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 Editorials | Issues | November 2006 
Schwarzenegger Can Expect Cold Reception in Mexico
 Carla Marinucci - SF Chronicle
| | Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Reuters/Danny Moloshok) |
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be luxuriating in a landslide re-election victory back home in California, but as he begins a two-day mission to Mexico today, it's clear that he's got some political repair work to do - pronto - in the pulsating capital of a richly varied nation that is the ancestral homeland of millions of California residents.
The governor is hitting the ground of California's biggest trading partner in hopes of attracting business. But in the city's hardscrabble Merced Market, where the Spanish explorers discovered potatoes, corn and tobacco during Aztec times, the anger expressed about Schwarzenegger's past policies and statements is sometimes as blistering as the 150 varieties of chile peppers on display.
And the much-vaunted Schwarzenegger charisma? About as attractive to many here as week-old produce.
"Senor Arnold ... so much ignorance!" said Juan Coronel, as he sat atop a mountain of dried chile peppers and cinnamon sticks in his small stall at Merced, which moves 24,000 tons of produce in a day and sells a mind-boggling panorama of goods - Our Lady of Guadalupe souvenirs, chile peppers and culinary delights like mosquito eggs, fungus tacos and fried grasshoppers.
"A worker here earns about 40 pesos a day ... that isn't enough for tortillas," Coronel said. "That's why Mexicans have to go so far to work, where Gov. Arnold is ... and they're working hard to earn dollars, to send it back to their families."
"It's something he doesn't understand," Coronel said, shaking his head.
The stinging views of Schwarzenegger voiced in the bustling business heart of the Mexican capital are in sharp contrast to the governor's recent political success.
On Tuesday, he solidly won virtually every California voter demographic in the state - except for Latinos, who favored his challenger, Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides, by a 2-1 ratio.
The cynicism at the Merced Market reflected the Republican governor's political Achilles' heel: his dramatic lack of appeal to Latinos, both at home and abroad.
It's a major reason why experts said the current two-day trip - though billed as a trade mission - is as much about pumping up Schwarzenegger's anemic appeal to Latinos as it is fattening up California's bottom line.
"Gov. Schwarzenegger, following many of the things he's done this year in terms of repositioning himself, is going to Mexico for business - and for his political future," said Harley Shaiken, chairman of the Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley. "He understands the Latino voter is central in California ... and his long-term future may be limited unless he repairs the damage."
That future will not include another term as governor or a run at the presidency, but the governor's advisers and backers - who have noted his newfound relish for policy and politics - have not dismissed the idea of a possible U.S. Senate campaign.
But Schwarzenegger, though an immigrant to the United States himself, has delivered some potent self-inflicted blows to his image here, particularly his much-quoted off-the-cuff remarks that have resonated deeply in the cafes, restaurants and kitchen tables of California's southern neighbor.
Schwarzenegger raised eyebrows, and anger, when he endorsed the Minutemen, a border watch group, as "fantastic" and was caught on tape opining that a Republican legislator had "hot" Latina blood.
His repeated vetoes of legislation to provide driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants - followed by his latest comments that Mexican Americans were not assimilating or learning English quickly enough - outraged many Mexicans.
"We hate him here," says Luis Tomas Garcia, surrounded in his tiny store by pirated DVDs, including one of Schwarzenegger's movies - "Dano Collateral," or "Collateral Damage."
"Because of us Mexicans - he eats. California eats," Garcia said. "He's a hypocrite. He's an immigrant, and he gets help from us. And he wants to run us out of the country."
The passion recalls the views of Mexicans regarding another Republican governor, Pete Wilson, who, after pushing the anti-illegal immigration measure Proposition 187, was dismissed in earthy fashion by many on the streets of Mexico City as an hijo de puta, or "son of a whore."
Steve Maviglio, who served as spokesman for former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, said it has taken Schwarzenegger too long to give a signal of formal respect to the political leaders of Mexico.
Though the governor has visited border towns and attended border governor conferences, this will be his first official visit to the Mexican capital since he was elected; Maviglio noted that Davis headed to the Mexican capital within 30 days of his election.
"It's very important for the governor to establish a relationship with Mexico, and given his comments in the past, this trip is long overdue," he said. "The governor of Texas goes three times a year ... and this seems to be the last thing on Schwarzenegger's agenda."
Schwarzenegger's comments about assimilation are particularly damaging to his image down south because they show an ignorance of history and culture that has tied the two neighbors together, said Gregorio Mora-Torres, a San Jose State University lecturer in Mexican American studies.
"Mexicans are much more knowledgeable about America than vice versa," he said. "To say that Mexicans aren't integrating or accepting American culture is just crazy."
Eduardo Santa Maria, peddling huge slides of pressed chicharron, a fried pork delicacy, said Schwarzenegger must learn diplomacy.
"He should think before he says some of those things," he said. "Mexicans in his country are working hard ... and they don't all have the time to learn English. Tell him we all have a right to work."
Email Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com. |
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