Dear Mexican: I have questions about the TSA, my most hated useless government agency. I heard that the TSA does illegal ICE dragnets at airports to catch illegal aliens. I get pulled aside for "special screening" every single time I fly, and it is infuriating. Does getting targeted by the TSA happen to you or other mexicanos? How can I stop this TSA harassment from happening, short of wearing a gabacha wig to try to "look more American"? It's humiliating to get treated like that by the asshole TSA agents, and it pisses me off that they are abusing their power to target mexicanos. Am I getting searched every single time for other reasons, and NOT really being wrongly racially profiled by clueless TSA agents?
No Me Toques
Dear Don't Touch Me: While I'm more than happy to decry anti-Mexican harassment at the drop of a sombrero, let's remember that the TSA chinga a ALL passengers: I've seem them pull aside gabacha grannies in wheelchairs and tow-headed toddlers. Besides, racial profiling at airports was going on long before 9/11: Per a report from the late 1990s by the ACLU, "A General Accounting Office study revealed that approximately 67 percent of the passengers subjected to personal searches upon entering the United States were people of color. Black and Latino Americans were four to nine times as likely as white Americans to be x-rayed after being frisked or patted down."
Dear Mexican: Why is it that when Mexican families get together for any reason, it always turns into an impromptu talent show? We berate little kids until they break down and "sing that song or do that dance you do — ándale!" You think maybe all families do this, or is it just a Mexican thing? Are we maybe trying to re-create Sábado Gigante at home?
Buscando las Estrellas con Don Francisco
Dear Mexican Star Search: Nope. Remember that Simpsons episode when Grandpa Simpson makes Bart and Lisa sing the Armour Hot Dog song to amuse Marge's mami? Don't forget that Los Simpsones remains the most Mexican show to ever appear on network television, making The George Lopez Show seem as raza as Duck Dynasty. And speaking of historical Fox animated programs, the Mexican is thrilled to announce his 2014 project: Bordertown, scheduled to debut this fall! The show (with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as one of the producers and Chicano legend Lalo Alcaraz as one of FIVE Latinos on the writing staff — and if you include the Jewish guy from Miami, that's six!) will deal with the world's worst border patrol agent, Bud Buchwald, and his chingón Mexican neighbor, Ernesto Gonzales. I'm only a part-timer, as a consultant who's mostly going to be offering notes, but I've already seen scripts, and they're amazing, hilarious, and spot-on about what it means to be Mexican in America right now: the pochos, the immigrants, the nerds and narcos. SB 1070 and Zacatecas. Hispandering and the military-industrial complex. Posole and "El Son de los Aguacates." The writer's room is a perfect mix of young guns and vets from legendary shows (South Park, The Simpsons, Mr. Show, The Daily Show and Futurama, as well as the Family Guy empire, among others), all knowing full well that they're writing a pioneering program — and that it has to be pinche funny or no one will care. Stay tuned for developments in this columna, and tell your 486 cousins to start spreading the word NOW!
