Mexico readership

Earlier this summer, I wrote that visitors from Mexico make up 0.90% of total viewers of this blog. I tried to make a commitment to keeping that percentage, and perhaps build on it. It helps that I discuss some of my favorite songs from Durango, (okay, some is Tejano).

Since the percentage has remained the same (thank you "Mesa que mas aplauda"), I need to come up with another angle. I could post portions of letras (lyrics) of songs that I like. I have not resorted to pasting the entire lyrics of a song on this blog, yet. Partially because I don't think people are nearly as interested in what I am interested in, partially because my editorial duty is to show the snippet of the lyric that interests me the most, and partially because I don't understand the copyright issue involved.

Perhaps discussing Mexican politics will help attract a couple of Mexican lurkers each month. For the first time in recent history, a sizeable percentage (2-5%, probably) of Americans can name the President of Mexico's name. It helps that Vincente Fox sounds cool. While this blog tries to maintain a politically neutral climate, it is hard to not notice that Fox was not very helpful (or even sympathetic) to the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Fox's comments directly after the event were about as lukewarm as Saddam Hussein's "yes, yes, this is a terrible loss of life and a tragedy -- I feel for the Americans" type of speech. Personally, I think Fox tried to use the situation to push an agenda about U.S.-Mexico border relations. My thought in mid-September 2001 was that Hussein was more a friend of the U.S. than Fox. (Maybe we invaded the wrong country. That was a joke.)

It is a family joke that I am related to Vincente Fox. My step-father's sister-in-law is like his second-cousin once- or twice-removed or something. My Aunt Ruby told my parents that a few of her cousins went to the inauguration in 2000. So, I should have a more soft spot for Fox. I listen to his comments about 3-times a week on the spanish-speaking news on the radio, so perhaps I am. I can tell that he is trying, and his presidency represents a massive change in Mexican politics. And his name is easy for Americans to remember.

In July 2006, Mexico will have presidential elections, and I am already getting excited. The mayor of Mexico City (Obrador) is a contender. Let's do a web search on his full name... ah, thank you The Economist: "Andrés Manuel López Obrador." So, I should really refer to him as Mr. López Obrador (thank you 9th-grade Spanish). By the way, the Economist article that I found his name on states that he has distributed 2.2 million comic books showing him fighting dark forces. (The federal government has charged that the mayor of the D.F. has used public works on an area of private land - a small charge in the historically corrupt land of embezzlement and drug-financing.) I WANT THAT COMIC BOOK!

I will close this entry by showing my full ignorance of Mexican Presidential History. How many Mexican Presidents can I name? Here goes:

General de Santa Anna (full name, thanks Google: Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón). Any American should be familiar with this name due to a clash at the Alamo. He had already been president by this time.

Benito JuárezThis is THE Mexican president. If you know any historical figure in Mexican history, it should be Juárez. His background is indigenous peasant.

Ernesto Zedillo (full name, thanks again Google: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León). This is the last of the PRI presidents, and I might know his name because it is recent and is when I started paying more attention.

Vicente Fox Quesada is the current president, so duh.


Pretty pathetic considering Mexico is our neighbor, and one of our largest trading partners. I can name all of the Prime Ministers of Canada since Pierre Trudeau (2nd term - 1980). That is probably more than a Canadienne should expect from a 'Merkin. (Still don't know if that nickname, 'merkin, is a sleight or not.) I like to use the québécois "Canadienne" since it sounds more like a hockey team.

I bet the average academic from Mexico can name more than 3-4 American presidents. Hopefully, this exhibition of my ingnorance will get my Mexican percentage above 1%. I will end with an awesome quote from Benito Juárez:

"El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz"

(translation: "Respect for the rights of other is peace.")

--gh

P.S. I use Window's CharMap to get the extra accented á's and é's, I hope I don't offend anyone if I have the accents going the wrong way. At least I tried.