Thursday, August 16, 2007


No, wait. That's not right.

I went to work for a few hours and missed everything.

Except today's little temblor out here in Southern Cali. It was just an aftershock, piece-o'-cake. Nothing like the one in Peru, which was devastating.

And except this:

She was wearing a Mayan dress, the traditional attire of indigenous people in central America, and the hotel's response was also traditional: throw her out.

Staff at Cancun's five-star Hotel Coral Beach appear to have assumed this was another street vendor or beggar, so without asking questions they ordered her to leave. Except the woman was Rigoberta MenchĂș, the Nobel peace prizewinner, Unesco goodwill ambassador, Guatemalan presidential candidate and figurehead for indigenous rights.

Of course, that could happen to anyone. Common mistake. Happens all the time.

Commentators noted the irony of upmarket resorts discriminating against real Maya while trying to attract tourists with fake Mayan architecture and spectacles.

And they say irony is dead.

3 Comments:

At 9:35 PM, Blogger GottaLaff said...

Guess that'll be on Cancun's Most Embarrassing Videos, whaddya think?

 
At 1:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I heard she didn't make Cancun's Videos, but she will be showing up on the next Mayan Noble Laureates Gone Wild. Get a couple of yak milk mojitos in her and she's outta control!

 
At 1:51 AM, Blogger GottaLaff said...

Kirsten,
Tell! Tell! (but I'm not asking)

 

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