Dear Mexican: Do Mexicans Put Their Parents in Old Folks' Homes?

Dear Mexican: Recently, I visited a viejecita in an assisted-living home and wondered how I would fare in such a place. Fortunately, I like to eat cottage cheese, but I would like some salsa with it, or better yet, an occasional jalapeño en escabeche. Are there places for those of us who like spicy Mexican food?
Sabor Para Mi

Dear Flavor for Me: Time was that I could boast that we would never join cruel gabachos in exiling our aging parents to senior homes — that we let them live by themselves because mami y papi were tough enough, or that we housed them in the casas of our youngest sibling. But Mexicans tend more toward the gabacho proclivity to abandon the familia the longer we’re in the U.S. “Growth of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in U.S. Nursing Homes Driven by Demographics and Possible Disparities in Options,” in the July 2011 issue of Health Affairs, showed that the number of Latinos in nursing homes grew by 54.9 percent between 1999 and 2008, while the number of gabachos decreased by 10.2 percent. Researchers blamed poverty and a lack of access to better medical options for the increased rates, but maybe the old gringos are moving out because they don’t want to spend their last days living with Mexicans.

Dear Mexican: Why is it that when black families are shown in TV commercials, they’re portrayed living in nice neighborhoods, in nice houses and dressed to the nines — not to mention that the youngest talks like he just graduated from Harvard? Meanwhile, when a Mexican family is portrayed, the only thing missing is the cockroaches crawling down the kitchen walls. And where is the so-called Mexican American Defense League or some other worthless raza representation arguing this point? Are they afraid their corporate media masters might call them out as intolerant, or haters, or any other tag that might threaten their important jales and fat City Hall paychecks? Growing up in Los Angeles, I was taught that the raza was brave and strong, fighters when it came time to get down. Unfortunately, that seems to be a fairy tale, because for the most part, all I’ve ever seen in my people is a bunch of meek, subservient pushovers. We seem to be more preoccupied with how “Black Lives Matter” than with our own sociopolitical situation.
Shame on Us

Dear Wab: It’s one thing to be rightfully concerned about the horrible representation of Mexicans on television (a good antidote? ABC’s Cristela), but to whine that blacks are getting too much positive love? The Republican Party called: It wants its token racist Mexican back. Oblige them.…