COX Newspapers Washington Bureau

Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2007 > July > 30

Monday, July 30, 2007

Majorly awesome: Mexico can’t get enough of Lorena

By Jeremy Schwartz | Monday, July 30, 2007, 04:41 PM

lorenaAP.jpg Mexico awoke Monday to one giant lovefest with golfer Lorena Ochoa, who on Sunday became the first Mexican golfer to win a major tournament. “Grand Goddess” thundered the sports section of the Mexico City daily Reforma. Ochoa managed to knock the opening weekend of the Mexican soccer league off the front pages of most sports sections, a feat almost as difficult as winning the British Open.

Why all the hubbub in a nation that can be accused of a lot of things, but certainly not of being golf crazy? Peruse the nation’s sports sections and you quickly learn the performance of Mexican athletes on the international stage means a lot to the national psyche.

Here in Mexico City, you won’t find many recaps of Major League Baseball games, but you will find daily updates on Mexican players like rookie phenom Yovani Gallardo (tearing it up for the Milwaukee Brewers) and the frustratingly inconsistent Oliver Perez (pitching for the New York Mets). Good, or even decent, performances bring banner headlines.

The same holds true for basketball. You might not be able to find your hometown scores, but you can count on daily stats for native son Eduardo Najera, the Denver Nuggets bench player and certified basketball god south of the border.

Ochoa seems acutely aware of the pressure and expectations her countrymen place on her, and her failure to win majors despite being ranked number one for most of the year was widely lamented here.

“I was playing for all of Mexico and hopefully [as a result] there will be many more Mexicans playing in the future,” Ochoa told The Times of London.

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |

This Just In: Stereotyped Headlines Cause No Stir

By Jeremy Schwartz | Monday, July 30, 2007, 11:41 AM

Walking around Mexico City last week, I saw a banner headline that made me stop in my tracks.

Zhenli Ye Gon, a suspected pseudephedrine importer who was busted a few months back with more than $200 million stashed in his Mexico City house, had just been arrested in the United States.

The cover of La Prensa, a Mexico City daily, shouted “Aplesado!” That’s just a slightly racist version of Apresado, the Spanish word for captured. The clever editors at La Prensa switched the “r” with an “l,” playing on the stereotype of how Chinese people talk.

It would be like an American newspaper using the headline “Plisoner!” instead of “Prisoner!” or “Rocked Up!” instead of “Locked Up!” above a picture of an Asian person.

It was another reminder that political correctness has yet to take root south of the border.

The headline created nary a stir (although it did provoke lots of chuckles from passersby).

It was slightly reminiscent of the Memin Penguin affair of two years ago, when the Mexican government decided to place the beloved comic book character on a set of stamps.

Memin Penguin is drawn as a highly stereotypical black boy, complete with big lips and bug eyes. Many Mexicans couldn’t understand how Memin Penguin could be perceived as offensive outside of (and inside) Mexico and were infuriated by the controversy.

The Ye Gon case has become a fascinating tale of intrigue: Ye Gon claimed top officials in the Mexican government ordered him to hide the money, which he said was used as a campaign cash box; the government says Ye Gon was working with the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.

But the case is also opening a small window onto how Mexico views minorities inside the country.

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |