Trends: Introducing The Mexican American Prince

Not to be outdone by the Village Voice Lesbian thug piece, the left coast weighs in with a LA Weekly profile on college-educated douche-bags of a brown hue. These types were a dime a dozen where Guanabee grew up, but LA Weekly reporter Daniel Hernandez says they are big news in Los Angeles and has seen fit to legitimize the sub-genre with its very own FIVE-PAGE, cover-story trend piece complete with a new racial slur we can all use: The Mexican-American Prince or MAP. Follow us after the jump to find out what makes up this fascinating species.

….proud to be Latino, extremely ambitious and coming to a position of power and influence near you. He loves the Dodgers, lowrider cars, the United Farm Workers and his mother. He collects Chicano art. He knows how to dance to cumbia, and no one ever taught it to him. He always looks his best. He’s really friendly. He’s probably already your friend.

Probably not, but let’s play along. According to Hernandez, a confessed MAP himself, MAPs have taken over Los Angeles as witnessed by that city’s first Mexican-American mayor in 130 years Antonio Villaraigosa who embodies the MAP persona; raised in the barrio only to ascend to prominence through hard work and higher education. Sounds made for TV, so what’s the beef? Well, Hernandez is disillusioned:

In their self-mythologizing, in their unabiding sense of entitlement and, as we’ve seen in Villaraigosa’s leadership style at City Hall, in their intolerance for dissent, MAPs in politics offer a stark lesson. It doesn’t matter what ethnic group politicians belong to, they’re still politicians, working, however nobly, in an inherently corrupt infrastructure built on media manipulation, corporate and private servitude, and the cracklike addiction to power and self-preservation.

But that’s a big city mayor. What of L.A.’s young, Mexican-American idealists? Hernandez finds one in Jose Solache, 26-year-old president of the Lynwood Unified School Board. While holding their interview in a local coffeehouse, Hernandez records this little pearl from Solache:

“Hey, Yeseña,” Solache calls to someone behind me at one point.

“My classmate from high school,” he winks in my direction. “I love this part, because you’re at Starbucks and you see the community. Quick side commercial: I love that. I love the fact that I could be a role model to my community. I love the fact that I could be down-to-earth to them.”

There you have it. Assholes come in brown, too. Thanks for digging that up, LA Weekly.

Mexican American Princes: ¡Mas Suave! [LA Weekly]