Look, I'm not advocating for this kind of outburst even if someone has it coming like Chavez certainly has for a long time, Hollywood celebrities and American ex-Presidents groveling at his feet notwithstanding.

Nor am I here to criticize Chavez' policies or rants against the current American administration. Far be it for me to do this seeming how it is a cardinal sin for a Mexican to criticize the leader of another Latin American country. After all we are led to believe that Señor Castro is a saint and Cuba's woes are the fault of the Norteamericanos.

Forget the fact that the only thing that unites Mexicans and Venezuelans is Spanish heritage, for the native populations of both countries are different. Which brings me to the main thrust of this post.

Naturally, Mr. Chavez was not thrilled with the King's request and thus has demanded an apology from the monarch,

"Chavez demands apology from Spain's king"

Now a quote from Chavez was of utmost interest to me,

Chavez claims he neither saw nor heard the king, as he (Chavez) was addressing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero at the Ibero-American summit.

"If I had heard him ... I would have stared him down like an Indian, because I am an Indian and a little bit black and white," he said.

Stared him down like an Indian? Someone should inform El Presidente how effective the Indians were in defeating the Spanish Conquista of the Americas.

The fact that Chavez said this in Spanish gives testimony to how effective the Indians were.

Mexican politicos too are being told to shut up, though in Mexico, which isn't such a bad thing at all.  A new election law prohibits paid political advertising... which means Mexican political journalists, unlike those in the U.S. will actually have to talk about what the politicos are proposing, and stop farting around wasting everyone's time talking about who has how much money to spend.  In Mexico, where they're a little more realistic about things, that kind of money is called by it's proper name -- bribes.

Our political writers will also have a hard time with another reform... no political campaigning until 90 days before the election (which has been the law for some time now... just that the rules have been strengthened).  This means avoiding all those meaningless "debates" between 7 or 8 party pre-candidates and endless agonizing over which of several people who won't be running for president to support (er... bribe).

And, in a really radical reform, it looks like Mexican politicans are going to have to hire people who do work, not "spin" their accomplishments. No more burying facts in some hagiography of your local politician.  In the U.S., you get used to letters from your local congressman saying "Congressman Bilgewater announced today that he is in favor of mom, apple pie and homeland security..." After you read all about Congressman Bilgewater, you learn that a congressional committee considered a proposal to add funds to some obscure budget line item to fund more hay for Border Patrol horses.

Official propaganda (and that is the correct word for information from the State)  can no longer even suggest being presented for the benefit of any individual or political party.  WOW!  Maybe these congressional aides, city assistant liaisons and so on and so forth will have to find real jobs. One can only hope they'll be replaced by people who actually do stuff.

The people speak...

THANKS, Francisco!

Today is the 70th anniversary of Franco's assumption of power as head of the Army and Head of State in Spain. This was one of the great tragedies of the last century, but Europe's loss was Mexico's gain.

Mexico was still recovering from the Revolution in 1936. Pre-revolutionary Mexico had depended on outside expertise for much of its industry and commerce.

Mexico's extremely liberal asylum policies (if you could find a job, and you were fleeing political persecution, you were welcome to stay as long as you liked) and the Mexican government's anti-fascist tilt (you can still claim automatic immigrant status if you're fleeing a fascist state), meant Spain -- and Europe's -- loss was Mexico's gain. It wasn't just artists and intellectuals like Luis Buñuel, but businessmen and engineers and ordinary workers arrived bringing needed skills at a time when the whole world was in a depression.

And they continued to come until Franco was dead. I had a student whose dad had come from Catalonia at 16 to avoid the draft. Santa Maria la Ribera, my Mexico City neighborhood, went from a conservative to a leftist stronghold, thanks in good part to cheap housing available in the 30s, and the large number of Spaniards (and later German, French, Polish and Dutch refugees) who found apartments in the neighborhood.

In the Franco Era, Mexico City was the center of Hispanic culture and arts. The Colegio de Mexico and Fondaction de Cultura, originally "Spanish Republican" institutes in exile, are major publishers and academic insitutes. It would be impossible to name all the Spanish cafes, publishers, art galleries dating from the Francoist era.

Mexico's support for the Republic went beyond the "good Mexican bullets" Ernest Hemingway wrote of. The Republic still existed -- as a government-in-exile in Mexico. The photo below has nothing to do with Mexico, but it shows the stupidity of that regime. Eva Peron, hardly a democrat, adn not the smartest economist on the planet still knew the basics. She was trying to sell Argentine wheat to Spain. "What for?" asked el caudillo? "So there's something edible in your bread." Evita replied.

For many years, Spaniards could receive Republican passports upon arrival, no questions asked. And come they did. Some were just hungry, and couldn't afford Argentine wheat. Some, like Opus Dei supporters, wanted to implant Francoismo in Mexico. The county has become more conservative, but I have to admit that their flagship, Universidad de Anahuac, does turn out some smart alumni. Some -- like Vincente Fox's mother -- were Basques who saw no future in Francoist Spain.

Basque culture survived, more, sometimes in Mexico than in the Basque country. In Mexico, Basques kept the language in literature alive. In the Basque country, persecuted beyond all reason, they became what are now called "terrorists". However, the "Basque Terrorists" did the world a great favor. In 1974 when they blew up Franco's successor, Luis Carrero Blanco, with a hundred kilos of dynamite under his armored Dodge Dart. Launched five stories straight up, and coming down on an apartment house, Carrero Blanco became Spain's first astronaut. Thankfully, he didn't survive the experience, and neither did Francoismo. There is some suggestion that Mexican Basques were involved in the operation.

Modern Spain is progressive (Franco probably hasn't stopped spinning in his grave from the marriage of two gay air force officers -- by a mayor who belongs to the successor party of the Falange earlier this year)and wealthy. The huge change it underwent after Franco's death is due to two factors -- my buddy, King Juan-Carlos took good advise, and the Mexico's tolerant and liberal social (not political) climate kept Spanish culture alive during the 40 years of darkness.

It's kind of strange to actually see the buildings (and some of them are interesting), but I think it takes a lot of the life out of the area, but that's what the well-heeled tourists and bureaucrats want. At least the plumbers, painters, home-repair guys that have been hanging around the cathederal since ... before the Cathederal was built ... are still there.

So, I looked at the new pavement (some composite of concrete and recycled tires, that is supposed to last longer, and "float" during earthquakes), street lights, trashcans (so new, they haven't been graffitted yet) for a while. I was just walking home, when I saw a big crowd in front of the Spanish Cultural Center. In Mexico, if you see a crowd, it could be anything from a overheated car engine to the Second Coming, so I really didn't think much about it, until I noticed the cops and military guys in dress uniforms and all the plainclothes cops. And TV crews. And barriers on the street. And snipers on the roofs. Probably more than a Volkswagen overdue for a tune-up.

I had taught this morning at a very conservative company out in Bosques, so was dressed to proper Latin business standards (plus, it's damn cold there on top of those mountains in the morning, so I was even wearing a jacket), and was standing next to a couple of elderly, well-dressed folks -- Spaniards waiting to see their king during his State Visit.

So, down the street saunters our Jefe de Gobernation (when you're the great Socialist/Populist leader, it wouldn't do to show up in an armored limo --especially with the 100% luxury tax on limos here). Su excellencia was met by his rival for the hearts and minds of the Mexican people, su gracia, Norberto Cardinal Rivera (who may be the next Pope). A little more waiting around, a few sirens and up pulls Their Most Catholic Majesties, Juan-Carlos and Sophia of Spain.

I don't think Su majestad is a complete dummy. He managed to bamboozle Francisco Franco into restoring the monarchy (on the other hand, Franco wasn't the sharpest tool in the fascist shed. And Franco was just senile enough to think he was living in the 17th century, and a king would keep Spain safe for closed-minds and closed-markets). And he did face down a military coup. (Kind of ironic that the party in power in Spain is the neo-Francoists. Nice allies we have against Iraq --Spanish neo-francoists and Italian neo-fascists. If we eased up on Argentina, maybe Shrub could rope in the neo-peronists while he's at it -- end of diatribe).

I know a few no-account counts, once met a grand duke (a very, very old grand duke, who hadn't anything to be grand about since the Austrio-Hungarian Empire went out of business back in 1917) and saw Queen Margaret II of Denmark wave from a balcony (and there's plenty of drag queens around my Metro stop), but being greeted by a King is a first. I'm no monarchist -- I guess if I think the Spanish Prime Minister is a Nazi with a good tailor, he'd think I'm an anarchist who knows which fork to use. At least I know you aren't supposed to correct royality in public. What was I supposed to do -- answer the Most Catholic Majestic mumble with "Wrong guy, pal!, it's the old lady who said '¡Viva el rey!"? . "¡Mucho gusto!" is the wrong verb form in this situation. Academia Real be damned: I'm an American and did my nation proud -- or at least kept my Jeffersonian sense of equality intact.

Oh yeah, Vince and Martha are in town for a change, and showed up in their armored Chevy Suburban.

The King greeted the guy who wasn't a subject, and the Queen -- well, not to be catty, but she looks like a skinny blond version of her brother, Prince Philip and her nephew, the Prince of Wales. Hey, they are more than a little in-bred. The Spanish royals aren't noted for either their looks or the intellectual abilities. But that's ok -- the reign in Spain falls mainly to the plain.

Ya know, I've wanted to use that line for over 30 years and never had occasion to. And it's only Monday!

posted by Richard