Dear Injun Heeb: No, for the first part, if by “oppressed,” you meant “pendejo,” then yes on the latter!
Dear Mexican: Mexican seafood cocktails look like the perfect summer lunch for a girly girl like me—cool, light, high in protein, low in carbs—but every time I go to a real Mexican place (the kind where Mexicans are actually customers and not cooks), the only people eating them are Corona-slamming, 250-pound bruisers in trucker caps and wife-beaters. I’ve never seen a woman eat one of those amazing-looking seafood cocktails. Why? My main question for you is this: Would it be a major faux pas/potential threat to someone’s masculinity for me to order one of these? —La Chinita
Dear Chinita: No, seafood consumption in Mexico is enjoyed by men and women alike, but the place you’re referring to is a specific genre in Mexican restaurants in los Estados Unidos: the mariscos joint, where women usually exist only as servers with too-low blouses and too-high skirts, and the men are there to slurp down food and knock back beers while ogling said servers at all times. Women are allowed as customers, and you won’t get too many stares if you enjoy dinner here, but such a mariscos place is the domain of men, just like certain types of restaurants in other immigrant communities (Vietnamese coffee shops, Middle Eastern hookah lounges) play the same role. But stay away from seafood for a while—or at least make sure that shrimp you eat comes from the Pacific and not the pinche Golfo…
Dear Mexican: Why do Mexicans swim in the ocean with their clothes on? I mean, denim?! —Vicente Fox’s Mustache
Dear Pochos: This is by far the most-asked question in Ask a Mexican! history. So, to todos ustedes, I have my own question: Are you all brown-and-chubby chasers? Like gabachos, an alarming number of Mexicans are out of shape. According to a 2003 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 24 percent of Mexico’s population is overweight. That’s the second-highest obesity rate in the world, following—wait for it—los Estados Unidos! (The Mexican’s present-day note: A 2008 study found the same results. I’d cite the exact survey, but here comes la migra—gotta run!) Unlike gabachos, Mexicans respect the public when it comes to flashing our flabby chichis, pompis and cerveza guts—so when we’re out near the pool or by the beach, we cover up. It ain’t Catholicism, machismo, or an homage to our swim across the Rio Grande: It’s just good manners.
Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net, myspace.com/ocwab, facebook.com/garellano, youtube.com/askamexicano, find him on, Twitter, or write via snail mail at: Gustavo Arellano, P.O. Box 1433, Anaheim, CA 92815-1433!
Speaking of...
-
Best of Utah 2014: Dine & Drink
Best Pizza Este Pizzeria Pizza is a very personal thing. And for true pizza enthusiasts, the pursuit of the perfect pizza is never-ending. Well, for aficionados searching out thin-crust,
- Mar 26, 2014
-
Where's the Racism? & Pinatas
This guero downloaded Arizona Senate Bill 1070, did a search on the document for “Mexicans,” and did not come up with a single hit. What’s up with that?
- Nov 30, 2010
-
Mexican Roots & Superior Argentinians
I’m thinking of moving to Mexico. I’m a first-generation Mexicano. Speaking with my parents about moving, they’re absolutely against it ...
- Nov 16, 2010
- More »
More by Gustavo Arellano
-
Uptight Gringo Ladies
Also: Why the bedsheet dresses?
- Nov 7, 2011
-
B to the W to the S-Words
The three anti-Mexi slurs you used are so 1950s—the only people who use those words nowadays are old gabachos and Alabamans.
- Nov 1, 2011
-
Conquests & 9/11
Also: Is 'Mexican' Offensive?
- Oct 24, 2011
- More »
Latest in Ask a Mexican
