Restaurant tantrum exposes Mexican class divide

[theworldismine13]

BBC News - Restaurant tantrum exposes Mexican class divide

A tantrum in a restaurant in Mexico City made headlines this week - because it revealed so much about the country's struggle with class hierarchy.

Sometimes the story lands right on your doorstep.

Over the road from the BBC office is a trendy-looking restaurant with black decor and wooden tables outside called Maximo Bistrot.

Occasionally we'd go for their set lunch menu, although it is a bit on the expensive side.

Good food, though. The menu includes rib eye of organic pork with porcini mushroom puree, sea bass with carrot and macadamia nut salad and seafood-and-toasted-garlic ravioli, with fresh broad beans.

You could often spy politicians and starlets of Mexican society lunching alongside you.

It was in the Maximo Bistrot that the country's latest political scandal unfolded.

The place was packed, as it tends to be at the weekend.

In walks Andrea Benitez, a wealthy 20-something, looking for a table.

Told that the one she wanted wasn't available, she threw what can only be described as a tantrum and used the ace up her sleeve, her daddy.

Andrea Benitez is the daughter of Humberto Benitez Trevino, who happens to be the federal attorney general for consumer protection.

Faster than you can say "do you know who I am?" Andrea had called her father's department, which promptly turned up at our local neighbourhood bistro and closed it down on spurious administrative grounds.

She also took to Twitter to berate the restaurant staff for what she called their "dreadful service" and "no manners," vowing never to go back.

But it seems on this occasion Miss Benitez might have bitten off more than she could chew.

Twitter, the same method she used to besmirch the restaurant, quickly came to its defence as customers began to take photos of what was happening.

Once it became public knowledge, she was crowned "Lady Profeco," a reference to the state agency her father runs.

Most comments let the girl know in no uncertain terms that the rich and powerful should no longer consider such abuses of power a birthright.

Her father called off his agents, apologised for his daughter and gave the restaurant the green light to reopen.

The episode reveals a lot about Mexico's sharply stratified society. The haves appear to assume they can treat the have-nots as badly as they want, no matter how rude, disrespectful or abusive.

Lady Profeco was not the first to do so.

During the last presidential election campaign the eventual winner, Enrique Pena Nieto, made a gaffe at the Guadalajara Book Fair where he was unable to name three books that had influenced him other than the Bible. Cue a storm of criticism that the man who would be president apparently hadn't read three influential works of literature.

His 16-year-old daughter Paulina defended him, again via Twitter, insulting his detractors as "idiots" and more tellingly as "plebs". Her Twitter account was swiftly shut down by her father's campaign team.


President Enrique Pena Nieto's daughter was caught up in an internet class row
But it's not just the offspring of the political elite who behave this way. Should you ever want to see these attitudes of superiority in action, I suggest you Google the words "Ladies de Polanco," Polanco being an upmarket neighbourhood in Mexico City.

There you will find a short video, shot on a mobile phone, of two apparently drunk women, raging against a police officer for having the temerity to pull them over after their car swerved across the road.

Amid the slaps and the volleys of abuse that they throw at the officer is another very revealing phrase, they call him "asalariado," meaning "wage earner".

Somehow in the minds of these women, one of whom it was later revealed had appeared in a reality TV programme, getting a fixed salary at the end of the month is something to be ashamed of. They don't need to worry about such trivial matters like pay.

Then there is the "Gentleman de las Lomas," as he has become known.

In another high-end part of the capital, the owner of a fashion company was filmed thrashing a parking attendant for saying he could not help him change his flat tyre because he wasn't allowed to abandon his post.

The man broke the parking attendant's teeth in the beating, and repeatedly called him "pinche Indio", "damn Indian".

Despite the irrefutable video evidence against the so-called gentleman, he was nothing more than mildly inconvenienced by the bad press and the court case which followed.

A report came out recently which showed what most Mexicans had long suspected - there is almost no social mobility in the country whatsoever. If you are born into poverty the chances are very high that you will die poor too.

This week I meet two real gentlemen, decent, polite and kind, one picks fruit in the fields outside Mexico City, the other packs bags in one of the capital's supermarkets.

Probably combined, they earn in a week the price of a single meal at Maximo Bistrot.

Andrea Benitez would do well to remember that.

How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent:

 

[Serious]

Cue a storm of criticism that the man who would be president apparently hadn't read three influential works of literature.

The world is run by idiots what a surprise...

Amid the slaps and the volleys of abuse that they throw at the officer is another very revealing phrase, they call him "asalariado," meaning "wage earner".

damn ass broad, out of touch with reality. I know people like this as well.

The man broke the parking attendant's teeth in the beating, and repeatedly called him "pinche Indio", "damn Indian".

jesus christ, was that necessary

 

[the mechanic]

They need a more intelligent ruling elite....the ones in the west are smart and stay invisible..they learned from the french and british revolutions....walking around and smacking the peons leads to violent uprisings and guillotines taking heads off

They about to learn the hard way

 

[Hawaiian Punch]

So what? If the people of Mexico are that unhappy then rise up and kill the elite. The drug lords in Mexico have no problem killing everybody else, so why don't the people do the same? It's fear. Fear of backlash, of labeling, fear of standing up for their rights as humans. Until they decide they have had enough then things will continue as is.

 

[88m3]

Its becoming clear to me op has an issue with Hispanic people but we'll leave that alone for now.

 

[theworldismine13]

Its becoming clear to me op has an issue with Hispanic people but we'll leave that alone for now.

well not the people per se, but i do have a problem with the culture, i dont like people, especially black people, acting like latin america is a counterforce to white america, when in actuality its just a different side of the same coin and worse in some ways

 

[IGSaint12]

well not the people per se, but i do have a problem with the culture, i dont like people, especially black people, acting like latin america is a counterforce to white america, when in actuality its just a different side of the same coin and worse in some ways

What black people?

 

[theworldismine13]

What black people?

Black people that think that way

In the immigration threads I try to explain that an influx of people from Latin America is not necessarily a good thing and the response is bu bu bu but they are not white

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Black people that think that way

In the immigration threads I try to explain that an influx of people from Latin America is not necessarily a good thing and the response is bu bu bu but they are not white

Nobody says this

Only you could take a really interesting article and ruin the potential discussion with your stupidity & fantasies. I will try and bring things back on track doe.

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I have a homie who lives in Mexico City and says shyt in Mexico is really turning around for the better. Its interesting though. Seems like with the drug shyt settling down the legal elites mite be coming a lil out of pocket. Theyre acting like they cant get touched. But as Mexico grows more legitimate so will the democracy of its laws. It will be interesting to watch.

 

[theworldismine13]

Nobody says this

Only you could take a really interesting article and ruin the potential discussion with your stupidity & fantasies. I will try and bring things back on track doe.

------------------------------

I have a homie who lives in Mexico City and says shyt in Mexico is really turning around for the better. Its interesting though. Seems like with the drug shyt settling down the legal elites mite be coming a lil out of pocket. Theyre acting like they cant get touched. But as Mexico grows more legitimate so will the democracy of its laws. It will be interesting to watch.

First of all, I was responding to a sideways accusation and secondly people do say that

 

[Bud Bundy]

well not the people per se, but i do have a problem with the culture, i dont like people, especially black people, acting like latin america is a counterforce to white america, when in actuality its just a different side of the same coin and worse in some ways

I have never known any black person who thinks of latin america as a conterforce to america. They are just as racist as americans.

 

[theworldismine13]

I have never known any black person who thinks of latin america as a conterforce to america. They are just as racist as americans.

You obviously have not read any of the immigration threads, the real was just last week writing essays on how allowing legal immigrants to be in a jury will reduce racism

 

[Bud Bundy]

You obviously have not read any of the immigration threads, the real was just last week writing essays on how allowing legal immigrants to be in a jury will reduce racism

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

First of all, I was responding to a sideways accusation and secondly people do say that

Accusation wasnt sideways, you do have a bone to pick with Latinos just like you do with blacks

Secondly whats wrong with @The Real exercising his intellectual freedoms

 

[IGSaint12]

You obviously have not read any of the immigration threads, the real was just last week writing essays on how allowing legal immigrants to be in a jury will reduce racism

The vast majority of black people I've heard from especially on this forum are not favorable to illegal immigration or granting citizenship. Most want obama to help black people the most first and mexicans as well as south americans are just as racist as people from the states. I don't know where get these black people from that think differently but they are probably in the minority.