# Colorado Politician Calls Mexican Immigrants "Illiterate Peasants" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 22, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349 "2008-04-22T02:25:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/121 "2008-04-23T22:54:15Z")
Albuquerque NM is dominated by an air force base too, and it’s not like that. My sister lives in Colorado Springs. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/122 "2008-04-23T23:12:10Z")
Then I have my work cut out for me. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/123 "2008-04-24T00:07:57Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Because under that logic you’d call somebody who spoke eight languages “illiterate” if one of them wasn’t English. [/QUOTE] No, if you seek work in Slovakia it’s a really good idea to know Slovak otherwise you’ll be cleaning latrines or some other degrading shit while patrons heap scorn. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/124 "2008-04-24T02:46:06Z")
[QUOTE=DudleyGarrett] “screeching liberal” – check. “live in areas” – whoops. Tell me about your tough life in the barrio. [/QUOTE] Tell me, what is it like to be such a complete asshole? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/125 "2008-04-24T11:09:23Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] Tell me, what is it like to be such a complete asshole? 😕 [/QUOTE] Wow, _ad hominem_ in 3 posts. That’s gotta be a record. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/126 "2008-04-25T11:36:16Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] The Roman Empire was very effective at cleansing the Mediterranean of pirates. That does not mean it was not a cruel, greedy and exploitative state, nor that the subject peoples owed it any debt of gratitude. [/QUOTE] Or that the cleansing lasted forever. Re. the literacy of immigrants. I don’t read nor write Korean and I’m from a small town, so would visiting Seoul turn me into an illiterate peasant the instant my feet touched Korean soil? “Literate” is “able to read”, not “able to read the most-commonly-spoken language in the area where you are” or “able to read every single language humanity has managed to come up with.” Many of them are peasants if by that you mean “not from a big city.” But they’re not peasants in the “village bumpkin” sense, which is how it is used when coupled with “illiterate.” _Peón_ is not an offensive term in Spanish. It means someone who’s performing work that doesn’t require special qualification, we also have _peón cualificado_, which means someone that already has some technical training (think a “senior apprentice”). So when a “Mexican” calls himself a _peón_ he’s not making a funny or anything, he’s just saying “I’m doing pretty basic job.” I’ve been a _peón_ when I already had an Engineering degree, the big white piece of paper with the signature of the Minister of Education didn’t go poof or anything. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/127 "2008-04-26T03:44:16Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] Re. the literacy of immigrants. I don’t read nor write Korean and I’m from a small town, so would visiting Seoul turn me into an illiterate peasant the instant my feet touched Korean soil? “Literate” is “able to read”, not “able to read the most-commonly-spoken language in the area where you are” or “able to read every single language humanity has managed to come up with.” [/QUOTE] The instant your more than likely lovely feet touched Korean soil your grasp of Sartre or Darwin or Neruda would be distilled and bottled and sold on the open market. If on the other hand you were Korean and came to Grand Junction with no English skills all that deliciousness would be wasted because in this climate and within these provincial boundaries people who are not English-literate are therefore deemed illiterate. I mentioned this above but there are a lot of good people under the gun with all this anti-immigrant pressure. As far as I’m concerned this is a low point for my community. In the long run I suppose we can always rebuild. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2008, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/128 "2008-04-26T04:34:15Z")
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso] Anyway, that’s how it is here. If it’s any comfort, six years ago when I lived in Longmont (north of Boulder) attitudes weren’t much different. [/QUOTE] Longmont is the Alabama of the Denver Metro Area. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349/129 "2008-04-26T05:18:19Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] Longmont is the Alabama of the Denver Metro Area. [/QUOTE] Will that play any role in the 2008 Dem Convention, I wonder? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-politician-calls-mexican-immigrants-illiterate-peasants/446349.md?page=6)