But What About the Taco Bell Chihuahua?

Nick Gillespie | June 30, 2005

A new series of commemorative Mexican stamps have been decried by U.S. civil rights leaders--and the White House--as offensive. The stamps are of Memin Pinquin, a comics page character created in the 1940s who, to put it bluntly, makes the Little Rascals' Farina look like Malcolm X.

Images and details here.

The Mexican government's response is that no offense is meant by the stamps. And that "just as Speedy Gonzales has never been interpreted in a racial manner by the people in Mexico," Americans should shut up about Memin Pinguin. More on that here.

I wonder what the Mexican government thought of the mid-'70s Spider-Man villain The Tarantula, a.k.a. Anton Rodriguez, whose shtick included having really sharp, pointy shoes. It always seemed to me that The Tarantula was borne of the mid-'70s anxieties about the increased numbers of Hispanics coming to New York, where Spidey lives, and other U.S. cities.

Back to the stamps: A while back in Reason, Jesse Walker reported on do-it-yourself stamps that were a whole lot less controversial--and a helluva lot more fun--than the ones from south of the border. Read all about it here. And check out the counterfeit stamps here.

Comments

|6.30.05 @ 12:11PM|#

I enjoyed it when pressure groups complained that the Taco Bell chihuahua was offensive, and Taco Bell responded by refashioning the dog as a Peron-style dictator complete with beret, and Marxist-kitsch banners running down the sides of the restaurants with heroic images of tacos and such.

|6.30.05 @ 12:34PM|#

Nice obscure comic reference.

|6.30.05 @ 12:52PM|#

Speedy Gonzalez is not a negative stereotype of Mexicans. The same cannot be said for his cousin "Slow Poke" Rodriquez.

http://www.themouse.demon.nl/Mouse1/slowpoke.jpg

|6.30.05 @ 1:04PM|#

I think I must be one of the few people who was offended by the Chihuahua dictator schick Taco Bell was using. To me, it was no different that placing the dog before a giant swastika. Somehow, though, it's been decided that communism is fashionable.

|6.30.05 @ 1:24PM|#

The Civil Rights movement was once about heroically confronting gross inequities, brutality, and murder. Now it's about bitching about cartoons on some 3rd world stamps.

Really, why call attention to it? Most likely the stamps would've came and went quietly. Now every rascist and cynic in the US are going to be trading sheets of these stupid things on eBay.

|6.30.05 @ 1:37PM|#

MNG,
It's not just the Civil Rights people that are bitching about it. It's the anti-illegal immigration crowd as well. Malkin's complaining that Bush isn't confronting Mexico enough about this. I love the strange bedfellows of politics.

|6.30.05 @ 1:57PM|#

Mo:

That's pretty interesting. I've heard also that Hispanic advocacy groups in this country are also weighing in against Mexico. Fucking weird.

|6.30.05 @ 2:00PM|#

Ay lawsy!

R C Dean|6.30.05 @ 2:13PM|#

I think you are missing the point, Number 6. They were hooking the chihuahua up with leftist iconography to mock the people attacking their campaign, not to placate them.

I thought it was funny as hell. You know Castro probably blew a couple of minor blood vessels when he saw it.

|6.30.05 @ 2:13PM|#

Slowpoke Rodriguez, he carry a gun.

/liked the Tarantula as well.

The Lonewacko Blog|6.30.05 @ 2:18PM|#

For those who want to see the more serious discussions of this matter, go here.

For several serious items relating to the larger issue of Mexico and massive illegal immigration, go here.

|6.30.05 @ 2:52PM|#

Mexicans don't like black people because there are a lot of lazy black people. Of course there was the whole P Diddy dating J-LO thing too.

|6.30.05 @ 3:04PM|#

Malkin is a blithering idiot. Have I mentioned that lately? Well, it bears repeating: Malkin is a blithering idiot. She is so far beyond wrong on so many issues, it's not even funny; if Malkin endorsed water, I would take it as a cue to stop bathing (and I bathe a lot)...

For another perspective on the immigration question go here.

|6.30.05 @ 3:17PM|#

On a more serious note. The Taco Bell Chihuahua was the marketing idea by a private company. The Mexican stamp springs from a (quasi?) governmental organization.

|6.30.05 @ 3:18PM|#

those stamps look kinda cool.

|6.30.05 @ 3:24PM|#

Ok, Slow Poke Rodriguez is a stereotype of the lazy Mexican, but how did this stereotype arise. Most stereotypes have at least a minimal basis of truth, but I for the life of me have never thought of Mexicans as lazy. If you judge by Mo's Homeless Index (MHI), whites are the laziest people of all. A good 90+% of the homeless people I've encountered are white as opposed to about 0.1% Hispanic and 0% Asian (I have never in my life encountered a homeless Asian man, just based on sheer probability this observation baffles me). Most Mexicans you see on the side of the road asking for money are generally tax-free produce vendors/florists (which is employment in libertopia).

|6.30.05 @ 3:29PM|#

Banners and revolutionary iconography wasn't limited to communists in Latin America. Think of Peron.

James B.|6.30.05 @ 3:37PM|#

IIRC in the mid 80s The Tarantula was actually transformed into a giant spider that terrorized NYC and fought Spider-man. This was a result of an experiment conducted by a rogue government agent named "Colonel Gulliver South".

The Lonewacko Blog|6.30.05 @ 3:45PM|#

Open Borders: A Gift from the Founders (about open borders between the U.S. states, thereby the reader is supposed to think open borders between countries would be just as neato) reads like quite an excellent essay, as long as the author is still in the 5th grade.

If you think that's a serious viewpoint, you really need to complete the remaining grades.

|6.30.05 @ 3:53PM|#

Cartoon Network in the USA will not show Speedy Gonzalez cartoons anymore because they are potentially offensive, but in Mexico they love Speedy cartoons (so I'm told by a friend from there). So it seems they are only offensive to people that think Mexicans should be offended by them.

|6.30.05 @ 3:54PM|#

If you judge by Mo's Homeless Index (MHI), whites are the laziest people of all. A good 90+% of the homeless people I've encountered are white as opposed to about 0.1% Hispanic and 0% Asian

Yeah, but don't you live in Cali, Mo? That's where all of the stupid, lazy white people in the US move because they think they're going to become famous. Then they end up cleaning houses or flipping burgers for $7.25 an hour. The streets aren't that far away on that salary, particularly if you pick up a nasty coke or alcohol habit.

Most of the homeless people I know are black. I live in a particularly segregated city, though, so that's just a regional observation from my part of the US.

|6.30.05 @ 4:02PM|#

Sorry: I meant wage, not salary.

|6.30.05 @ 4:39PM|#

Hmmm, smacky, I never thought of it that way. Though my experience was a grouping of NYC, San Fran, LA and Boston. I heard, though it may be apocryphal, that mayors of Midwest towns and cities give some of their homeless one-way tickets to San Francisco. The homeless guys take it because they'll get better services and weather, the local mayor offers it because it saves them money and San Fran gets the short shrift. Personally, if I ever became homeless, I'd get a one way ticket to Hawaii.

|6.30.05 @ 4:53PM|#

Open Borders: A Gift from the Founders (about open borders between the U.S. states, thereby the reader is supposed to think open borders between countries would be just as neato) reads like quite an excellent essay, as long as the author is still in the 5th grade.

As opposed to the well-phrased, articulate arguments of the neo-Knownothings...

(I can get as straw man and ad hominem as you any day of the week...)

|6.30.05 @ 5:07PM|#

Cartoon Network in the USA will not show Speedy Gonzalez cartoons anymore because they are potentially offensive, but in Mexico they love Speedy cartoons (so I'm told by a friend from there). So it seems they are only offensive to people that think Mexicans should be offended by them.

It's like when you meet some of those Asians who still ignorantly refer to themselves as "Oriental." Don't they know they're offended?

|6.30.05 @ 5:13PM|#

I heard, though it may be apocryphal, that mayors of Midwest towns and cities give some of their homeless one-way tickets to San Francisco.

Actually, since you mention it: I also have read in past Cleveland features and newspaper articles (be the following information apocryphal or not) that the former Cleveland Mayor Mike White paid to have our homeless shipped to some rural place in Middle-of-Nowhere, Ohio. I just picture him buying them all a Greyhound ticket and them dumping them in some unmaintained vacant field somewhere.

The Lonewacko Blog|6.30.05 @ 5:19PM|#

The FFF link I provided is 5th grade level. You might want to present that essay to elementary school teachers and see what they think.

I'm not familiar with the FFF, so if there are more substantial documents at their site please let me know. When people raise legitimate concerns about massive illegal immigration, and the thousand or so libertarians in the U.S. only handwave those concerns away, it shows that you aren't really being adult about this issue.

Here's an idea: is there anything at FFF's site discussing the possibility that we're importing people who are less "culturally sensitive" than Americans have become over the past few decades? Are we importing people who think stamps like this are OK into a country that rejected stamps like that decades ago?

Or, is there anything at FFF's site about the folly of inviting millions of people to settle lands that they used to own and that they think rightfully belongs to them? For an example of the latter, see "America is ours... This used to be Mexico".

Perhaps the reason that so few people vote for or support libertarians is because they seem to childlike and non-serious.

|6.30.05 @ 5:22PM|#

San Francisco is a homeless paradise. While NYC freezes in the winter and swelters in the summer, the streets of SF are a steady room temperature all year long. Oh, and the city government pays you cash, too.

|6.30.05 @ 5:26PM|#

When I visited San Francisco, I was shocked to see the people that were "homeless" there. Many of them looked like people that I would be friends with. E.g., young, suburban guys that look like "beach bums" (but literally , I guess), surfers, pot heads, partyers...cute, middle-class guys!

.....they may not have the entirely wrong idea, if they really hate real work so much: as Rhywun said, the weather there is very mild.

|6.30.05 @ 5:50PM|#

the city government pays you cash, too
Not anymore. The "Care not Cash" bill passed a couple years ago has been wildly successful. It replaced the cash payments with goverment services. This has saved a lot of money despite the cries of the leftists. Though I found it amusing that the "conservative" side was a massive welfare program.

|6.30.05 @ 5:52PM|#

I don't get to travel to many places where I see a lot of homeless people.

Until I went to Toronto a couple years ago. There was a young guy lying on the sidewalk ... I don't know whether he was actually homeless, but in less enlightened age he would have been termed a "beggar." He had a cup out for change and a propped-up sign that said, "Need money to attend Jedi Academy" on one side and "Need money to buy Preparation H so I won't be a pain in your ass" on the other. Also, he was asleep. I thought, "Dude, you aren't even trying to make me feel sympathetic."

Oh, and he was a white kid. Looked like a grunge rocker.

|6.30.05 @ 6:00PM|#

Stevo sez: "It's like when you meet some of those Asians who still ignorantly refer to themselves as "Oriental." Don't they know they're offended?"

That reminds me of a story in The Onion about angry Asians protesting a dry cleaner because the old Chinese guy who owned it was an offensive stereotype. Goddamn The Onion for charging for its archives.

|6.30.05 @ 6:57PM|#

"Ok, Slow Poke Rodriguez is a stereotype of the lazy Mexican, but how did this stereotype arise."

All I know is, those damn lazy Mexicans are coming up here and taking all our jobs!

|6.30.05 @ 7:36PM|#

The "Care not Cash" bill passed a couple years ago has been wildly successful.

Oops - my knowledge of SF is about 8 years out of date. Still, if I ever turn into a bum, I know where I'm going...

Kevin Carson|6.30.05 @ 8:06PM|#

Some Miami Cuban leaders complained about the dog because he glorified Che Guevara.

Worse, the advocacy group for some neurological disorder or other decided that the "taco neck" commercials were insulting to people with their disease.

I also remember seeing a letter to Ann Landers or somebody complaining that Charlie Brown was mocking hydrocephalics, believe it or not.

|6.30.05 @ 8:31PM|#

That reminds me of a story in The Onion about angry Asians protesting a dry cleaner because the old Chinese guy who owned it was an offensive stereotype.

I saw that one! It's in one of the Onion books I have.

There was also a story about lawn ornaments that charicatured African-Americans, or something like that, protesting against themselves. It showed a line of little statues holding placards that said, "We are offensive!"

|6.30.05 @ 8:45PM|#

Uncle Remus
by Frank Zappa

Wo, are we movin' too slow?
Have you seen us,
Uncle Remus . . .

We look pretty sharp in these clothes (yes, we do)
Unless we get sprayed with a hose
It ain't bad in the day
If they squirt it your way
'Cept in the winter, when it's froze
An' it's hard if it hits
On yer nose
On yer nose



Just keep yer nose
To the grindstone, they say
Will that redeem us,
Uncle Remus . . .

I can't wait till my Fro is full-grown
I'll just throw 'way my Doo-Rag at home
I'll take a drive to BEVERLY HILLS
Just before dawn
An' knock the little jockeys
Off the rich people's lawn
An' before they get up
I'll be gone, I'll be gone
Before they get up
I'll be knocking the jockeys off the lawn
Down in the dew

|7.1.05 @ 4:51AM|#

One pet peeve of mine is when people refer to Oriental/East Asian/Mongoloid individuals as "Asian". Don't they realize how big Asia really is? That description could cover anyone from Persians, to Arabs, to Indians and even Caucasians (ie: people from the Caucasus).

The only thing personally more annoying was, while watching a race a couple of years ago, hearing the TV commentators describe the winner, a native Kenyan, as "the first Afro-American to win..."

|7.1.05 @ 10:30AM|#

As long as nobody comes out with a stamp lampooning loser white guys picking their noses at their computers while weighing in on weighty matters like this, who cares?

The Lonewacko Blog|7.1.05 @ 1:12PM|#

Since no one has provided links to FFF articles where they discussed the issues mentioned in my last comment, let's try a broader question.

Would anyone from Reason or another libertarian site - or just anyone who supports guest worker plans or massive illegal immigration - care to answer the question here?

I tried to contact Reason and a couple other supporters, but apparently they decided against replying. So, feel free to urge them to take a crack at it.

|7.1.05 @ 2:47PM|#

Lonewacko

The problem might be that folks here are for changing the laws in favor of more open immigration, while with you it doesn't really have much to do with LEGALITY so much as just wanting to keep the GREESERS out.

Oh, and directing us to Michelle Malkin. That's a winner.