[PEN-L:3786] Carlos Fuentes' response to Mike Royko

[D Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

A91996 New York Times Special Features
04/12/96

'Hey, Mike Royko, Pick a Few Straweberries!'

   By Carlos Fuentes

Has the United States an imperious historical necessity for a reliable foreign
villain?

And if so, who is to play that part, Soviet communism having been
vanquished at High Noon by the guys in the white hats?

The brutal aggression by two Riverside County sheriff's deputies against
defenseless Mexican workers highlights the current tension between
Mexico and the United States. It also casts Mexico, yet again, in the Eric
von Stroheim role in the ongoing U.S. melodramatic script: "The Country
You Love to Hate.''

Mexico, conveniently, is right next door. It is weak, in crisis, corrupt and as
defenseless as the two workers battered by the Riverside deputies. It is the
perfect scapegoat for evils generated inside and outside the United States.

Outside its borders, the United States faces a question so often posed by the
brilliant economist, Lester Thurow: Who will own the 21st century?

This dilemma stems from competition by Europe and Japan, the high-tech,
high-productivity, high-salary economies, not by low-tech, low-
productivity, low-salary Mexico. But it is far easier to blame Mexican
migrants for budget deficits, unemployment, costly social programs and
even drug traffic.

Frustration and uncertainty easily breed irrational, defensive attitudes such
as racism and xenophobia. And anyway, where is the reliable villain that
fueled U.S. internationalism between Pearl Harbor and the fall of the Berlin
Wall?

Mexico, the inevitable neighbor -- incapable of employing its excess
population, seen as staging a silent invasion of its former territories in the
U.S. Southwest, perceived as inefficient and corrupt -- becomes the ideal
target for many phobias and prejudices.

I do not mean to imply that the United States is an anti-Mexican or even a
xenophobic country.

But, especially in an election year, extremes and extremists do surface -- for
example, the rhetoric of Patrick Buchanan, who agitates for a new Berlin
Wall on the border and the annexation of Baja California.

That this sort of demagogy has penetrated deep and wide is proven by a
recent article by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko, which I
recently read in the Chicago Tribune.

"Mexico,'' Royko writes, is "a useless country. And before its entire
population sneaks across the border, we should seize it and make it a
colony.'' That is more or less what Hitler said about Poland.

But the columnist doesn't stop there. He adds: "Just name one thing that
Mexico has done this century that has been of any genuine use to the rest of
the planet. Besides giving us tequila.''

Well, Royko is fortunate in that his own ignorance defeats him. Forget
Mexican contributions to art, literature, architecture and music. Forget
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and
Jose Clemente Orozco.

Forget the Nobel Prize in literature to Octavio Paz, in chemistry to Mario J.
Molina and in peace to Alfonso Garcia Robles.

Forget Placido Domingo singing "Granada'' by Agustin Lara. Forget "You
belong to My Heart'' in all the Muzak elevators, a tune by the Mexican
composer Gabriel Ruiz. Even forget that salsa now outsells ketchup in the
United States.

But do not forget, as Mexico's excellent consul in Chicago, Leonardo
French, has reminded Royko, the enormous contributions made by Mexican
communities to Chicago and the Midwest for more than a century.

Do not forget Selena, Luis Valdez, Sandra Cisneros and so many Chicano
writers and artists who have enriched the culture of the United States.

And, most especially, do not forget that U.S. tables would lack tomatoes
and strawberries; restaurants lack waiters, hospitals lack employees,
limousines lack drivers, homes lack servants, gardens lack gardeners and a
host of other services would go unattended if not for the work of Mexican
laborers.

Or would Royko be willing to stoop for his own strawberries?

Without Mexican workers, high prices and scarcity would plague the
United States. Wages and employment would suffer drastically.

In today's interdependent world -- as Marlon Brando, who was passionately
distressed at the beating of the Mexican migrants in Riverside, pointed out
on CNN's "Larry King Live'' -- the movement of capital goes along with the
movement of labor.

But until both governments, Washington and Mexico City, can agree on
clear, predictable rules to deal with Mexico's offer and U.S. demand, police
brutality, xenophobia and racism will impose their own law.