So far, I have worked under the table in Mexican tourism. Similar to architects from DF who end up working as waiters in Santa Monica or Seattle, I have had to work in hotels and restaurants in Mexico (Vallarta, Cabo, Maz, etc.) to survive. Selling time-shares is not for me (I am a lousy con artist). I want to work in my chosen profession: movie and TV production, and I want to get the equivalent of a Mexican green card. Do they exist? Is it possible for me to have a card that allows me to apply for work just as Mexican nationals do in Mexico City? I want to pay income taxes in Mexico and contribute to the better future of Mexico. I speak Spanish well, and if I ever had a chance to talk to ex-prezes Fox and Calderon, I would say this: “For every 10,000 Mexicans working in the USA, can’t you grant one green card to a gringo?” That’s not asking a lot is it?
El Gringo Mojado
Dear Wetback Gabacho: You can take steps to become a legal taxpayer — have you applied for the CURC? Gone through SAT? Got your CIEC? — but why bother? As you pointed out, it’s a bureaucratic nightmare, and gabacho illegals have lived the good life in Mexico for decades. You’re not likely to get deported given Mexico needs every gabacho dollar possible during these dark times of narcowars, and even becoming a legal resident or a naturalized citizen still qualifies you as a second-class person (despite your gabacho status) just above an indio, so you might as well stay illegal. Besides, look on the bright side: fewer taxes paid to the Mexican government means more money stays in the local economy. You ain’t an illegal: like the Mexi illegals up here, you’re a patriot against pendejo borders and antiquated citizenship laws.
Why is it our tías y abuelitas are so superstitious and have so many wild stories? The latest rattlesnake in the lechuga/cilantro/nopales (pick one) biting a mujer in a supermercado (pick your local one) who decides to rest in her carro while esposo finishes the shopping, then dies, is just the latest to circulate the Central and Southern California coast.
Cynthia the Pocha
Dear Pocha: What you describe sounds like a spin on classic urban legend of the woman who found a rat in her bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, examined in full in Jan Harold Brunvand’s 1981 classic The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings. He noted that the legend was based on truthful accounts of food contamination and theorized its popularity was our collective unconscious projecting fears of “a world of shocking ugliness lying just beneath a surface of tranquility and apparent wholesomeness.” Besides, the only Mexican wives tale that I know involving snakes is that a supposed 30-foot-long flying snake lives in the mountains above the rancho of my mami’s birth.
Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net, be his fan on Facebook, follow him on Twitter @gustavoarellano or ask him a video question at youtube.com/askamexicano!
