Nashville Scene has New Yorker-like problem with grinning, gold-toothed Mexican image

The Nashville Scene, unrelenting and funny in poking fun at errors in The Tennessean, may have its own problems that endanger credibility and engender intolerance.

I tried sending the following e-mail to its new editor, but the website kept telling me that my e-mail address was not valid.

So I am publishing my e-mail in hopes of getting answers. I'm not going to call, because I don't want to use up my cell phone minutes enduring excessive rationalization. It's also a recession, you know.


Dear Editor(Pete Kotz),

Have you considered The New Yorker magazine-kind of implications with the visual image of a gold-toothed, grinning Mexican that you are providing of Hispanic-Americans to a less-educated audience compared to the New Yorker's readership?

The image that goes with Gustavo Arellano's brilliant and irreverant column may fit with his satire and his wishes, but it really does little for the majority of Hispanics in this nation -- who are U.S. citizens. And many are not Mexicans. In my extended family across 12 states in this republic, I've yet to meet a relative who has a front gold tooth. I guess we would need to be pimps to feature such dentistry. Most of us are instead professionals.

In particular, since "Nashville" is included in your publication's name, I hope you have noticed that Nashville has a big problem in how it views and treats Mexicans and all Hispanics. Although I haven't read a word about her case in your blogs or in your publication, a Mexican mother named Juana Villegas (DeLaPaz) was tortured by local law enforcement authorities for seven days, that included the Fourth of July weekend. The New York Times considered the story worthy enough to publish on two Sunday pages, not only in how Mrs. Villegas was treated but in the implications of the 287g deportation program here.

Yet your publication has remained silent, just like Democratic Mayor Karl Dean and Congressman Jim Cooper. Why? Surely your alternative media designation does not also include "blind" to the least among us. Your reporter, P.J. Tobia, was included on the very first e-mails on the topic alerting the media, yet Tobia has not seen fit to write a word. Did Mrs. Villegas or her newborn need to die before becoming newsworthy? Or did Tobia have to write about her torture first to be worthy of your "alternative" designation?

Even all three TV stations have covered this. And the AP's Travis Loller did a great story on the matter.

Tobia did do a story on a threatened Hispanic congregation in Antioch. But they are not being tortured and having their newborn children separated from them, are they?

Since you are from Ohio, you might be able to relate to this issue since the Cleveland Indians' mascot of a broadly-grinning Indian is offensive. We've yet to see a pro sports franchise with a broadly grinning Anglo applying to an entire race.

Please don't cite the Chicago White Sox as an example. I am wearing white sox as I write now. But in looking at your journalistic record, I believe you are a professional of integrity who would want to know if something you're doing is not sending the intended, progressive message.

Thanks, Mr. Kotz, for any answers you could provide.

Sincerely,
Tim Chavez
www.politicalsalsa.com
Columnist, Hispanic Link News Service,
Washington, D.C.