Perspectives differ in Galveston County over Indians mascot

Well said Mr. Jones.

Inquiry: Does the term "guero" offend you, Bailey?

Never heard that one, Carlos. My preferred pejorative is "cracker".

Never heard of "guero"? I'm surprised.

I take it back - I apparently have heard of it, but forgot. A quick google refreshed my memory. Several years ago I read Gustavo Arellano's book, ¡Ask a Mexican! which is a compilation of his columns of the same name from the Orange County OC Weekly. I remember the column because it also talked about Gabachos, which is a restaurant in Seabrook that I've been to a few times:

"Dear Mexican: I recently learned the meaning of güero, which until that point I only knew as a Beck album. I started calling some of my whitish Mexican friends güero/a, and they seemed displeased. Is the term offensive? - The Korean, Employer of Mexicans

Dear Chinito: Not really. Güero technically means "blond" in Mexican Spanish, but it also refers to a light-skinned person and, by association, gabachos. All Mexicans want to be güero; anyone who claims otherwise does it in the face of the country's topsy-turvy racial history, where white made might and prietos (dark-skinned folks) were little better than Guatemalans. The most twisted part about güero, however, is that it was originally a slur. Sebastian de Covarrubias Horozco's 1611 Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana o Española (Treasury of the Castilian or Spanish Language) defined it as a "rotten egg" and added that Spaniards used it to describe a family's sickly, pale child. Güero, in turn, comes from the medieval Spanish guerar, which describes when a chicken goes broody.

Fascinating etymology, right? Except . . . the official dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, the world's foremost expert of español etymology, says güero originates from an American Indian language. The only indigenous language in which the Mexican could find güero is Arawak, as listed in Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa's 1628 Compendio y Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (Compendium and Description of the West Indies). Here, guero (no umlaut) is described as a wine, which ultimately makes more sense to signify "blond" than "rotten egg" when one considers sorority girls."

But no - not offended, for the same reasons I gave above.

Also, I apparently have the Beck song in my Spotify library -

See the vegetable man in the

Vegetable van with the horn that's honking

Like a mariachi band in the middle of the street

People gather around put a dollar in the can

Ay wey, qué onda? tj cowboys hang around

Sleeping on the side walk with a burger king

Crown never wake them up mas cerveza till

The rooster crows vatos vergallos

Qué onda guero?

Qué onda guero?

Carlos watches a lot of westerns.

Bailey, do you know the origin of "The Lone Ranger"? He wasn't a Ranger but a US Deputy Marshall. And he wasn't white. He was a slave who left his master George Reeves who brought him to Texas to fight for the Confederacy. After beating Colonel George Reeves following a poker game, Bass Reeves went to live among the indigenous peoples known as "Indians". Read up on Bass Reeves who killed 14 outlaws and apprehended over 3000 criminals including his own son. Instead of a silver bullet he left a silver dollar as his calling card. His statue is in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I hope they don't tear it down because it honors a lawman.

See, Carlos - you can do history when you try. There were quite a few blacks working in the west after the civil war - thousands of them, mostly cowboys, but also a few lawmen and a few outlaws. It was a great place to get away from racist white folks and leave the past behind. Unfortunately, like your Lone Ranger, they've been whitewashed out of history by the same racists who whitewashed slavery out of the civil war. I'm glad he's got a statue - he deserves one. I hope no one has named an all white basketball team after him.

They named "Bass Pro Shops" after him.[wink]

The "word" according to Guggle: Güero is a word used in Mexico and some parts of Central and South America to denote a person of fair complexion or with blond, light brown or red hair. The feminine form is güera.

Carlos, Johnny Morris's family would disagree with you about how Bass Pro Shops were named.

It was a joke, Jim. Didn't you see the "wink"?[wink][wink][wink][wink]