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 Editorials | Opinions | June 2007 
What a Beauty Pageant Can and Can't Tell Us About Our Neighbors
 Mary Sanchez - The Kansas City Star
| | Miss U.S.A., Rachel Smith, above, became a Miss Universe finalist even after she fell - and came up smiling. (Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press) |
So Miss U.S.A. fell on her booty in Mexico City. Rachel Smith's feet flew out from under her and down she went, a heap of beautiful plopped to the stage floor in a sparkly evening gown. The fall was an unfortunate mishap during the Miss Universe competition. It was not, however, a watershed moment in U.S./Mexico relations.
Much has been made of the fact that some in the Mexican audience booed Miss U.S.A. In video clips the crowd sounds more like a football stadium full of bozos trying to distract the quarterback than an audience listening courteously as the former Miss Tennessee fielded a question about her most memorable moment.
The catcalls were boorish, but were they really a litmus test for foreign relations? Morning news shows rushed to interview Smith - who was fourth runner-up in the pageant - after she returned home.
Bloggers went crazy. Last I checked, Smith's fall had been viewed more than a half-million times on YouTube.
And my inbox keeps filling up. The gist of most writers: "Hah! Proof that Mexicans hate us. They don't respect the U.S. Look at the behavior of those people!"
Again, the boos were rude, uncalled for and, speaking as someone whose father was born in Mexico, a bit embarrassing. But we're grasping at straws here, folks. Do Mexicans hate the U.S.? Of course not. Well, OK, it depends on whom you ask and what part of our shared story they have in mind.
Relations between the two countries make up an incredibly long, tortuous story of both love and contempt. The lands are like siblings - happiest when we are not too dependent on each other, but always needing to be mindful of our close relationship. If one country sneezes, the other will certainly get the flu.
Congress is now considering what could be the most massive shift in policy affecting our southern neighbor since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. This is an important time. But viewed another way, immigration reform will be merely another chapter in our long, long shared history, one that gets told differently on either side of the border - and often at the expense of the other guy's version.
That's why it's frustrating that so much of our debate surrounding comprehensive immigration reform lacks context. It's as if Congress only has to add or subtract the correct number of visas, or let just enough Mexican laborers in, or build a border wall high enough (or not at all), and all will be right between the two countries.
Contrary to what some believe, people have been shifting across the border for a long, long time - and not just in one direction. Some of the indigenous tribes in Mexico are thought to have migrated south from what is now the U.S. The Santa Fe Trail brought Mexicans northward long before the other workers came to build railroads. The Confederacy tried to elicit support from Mexico (and was rebuffed, due to the country's opposition to slavery).
And yet, some people are offended that Mexicans are still mindful that a good chunk of the U.S., most of the Southwest, used to be their land. And so they dream up crazy accusations that Mexican-Americans are plotting to take the land back. Not going to happen.
An interesting Google ad often pops up when you do Internet searches for news of Mexico. It's a site touting how to buy property in Mexico. Turns out, that's been a favorite pastime of North Americans for some time. Some of the most bucolic towns in Mexico are known as "Gringolandia" because they are home to so many U.S. ex-pats, towns like San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato. And talk about U.S. influence, two years ago Kansas City Southern gained full control of Mexico's largest railroad.
Even the aforementioned NAFTA, the so-called "free trade" agreement, continues to play a large role in today's immigration woes.
It is often pointed out correctly that many of the illegal Mexican workers in the U.S. have low education levels and are not fully literate in Spanish, much less English. Many are peasants, farmers, displaced by NAFTA.
Miss U.S.A., after her fall, summoned gazelle-like agility and seemed to pop upright, smile and sash intact, drawing applause from the Mexican audience. She said a few words in Spanish, which helped more.
Courtesy, respect and mutual understanding - or catcalls, contempt and recriminations. Which path should U.S./Mexican relations take? It's a question that needs pondering on both sides of the border.
Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via email at msanchez@kcstar.com. |
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