BOURDAIN's stunning love letter to Mexico and Mexicans

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33. Welcome to DU, yallerdawg!

Glad you're here! I read your other post farther down - about your experiences picking tomatoes. YOU really went and walked in those shoes. Unlike far too many of the rest of us, I'm afraid. We have a close friend who came up here from Mexico - and he is the MOST talented, MOST industrious, MOST hard-working, MOST resourceful, MOST gifted at what he does - ALWAYS a beautiful job. ALWAYS goes the extra mile. Not a problem he couldn't solve, or a technique he didn't know about and/or do expertly. He taught me one really key fact: with the right tools, you can do ANYTHING. And sometimes I'd watch him and try to learn from him. They kept a little piece of property in Mexico and his family would go every summer, and forcryingoutloud he freakin' BUILT his entire house down there. From the foundation up. I became convinced over the years that there was pretty much nothing he couldn't do or build or fix. He built a tree house for our kids in the back yard and it was the talk of the whole neighborhood!

His kids and my kids grew up together and would go to each other's parties and sleepovers. If he came up here to do handyman work, he'd bring them, and they'd spend all day in the back yard with our kids, goofing and playing and climbing trees and giggling and digging in the mud and making mud pies. I'd spread out some of my headworks and marvel at what they'd design and create together. They were sweet and dear and well-mannered and got along with everyone. On the other hand, I'd see some Anglo kids at school who were entitled as hell, ill-mannered, and making trouble for other kids.

We have this haughty, dismissive attitude toward Mexico, and Mexicans. It's a damn shame. Indeed, I believe it - that without Latinos doing the "menial labor," our entire food production, service, and delivery industry would fall completely apart probably in less than a week. But are they appreciated at all? Do many of us even stop and think about it, about the role they play, the service they provide, the colossal overall contribution they make to our economy? Heck, seems like almost anyone with brownish skin who comes here is dismissed as "Mexican," when they may be from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, or even farther south. And I've heard many times from those who own restaurants especially - that you can't get a white American to come in and wash dishes like that, or wait tables like that, for that meager a salary. Students maybe - but they tend to be the servers out front, and they don't stay all that long or expect to make a career of it. They're always pretty much passing through. It's the Latinos are back in the hot kitchen, cooking and washing dishes.

I appreciate Bourdain's observations a lot. I appreciate yours, too! I have a CONservative friend who rants frequently about all the illegals coming into this country and taking American jobs. She must watch a lot of Pox Noise because the talking points just come and come and come. Just like one of those old Chatty Cathy dolls - pull the string and there she goes again. I think I'll send her the link to Bourdain's essay. Not that I expect any conversion, but at least there'll be be OTHER input than constant Pox.