Prickly

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a funny article arguing that Mexico is misrepresented in the U.S. press as the land of burritos and drug gang beheadings, when it should really be seen as the home of a lively literary tradition. The writer is especially impressed by the Guadalajara book fair, which does sound pretty neat. That a big city could support eight daily papers is also impressive; I wish Seattle could do the same. The article, though, is funny for its prickly pride about literacy as a corrective for the impression created by thousands of savage drug murders in the last year and the breakdown of law in large stretches of Mexico. Who could seriously think that reporting on social chaos and a terrifying rise in murder, rather than on a book fair, is unfair and biased?

Also, the writer tries to make the U.S. look relatively illiterate; the U.S. is certainly unlettered, but the writer might be a little less puffed up if she took a look at the U.S. literacy rate (99%) and the Mexican literacy rate (91.7%). Given how little Americans do with their ability to read, it may well be the case that the U.S. could benefit from Mexico's cultural example, but the writer's attitude of mixed condescension and wounded pride is just silly.