4 posts tagged “mexican”

Annie posted a comment made by lofty editors at Draft Mag (reposted by Jeff Hammett ) about the Festival of Beers,

"Occasionally, we consider moving to San Diego. It’s warm. All the time. It’s beautiful. All the time. The people are attractive. All the time. Honestly, what’s not to like? Then you visit, however, and realize it’s essentially a city devoid of culture, unless you consider being a stop on the way to Tijuana an important cultural experience. We don’t."

annie  then insightfully points out,

"We just have to look harder… I know there are some pockets of culture here and there (music! delicious food! lotsa museums!), but definitely not in La Jolla."

I am really glad that Annie posted her response. When I read Jeff's comments I became very upset but I couldn't articulate it at first. Because one, I am not a fan of San Diego and often find myself talking about why I am uncomfortable when I am in SD, and two I agreed with parts of what Jeff wrote - that sure it is warm and sure most people consider a visit to Tijuana a "cultural experience."

After a few minutes of Tricia the Wolf personality where I wanted to bite off Jeff's head and the heads of every tourist who make comments about "culture" and san diego I decided that a more constructive approach was better than nurturing cannibalistic thoughts.

What is culture? I define it as beliefs, practices and values.

Many of time tourists want to have a "cultural experience" when they visit a town - but this usually means they want to eat food that interesting enough but not so authentic that their taste buds would have to be challenged into liking it and go to museums that are artsy enough so that they feel good about learning about "others." 

The problem is that most tourists come to SD and they visit just a few miles - between 30 to 40 miles I would conjecture - they will go south on the 5 to Coronado but no farther, and then up north on the 5 to La Jolla. The brave ones will say I want to go to Mexico so they will bypass everything between downtown SD and Tijuana. Tourists then say they either LOVE SD or they HATE it. LOve it because great weather and people. HAte it because no culture. So Jeff here sits on the latter. Actually this dichotomy is one that is most often reified by those who live within the 30 mile swatch.

so what's my beef with the lofty editors at DRaft Mag?  From here on, I will refer to the Editors of Draft Mag as "Crocodile Face."

• culture is more than a beer festival and a 30 mile swath of predesignated tourist stops. So if you don't leave the 30 mile swatch that I have circled in orange, then you will feel that there is "no culture" in San Diego

• Actually that feeling that  Crocodile Face has of "no culture" points to the the dominance of white, elite, culture. So what's is beef with white culture?  I don't like it when people claim that white people don't have culture - especially it sounds most lame when white people go to places where the white population forms the majority in demographics and they walk away screaming, "there was no culture!" 

• if one defines culture as the experience of lots of public events with people of color all around you smiling and talking, then Crocodile Face is right - there is a lack of public cultural events in SD that brings together a diversity of people.  So yes the beer festival that Crocodile Face attended probably didn't have all the blacks and latinos out of ther neighborhoods. Oh and probably not a lot of asians either huh? That's cuz we like to have private tea festvals with dragons (just kiiidddding)

• so you don't want to live in SD cuz there's no culture here huh? Let me explain to you the position that you are in to EVEN make that statement in the first place.  The author, Crocodile Face,  is in a position of luxury to even say that he could pick up and leave his  city and move to another just because it might be more cool than where he is living now -  - now I am in his position also - I am the person who is in position of priviledge to say that I can pick up and move.  I picked up and left california to move to NYC solely based on the reason because I wanted to - I didn't know anyone - I had never been there - but it sure looked great from the movies and NYC has this feeling of cultural greatness that I wanted to understand.  But I knew that for me to experience culture in NYC, it had to be beyond just eating authentic food and going to museums - I knew that I wanted the experience of being adopted into a community, to work with a community, to share common values and goals and to work towards similar missions.  But tight communities have tight ties.  Neighborhoods that are seem to have a strong sense culture tend to have strong social ties and networks - that means people know each other, they hang out together, and they watch out for each other. But it's hard to get into these networks   So I knew that I had to work extra hard to become involved and to gain the trust of the community that I wanted to work in. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to join the communities that I wanted to work in (mainly lower-income, black and latino) by living in Manhattan. So  I made the choice to live in areas where I wanted to invest my time to getting to know my neighbors. So if the author, Jeff, makes the decision to not move based on his perception of lack of cultures other than dominant, white, middle-upper class san diego culture ---perhaps that decision can be re-evaluated once he stops through Chula Vista and see those cultures.

• Now if an outsider (this includes me), goes to Chula Vista or National City or parts of Escondido - it may still feel that the most culturally diverse place is Walmart! So where are all the people of color on the streets in these areas south and north of the 30 mile SD dominant culture swatch? One of the issues with SD that Crocodile Face picked up on is the lack of visible diversity - and Annie says that we must look harder- Annie is right. We do have to look harder. But i think SD is particularly hard city to "Look in" if one doesn't understand the culture of migration and fear in San Diego  and as  two cultures that are inextricably linked.  Even though SD has one of the highest populations of Latinos - why is it so hard to see see Latinos? Why isn't it like other cities where you can step out in certain neighborhoods and feel culture dripping from the clouds? It's because SD, with help from the federal government's ICT unit and leftover autocratic, facist Bush administration policies, has done a wonderful job at creating one of the most hostile city environments for Latinos in the USA. SD sits at one of busiest border border crossings in the world and the busiest in the USA - it is also the site where undocumented Mexican migrants come to support our economies.  What's been happening lately is that the immigration officials have been rounding up anyone who has dark skin, detaining them, and questioning them.  What they are doing is illegal and the ACLU San Diego Chapter is doing a lot to fight this. With all the immigrant raids on Mexican families  - many who are citizens and unevenly documented Mexican families (e.g. in some families the parents will have citizenship but one of their kids may be undocumented), the ICE officals along with the silent compliance of local and county police officials, have created a widespead fear among neighborhoods with high numbers of Mexicans.  The levels of fear are so high that families are scared to leave their houses. Undocumented people are scared to walk around on the streets. Even those with documentation are getting harrassed. All of this has created a culture of fear among the Latino community in SD - So tourists of SAn Diego -  if you wonder why you don't see more Latinos on the street - it's because they are not comfortable walking around like you or I - like someone who is a citizen.

• In the context of the culture of fear and an understanding of the culture of migration, SD doesn't lack "culture," it just has a lot of "hidden culture." A lot of cultural practices, celebrations and etc are taking place indoors. The kind of public celebrations that could possibly bring lots of different cultures together aren't as frequent - with the exception of JOB's annual fiesta - which is an organization that is doing some of the most exciting coalition building and community organizing work in SD.  It's hard to get people out of their houses when they are afraid to come out! JOB, lead by Norma Chávez- Peterson,  is organized by people of color who work within and with Mexican and black communities - so there is a higher level of trust to attend their annual Fiesta - which you should be attending in August if you want to find evidence of vibrant culture in SD. Last year my girl norma rodriguez organized the festival.
  

So my beef with SD is that there is one dominant, white, middle-upper class culture. I have no beef with the dominant culture in SD as it is one that I share many common values with (and I live within that 30 mile radius so to say that I am not a part of dominant culture is a farce), but my problem with it is that it is the dominant one! And so much of local San Diegan culture is hidden because of the fear among immigrants. The treatment of migrants is just horrific in San Diego - they are terrorized and treated like animals at times. Not all white people in SD feel this way in SD, but a large enough population of Caucasians in SD who hate Mexican immigrants have created a level of fear so high that they have been successful in scaring away the Mexican community back into their own homes, neighborhoods and centers. So if you are walking around downtown or in Pacific Beach thinking where are the people of color, take a look around you and look harder, They are there. they are working. they are just trying to blend in and go home at the end of the day.

** for an example of the unbalanced representation of Latinos in SD, read my post on what happened in the 2008 San Diego Wildfires, San Diego Fires - How Race and Class are Covered by the Media - We have no "refugees" here, and how I and others created a roundtable to discuss these issues

I was talking with a friend about why I wasn't into watching the superbowl. She asked if I least enjoyed the commercials - and I said no because most of the time I just don't find them funny and many of times I find the commercials offensive and just disappointing.  This year, I worked straight through the superbowl, but I watched kenyatta's family on ichat watching the superbowl  - now that was fun!  Afterwards, I saw kenyatta's blog post about the commercials, titled "That's Hegemony! (Super Bowl XLII Edition)."  His post  highlights several commercials from Victoria Secrets to Hanes Underwear.  I am reposting some of the videos he pointed out, but also some new ones - that especially show just how screwed up we are about race. 

In America, we think we are over racism because we can talk about it, flaunt it, celebrate it and even be un-pc about it - hey you so Asian I love you - I have a black friend - Mexicans make great food!  But at the end of the day our race problems are rooted in not being able to understand the "other." 

Well here are two video from Sales Genie, one that shows some pandas speaking chinglish, another showing an Indian worker who can be a  productive Indian with a bit of pressure from his overweight white boss.  Then there's the taco bell commercial with Mexican mariachis who can make great mexican food, play mexican music and even seduce a white woman!  Lastly we have the budlight commericial that just de-masculinizes Indian and Chinese men with accents while celebrating the glorious white man's ability to woo women.

As I watch this disaster unfold, I keep comparing how the news frames the San Diego 2007 Firestorm in contrast to how they framed New Orlean's Hurrican Katrina. Race and class are at the heart of the comparisons. So much of this sounds different when you are talking about SD's primarily Caucasian middle-upper class communities being affected by the fire - whereas in new Orleans it was primarily poor black people stranded in the hurricane.

we can see many differences just by comparing how the media and government talks about the evacuees who stayed behind despite a mandatory evacuation.  In New Orleans, helicopters didn't rescue all the black people on their roofs, supposedly because they were hearing "gun shots." I remember the reaction from the news and online community was that those who didn't listen to the mandatory evacuation were complete "idiots" or people trying to defy the law- essentially those stupid poor blacks folks. In San Diego - firefighters can't focus their resources on fighting the fires because of the winds and because  they are also busy doing emergency rescues on people who didnt' listen to the mandatory evacuation.  HOWEVER - the news frames these people in a more sympathetic light - by saying well you can understand why these people are so attached to their beautiful homes they own because of all the hard work they've put into it and even though they should have listened we understand the pain they are - essentially we are sympathetic to middle-upper class folks for staying behind in the face of a fire if they are protecting their houses. White people again are reinforced as HARD-WORKING and PERSISTENT even when they FAIL to evacuate while blacks are framed as LAZY and UNOBEDIENT for not evacuating.

Remember how the media said black folks were raping, murdering and eating each other in the New Orleans Superdome? Now the media in San Diego frames the 10,000 primarily white middle-upper class folks from North County in the Qualcom Stadium as peacefully sharing oral stories about their homes and eating home-baked brownies dropped off by sympathetic volunteers, and getting massages by compassionate massage therapist volunteers!!!!  And please notice the headline of the article by ABC about those who are giving massages, "CIVILITY REIGNS IN SAN DIEGO," as if the opposite - UNCIVILITY - reigns in other places.   CIVILITY refers so much to those who are CIVILIZED and separates the civilized from the uncivilized.  This implies that the situation in Qualcomm stadium is totally different from the situation in other uncivilized evacuee areas - like the Superdome, where the black evacuees were supposedly unpolite, violent, sweaty, dirty and smelly - and where the Black Evacuees were called REFUGEES.  So at least San Diego has learned so much from Katrina - they are taking the names of people who enter the stadium, and they are not referring to them non-US citizens.   We have no white refugees in San Diego- truly they are first-class civilized citizens!

I have to admit that I am so upset right now that I am having a hard time  finishing a deconstruction of this headline and the images - so if anyone wants to write more about this please do - and I will link to you. 

I know the situations (Katrina and Southern California Wildfires) are completely different and do not stand for a sound comparison, but a comparison in media representation is worthwhile and reveals how the class and race of community matter.  . For a reminder at how much race and class does matter in media discourse- here's a photo where I examined from the Hurrican Katrina and how the news framed a black man wading in water as "looting" while they framed a white man wading in water as "finding" floating goods.  Btw- Many New Orleans evacuees are STILL homeless and not doing ok 2 years after the disaster.  For those in Malibu and San Diego who had their mansions burn down - I wonder what will happen?

I am so mad that the city I live in is filled with so much sweet words of prejudice.  Not that this doesn't happen everyday everywhere - but it's just really intense when your city is burning down and there is so much racial and class politics in the media.  As Raquel has written - the whole South side of San Diego county is burning down, but it the press coverage is scant compared to North County of San Diego - where all the super-rich super-luxury mansions are loacted.  It's where people, like this person, go to escape their  2nd home or to their friend's hotel  or book a room at the Aviara for $350 a night with sculpted flamingos and golf courses.
(South County is more middle-low income, racially and ethnically mixed and 10-5 miles from Mexico.)

You can read my other thoughts about the National news coverage of SD fires here,  distortion of wildfires here, emphasis of LA over SD here, and what a Sociologist would do during a fire here.

UPDATE: NPR just did a piece on how bloggers are either comparing or arguing against a comparison of Katrina vs.Southern Ca. Wildfires.  They link to many other excellent blog posts that do some great comparisons.

this photo was taken by ABC News and was part of this story and part of The Stencil.

From Favianna's site:
Friday, August 3, 2007 - September 1, 2007
at QUEEN’S NAILS ANNEX, San Francisco
Queen’s Nails Annex is thrilled to announce that its August exhibition will highlight new work by artists John Dwyer and Juan Luna-Avin. Both artists will be mounting site-specific works for this dual-exhibition. Juan Luna-Avin, originally from Mexico D.F., has built a reputation for looking back into his Mexican heritage at the core of his work. His inspiration for this exhibition stems from tributes to his favorite musical movements that have transpired throughout time in all of Latin America and Spain, most specifically his attachment to the legendary Mexican metal rocker, Paco Gruexxo, who led various influential underground rock tours for several decades in Mexico. For this exhibition, Luna-Avin will be presenting wall drawings, paintings and sculpture based on iconic rock music images and characters from his upbringing in Mexico City during the 1980’s. The work is colorfully and textually powerful, aiding viewers to understand his exploration with various cults of personality in pop culture. He is titling his work “Estamos Vivos!” translated as “We are Alive!” originally proclaimed from Paco Gruexxo.