Because... 187 razones para...

La relación entre México y Estados Unidos es una de amor y desamor, necesidades y rechazos, búsqueda, bienvenida, despedidas y retornos. El vínculo entre ambos países es complejo y los conflictos que ahora mismo están al rojo vivo por las deportaciones van un poco más allá de ese proceso de deportación. La cantidad de niños que ahora mismo se han quedado sin padres en Estados Unidos porque esos padres han sido deportados ya asciende a muchos miles. El usurpamiento y el imperialismo tienen brazos largos y extendidos. Saben dónde y cómo recoger para alimentar sus propias necesidades.


Se me ha quedado resonando por dentro la voz y personalidad de Juan Felipe Herrera, escritor, poeta, intérprete y activista que esta semana ha estado haciendo una residencia en Madison. Su trabajo con la gente y la forma tan sencilla que tiene de hacerlo me ha llegado al alma. El miércoles estuve en uno de los talleres que hizo sobre inmigración y memoria, y el jueves vino en una de las clase en las que estoy matriculada en la universidad. Para terminar esa sesión, leimos con él algunas de las razones por las que los mexicanos no deben cruzar la frontera. El título de su último libro es ese: "187 reasons for Mexicans not to cross the border". Son muchas pero quiero escribirlas aquí. Las connotaciones históricas, políticas, económicas y culturales en cada una de esas razones no tiene desperdicio. (¿Quién necesita traducción?)

• Because Luw Dobbs has been misusing the subjuntive again
• Because our suitcases are made with biodegradable maguey fibers
• Because we still resemble La Malinche
• Because multiplication is our favorite sport
• Because we'll dig a tunne to Seattle
• Because Mexico nees us to keep the peso from sinking
• Bacause the Berlin Wall is on the way through Veracruz
• Because we just learned we are Huichol
• Because someone made our ID’s out of corn
• Because someone made our ID’s out of corn
• Because our border thirst is insatiable
• Because we’re on peyote & Coca-Cola & Banamex
• Because it’s Indian land stolen from our mothers
• Because we’re too emotional when it comes to our mothers
• Because we’ve been doing it for over five hundred years already
• Because it’s too easy to say “I am from here”
• Because Latin American petrochemical juice flows first
• Because what would we do in El Norte
• Because Nahuatl, Mayan & Chicano will spread to Canada
• Because Zedillo & Salinas & Fox are still on vacation
• Because the World Bank needs our abuelita’s account
• Because the CIA trains better with brown targets
• Because our accent is unable to hide U.S. colonialism
• Because what will the Hispanik MBAs do
• Because our voice resembles La Llorona’s
• Because we are still voting
• Because the North is really South
• Because we can read about it in an ethnic prison
• Because Frida beat us to it
• Because US & European Corporations would rather visit us first
• Because environmental US industrial pollution suits our color
• Because of a new form of Overnight Mayan Anarchy
• Because there are enough farmworkers in California already
• Because we’re meant to usher a post-modern gloom into Mexico
• Because Nabisco, Exxon, & Union Carbide gave us Mal de Ojo
• Because every nacho chip can morph into a Mexican Wrestler
• Because it’s better to be rootless, unconscious, & rapeable
• Because we’re destined to have the “Go Back to Mexico” Blues
• Because of Pancho Villa’s hidden treasure in Chihuahua
• Because of Bogart’s hidden treasure in the Sierra Madre
• Because we need more murals honoring our Indian Past
• Because we are really dark French Creoles in a Cantínflas costume
• Because of this Aztec reflex to sacrifice ourselves
• Because we couldn’t clean up hurricane Katrina
• Because of this Spanish penchant to be polite and aggressive
• Because we had a vision of Sor Juana in drag
• Because we smell of Tamales soaked in Tequila
• Because we got hooked listening to Indian Jazz in Chiapas
• Because we’re still waiting to be cosmic
• Because our passport says we’re out of date
• Because our organ donor got lost in a Bingo game
• Because we got to learn English first & get in line & pay a little fee
• Because we’re understanding & appreciative of our Capitalist neighbors
• Because our 500 year penance was not severe enough
• Because we’re still running from La Migra
• Because we’re still kissing the Pope’s hand
• Because we’re still practicing to be Franciscan priests
• Because they told us to sit & meditate & chant Nosotros Los Pobres
• Because of the word “Revolución” & the words “Viva Zapata”
• Because we rely more on brujas than lawyers
• Because we never finished our Ph.D. in Total United Service
• Because our identity got mixed up with passion
• Because we have visions instead of televisions
• Because our huaraches are made with Goodyear & Uniroyal
• Because the pesticides on our skin are still glowing
• Because it’s too easy to say “American Citizen” in cholo
• Because you can’t shrink-wrap enchiladas
• Because a Spy in Spanish sounds too much like “Es Pie” in English
• Because our comadres are an International Political Party
• Because we believe in The Big Chingazo Theory of the Universe
• Because we’re still holding our breath in the Presidential Palace in Mexico City
• Because every Mexican is a Living Theatre of Rebellion
• Because Hollywood needs its subject matter in proper folkloric costume
• Because the Grammys, Emmies, MTV & I-Tunes are finally out in Spanish
• Because the Right is writing an epic poem of apology for our proper edification
• Because the Alamo really is pronounced “Alamadre”
• Because the Mayan concept of zero means “U.S. Out of Mexico”
• Because the oldest Ceiba in Yucatán is prophetic
• Because England is making plans
• Because we can have Nicaragua, Honduras, & Panama anyway
• Because 125 million Mexicans can be wrong
• Because we’ll smuggle an earthquake into New York
• Because we’ll organize like the Vietnamese in San José
• Because we’ll organize like the Mixtecos in Fresno
• Because East L.A. is sinking
• Because the Christian Coalition doesn’t cater at César Chávez Parque
• Because you can’t make mace out of beans
• Because the computers can’t pronounce our names
• Because the National Border Police are addicted to us
• Because Africa will follow
• Because we’re still dressed in black rebozos
• Because we might sing a corrido at any moment
• Because our land grants are still up for grabs
• Because our tattoos are indecipherable
• Because people are hanging milagros on the 2000 miles of border wire
• Because we’re locked into Magical Realism
• Because Mexican dependence is a form of higher learning
• Because making chilaquiles leads to plastic explosives
• Because a simple Spanish Fly can mutate into a raging Bird Flu
• Because we eat too many carbohydrates
• Because we gave enough blood at the Smithfield, Inc., slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, NC
• Because a quinceañera will ruin the concept of American virginity
• Because huevos rancheros are now being served at Taco Bell as Wavoritos
• Because every Mexican grito undermines English intonation
• Because the President has a Mexican maid
• Because the Vice President has a Mexican maid
• Because it’s Rosa López’s fault O.J. Simpson was guilty
• Because Banda music will take over the White House
• Because Aztec sexual aberrations are still in practice
• Because our starvation & squalor isn’t as glamorous as Somalia’s
• Because agribusiness will whack us anyway
• Because the information superhighway is not for Chevy’s & Impalas
• Because white men are paranoid of Frida’s mustache
• Because the term “mariachi” comes from the word “cucarachi”
• Because picking grapes is not a British tradition
• Because they are still showing Zoot Suit in prisons
• Because Richie Valens is alive in West Liberty, Iowa
• Because ?[is this supposed to be a ?, or are we waiting for a name? I think I know, but thought I ought to ask, in case…] & the Mysterians cried 97 tears not 96
• Because Hoosgow, Riata, Rodeo are Juzgado, Riata and Rodeo
• Because Jackson Hole, Wyoming will blow as soon as we hit Oceanside
• Because U.S. narco-business needs us in Nogales
• Because the term “Mexican” comes from “Mexicanto”
• Because Mexican queers [do you want to use this word? How about queers, a little more politically correct, though still problematic.] crossed already
• Because Mexican lesbians wear Ben Davis pants & sombreros de palma to work
• Because VFW halls aren’t built to serve cabeza con tripas
• Because the National Guard are going international
• Because we still bury our feria in the backyard
• Because we don’t have international broncas for profit
• Because we are in love with our sister Rigoberta Menchú
• Because California is on the verge of becoming California
• Because the PRI is a family affair
• Because we may start a television series called No Chingues Conmigo
• Because we are too sweet & obedient & confused & (still) [what about the brackets here? Should it be parenthesis?] full of rage
• Because the CIA needs us in a Third World State of mind
• Because brown is the color of the future
• Because we turned Welfare into El Huero Felix
• Because we know what the Jews have been through
• Because we know what the Blacks have been through
• Because the Irish became the San Patricio Corps at the Battle of Churubusco
• Because of our taste for Yiddish gospel raps & tardeadas & salsa limericks
• Because El Sistema Nos La Pela
• Because you can take the boy outta Mexico but not outta the Boycott
• Because the Truckers, Arkies and Okies enjoy our telenovelas
• Because we’d rather shop at the flea market than Macy’s
• Because pan dulce feels sexual, especially conchas & the elotes
• Because we’ll Xerox tamales in order to survive
• Because we’ll export salsa to Russia & call it “Pikushki”
• Because cilantro aromas follow us wherever we go
• Because we’ll unionize & sing De Colores
• Because A Day Without a Mexican is a day away
• Because we’re in touch with our Boriqua camaradas
• Because we are the continental majority
• Because we’ll build a sweat lodge in front of Bank of America
• Because we should wait for further instructions from Televisa
• Because 125 million Mexicanos are potential Chicanos
• Because we’ll take over the Organic Foods Whole Foods’ business with a molcajete
• Because 2000 miles of maquiladoras want to promote us
• Because the next Olympics will commemorate the Mexico City massacre of 1968
• Because there is an Aztec temple beneath our Nopales
• Because we know how to pronounce all the Japanese corporations
• Because the Comadre network is more accurate than CNN
• Because the Death Squads are having a hard time with Caló
• Because the mayor of San Diego likes salsa medium-picante
• Because the Navy, Army, Marines like us topless in Tijuana
• Because when we see red, white & blue we just see red
• Because when we see the numbers 187 we still see red
• Because we need to pay a little extra fee to the Border
• Because Mexican Human Rights sounds too Mexican
• Because Chrysler is putting out a lowrider
• Because they found a lost Chicano tribe in Utah
• Because harina white flour bag suits don’t cut it at graduation
• Because we’ll switch from AT&T & MCI to Y-que, y-que
• Because our hand signs aren’t registered
• Because Freddy Fender wasn’t Baldomar Huerta’s real name
• Because “lotto” is another Chicano word for “pronto”
• Because we won’t nationalize a State of Immigrant Paranoia
• Because the depression of the 30s was our fault
• Because “xenophobia” is a politically correct term
• Because we shoulda learned from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
• Because we shoulda listened to the Federal Immigration Laws of 1917, ’21, ’24 & ‘30
• Because we lack a Nordic/ Teutonic approach
• Because Executive Order 9066 of 1942 shudda had us too
• Because Operation Wetback took care of us in the 50’s
• Because Operation Clean Sweep picked up the loose ends in the 70s
• Because one more operation will finish us off anyway
• Because you can’t deport 12 million migrantes in a Greyhound bus
• Because we got this thing about walking out of everything
• Because we have a heart that sings rancheras and feet that polka