Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
The entry titled "This Just In: Stereotyped Headlines Cause No Stir."
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2007 > July > 30 > Entry
This Just In: Stereotyped Headlines Cause No Stir
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.
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