Because I feel like seeing some freakouts, I present to y’all, Axis Powers Hetalia. That’s right, Europe, Asia and North America anthropomorphized as cute anime characters. Russia likes vodka and Japan likes porn!
By the way, America sexually dominating Britain is quite popular, I hear.
I was in Mexico during a local festival/celebration and thats how the kids in the parade were dressed there, as well.
I think white people are too preoccupied with political correctness. At least you didn’t use the word “Latino”
Well I had a look at your link and apart from the fact it was nothing to do with stereotypes, but a rather bizarre persons fantasys, I couldn’t find any evidence of the sexual fantasy, or was it wishful thinking ? that you expressed .
Or haven’t you sent that to them yet ?
You have to hunt up the fan fiction. It is disturbing on many levels.
(My daughter first started following this when she came across them doing a joke about The War of Austrian Succession. She cosplayed as Ukraine at a con a year or so back. She has distanced herself from the fandom since then.)
Actually, research shows that any type of “cultural awareness” add on is actually more marginalizing. Any special celebration or decor or whatever is never the preferred way to teach about difference…infusion is. Should be part of everything, every day.
Those who don’t choose pin-stripe suits and violin cases. 
…or Baywatch.
I don’t understand: what are the representations of the other countries like then?
By the measure of the OP, any way of representing a country would be offensive, because it could never be representative of the entire population, for all of time.
It’s just the way countries are represented. If you represent Holland with windmills and tulips and the UK with bowler hats and tea cups I’m not offended. I don’t think it being offensive is anything to do with whether it’s realistic. If you asked kids here to represent the US they would dress up as cowboys. If you sent them back to the costume shop saying “no, it needs to be realistic and contemporary”, they would come back in fat suits. That would be realistic, but offensive. So what do you want them to do for Mexico: guns & drugs?
Overly sensitive.
I lived in a small indigenous Mexican village once, one in a region that has a centuries-old reputation of not putting up with any crap from outsiders (including stereotyping), and for some holiday festival, the schoolchildren dressed up EXACTLY as you described – little boys with painted mustaches, the whole deal. It was their way of celebrating the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century.
Now, if your kids’ presentation included, say, a scene of falling asleep under a cactus, okay, that would be a no-no.
Google Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata and check out their images. There are plenty of Mexicans still alive today who wouldn’t mind you using those images to represent Mexico.
Got a link to that research? “Infusion”?
Vaquero, by the late Luis Jimenez, is on display in Houston’s Moody Park. (He produced more than one Vaquero.)
So infusion of all cultures should be part of everything everyday? How long do you think these kids are in school for?
Sure, but it’s possible to take that attitude too far. I’m not Arab, but even I could see that a (hypothetical) school program that portrayed Arabs as suicide-vest-wearing Jihadists is sending the wrong message. And perhaps the actual Arabs might not want to stick their necks out to object.
Uninvolved people ignoring this sort of ethnic portrayal didn’t lead to anything good.
Yes, but I think there’s an important distinction to be made between dehumanizing or vilifying a group of people, and saying they often have mustaches or wear a certain type of hat.
So if we agree that this is not a particularly offensive way of educating children, then how would we have German children representing Americans? I hear cowboys suggested upthread, and that sounds good, and certainly better than Mafiosos or fat people.
Cowboys, Revolutionary War fashions (The Geo Washington look, tri-corn hat etc.), southern belles are also popular.
As a Mexican I would say that if the class was looking for traditional dress as apparently they did with the girls, they should have dressed the boys in charro (our cowboys, the ones that taught American cowboys how to rope and herd cattle) outfits. The moustache and serape thing is quite dated and belongs to another era and more representive of the poor campesino segment of our culture.
Kind of like dressing American men in bib oberalls, bare feet and a floppy straw hat with a piece of straw in his mouth.
More like dressing a “Canadian” in a Mountie outfit or a Parka. Representing a dated era is really more eye-roll worthy than offense worthy.
Dressing as a charro is more appropriate than as a poor, uneducated, serape wearing campesino. Of course to many Americans we are a nation of gardeners and maids so they obviously hold a different view of how to represent us.
