Why Must They Batter Barney?

Dear Trembling Gabacha Daughter-in-Law,

Chula, you have nothing to worry about. You obviously love your guy, you're sensitive enough toward backward Mexicans that you don't want to offend them, and you know more Spanish than Carlos Mencia—you'll be adentro like Flynn.

The superstars of this century will be China, India, and Brazil, who will crush American economic and cultural dominance. Their rise will be owed entirely to a population willing to work without labor protests and who are entirely devoted to national growth—even Africans in Africa, who are the poorest of the poor, say that the Chinese migrant workers who are extracting oil from Africa work hard and even on Sundays—and a society that is so education-focused that they will do anything to make sure their kids not only graduate from high school, but also college and graduate school.

Why doesn't Mexico have this drive toward technology and education that has virtually transformed India? Mexico doesn't produce labor other than the kind that will cut grass. This would be OK for the first generation, but the second-generation kids in America are not even close to Chinese-American or Indian-American kids in America—have you ever heard of Chinese or Indian kids (who, by the way, don't speak their parents' language) dropping out of school, joining gangs, or getting their teenage girlfriends pregnant?

Mexico has to stop with the whole quinceañera thing and start shifting to rewards only on graduation day. Mexico's whole obsession with family values could learn from the real family values that have uplifted the entire continent of Asia. Mexico, sadly enough, can't even keep refining the oil it owns because there are not enough oil engineers, geologists, or mechanical engineers. Most of all, Mexico needs to stop comparing Mexicans to white Americans and realize that the epicenter has shifted to the East.

Dear Gabacho,

Glad to see a gabacho finally admit they're as screwed in the 21st century as Mexicans!

garellano@seattleweekly.com