Sunday, April 6, 2008

Identity Crisis at WalMart


Oh no! What do I do now? I thought we had this all worked out and then BAM! I turned down an aisle at WalMart and saw two sections of food: A single section marked Hispanic Food and a double section marked Latino Food.

Are they saying that "People prefer Latino, two to one!", like a commercial for toothpaste? Was there a convention where there was a party split, and nobody told me? I am asking a lot of questions, because the wierdness of what I was seeing hit me like a ton of bricks. I found myself wondering how long some people sat around at corporate headquarters discussing this, and exactly what were they discussing that made this Twilight Zone shelf labeling become reality. Are there indeed certain foods that should be avoided if you consider youself Latino, and conversely Hispanic? Are the shelf stock contents determined by two different departments? Did absolutely no one point out the incredible oddness of this, somewhere along the way?

Trying to get my mind around this whole thing is like figuring out a wrestling takedown hold on a six foot ball of jello.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. M,

Didn't you get El Memo? It was a La Raza Disunida Convention on Cesar Chavez's Day last week. ;)

Point taken!

V

The Merovingian said...

Chihuahua! ^@^#%$#&# spam filters!

Of note: There is no more Chicano food, at least at WalMart.

NOTE TO WALMART: Please do not add an extra section marked "Chicano", should you read this. At this point, my head would probably explode!


M.

Anonymous said...

Sort of points up the futility of clinging to yet another label that promotes hatred, racism, and dissent, doesn't it?

Away from the border, where store managers may feel the chances for offending the confused are lessened, it's just Mexican food. Mainly because that's what it is; after all Latinos, as far as we know, can eat anything any other human can.

Political Outsider said...

I think it's worse at the Walmarts in McAllen. I bought some Pan Dulce and found it labeled Ethnic Pastry, and I thought we were in occupied Mexico here.

 
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