
in 180 countries. The political consequences of the incident did not escape
the attention of Spanish-language bloggers.  "Now the people who are going
to suffer that xenophobic act are Mexican immigrants in the United States,"
writes Gazoo Star on the Puerto Rican blog Letrina
<http://www.letrina.net/>(The
Latrine), whose motto is "because the world is s**t". "It will perpetuate
hatred and Americans will get even with them in their own country." On the
blog Ocio Inadecuado <http://www.inadecuado.com/>(Not Enough Free Time),
whose tagline is "people who don't have anything to do," Marc writes, "Maybe
Bush will use this as an excuse to bomb Mexico for laughing at his little
white girl."

Keidy, from Honduras, writes, "I don't think everyone in the USA is to blame
for what the president is like. We all deserve respect…The truth is she
didn't deserve that."  While numerous bloggers on
Cachacero<http://cachacero.blogspot.com/>(whose motto is "a little of
everything") laughed at Miss USA's fall, others
from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Ecuador, Chile and Mexico
expressed their support for the contestant, condemning the reaction of the
crowd and congratulating her on her quick recovery and the dignified way she
handled the situation. On the Spanish-language blog site Yahoo
Telemundo<http://espanol.answers.yahoo.com/>,
the conversation turned to the complicated relationship between Mexico and
the United States.

"How is it possible to treat someone from that nation well in Mexico?" one
blogger asks. "They have treated us like garbage, they have stolen our land,
and now they even built a damned wall. They deserve this and more." But
beneath this anti-U.S. sentiment lies ambivalence and even hypocrisy among
Mexicans, other bloggers argue. One Mexican blogger, calling himself Tu
Madre (Your Mother), noted Mexicans' conflicting sentiments toward the
United States: "People booed because in Mexico we keep believing that the
U.S. is the cause of our problems," he writes, "but we all buy Nike,
McDonald's, Gap and all the rest."

Another blogger adds that the root of this hatred is the economic disparity
between the two countries. Members of the crowd booed Miss USA, he writes,
"because Mexicans hate Americans, because just north of them is a world
power while they are dying of hunger." At the same time, he adds, "all
Mexicans want to be American." According to blogger Lyn, the crowd's
behavior shows that Mexicans are just as prejudiced as they think Americans
are: "They shouldn't have treated her that way, because we'd be just as
racist as the USA."

Meanwhile, several bloggers commented on the irony that, according to them,
Miss USA looks Latina. This led one observer to note that, with so many
Latinos living in the United States, anti-U.S. sentiment in Mexico isn't as
clear-cut. Writing from the United States, blogger Cety71 writes that when
Mexicans boo the United States, they are booing a nation of immigrants. "As
much as they hate the U.S., Mexicans are the ones who have immigrated there
the most… There are many Mexican families that receive money from a relative
they have here in the U.S… There are few people who don't have Hispanic
blood, who in some generation haven't had a Latino relative."

More than any other country in Latin America, another blogger writes,
Mexicans have a history of identifying with their indigenous roots. "Some
people still have this mentality of victims and victimizers, of xenophobia
('everything outside is bad'), and, above all, of hatred for Americans and
Spaniards." But, he adds, "this group is not representative of the modern
Mexico. The majority of Mexicans felt very ashamed of the booing and a forum
like this is proof of that."
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=f828d8e5e9faead09cb3be5bd08cc066
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