‘Beer and Machismo’
* “When Tequila and Machismo Get Behind the Wheel” by Agustin Gurza (Oct. 24) revealed embarrassingly abhorrent statistics from a new study of Mexican American men and drinking and driving. But the problem product of choice for drunk drivers is cerveza, not tequila. Mixing beer and machismo is a far greater personal and social disaster for people of Mexican ancestry, because we are also descendants of North American Indians, southern and mixed-blooded, whose genes still can’t handle the white man’s firewater. Fortunately, Latino women enjoy dramatically lower drinking-driving rates.
It is high time the dominant church for Latinos said no to ubiquitous booze at fund-raising festivities on church property. It’s also high time Congress banned alcohol ads from the public airwaves, as it had the courage to do with tobacco ads in 1971.
RAY CHAVIRA, National
Board Member, Latino Council
on Alcohol and Tobacco
Palmdale
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