Wanted: Political Image Consultants

Boy, this ought to drive Pat Buchanan batshit, no? Must be a Spanish thing - you know, Ferdinand and Isabella, Franco, etc. Just plain volks.

Actually, while it's not quite Triumph of the Will territory, swastikas are a much more acceptable fashion accessory here than in, say, Swampscott or Brooklyn Heights. Last week, we were in a big supermarket on the outskirts of town and saw a middle-aged woman pushing a cart down the aisle - a completely average and unremarkable housewife, but for the enormous black swastika in the middle of her red knit sweater. And of course, we appeared to be the only people in the store who found this even mildly unusual. Now, we've seen swastikas adorning Asian temples and Indian relics in the American Southwest, so I just assumed that this was some sort of ancient indigenous symbol corrupted by the Third Reich.

But according to our Spanish teacher, Betty (who's getting a degree in indigenous languages and spends a lot of time with the Indians), the swastika has no historical meaning here. So that sweet little lady was some sort of neo-fascist cretin? No. Betty says it's just plain ignorance. World War II is somewhat of an abstraction to Mexicans - something that happened to someone else, and people here know as much about it as the average American knows about the Mexican Revolution or Simon Bolivar. Wearing a swastika on your t-shirt is about as meaningful as wearing the stars and stripes or, for that matter (and about as equally common) the Star of David.

Anyhow, since some (okay, just about all) of our best friends are Jewish, please don't let the all swastika-wearing and Sieg Heil-ing deter you from visiting, okay? This isn't exactly an Aryan Valhalla. (Though if we start to notice any goose-stepping, we'll let you know.)