Ken Burns Hates Mexicans

With Lou Dobbs in Their Hands

I've been following the case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean for awhile, the Border Patrol Agents who shot an unarmed Mexican and became worshipped by the anti-immigrant right in the media storm that followed. Today I've finally come across a story that does justice to the soap opera's fascinating twists and turns. Posted by Salon, "The Ballad of Ramos and Compean: How the Anti-Immigration Right -- and Lou Dobbs -- Turned Two Rogue Border Patrol Agents Into Heroes and Got Congress On Their Side," is a must-read.

The facts are as follows: During a patrol near El Paso, Texas, the two Mexican American agents came across a real Mexican named Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila driving a truck just inside the U.S. border. The agents give chase. It ends 120 yards from the Rio Grande when the Mexican abandons his vehicle to dash back to the safety of the Motherland. Agent Compean stops Aldrete-Davila, Compean raises the barrel of his shotgun to hit the guy -- who has his arms raised in the air to surrender -- when the Agent trips himself and falls down a gully. Aldrete-Davila takes the opportunity to flee. Ramos and Compean fire 15 shots on the unarmed man running away. They hit the guy in the ass, literally. The wounded Mexican limps back to the safety of the other side. The agents cover up the shooting by picking up their spent casings, asking a third agent to pick up any empty shells they missed, and when Compean and Ramos get back to headquarters, they never report on the incident.

A month later the truth comes out. A Republican federal attorney appointed by George Bush looks at the facts of the case and decides to prosecute Ramos and Compean on seven and nine counts, respectively, of assault with intent to commit murder. Fellow agents testify against them. And while it's now reported that the Mexican guy was smuggling Marijuana into the U.S. -- a fact the agents didn't know when they shot him -- and despite the defense's spin of noble Agents protecting Americans from evil drug smugglers, a jury convicts the two. They are sentenced to 11 and 12 years.

For the prosecutors and the jury, the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila near Fabens, Texas, was a clearly unlawful use of force. But the conviction of Ramos and Compean was just the beginning of the agents' story. Within months, they had become the center of a dubious political crusade that would energize the furthest reaches of the right, dominate one of CNN's most popular news programs [Lou Dobbs], and persuade a quarter of the U.S. House of Representatives -- and one prominent Democratic senator -- to reject the findings of a federal court.

With the help of reporters and activists promoting -- and embellishing -- the defense's version of the case, the two convicted agents were transformed into martyrs for the battle against illegal immigration. Instead of rogue officers who shot a fleeing, unarmed suspect and then lied about it, they became stand-up cops who were forced to shoot an armed drug dealer and then sent to prison by a legal system run amok. After they went to prison in January 2007, they even became the tragic heroes of a country song called "Ramos and Compean."

Nearly 400,000 people have signed a petition demanding a presidential pardon for the agents. There are two bills to pardon them pending in Congress, one with more than 100 cosponsors, including five Democrats.

Of course the first clue as to the dubious nature of the Agent's version of events is the fact that Ramos and Compean became the subject of a country and western song, and not a corrido. Gregorio Cortez these guys are not.

And, second, as great as the Salon piece is, what's absent in any analysis I've read so far is any inquiry into one particular layer of complexity: that of Mexican American agents shooting a Mexican. Despite the fantasies of Lou Dobbs and the Minutemen, the U.S. Mexico border is a wonderfully messy place. What Americo Paredes called Greater Mexico, it's a place where an arbitrary line on a map may divide a region legally, but does nothing to separate a shared cultura. Take, for instance, how the cover-up by Ramos and Compean was blown. The Mexican mother of Aldrete-Davila, the guy shot by the agents, called her comadre over en el otro lado, who happened to be the mother-in-law of another Mexican American Border Patrol Agent. Hearing the chisme from his Mother-in-Law the guy then calls Homeland Security, which sets the whole case in motion.

Equally fascinating is the fact that the nativist, right-wing, primarily white, anti-immigrant propaganda machine have chosen to exploit one set of brown guys in their fight against their true enemy, the larger set of brown guys, women, and children crossing over into the U.S. And as the Salon piece points out, a key figure in the transformation of Ramos and Compean from cops trying to cover up a bad shooting into poster boys for the anti-immigrant right lies with another brown guy, Andy Ramirez, is the chairman of the California-based Friends of the Border Patrol, "a Minutemen-like organization." Talk about Brown on Brown facilitated by Brown crime. And even more crazy about this complex case? Perennial Wet Burrito Award winner and GOP flack Ruben Navarette Jr. and I agree on something.

As Jr. wrote in a recent column, Ramos and Compean "took the stand in their own defense, and yet the jury that convicted them apparently found their testimony to be less credible than that of the drug dealer. Bet you won't hear that from the members of the Ramos and Compean Fan Club. That's why they have no credibility. And members of Congress who buy into their narrative – of hero agents who were railroaded into prison – risk their credibility as well."

Except for the inflamatory rhetorical device of reducing victim Aldrete-Davila to nothing more than"drug dealer," I couldn't agree with Jr. more.

Ruben Navarette Jr., Piñata...

As predicted in an earlier post, the gringo journalists have begun the Alberto Gonzales/piñata references, only tell me it ain't so...Matt Lauer! Glenn Beck I would expect, Rush for sure, but not Matt!

In a conversation with the Ragin' Cajun himself, strategist James Carville, Lauer opined that Dems would be sad to see their "piñata" gone, no longer available to knock around anymore. Gringo blogs insisted the remark was racist. As for me, I don't know, more lazy choice of metaphor I would argue.

Best part of the report, though, is the definition of a piñata provided for the culturally challenged: "A piñata is a brightly-coloured paper container filled with sweets and/or toys. It is generally suspended on a rope from a tree branch or ceiling and is commonly used during Mexican celebrations. A person then swings at the pinata in an attempt to break it open and release the gifts." Man, talk about a description sucking the fun out of something. Suddenly my tenth birthday party is not such a fond memory anymore.

What saddens me most about Gonzales's resignation, however, is I can no longer read High-spanic columnist Ruben Navarette's weekly defenses of ol' Al. The apologist rhetoric always provided a welcome mid-week chuckle, or downright chortle, depending upon its degree of twisted logic. Yesterday's column was typical of Jr.'s absurd, inexplicable, and pathological defense of the guy who wrote the torture memo, called the Geneva convention "quaint," and named his brown kid "Jerrot."

Pundits kept referring to it as a “fall from grace.” Dan Balz of The Washington Post wrote that “(Gonzales') image, once the inspirational story of a young man who rose from poverty to become one of the most powerful Hispanic officials in the country, has been badly tarnished by his troubled tenure at the Justice Department.”

What hooey. I don't recall such “tarnished image” rhetoric when Karl Rove resigned. Why do the media insist on framing Gonzales' stint as the nation's first Hispanic attorney general as a social experiment that went bad?

First of all, no one called Gonzales's stint as the United States Attorney General a "social experiment." What citizens expected was a qualified lawyer to defend the Constitution, not eliminate Habeas Corpus and lobby for the ability of the government to listen in on phone conversations without a warrant.

And as far as Gonzales' tenure going "bad?" How about lying to Congress, "not recalling" 72 times during sworn testimony, or visiting the hospital bed of a near-dead John Ashcroft to get him to sign on to an illegal domestic surveillance program?

Funniest line of the column is Jr. quoting Al waxing nostalgic over the Attorney General's idyllic days back in Texas, far from the scrutiny of a national press corps: “'Probably the most disappointing thing I've observed,'” [Gonzales] said, “'(is that Washington is) so different in terms of what I observed in Texas government. Maybe I was naive in terms of how government should work. What I saw in Texas was what I thought was productive and good for the citizens of Texas.'"

Yeah, like covering up of then Governor George Bush's drunk driving conviction, and overseeing the conveyor belt of Capitol Punishment better known as the Texas judicial system.

Good thing Navarete is not resigning too. Vato's such an easy piñata.

Connect the Dots

What's up with this hot weather in L.A.? Someone lied to me before I moved here. Thankfully, Lucy's is properly air-conditioned or I'd never get any blogging done. Will soon be posting the new Girl in a Coma video, almost finished with that...till then here's what's happening with All Things Latino and Pop...

Colorlines reports the latest from the multiculti front...seem American Express has chosen fellow Texan Beyonce to represent AmEx in their newest TV commercials. An attempt by corporate America to reflect contemporary demographcs? That's the good news. I guess. Will save Marxist critique for another post. What's interesting here is that Colorlines also slyly provides the casting sheet listing the OTHER non-white characters needed for the national ad spot. Check it out. A quick deconstruction shows how ethnic stereotypes persist in even the most well-intentioned of pursuits.

Sunday New York Times tells the fascinating story of six monumental, Diego Rivera-esque, old-school murals on the walls of the dining hall of San Quentin State Prison. [See photo above.] Unfortunately, no one outside of doing five-to-ten has ever seen the amazing work. And of course, given the art's invisibility, it just had to have be painted by a Mexican American. "Remarkably powerful and almost unknown to the outside world, the sepia-tone murals were created more than 50 years ago by a young Mexican-American prisoner...serving four years for possession of heroin" A High School dropout with little art training, Alfredo Santos was thrown into prison in 1951. Two years later he "submitted the winning sketch in a competition among the inmates to paint a mural on one side of a dining hall." He was paroled in 1953, just enought time to finish the six 100-ft murals chronicling the history of California. An interactive tour of the art can be found here.

Since every blog post needs a villain, a quick click to the latest column by High-spanic pundit Ruben Navarette Jr. always provides a needed conflict. Only problem is deciding what particular right-wing drivel of Jr.'s to choose from: this one where he argues workforce diversity is "passe," not a thing to worry about, big business in their altruistic wisdom will rectify historical wrongs?; or maybe this one extolling the virtues of Jr.'s latest hero, Hispanic ad man Lionel Sosa, who has been using his formidable bi-lingual powers to hawk every GOP presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan to Latinos, George Bush included?; or maybe his column on--...Wait a second. Too many to chose from. My head hurts.

And speaking of coconuts, Dave Mann at the Texas Observer blogs Alberto "the Geneva Convention is Quaint" Gonzales was recently spotted back in his adopted hometown of Austin, Texas. Apparently the vato rolls in a white Hummer preceded by a motorcade of black SUVs. Sounds like Alberto is contemplating life as a rap star after his White House gig. Fellow Tejano hip hop star Chingo Bling, I'm guessing, is quaking in his Nike Ostrich boots. I mean, if you're talking about street thug props, Gonzales has them all beat. Besides eliminating civil liberties and generally laying waste to the Constitution, Alberto's a stone cold killer: As Mann aptly puts it..."perhaps [Gonzales] is reminiscing about the good old days or as so many do, just returning to the scene of the crime. Since Texas is scheduled to execute its 400th prisoner tonight, maybe Gonzales is here to commemorate his contributions to inflating that number."

And finally, it seems white kids are happier than black and brown kids. Huffinton Post reports "according to an extensive survey of 1,280 people ages 13-24 by The Associated Press and MTV, 72 percent of whites say they are happy with life in general, compared with 51 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of blacks...The study also found a split in how the races perceive the keys to happiness. Among minorities, the most important factor was lack of financial worries."

File this one under "no kidding."

Wet Burrito Award

Today's Wet Burrito Award goes to perennial winner Ruben Navarette Jr. In Junior's insipid column today, homeboy maintains his robotic support of the war in Iraq with the mindless repeating of Republican talking points. I wouldn't mind his position so much if it was at least reasoned, fact-based, and intellectually consistent. Instead it consists primarily of George Bush Good, Democrats Bad. Junior does, however, casually drop in the fact that he recently appeared on a "nationally televised news program." Well, not so casually, it's in his first sentence.

It's like five sputtering minutes on TV somehow makes his opinion that Dems "have a steep learning curve on national security issues" any more valid. Flavor Flav, after all, is on national television. And so is Lou Dobbs. It's not so great an accomplishment.

And, no, the TV show was not Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, but The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, where in the context of a debate on how public opinion has shifted to overwhelming opposition to the war, Navarette somehow managed to spin that fact into how this growing opinion against George Bush's war is bad for the Democrats. A clever feat of mental jiu-jitsu as I've ever seen. I guess the vato is smarter that a 5th grader.

Paris Hilton Owns a Chihuahua

Finished my rewrite. Pulled an all-nighter. My brain is mush. All I can come up with to blog about is the obvious: Paris Hilton. Apologies in advance for any tercos typos.

According to news reports, when the blond heiress left jail, she wanted nothing more than to cleanse her multi-million dollar palate of the icky jail house food. Her solution: a delicious take-out order of icky Taco Bell food. Thinking Outside the Bun, indeed. In any case, as with most of America, I'll be watching Larry King tonight for confirmation on this Hilton/Latino culinary rumor -- and also find out if Paris joined any Mexican gangs while locked up and now resembles Edward James Olmos in American Me.  Orale.

Anyway, like I said, brain turned to mush. I'm clueless for a topic. Even a quick visit to my favorite high-spanic columnist, Ruben Navarette Jr., in search of his usual Republican talking points as grist for witty punditry, turned up nada. Seems Junior, this week, has taken it upon himself to come up with a better comprehensive immigration plan than the combined wisdom of 100 elected United States Senators. Hm. "A better plan than a 100 Senators." Maybe Junior is on to something...

But then again, no. A quick re-read of his uninspired column and the only thing I take away is his liberal use of the words "Them," "They", and "Those" when the vato talks about fellow Brown people. The accumulation of which whiffs of condescending superiority. A trait I expect when reading Pat Buchanan, but particularly offensive when hearing it from raza.

Anyway, that's it for today. Too tired to even find an Image of the Day. For those of you really missing cool pictures click here. Be back tomorrow with more images, teatro, and noise.

And the "Wet Burrito Award" Goes To...

Far be it for this self-exiled Tejano to diss on my Califa brothers and sisters in their particular Mexican American cultural practices, but c'mon, "wet burritos?" What's up with that particular menu item?

Dousing wrapped carne asada with hot sauce and cheese, ok, I can see how that could be tasty, but would it have killed you guys to come up with a more appetizing name? Calling a burrito "wet" conjures up images of soggy flour tortillas and puddles of beanless bean juice swimming in a beige plastic plate. Hardly a delicacy for which you'd shell $4.99 plus tax. Still, having said that, this dripping taco joint staple has given me the perfect name for a New Feature of KenBurnsHatesMexicans: the Wet Burrito Award.

I haven't quite settled on hard and fast criteria yet but for now let's say soggy ideas, an embracement of self-hating right wing ideology, too many Ricky Martin CDs, or any general embarrassment to fellow Raza will put you firmly in the running. Sort of like an anti-Alma award but with no Eva Longoria costume change, and I promise -- promise -- award hog Edward James Olmos will never take one of these baby's home.

Winner of the inaugural Wet Burrito Award goes to San Diego Union columnist Ruben Navarette Jr. for his recent column purporting to sing the praises of all things Brown.

After an admittedly noble effort to contextualize the significance and presence of "U.S. born Hispanics" in American life (why only "U.S. born Latinos" and not immigrants isn't made clear), Navarette ends, inexplicably, with a shout out to George Bush, lauding Shrub as the only pol who "gets" the value of a diverse America and Latinos contribution to that rosy nirvana.

Take it from a self-exiled Tejano who has witnessed Bush's policies up close, George Bush and his Republican ilk are no friends to Brown people. Ask David Iglesias. Ask the Mexican American voters in illegally redrawn congressional districts in South Texas. Ask Jose Padilla. George Bush as "understander" of Latinos is a discredited belief.  A notion that only lives in the fantasies of Karl Rove and his bankrupt political playbook for Republican domination via the votes of future generations of docile Brown folk.

So congrats to Navarette, the winner of the inaugural Wet Burrito Award.  Alberto Gonzales, don't despair, the Justice Department inquiry into your alleged obstruction of justice charge by "coaching" the testimony of witness Goodling has just begun.

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

L.A. Times writer Agustin Gurza throws down in a recent critical piece on Gustavo Arellano's new book ¡Ask a Mexican!.

Gustavo Arellano is like the Paris Hilton of the Latino journalism world. He pops up everywhere, the media love him, and he thoroughly relishes the attention.

The difference is he's no airhead and he's not going to jail, though some consider his celebrity an offense. Arellano has capitalized on the novelty of his syndicated column, "¡Ask a Mexican!," in which he fields often racist questions about Mexicans with answers that are often racist themselves...

Arellano's shtick is to be the lightning rod for Mexican haters and for the politically correct critics he calls Chicano Yaktivists, admittedly a funny term. I once debated him in a meeting of L.A. Latino journalists, some of whom dismissed our disagreements as generational. Apparently, I'm too much of an old fogy to get how cool and hilarious The Mexican is.

That's not true. I get it. His satirical comedy is a cross between Andrew Dice Clay and Don Rickles. (Ooops, did I just date myself?) The problem is, one man's joke is another man's insult. Besides, I was born in Mexico (unlike The Mexican, who's actually an Anaheim native) but I rarely recognize myself in his answers: I don't wear street clothes while swimming in the ocean, I'm not especially attracted to women with large derrieres and I'm not a big fan of Morrissey.

After a while, his answers start to sound formulaic. There's an insulting retort, an endorsement of the stereotype in question, an outrageous explanation that makes the stereotype worse, and a Google search to provide journalistic cover with related factoids to sound informed.

Ouch. For the record I think Arellano is great. His sly and knowing confrontation with stereotypes is refreshing and, yes, admitteldy doesn't always work. But the guy's well thought-out opinion on sacrosanct Latino subject matter (like this provacative op-ed on the recent immigrant marches) is always a welcome, and necessary, point of view.

As Arellano's fame spreads amongst the Latino intelligentsia nationwide, it's interesting to watch the battle lines form, those who hate his work and those who admire it. Updates as the vato's book tour continues.

Dolores Prida Rocks

I was going back and forth wondering how best to respond to the latest column by Ruben Navarrette Jr., where the stubborn pundit's still wasting his precious forum defending his earlier defense of Alberto Gonzales. I even had a couple of sentences written, things, like, "What Navarrette dismisses as 'political theater' is actually called Congressional oversight, a process I'm sure must have slipped Junior's mind because it a duty that has been so rarely seen these past six years under Republican rule." Blah blah blah. Even I was getting bored.

Thankfully I came across a column by New York Daily News writer Dolores Prida, who does a much better job that I could ever do -- not necessarily in critiquing Junior and his reactionary voice, but presenting a clear and reasoned alternative...

Many in the media are wondering why the deafening silence from large segments of the Latino community, in particular prominent national organizations that often speak for all of us, about the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

A couple of weeks ago, "Hardball" host Chris Matthews wondered whether "the Hispanic community feels humiliated. I know I would."

Matthews is welcome to feel humiliated about misdeeds committed by any Irish-American, but I don't think he should. Neither should we about every Latino wrongdoer. Group identity, however, is a force to contend with in any immigrant community. Sometimes it blinds us to the incontrovertible fact that there are a good number of turkeys in our paddock who don't deserve our support.

I'll end with one final paragraph that had me cracking up at Prida's wisdom and wit.

When I first arrived in New York City many moons ago - more than I care to count - I was confounded by a front-page headline in one of the Spanish-language dailies: "First Puerto Rican Fire Station Chief Named." I wondered what was so special about that. In Puerto Rico, I thought, all fire chiefs are Puerto Rican, and they have managed to keep the island from burning down for a couple hundred years, thank you very much.

Go. Read it. Now.

There He Goes Again

Where to begin with Ruben Navarrette Jr.?

I've been aware of Junior since my Bay Area days when Lisa C-, my one and only relatively conservative Latina friend, recommended his book to me, A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano, a plodding, sort of updated Richard Rodriguez story minus the nuanced self-reflection, minus the elegant prose, and too much information about Navarrette's girlfriend problems.

Like other Brown pundits of his right leaning ilk (see Gregory Rodriguez of the L.A. Times), these guys somehow manage to find themselves rushed into a prominent public platform, heralded by guilty white publishers as the Voice of the Latino, and accorded unearned authority by the simple fact that they're the only brown writers appearing on a regular basis. It's as if, say, Jonah Goldberg was unquestioningly accepted as speaking for all white people. Where o where is Ruben Martinez when you need him?

But back to Junior and his latest defense of my fellow Tejano Alberto Gonzales -- a supposed point by point response to an earlier piece where Junior dismissed criticism of Gonzales as nothing more than racist white folks picking on a hapless Brown man.

Leading this lynch mob are white liberals who resent Gonzales because they can't claim the credit for his life's accomplishments and because they can't get him to curtsy. Why should he? Gonzales doesn't owe them a damn thing. Democratic politicians love posing with mariachis as they nibble chips and salsa on Cinco De Mayo. But it was a Republican -- George W. Bush -- who made history by nominating a Hispanic to serve as attorney general.

When all logic fails blame it not just on racism, but that apparently rampant phenomenon of white liberal racism. If Junior really wants to pull out his people-of-color bonafides and find a place for his misguided sympathy, how about placing it with the subjects of Alberto's policies and not his fellow Harvard alum and ex corporate lawyer for Enron? As part of a community with rich cultural affinities and direct personal experience with the recent tragic histories of the Civil War in El Salvador, Pinochet's Chile, Argentina's Dirty War, Castro's prisons, lynchings at the hands of turn of the century Texas Rangers, Latinos, of all people, should have special insight and sympathy to those tortured. Junior, instead, spends his precious column inches splitting hairs on when and with what degree did Alberto say what to CNN. Please. The guy gives a greenlight to waterboarding, extraordinary renditions, and Abu Gharaib.

Pachacutec over at the Huffington Post not only dissects Junior with insightful aplomb...

[Navarrette] has this really sweet gig going as an establishment annointed opinion writer who poses as an anti-establishmentarian. He does this under the cover provided by his latino heritage, but his ultimate argument always props up The Man.

But ends with appropriate insights on Gonzales:

I get that many latinos in the U. S. wanted to feel and remain proud of Gonzales, but look, we latinos can still know a liar when we see one, and watching him testify before Congress about NSA wiretapping, it was painfully obvious Abu was lying his ass off. I don't know about you, Ruben, but my mama nailed me to the wall with a swift, sharp look when I tried to lie like that as a boy.

The truth is Gonzales was always a mediocre talent who hitched his wagon to the scion of a powerful American family whose moral and intellectual endowment gives new meaning to the phrase "defining deviancy down." Gonzales was his fixer in Austin, burying Bush's drunk driving arrest, and has been a corrupt hack ever since. We all know corrupt hacks from whatever Latin American country our families once called home, and Gonzales is an eminently recognizable specimen.

Here, in contrast, is Junior's take on Alberto:

As a political columnist, I cover liars for a living. And yet, I'd say Gonzales is pretty much as advertised by his old friend, President Bush: an honorable public servant.

While Gonzales may indeed be a fellow Brown man who may "look like me," he is, finally, the same guy who dismisses the principles of the Geneva Convention "quaint" and "obsolete."

Cesar Chavez this guy ain't.