Mexico is a great nation. Its history and culture are nearly as rich as its food, smothered as it is in refried beans, sour cream, and exotic guacamole. Its people are often found seated against stucco-walled adobes, taking a siesta or nipping a bottle of traditional tequila, eyes shaded by a large, round sombrero. Other times they can be seen packed closely together with the extended family in a carefully preserved Ford Astrovan, enjoying the music of mariachis loudly on the stereo. These scenes are evidence of the Mexican people's deep love of life and family, their economy and their joy.

One of the best-loved Mexican traditions is that of the piñata -- a colorful papier mâché animal festooned with crepe paper and filled with candy. The effigy is beaten mericilessly by blindfolded children wielding a bat. When it's ruptured, the candy showers to the ground gloriously to the children's shrieks of delight. The candy is collected and consumed thereafter; the papier mâché husk is discarded.

I used to view the surfeit of candy raining to the ground as a symbol of Mexico's wealth of tradition and its people's joy. Now I know better. With the knowledge that the candy is filled not only with scrumptious honeys and nugats, but with highly poisonous lead, I see it as nothing but evidence of the nation's woeful lack of regulation and outright disdain for children. I imagine the leaden candy thumping heavily to the ground, and I hear the nerve endings of the Mexican children corrode and clog. With their brains addled with lead, these children will never know the joyful kiss of the tequila worm or the spicy taste of a gordita.

Remember, for a moment, Bill the Candyman in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:

Who can take a sunrise / Sprinkle it in dew / Cover it in chocolate / and a miracle or two?

I recall some of the other instructions from the Candyman -- wrap it in a sigh, soak it in the sun, etc. I don't know about you, Mexico, but I don't remember anything about fill it up with lead.

Analogcabin @ 7:14 AM
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