First, I have to tell you that you're wrong. "Güero" is not pejorative, it's just a colloquial or slang term used to describe people with light hair color or fair skin and is rarely used to offend.
Some are obsessed with skin color, some others couldn't care less. There are people who are obsessed with it and compare their skin or hair color to that of the others and talk every two seconds about how they are fair skinned (in case they are) or praise people who are light haired and fair skinned. Others embrace the diversity of the country. There are people like Santos, who don't like being called "güero" because they have embraced their mestizo (mixed race) identity. The majority subconsciously consider fair skin to be better, but they're not obsessed with it. I've read that in India very dark people are insulted, girls are told not to play in the sun, parents often look for a fair skinned partner for their sons/daughters and skin whitening creams are sold. It's not like that here.
Discrimination against white looking people? Nope, it's still brown people the ones who are discriminated everywhere. Even in countries where whites are not the majority fair skin is considered better.
By the way, I have lighter skin, hair and eye color than my brother, and we rarely get compared unlike the two brothers in the film. I think the movie tries to make a point about the racial identity in Mexico rater than representing how it is lived.
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at7000
8 years ago
Thanks for those thoughtful remarks. I think I understand it better now. My wife is Filipino and the same thing is true in her country. Everything is about bleaching your skin, staying out of the sun, etc..
For her culture she is very fair-skinned and she told me a story about when she was a young school kid-
Some teacher or school organizer type lady, grabbed her from class and told he she would be in a big 'singing and dancing school performance' and must start rehearsing soon. When she protested to the teacher that she did not know how to either sing or dance, she was told that it did not matter, the goal was to pick light skinned students so they would look great on stage.
We humans are a very crazy species. I am sure that you have noticed.
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Noelitede
8 years ago
Wow, that's amazing. Choosing people to dance and sing ONLY based on their skin color. It's amazing how she did such a racist thing with that openness.
Racism here is not as big and open as in places like India, and now I see, as in the Phillipines. People will rarely demonstrate racism in such an open way like that lady (they wouldn't be looking for fair skinned students to begin with), there are NO bleaching creams, and few people will reject a date based on skin color; yet, movies usually use fair skinned actors (though, this has been slowly changing) and some department stores and some other classy places have a clear preference for fair skinned people when looking for employees. It's more a subtle thing here in Mexico; few people are as racist as that school organizer, and as I said, it seems to be slowly changing.
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