The Three Mexican Countries
In case you missed out on all the memes, Fox News recently showed a news headline that claimed “Trump Cuts US Aid to 3 Mexican Countries”. These countries were Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador; and as we all know, there is only one Mexican country. What do we make of such an ignorant statement? And is there a lesson to be learned?
It wouldn’t be terribly surprising to hear someone say they want Mexican food, and then watch them suggest something like empanadas, arepas, and other South American dishes. It is an easy simplification in the same way that a few people might still tell you that the language that is spoken in Mexico is called Mexican. Everything is “Mexican”.
And when it comes to us Hispanics, this can either create a sense of community or enforce Latin American divisions. Case in point: how do Guatemalans and Salvadorans feel or react to Trump calling Mexicans rapists and “bad hombres”? Why doesn’t the government of Guatemala issue statements to defend Mexicans?
If you are going for the simple answer “well, because they’re Guatemalans and not Mexicans,” then perhaps you’re missing the key point: a culture of division that blames “Hispanics” for American problems is paradoxically not worried about separating good from bad, or Mexicans from Colombians.
When someone like Trump or Fox News want to blame a culture or a country for something, all they have to do is overgeneralize and go against the most American of principles: innocent until proven guilty. That’s why a Mexican is a ‘bad hombre’ until he proves he doesn’t fit the rule, and why Central Americans are Mexican until we point to a genuine cultural difference. It’s easy (and convenient), and that’s why many of us are able to laugh and mock the president and his favorite news outlet. What happened was an error in wording, but it betrayed their most intimate biases.
But it’s worth noting Hispanics also need to be careful not to fall into the same trap. Although this is a genuine example of what foreigners call “American ignorance,” it is precisely the existence of this label that proves we do the same. Foreigners assume that Americans are ignorant in the same way that Fox News assumed that Central Americans were practically Mexican.
So the next time we want to say this was a classic example of American ignorance, let’s ask ourselves: if this is so common, then what are some other examples?
