04.28.2016 01:49 PM

A snippet, from the perspective of Mexico, from next week’s column

PUNTA NIZUC, MEXICO – A wall.

Donald Trump, the bilious billionaire who is edging ever-closer to the Oval Office, wants to build a great big wall between this country and the United States. He says he is going to get Mexicans to pay for it.

The reason? Mexicans are “rapists,” he says. “Murderers,” too.

Now, like everyone else, Mexicans have been transfixed by the ongoing psychodrama that is Donald Trump. They’ve watched, for months, as a horrified Republican establishment – and then a perplexed and/or concerned Democrat establishment – have tried to come to grips with Trump’s undeniable momentum.

They’re not big fans. Former Mexican president Vincente Fox called Trump “racist and ignorant” for what he said about Mexico. He said Trump’s anti-Mexican insults – which the short-fingered vulgarian has repeated over and over – were “disgraceful and highly offensive.”

“He thinks building the ‘Trump Wall’ will right every wrong in the United States,” Fox said. “Indeed, he’s built a huge mental wall around himself already, which doesn’t allow him to see the greatness of our people.”

And Mexico is indeed great. It was the place where five complex civilizations came into being some 13,000 years ago – and several centuries before pink-skinned (or, in Trump’s case, orange-skinned) Europeans arrived. The Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec, and Aztec indigenous peoples were innovating in architecture, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and theology while Donald Trump’s ancestors were still dragging their hirsute knuckles around in what would later become Rhineland Germany.

9 Comments

  1. e.a.f. says:

    If he becomes president, and I still think he could, given the voter suppression in the U.S.A., we can look forward to a whole new U.S.A.. Guess we can expect a wall along the Canadian border also. Of course that may have an impact on migratory animals. Wonder if he’ll build one between Alaska and Canada.

    If Trump is elected expect to see the ruination of the U.S.A. and a stampede of Americans seeking political asylum in Canada and Mexico. Ought to be interesting.

    • Michael Bluth says:

      Why would Trump want to build a wall between Canada and the U.S.? There haven’t been stories of destitute Canadians steaming across the border to live in the U.S. illegally.

      There will likely not be a stampede of Americans seeking political asylum in Canada if Trump wins. Just like there wasn’t a stream of conservative Americans seeking asylum after Obama won, despite protestations to the contrary. Just like there wasn’t a stream of liberal Americans seeking asylum after Bush 43 won, despite protestations to the contrary. Just like there wasn’t a stream of conservative Americans seeking asylum after Clinton won, despite protestations to the contrary. Just like there wasn’t a stream of liberal Americans seeking asylum after Bush 41 won, despite protestations to the contrary.

      Dunham and her ilk making such histrionic claims is sad really. I can’t remember seeing a news story on her in months. Maybe it was a way to get attention in a world that has moved on from her?

  2. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    Trump is generally clueless…just ask Bibi how successful his wall has been. The Israelis spend their time blowing up tunnels while people in Gaza dig fifty for every one blown up or back-filled by the Israelis. Fun in the sun.

  3. bluegreenblogger says:

    LOL, I will defer to your political judgement, but when it comes to history, and pre-history you are a little less reliable in the details. I suspect you are getting your info from highly speculative tour guides. 13,000 years ago much of the world was still gripped in ice. There really weren’t any civilisations anywhere. But I quibble, your point being that Trump plays to ignorance in America, with huge consequences outside America.

  4. dean sherratt says:

    “Bluegreenblogger” has already spiked much of my artillery fire…but for example the Aztecs came from a tribal group to an empire from about 600-1520 AD (http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-timeline.html). Now in 600 those German tribes were indeed wearing skins and were largely a barter/rural society as the cities of the defunct Roman Empire of the West reverted to mere villages. The Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire) continued to maintain a very sophisticated and urbanized monetary culture throughout the otherwise dark Ages, as well as protecting Europe from the Islamic invasions of 600 and thereafter.

    Now where I exhale a guffaw would be in the concept of “innovations in religion” if only to query what they may have been. Byzantine Orthodox religion was very subtle and relied on an interpretive foundation of Greek philosophy. Catholic Christianity in the West by the same time was equally adept and rich…I’m not even a glancing expert at the Middle American religious cultures by at least with the Aztec I’m skeptical that there is much there that would be and/or has been of enduring value.

    • bluegreenblogger says:

      Dude, innovations in religion are not dependant upon your or my view of what constitutes subtlety. The Aztecs constructed an innovative metaphysics, structured a new religion, and used the results to rise from an impoverished band of mercenary/farmers to a continent spanning empire. They were following an old Central American tradition of conquest through religious innovation. Sublety is as subtlety does. In my opinion, the test of a religions worth is whether it promotes a viable culture and society. There are literally torrents of data available to support the fact that Mexico was home to some of the most successful cultures and societies ever to arise on this planet.

  5. Aongasha says:

    I expect our knuckle dragging, bog trotting ancestors in Erin were doing the same. And btw, it was the same genetically linked folks that invaded Mexico, mated with the locala and helped make it the dangerous place it is today in some regions. I have no sympathy for Trump per se, but wonder how we would feel if it was Mexico and its attendant problems, that was on our southern border? Pretty easy to be all ahoy about it and even Israel, when we don’t have the same problems.
    Just askin?

Leave a Reply to Aongasha Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.