Photo: Miguel Muller
Anyone who drives along Interstate 95, through the Carolinas, cannot miss them: the billboards to stop at South Of The Border, fronted (of course) by a Mexican in stereotypical dress named Pedro. If you’ve ever stopped there, the first word that probably comes to mind is tacky. My question is: Are Latinos offended by the open stereotype of “Pedro” and all the other Mexican entities found at this public travel stop? Or does it not matter with all the other issues of the day?
South Of The Border started, just over the South Carolina border, as “The South of The Border Beer Depot” in 1949, by Mr. Alan Schafer, as a place for citizens of the then “dry” state of North Carolina, to come have a cool one. It was such a successful venture, with North Carolinians coming from miles around, that he expanded operations.
In the early 1950s came a restaurant and also motel rooms. “Pedro” began when Mr. Schafer went to Mexico to make import connections. He befriended two young Mexican men who wanted entry into the United States. He helped them get it and granted them jobs at his motel. People who saw them began nicknaming them “Pancho and Pedro.” Eventually just the name Pedro held on, and over time came all the stereotypical imagery to promote stopping at South Of The Border.
Pedro/Photo: Miguel Muller
Living in South Carolina in the 1990s, I passed billboards many times driving to and from work. In those years came N.A.F.T.A., and also a great increase of Migrant Farm Workers, in both of the Carolinas. In the last few years I was there (moving back to NY in 2000), I remember hearing about a call to soften the presence of “Pedro.” I do not know what particular group was responsible, and I could not find any data about official lawsuits or motions in online records or articles. It seemed to come in the wake of the Native American calls to nationwide sports teams to get rid of Native references in their team names and mascots. What I remember was a change from the big smiling Pedro on the billboards (with the black hair and brown skin) to a “neutral” person playing a guitar, with face covered under a sombrero. That was as far as any action went.
That action has been reversed in recent years, and the visual stereotyping of Mexicans, along with such phrases as “Pedro’s Weather Report: Chili Today, Hot Tamale”, have once again made their way back to a visual presence for the thousands who drive along the I-95 in the American Southeast. In other words, “Smiling Pedro” is back.
Should there be a new fight against this stereotype, or is it not worth taking notice? Does it matter with so many other larger issues going on today such as laws in Arizona, and Obama’s stance on immigration? While such a presence is not as blatant an attack as the language used in the coverage of the Arizona situation, and other places, it does create a minimalization of the Latino as a person, regardless of what particular country their heritage stems from.
By Miguel Muller, Guest Contributor.
About Being Latino Contributors
No way Mexicans can find this offensive. They love the most racist caricature of Africo-Latinos, and Africans as a whole, in the western hemisphere in the comic Memin Pinguin. Yet we are supposed to believe they find this offensive? Come on. If they see nothing wrong with offending the 2+million blacks living in Mexico then there is no way they can be offended by a caricature that targets Mestizos.
We should focus on the big issues affecting us hispanics, but we also cannot ignore the fact that there are stereotypes such as this one, that ultimately give the wrong image of what a Mexican is. For me, a stereotype is a form of racial profiling and it represents the ignorance of other cultures, adapting to the idea that we are all revolutionaries from 1910 and we all wear sombreros.
The one I find offensive is the Mexican lending against a wall, signifying that we are lazy. For the most part I don’t find things like Pedro offensive, we have other issues more important that are real concerns than a cartoon.
LMAO!!! I stop there every time I’m driving south.. I never take it offensive
Love that jointtt!!! Nostalgia…that’s the spot yooo
Yo.. last time I was there was in November.. freezing my butt off but still had to play their mini-golf in the middle of the night!
I stayed there once on the way to Florida during a family road trip. I was twelve so I didn’t think much of the theme. Was mildly entertained. Looking at it now, it’s the same as old Looney Toons cartoons like Speedy Gonzalez, using heavy stereotypes to depict people of Mexican descent. It may be wrong, but to complain now after years of them doing it will most likely fall on deaf ears.
This place is awesome for nostalgias sake… So I’m not offended per se, but on a strictly theoretical level, if this place were a new joint and this is what they chose as their gimmick, I’d be appalled.
Have we become so passive that some can’t even recognize when were being insulted , it is offensive!!
I have been there and yes, it’s very offensive. I understand how its easy to become immune to this type of offensive stereotypes; but isn’t that the point, we come to accept the unacceptable, unless we demand more of ourselves and others.
This is like asking African Americans if they are offended the image that was in front of a restaurant called the “Coon Chicken In”. http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/links/chicken// Both are not only offensive, but they are racist.
I think people need to stop being so sensitive. Its all in good fun (well not even good since the place is a waste land lol). Stop turing nothing into something.
Good fun my ass. It’s offensive period.
im not
Of course not I drive by there every time and stop. Call it proves is that our culture is love everywhere!!!!
I recall in 1992 driving from VA to Texas and seeing billboard after billboard for this place ! I could go on a rant , i won’t ! It bears NO resemblance to Mexico nothing special about it , then again I live on the border with Mexico
I saw it the first time when I was in college as I never had a road trip to the south before that (always flew into FL before that) and have never liked it or stayed but then again I’m a road warrior and didn’t always stop to stay anywhere overnight even if it was a 26 hr drive.
Offensive !
I have been there once as a child and of course then I didn’t even think about stuff like that but why complain now about it?..that’s been there forever and reality is maybe its offensive to some which is understandable but does it really affect you personally?? is it really gonna make ur life a lil better if they change it after all these years that its been there already?…I don’t think so…but that’s just me.
na…we latinos laugh at everything specially when “they” try to put down the best race in the world……we know it and you have yet to discover it….but its all good cause we aint sharin!!
I been there and I personally don’t find this offensive at all.
So you think this sign is in ok and does not affect us? Well what if they put up a sign that said this? http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/no.jpg We cannot allow this kinds of signs to denigrate us.
It would serve the establishment well if they changed the theme into an actual homage to Mexico. Displaying the beauty of the land, cuisine, and culture as a way to educate the clientele would go a long way, especially in an area known for it’s supremacist sentiment.
Personally I am glad that Civil rights legislation put an end to such signs. In the current post-civil rights era, it is no longer legally or morally permissible to express overt discrimination towards Mexicans or any other racial or ethnic group.
My cousin got married there! Or did she spend her honeymoon there? I don’t take it offensive and apparently she didn’t either!
Oscar, you take this waaaaaaaay out of context. You’re looking for negativity is all it is.
I don’t think there was any malicious intent involved when putting it up. If there is one thing I hate is when people pull the race card for anything and everything they don’t like. There are much bigger fish to fry in our community!
Probably, lol whenever I drive to/from NY from FL, I see all these signs. Last time I was wondering how Mexican people weren’t offended by them. I’m not even Mexican and it bothered me just to see all the stupid Stereotypes. I stopped in there just to see “whats up”, and it was a complete ghost town, it was actually scary. I felt like I was going to get raped, and I’m a grown man, pulp fiction style. I drove out the same way i came in, then found a Golden Corral and ate there. lol
A change would be good, no matter how long it has been there.
Daniel Ruiz, you don’t like Mexicans do you? However, you’re absolutely right. There’s no way in the world that any person of Mexican descent can be offended by stereotypical representations of Mexicans. I mean, you nailed it on the head every single person in Mexico is horribly racist and loves the comic Memin Pinguin. How dare any Mexican be offended by racist stereotypes! The nerve of them!
I’m so glad Mexicans and Mexican Americans have such critical and thoughtful people like yourself who can tell us what we can and can’t be offended by.
Pedro
Pedro.
Hey Pedro!
Mexico houses numerous fortune 500 companies, the world’s richest man, and an excellent healthcare network… i can see why THIS would be the image in the minds of Carolinians for Mexicans. i suppose we should be glad that they made him light skinned, right? *rolls eyes*
Just Pedro. It wasn’t meant to be a hyper link to anyone specific. Sorry.
I don’t! Because not all Latinos are mexican!
three fortune 500 companies, Pemex ranks as 49th largest comany in the world, with over 100 billion in annual revenues… Mexico’s annual GDP is at $1.6 trillion and growing at almost three times our own growth rate. Mexico ranks as the world’s 11th largest economy and over the next decade will surpass italy, france and great britain, putting mexico in the eigth position behind russia and germany and brasil will be somewhere between india and japan with either third or fourth largest global economy. the next century is ours.
I wonder how much of that wealth is Cartel money?
I am a mexican and no I find it great not offensive ,people need to lighten up!