Ask a Mexican | Mini-F.A.Q | Links | Salt Lake City Weekly

Ask a Mexican | Mini-F.A.Q 

Pin It
Favorite
art1880widea.jpg

Apologize for the shortened column this week, but there are tamales to make…

Dear Readers: Gracias, thank you, gracias for another successful year. The Mexican now appears in 32 newspapers across the country, with a weekly circulation of just over 2 million! As more readers join the Reconquista, many ask the same preguntas about the column’s methodology, philosophy, and generous use of the term pinche puto pendejo baboso. Following is a mini-F.A.Q. to address those concerns; next week, this column returns to its usual pendejadas.

Are you really Mexican?
Does a tamale contain masa?

Why do you use satire? Why can’t you just be serious?
Consult the works of Swift, Twain, Colbert and Sadgiyev for my answer.

Why haven’t you answered my question? You’re too much of a pussy to publish it, huh?
Patience, gentle readers: patience. My backlog of unanswered questions is over 200 pages long, all of them unique, and queries still invade my mailbox daily. I’ll get around to every question, but unless you’re an illegal immigrant, everyone must wait in line.

You didn’t answer last week’s question properly.
The Mexican answers with facts and attempted humor. If you don’t like it, go to Home Depot and pay a Mexican $5 to fashion the respuesta you may desire.

How can I get you to answer my question faster?
Be original—may the next person who asks what part of “illegal” don’t Mexicans understand or why do Mexicans like Morrissey so much see their favorite radio station transform into a Mexican regional outlet. Ask questions that crack me up, whether out of cleverness or blatant stupidity. Preferred subjects for the Mexican: etymology, stereotype-debunking, and show how much of a pendejo Lou Dobbs is.

Why do you claim to speak for all Mexicans?
It’s ¡Ask A Mexican!, not ¡Ask the Virgin of Guadalupe! Next question.

What’s a “wab,” and why do you use that word?
A wab is what wetbacks call wetbacks in Orange County, California; I use it to remind people even Mexicans can hate Mexicans. Also, to remind everyone that Orange County is the Mexican-hating capital of America.

Why do you make fun of Guatemalans?
The English had the Irish; the Italians had the Poles; everyone now makes fun of Mexicans. If we want to assimilate, we must pick on those below us—that’s the American way, no?

Gracias again, readers—this column is what it is because of ustedes. I leave you with City Weekly’s winning entry for my Mexican consulate picture contest I advertised throughout last year—why wasn’t it you, flojo? Prospero New Year, chavos y chavas!

Got a spicy question about Mexicans? Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net. Letters will be edited for clarity, cabrones. And include a hilarious pseudonym, por favor, or we’ll make one up for you!

Pin It
Favorite

Tags:

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 »
  • Free Will Astrology | Feb. 5-11

    nARIES (March 21-April 19)nI was watching a martial arts competition on ESPN TV. It featured a fierce macho dance-off, in which rivals took turns brandishing their high-octane warrior choreography. At one point the announcer waxed poetic as the eventual winner pulled off a seemingly impossible move: “And that was a corkscrew illusion twist rodeo spin!” In the coming week, Aries, I urge...
    • Feb 4, 2009
  • News Quirks | School Daze

    Curses, Foiled AgainnPolice in Council Bluffs, Iowa, reported that a man who threatened a store clerk with a gun took cash and then pulled out a can of pepper spray and tried to spray the clerk. Instead, he accidentally sprayed himself in the face and ran away. n• A shoplifter who made off with $1,200 worth of designer purses from a store in Cape Coral, Fla., was run over twice by her getaway...
    • Feb 4, 2009
  • The Straight Dope | A Lion Shame

    My friend says Christians weren’t actually thrown to the lions in ancient Rome, but when I was at the Colosseum, I saw a big cross there in honor of all the Christians martyred at that spot. He insists this was just made up by the church to perpetuate their religion. What gives? —vbunny nThe story has its suspicious aspects, I guess. According to the historian Tacitus, Christians durin...
    • Feb 4, 2009
  • More »

© 2024 Salt Lake City Weekly

Website powered by Foundation