This Pinata Joke Carried Hidden Bite

I have never seen Rueben Martinez so deflated.

The Santa Ana barber and book dealer is always visiting classrooms to pump up the ambition of Latino kids. And he’s often on the road attending book fairs to trumpet the appeal of Latino literature.

You’d be hard put to find a more animated community motivator in Orange County.

Last week, though, I found my friend in a dark, brooding funk. Seated in the rear office of his sunlit, colorful book-and-art shop on Main Street, the old-time activist stared blankly into space.

“You wonder what you’re doing in life,” he said. “It’s hard to describe what I went through. I would have taken pain any day.”

Martinez, 58, was still bleeding from his one-man, one-day war of words with the Miller Brewing Co. His crushed spirit left no doubt who the winner was.

Rueben’s quick and quixotic attack was aimed against bilingual packaging on 24-ounce cans of Miller Lite, once his favorite beer. The busy label warns with an attempt at offbeat humor: NO SE USE EN PINATAS (Do not use in pinatas.)

Rueben roiled over what he considered an insulting joke in bad taste. In a letter to Miller’s chairman, he demanded the offending product be recalled with an apology.

“The insinuation that we would put a can of beer in a pinata, which is destined for the use of our children, is the grossest insult imaginable!”

And with a ‘60s flourish, the former Democratic Party activist closed with the threat of a national boycott.

When Rueben made his complaint public recently, there was an avalanche of protest, all right. And it nearly buried him.

Listeners on radio talk shows called in to slam “that moron from Santa Ana.” And disgusted young Latinos tied up his phones at work to say, “Lighten up, ese.”

Meanwhile, his fax spit out hate mail.

One anonymous critic doused Rueben’s plan--which he has since abandoned--to travel to Miller’s Milwaukee headquarters and pour beer on the place as a protest.

“I hope Miller has your [expletive deleted] arrested [and] the INS runs your name through the computer, finds your [expletive deleted] is illegal and deports you back to Tijuana.”

(Pete Wilson, is that you?)

On KLSX-FM (97.1), deejay Tom Leykis hosted a multicultural anti-Martinez marathon heavily laced with unprintable language.

Araceli on a cell phone: “As a 28-year-old Mexican woman, I think that man is such a loser. He definitely needs to get a life.”

Jason in his car: “This guy makes me just so mad. . . . I think people sit and wait for an opportunity to [complain] about something. And because this guy has some sort of a public forum, he can get a whole bunch more idiots behind him going, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ ”

The host on a rampage: “People only know who he is because he [complains] about other things all the time. . . . This guy didn’t even have the guts to get on the phone and defend his position on this show . . . because he knows that he’d find out just how few members of that so-called Latino community would support him. Moron!”

Rueben, the old warrior, found his skin wasn’t as thick as he thought. He took refuge in the rear office that afternoon and closed the door to the uproar. For three days, he felt like he had a fever--una calentura.

“I was actually mad,” Rueben said, pacing, pointing and grimacing. “I was mean. I was scared. I was confused.”

I can’t say I agreed with Rueben about the beer can. No, these silly ads don’t offend me. What offends me is the snarling, vicious way Rueben’s complaint was shot down by the beer-loving public.

“Hidden hatred, man,” Rueben said. “That’s what I felt. Hidden hatred in people.”

Detractors wondered who appointed Rueben as our spokesman. Considering the other voices I heard on this issue, I’d much rather have him shooting off his mouth for me any day.

I was dismayed to hear so many cool, hip-talking Latinos calling the talk show to say we’re just people who love to party and drink. With this sort of representation, who needs white corporations to foist stereotypes on us anymore? We gleefully stereotype ourselves.

Thanks to the efforts of people from Rueben’s generation, the days of crude insensitivity in advertising are long gone. Today, Frito Bandito and Little Black Sambo are just junk-food relics.

But on the beer issue, Rueben was clearly out of step with the new generation. And he should have known better than to come out swinging against a company armed with market research and extensive tests of ethnic tastes and sensibilities.

Miller already knew the Latino public would be receptive to its silly Spanish can. Just as Taco Bell was sure Latinos would like that now-ubiquitous chihuahua. The proof is that only six demonstrators last year picketed the Irvine headquarters of the fast-food giant to protest the arguably stereotypical little dog. Meanwhile, Latinos in droves flocked to its restaurants.

So it’s no surprise to see who answered Rueben’s scorching letter to Miller. A Latino, who else?

“We hope that, while you may not agree that this [pinata] phrase is amusing, you will understand that we simply intended it as a light-hearted, humorous approach to packaging,” wrote Rafael Garcia, a P.R. guy. “We at Miller Brewing Company have great respect for the Latino culture.”

Whatever that is!

In the end, Rueben admitted he had made a mistake this time. But he shook off his funk and was ready to get back to what counts--his family, his customers, his students.

“I’m a starter of things, not a stopper of things,” he said. “I’m into life. I’m into love. I’m into sharing. Not protesting.

“That’s not my gig anymore.”

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Agustin Gurza’s column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Readers can reach Gurza at (714) 966-7712 or agustin.gurza@latimes.com.