I have tried not to write anything critical about our alternative newspaper, the San Antonio Current. There was a time, when alternative newspapers really were, before they were bought out by publishers and alternative media moguls who live in Alamo Heights. There was a time when alternatives really were ass-kicking, raise-helling periodismo.
Those days are gone. Most readers, I think, read the Current for its entertainment guide, and the occasional puff-piece, I know I do. There's no money, you see, after profits are made with the sex ads and restaurant reviews by the owners and publishers to invest in serious journalism. I'm sure the writers try, sometimes one of them succeeds, but it's hard out there for a girl to make a living for a dime a word - which is what the free-lance writers make, and that's most of the writers at the Current.
Still, I don't know why the San Antonio Current wants to be the San Antonio Corriente with the likes of Michael Cary, their political columnist. Whatever you may think of me, his attacks against me on his blog violate all journalistic ethics because he's also a political writer for the San Antonio Current. Blogs are for everyone, but an alternative political columnist has to substantiate his criticism, that' s why he gets a column.
Among many of us brown people, and Cary has told me his wife is a latina, we know there are gringos and then there are gringos who think they know us better, that they would make better latinos then we are. Years ago, I had to listen to a key San Antonio Current writer explain to me what real Mexican food was. No matter that I've lived in Mexico, that my mother is mexicana, I had to listen to a gringo rave about huitlacoche, until I finally had to remind him that not everyone can afford to buy corn fungus at the GucciB on Broadway for $12.00 a pound.
I don't know why Michael Cary hasn't reported on the Guadalupe Cultural Center crisis as it deserves - instead - focusing on me - without confronting the crisis there. But I do know this: his attacks on me, on Ben Olguin, and who knows who else, are the worst, bottom-line journalism I've ever seen. And since his column is prominent at the San Antonio Current, can we expect more of the same from the rest? Personally, I'm sending his articles and his attacks on me to every journalism organization I can think of - as an example of what we, latinos, should not have to put up with anymore.
Like many of you, I had gringo relatives. One of them, my Uncle Cliff, married my Tia Chuca, and he took her to Mexico every year, learned how to dance a la Agustin Lara, and even sheltered and respected my abuelita - the man was a saint. My other gringo uncle, Bill, was married to my beautiful tia Lupe, who he worshipped for her Rita Hayward hair, exotic accent and Chanel clothes, but he hated having to put up with the rest of her rasquache clan, our passions, our poverty, our quien-sabe-que. He ran when he saw us coming.
See, when you have a blog like I do, you're really free to write what you want - because no one is paying you. But Michael Cary has a column at the San Antonio Current - and he's supposed to be on my side - instead, he attacks me and Ben Olguin who, as little brown people, can let it rip when it comes to our own. Especially when I have the sources, the documents, the quotes, the history of going to the Guadalupe. Maybe the Guadalupe is buying ads at the Current? or maybe Cary is jealous that he's been shown up, and maybe just how dare I.
Maybe that's it. Brown people are just not supposed to know about huitlacoche or Oaxaca and don't you know, we're tribal, and it's just impossible to be of the tribe and outside of it at the same time, it's a scaredy thing. It means that we latinas/chicanas/metsicans/whatevers/ can support la gente and darles cachetadas when they deserve it.
Maybe el Michael Cary just wants to be brown, but he doesn't want the prejudice from whites like him, he wants it both ways, sorry Michael, you're either like My Tio Cliff or bien seco Uncle Bill. I think you need a suntan.
Those days are gone. Most readers, I think, read the Current for its entertainment guide, and the occasional puff-piece, I know I do. There's no money, you see, after profits are made with the sex ads and restaurant reviews by the owners and publishers to invest in serious journalism. I'm sure the writers try, sometimes one of them succeeds, but it's hard out there for a girl to make a living for a dime a word - which is what the free-lance writers make, and that's most of the writers at the Current.
Still, I don't know why the San Antonio Current wants to be the San Antonio Corriente with the likes of Michael Cary, their political columnist. Whatever you may think of me, his attacks against me on his blog violate all journalistic ethics because he's also a political writer for the San Antonio Current. Blogs are for everyone, but an alternative political columnist has to substantiate his criticism, that' s why he gets a column.
Among many of us brown people, and Cary has told me his wife is a latina, we know there are gringos and then there are gringos who think they know us better, that they would make better latinos then we are. Years ago, I had to listen to a key San Antonio Current writer explain to me what real Mexican food was. No matter that I've lived in Mexico, that my mother is mexicana, I had to listen to a gringo rave about huitlacoche, until I finally had to remind him that not everyone can afford to buy corn fungus at the GucciB on Broadway for $12.00 a pound.
I don't know why Michael Cary hasn't reported on the Guadalupe Cultural Center crisis as it deserves - instead - focusing on me - without confronting the crisis there. But I do know this: his attacks on me, on Ben Olguin, and who knows who else, are the worst, bottom-line journalism I've ever seen. And since his column is prominent at the San Antonio Current, can we expect more of the same from the rest? Personally, I'm sending his articles and his attacks on me to every journalism organization I can think of - as an example of what we, latinos, should not have to put up with anymore.
Like many of you, I had gringo relatives. One of them, my Uncle Cliff, married my Tia Chuca, and he took her to Mexico every year, learned how to dance a la Agustin Lara, and even sheltered and respected my abuelita - the man was a saint. My other gringo uncle, Bill, was married to my beautiful tia Lupe, who he worshipped for her Rita Hayward hair, exotic accent and Chanel clothes, but he hated having to put up with the rest of her rasquache clan, our passions, our poverty, our quien-sabe-que. He ran when he saw us coming.
See, when you have a blog like I do, you're really free to write what you want - because no one is paying you. But Michael Cary has a column at the San Antonio Current - and he's supposed to be on my side - instead, he attacks me and Ben Olguin who, as little brown people, can let it rip when it comes to our own. Especially when I have the sources, the documents, the quotes, the history of going to the Guadalupe. Maybe the Guadalupe is buying ads at the Current? or maybe Cary is jealous that he's been shown up, and maybe just how dare I.
Maybe that's it. Brown people are just not supposed to know about huitlacoche or Oaxaca and don't you know, we're tribal, and it's just impossible to be of the tribe and outside of it at the same time, it's a scaredy thing. It means that we latinas/chicanas/metsicans/whatevers/ can support la gente and darles cachetadas when they deserve it.
Maybe el Michael Cary just wants to be brown, but he doesn't want the prejudice from whites like him, he wants it both ways, sorry Michael, you're either like My Tio Cliff or bien seco Uncle Bill. I think you need a suntan.
Comments