La Raza and THE RACE...

In light of the passing of one of the border's greats (posted below), I thought this editorial by R. Daniel Cavazos, publisher of The Brownsville Herald and El Nuevo Heraldo was worth noting -- MEXICANS prefer Formula One races, but hey, in the United States, everybody adjusts...

... The entertainment industry, like nearly every other part of the American private sector, is grooving programs and products that focus on growing Latino populations in this country.Wal-Mart, Target, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Coke, and all the cell phone companies employ legions of advertising and marketing agencies to help them reach a Hispanic market that now touches every corner of this country. Even NASCAR (NASCAR!), the epitome of white Southern culture, is anxious to reach out to Latino audiences. A story in USA Today last week detailed how NASCAR officials hope to market and promote driver Juan Pablo Montoya to expand its fan base.“Short term, you’ll have more Hispanic fans tuning in and becoming fans,” NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said in USA Today. “Long term, we’ll have many wanting to get involved in the sport, and we want lots of drivers from lots of backgrounds.” How ironic, verdad, that during a time when xenophobic politicians in Washington are voting to build a border fence as part of their desperate efforts to stem Latino influences in this nation, the powerful U.S. private sector in all of its capitalistic glory has already decided this issue. There’s no anti-Hispanic walls being built by U.S. capitalists. What they want to know is how we can get “La Fea Mas Bella” on American television. Meanwhile, the nation’s fastest-growing sport, NASCAR, wants to rev up and diversity its fan base, with a special focus on the Latino market.