Braulio - 1-24-2003 at 11:00 AM
Hola.
The recent thread on development in Baja reminded me of an experience I had a few years ago.
I was having dinner with a gentleman who helped manage one of the maquiladora plants in Mexicali. He would come down from Orange County for a couple
days each week. After a while he began to kind of enjoy the culture and all in Mexico so he brought his family down to Ensenada to see the sights.
While in Ensenada his son (about 12 I think) became kind of revolted about the treatment of bulls in the bull fights and decided to adopt a young bull
and save him from the ring.
Anyway - long story short the family wound up importing the bull to the US which involved certifying that it had been vaccinated, examined, and dipped
in disinfectants and finally quarantined in SLRC . I think the whole process took about a month and a lot of money.
Finally they get it to the US and they have no where to keep it. So they take it home and tie it in the backyard and call the press so hat they can
oogle over it. Their son became a heroe amongst the animal rights people and now the bull lives on a ranch in Corona, CA where it thinks it's a dog
or a human or something. It even has a name - Herbert or Hubert or something. I think the bull even has a website if anyone's interested.
I found the story to be just hilarious as L but it does raise a couple of interesting questions:
1) When you go to a foreign country like Mexico and you see something that revolts you or runs completly contrary to your cultural instincts, at what
point do you become involved? If you start imposing your culture on theirs then you're really a culturally insensitive meddler type. And maybe even a
borderline racist.
However if absolutely nothing behooves you to become personally involved then you're a coward. IMHO
It can be a fine line.
2) It also occured to me that given the new policies on who's allowed into the US, it'd be easier to bring a bull or a german shepard in from Mexico
then it would a mexican child needing medical treatment.
The social melding and clashes that occur in the border area just fascinate the heck out of me.
Braulio