Dame Edna "forget Spanish"

[Laura Miller]

This may be of interest to some.
Laura

Original Message From Cesar Chavez Institute <cci at sfsu.edu>

 If you haven`t seen the cover of this month`s Vanity Fair magazine (Feb.  2003), you`ll be pleasantly surprised to see Salma Heyek on the cover, but  that`s where the niceties end. In an advice column entitled "Ask Dame Edna",  the author, Ms. Dame his/herself, replies to a letter with some of the most shameful racist remarks I`ve ever read in a magazine of this caliber. We thought you might be interested in reading what the Dame thinks of Latinos and what the editors and Vanity Fair allowed to be published, so here you  go:

"Dear Dame Edna,
I would very much like to learn a foreign language, preferably French or Italian, but every time I mention this, people tell me to learn Spanish George W. Bush speaks Spanish." Could this be true? Are we all going to have to speak Spanish?"
-Torn Romantic, Palm Beach

"Dear Torn,
Forget Spanish. There`s nothing in that language worth reading except Don Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care of that. There was a poet named Garcia Lorca, but I`d leave him on the intellectual back burner if I were you. As for everyone`s speaking it, what twaddle! Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help? Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are at least a few books worth reading, or, if you`re American, try English."

MiGente, we want you to use your power in numbers to tell Vanity Fair what you think of this columnist and her/his words. Send your letters to the editors at: vfmail at vf.com