The Fresa Naco Divide

The Fresa-Naco Divide

On my Academia de Cruz Medina blog, Enrique Reynoso posted on the fresa-phenomenon that he situates as a response to the pejorative use of pocho against Americanized Mexican Americans.

I found this interesting 2009 popular article about youth culture in the Guadalajara Reporter that defines fresas in comparison to nacos:

"Naco, naca: classless, pretentious, obtrusive, the Mexican version of white trash.
Fresa: superficial youngsters many of whom come from a high class family."

The reporter goes on to point out the differences as centering around low vs. high culture, where low culture tends to be more related to "real" Mexican culture:

"More likely to be fans of cheap tequila, banda or mariachi music, lucha libre, street tacos and soccer, nacos are in touch with the grass roots of Mexican culture whereas fresas tend to look north, peppering their speech with English phrases. “Happy,” “sorry,” “fresh,” “que cool,” “super” and equally infuriating Spanish phrases like “que oso,” “o sea” and “vales mil” are the hallmarks of the fresa vernacular."

To bring it back to the context of the U.S. and without being fully familiar with the essence of the naco social construction, I'd speculate that nacos sound a bit like those who self-identify with the "patriotic"(bordering on nationalistic), "redneck" or "country" as is done in the U.S. The assertion that nacos maintain a sort of pretentious quality about them makes me wonder what a "redneck" crossbred with a hipster would look like?

Read the rest of Tom Marshall's article at:
http://guadalajarareporter.com/features-mainmenu-95/908-features/24877-youth-culture-101-nacos-a-fresas.html

There is a good amount of Naco material online. Here's an interesting image I found on photobucket from fatimitha19:

Rhetorical Role of Pocho as Trope

"Bruised Fruit" Implications of Pocho Label
I've been talking with Enrique Reynoso, a fellow grad student in Rhetoric and Composition, studying at Purdue, about writing up something on pochismo. He told me the label "fresa" came to mind. Fresa is a term used against those who traditionally deploy pocho as a deficiency, which means "stuck up" and embodies a kind of "princess" meaning. I'm interested to see what he has to say because this term of difference could infer larger issues of class, nationalism and sexuality.

  (from www.patricio00.com)

Guest Blogger on Academia de Cruz

Andy Besa de Tejas Talks Mistaken Identity

Check out the recent Guest Blogger on my Academia de Cruz blog:
http://writerscholarprofessional.blogspot.com/2011/03/presenting-guest-blogger-andy-besa.html

Writer Andy Besa discusses how mestizaje makes him a target of microaggressions.  When Polynesians aren't sure of his ethnicity, they welcome him. When Anglos think he's native American, he's made to feel as though he's lacking if he doesn't fulfill their desire to interact with an 'other.'

(Besa and Walter Mignolo at New Directions Conference 2010)

Pocho versus Nationalism

Author Luis Alberto Urrea

Fiction and non-fiction writer Luis Alberto Urrea spoke at the University of Arizona this past Friday as a part of the UA Reads Program and as a part of the Tucson Festival of Books. During his talk, Urrea discussed his travels that accompanied his writing. A Tijuana native, Urrea cautioned against the nationalistic messages he heard on radio stations while traveling in Mexico. Urrea warned that many of the messages about Honduran immigrants paralleled rants from the conservative right in the U.S. about Mexican immigrants.

Urrea reminded me not only of the dangers of nationalism, but also of how that nationalistic message is a part of the discourse surrounding the connotations of pocho. When deployed in the manner that nationalist Mexicans, who see outside cultural influences as negative, pocho takes on a very negative meaning situated in opposition to "true" or "puro" Mexican identity.

An interesting podcast from Onda Latina about the novel Pocho that addresses the notion of nationalism within the opposition of Mexican and American identities.
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/onda_latina/program?sernum=000536942&header=Culture

Cross Posting Pocho Desmadre

Introducing Romeo Guzman from Pocho in Greater Mexico

My blog, like many projects/ideas, has multiple origins. First, I hated writing: it was hard, stressful, and rarely pleasant. I read as many books about writing as I could manage. I gained some confidence, but was still unable to place my readers in a particular time and place. I started reading journalism with more attention to word usage and started a daily writing practice….Second, my pocho-ass was far from home. I was Mexican, kinda, sometimes, but it was experienced/thought about in drastically different ways. In Mexico City, my conversations with Froylan Enciso , Daniel Hernandez, Diego Flores Magon, Guillermo Osorno, my sis, Carri, and others were particularly enjoyable and often over beer.

As I experienced Mexico City I wanted to convey to friends back home what the city felt like: the archives, belonging to an intellectual circle, the appropriation/adoption of American and pocho/chicana cultural production, the yummy tacos chupacabras. In short being both a “cousin and stranger.” This sense, to quote a friend from Mexico City, of between in/out of space was felt in New York City. A city with a more recent migration, particularly from central and southern Mexico, Mexicanos who aren’t short and pale (like my ass). Not being recognized as Mexican was really odd, but seeing how more recent migration happened “on the ground” was/is a lesson in history. Yet, a ton of blogs were simply about experiencing aspects of Mexico City and NYC: graffiti in Neza, day of the Virgen in Manhattan, pink floyd being played by a banda, watching Mexico beat the US in Mexico City, radiohead being played at a graduation in a Mexican school…

            The more I wrote, the more enjoyable it became, though you all can decide on the quality. More importantly, it became a way to share my intellectual ideas and pursuits with los primos/as, my siblings, my tios/as, and parents. It provided needed breaks from long academic papers and made academia less alienating. Along the way friends and family encouraged me to continue writing the blog, in some cases suggesting to publish a post or two (Thank YOU). I submitted the eulogy I wrote for my gramps to acentos review. It was accepted and Cruz Medina and I started a cyperspace friendship: we learned that we are both pochos from so cal and that we both find studying poch@ productive. Cruz suggested we guest blog as a means to build pocho community in greater Mexico. An important beginning. The images on his two blogs are pretty dope, his fiction is really moving, so I was more than pleasant to partake in this collaborative pochismo. 

I this sense I am interested in hearing how folks think we can continue to build community on the net. I am currently involved in helping found a cultural, intellectual, and archival space in Mexico City. Mainly, I’m trying to get as many pocho/a artists, intellectuals, writers, etc down to Mexico City to engage Mexicans and as many Mexicans up here to engage Chicanos/pochos/etc.  You can follow its progress here and more importantly can email me for more information/to propose projects, to talk shit, etc. As I sit in an archive in DC with my friend Israel Pastrana and research South El Monte it seems appropriate to conclude with what we feel is the most pressing question of our generation: how do we build a politics that reflects our transnational/undocumented/documented communities? 

Pocho Collaboration

Check Out my Guest Blogging on Pocho in Greater Mexico

This blog has done its fair share of talking pocho, but I take the opportunity to reflect on ser un pocho in different locales. I definitely go more personal than I have in the discussions I've done here, which is something I'm glad to be able to do because personal experience fuels academic endeavors.

http://pochoingreatermexico.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/introducing-cruz-medina-fellow-pochoacademicbloger/

Coming Soon: Pocho in Greater Mexico Guest Blogging!

Digital Mestiz@ Collaborative Blogging Bonanza

Okay, "bonanza" is a strange choice, evocative of cowboy narratives in which brown folks were either banditos or taking siestas. But I wanted to give a heads up that Romeo Guzman, blog creator of Pocho in Greater Mexico  will be guest blogging--I will cross-post it here and on my Academia de Cruz blog in order to spread as much pocho love across time and cyberspace as possible.

I will also be guest blogging on Pocho in Greater Mexico soon, dropping thoughts on pocho identity in Tucson and Califas.

(man, I can't believe I found an image for "digital mestizo"--thanks Google images and radiochango.com)

Be on the look out.