Memin Pinguin

Memin Pinguin vaulted to prominence in June of this year when the Mexican government issued a series of postage stamps with his image. There's a website still offering the set for sale although word is that the issue rapidly sold out. Memin is a comic-book character whose career began in the 1940s. He has the stereotypical "darky" features common in caricatures produced in the United States until the 1960s and 1970s and his mother closely resembles an "Aunt Jemima" character.

Memin is poor and works shining shoes and selling newspapers. The comics feature his adventures with his friends, who are also street children. When I was in Mexico recently, I found the comic books for sale as well as t-shirts and dolls. The recent controversy regarding Memin undoubtedly has spurred sales of these items.

The issuance of the postage stamps resulted, predictably, in criticism of the Mexican government by leading figures in the U.S. civil rights movement, including organizations such as LULAC. However, the Mexican government defended the stamps on the grounds that the character was not intended to be racist and was much beloved, particularly by poor and working class Mexicans. A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that criticism of the stamps was based on "a total lack of knowledge of our culture."

In an article which appeared in the Washington Post on July 12, 2005, Enrique Krauze, a well-known Mexican historian, defended the stamps. He began by noting that, unlike the United States, Mexico had two presidents of "Native American" origin - Benito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz. Krauze goes on to describe the image of Memin as understood by most Mexicans:

"he is a thoroughly likable character, rich in sparkling wisecracks, and is felt to represent not any sense of racial discrimination but rather the egalitarian possibility that all groups can live together in peace. "

Krauze goes on to describe the history of Africans in Mexico in benign terms. They "could buy their freedom and give birth to children who were in turn free to marry anyone of any racial origin." He goes on:

"To be sure, within the society of New Spain , they and their descendants . . . were not admitted to certain occupations and offices limited to people of pure-blooded Spanish descent. But they could work freely in tropical agriculture and skilled occupations, especially as blacksmiths, painters, sculptors, carpenters, candle-makers and singers in the churches. In the colonial society of New Spain, men and women of color mixed easily with the rest of the population."

Really? The history of New Spain is replete with efforts to segregate Africans from Indians and mestizos and to classify individuals by caste depending on their ethnic or racial background. Moreover, colonial rulers lived in constant fear of revolt by Africans or Indians or, worst of all, some combination of the two. In the seventeenth century, three major uprisings did occur. It is true, however, that legal restrictions on contact between Africans and Indians and other groups were often ineffectual. But Africans definitely occupied a social niche below those of other groups.

As Ilona Katzew notes in Casta Painting

"Africans . . . were brought to the New World as slaves and were in theory situated on the lowest echelons of society; they worked as domestic servants for the Spaniards and as laborers on the sugar plantations, mines and estates. Africans were considered a homogenous group with no rights, and were redeemable only on an individual level, once they had proven their loyalty to the church and their masters. In practice, however, Spaniards often preferred Africans to Indians and employed them to oversee Indian labor."

While Krauze notes the "freedom" of Africans to work in agricultural labor, sugar plantations and mines were undoubtedly hellish places.

In an article available online entitled "Casta Painting: Identity and Social Stratification in Colonial Mexico" Kastew elaborates on the situation of Africans in the social hierarchy:

"While intermarriage among the three groups did not become common until the second half of the seventeenth century, sexual contact among Spaniards, Indians, and Blacks occurred as early as the sixteenth century. This resulted in the growth of a large group of racially-mixed people known collectively as castas-the general term used by Spaniards and creoles (Spaniards born in the Americas) to distinguish themselves from the large masses of racially-mixed people. By the end of the eighteenth century, approximately one quarter (25.4 percent) of the total population of Mexico was racially mixed.From the sixteenth century on a variety of names served to designate the different castas of Mexico. The most widely used terms were those referring to the mixtures between the three main groups: mestizo (Spanish-Indian), mulatto (Spanish-Black), and zambo or zambaigo (Black-Indian). In the seventeenth century two additional terms appeared: castizo (a light-skinned mestizo) and morisco (a light-skinned mulatto). By the eighteenth century a whole array of fanciful terms had been devised to refer to the different castas and their offspring."

She goes on to add:

"Although most of these terms were clearly not applicable in ordinary communication, they suggest a basic principle: Spanish or white blood is redeemable; Black is not. In other words, while the purity of Spanish blood was inextricably linked to the idea of "civilization," Black blood, bearing the stigma of slavery, connoted atavism and degeneracy."

In short, the reality is more complex than that portrayed by Krauze. There was considerable intermarriage despite official disapproval. But the prevailing ideology in colonial New Spain was racist.

Modern Mexicans, however, see themselves as the heirs not of the Spanish colonialists but of the castas. And, the argument goes, inasmuch as the castas included descendants of Africans brought to New Spain, how can Mexicans be racist? They are themselves the descendants of African slaves. Moreover, most Mexicans have never encountered people who consider themselves "Afro-Mexican".

But Afro-Mexicans exist. However, they are a small minority and live largely in the coastal states of Veracruz,Geurrero and Oaxaca. Perhaps not surprisingly, they complain of continuing discrimination and neglect.

"This is the one community that is not recognised nationally. Indigenous groups are worse off in many ways, but at least they are paid lip service," said Bobby Vaughn, an African-American anthropologist who specialises in the Costa Chica [where many Afro-Mexicans live]. "Mexicans of African descent have no voice and the government makes no attempt to assess their needs, no effort to even count them."

At least one person interviewed by the Guardian for its story on Afro-Mexicans continues to believe in the old Spanish theory of purity of the blood:

"Pointing out the natural beauty around him with understated head gestures, Mr. Garcia pronounces: "I like being black."
But his pride in the colour of his skin soon runs up against a jarring contradiction. He says he is happy that the number of mixed marriages in his community is rising fast. "That's a good thing," the fisherman says, "it improves the race, cleans the blood."

There is a great deal to be said for the notion of Mexico as a mestizo country where the racial and ethnic barriers created by the Spanish conquerors have been eroded by intermarriage and tolerance. But Mexico is no longer, if it ever was, an isolated society. There are 20 million Mexican expatriates, most living in the United States. Mexican radio and television are pervaded by programming which originates in the U.S. I visited a shopping mall near Mexico City which could easily be transplanted to suburban St. Louis with few changes in the names of stores or the merchandise offered.

Thus many Mexicans have contact, either personally, or through the media, with African-American communities and personalities. It is unfair to judge from my limited contacts, but in private conversations, I have encountered Mexicans who were free of racial bias and others who would fit in quite comfortably at a Klan meeting in Alabama in 1963. As the Guardian article indicates, old concepts of racial purity have not disappeared and racism of the U.S. variety is undoubtedly alive and well in Mexico today.

Moreover, stereotypes do not have have to be exclusively negative to be demeaning or offensive. Many white Americans doubtless felt an attraction to the character of Aunt Jemima - after all, she was used as a sympathetic figure to market products for many years. But she was a demeaning stereotype as well. Is it any any wonder that blacks might regard a poorly educated street child with caricature features as an offensive stereotype also?

This is often the case with ethnic or racial stereotypes, e.g., Indian team mascots. Some people, including the mascots themselves, feel that the figure expresses esteem or pride, while others regard it as offensive or demeaning. In such a case, whose perception should control? In most cases, we accept that the feelings of the group being portrayed be given primacy. In short, it is not just the intention of the author of the image which determines whether an expression or character is offensive.

A final point in response to Krauze. Mexico is filled with images - murals, statues, monuments - which glorify its indigenous heritage. But the reality is that indigenous people continue to cling firmly to the lowest social and economic rung in Mexico. A recent World Bank study indicates that almost ninety percent of Mexico's indigenous population lives in poverty and 68.5% live in extreme poverty. The rate for non-indigenous Mexicans is 15%.

Moreover, the fact that two presidents of Mexico were indigenous is of little relevance. The French made Leon Blum prime minister in the 1930s - a few years before the Vichy regime barred Jews from most professions and then helped the Nazis deport them to concentration camps. Is the U.S. - which has never had a Jewish president - more or less anti-semitic than France?

In fact, if Mexico really cherishes its image as a country where racial and ethnic tolerance flourishes, it gains little by clinging to official glorification of Memin Pinguin. It's time to say a fond "adios" to Memin.