By Martin Arvizu

Things have gotten so bad in Mexico that they are looking to the United States for answers.

It seems that Barack Obama is not only leading in the polls here at home, but in Mexico as well.

Although according to Today’s Top Story written by Jeremy Schwartz for the Austin-American Statesman, many Mexicans see little change coming with either candidate.

Schwartz writes “For Mexico, I don’t think it matters who wins since the priority in the coming months and years will be the economic recession,” said Victor Hernandez, a financial adviser in Mexico City.

I would surely hope so Victor. With the problems the United States is facing, worrying about another country’s should not be a priority.

It seems most Mexicans, including Reynaldo Ortega, a political analyst at the College of Mexico, believe that the United States will mainly focus on security issues such as reinforcing the borders. Ortega told Schwartz that he believes that the United States is isolating itself which he said is, “worrying.”

Regardless, it seems that the majority of Mexicans are hoping Obama becomes the next president, even though McCain won many Mexican fans when he backed a comprehensive immigration bill which failed in 2007.

According to a September Consulta Mitofsky poll taken of Mexicans following the US election, 56 percent favored Obama versus only 12 percent for McCain.

One would wonder with McCain’s fame for trying to reform immigration fresh in the minds of Mexicans why they would favor someone with no real history with Mexicans. Schwartz writes that according to Rosalba Gonzalez, a stationery store owner in Mexico City, “According to the Mexican television, the black candidate talks more about solutions to the problem while the older white man only criticizes his opponent.”

I have always been one to admit that Mexicans, like any other ethnicity or race, have their own prejudices and biases. I can honestly say Mexico likes Obama because he is black. And although I have constantly called out Mexicans for their hypocritical stances on race (speaking about racism towards Mexicans while perpetrating racism towards blacks and others), the fact is that Mexicans can relate better to blacks.

Black is closer to Brown than white in the color spectrum, not to mention there are plenty of Mexicans who are actually darker that Obama. White has always been the oppressor color while black and brown the oppressed. although sadly at times, black and brown have oppressed themselves and each other.

While I do not personally feel oppressed, I understand the bond between oppressed peoples. During the 1960’s in America, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans all fed off the Black Civil Rights movement and then later the Black Power movement. Chicanos and blacks who lived in the same neighborhoods began talking alike, and dressing alike. We both enjoy intestines and stomach linings of farm animals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And more importantly we have a certain disdain for old, white, American politicians who have historically been the bad guys in our stories.

I can not speak for blacks but Mexican history is full of old white American men swindling Mexicans for everything from land to their women.

So Mexicans will be calling their Mexican-American cousins encouraging them to vote for the Obama, whom the Mexican media called the “Black Kennedy.” Maybe they figure the majority of white Americans will rupture arteries or have some kind of panic attack if Obama is elected, and see this as a way to get back for all the historical injustices committed by the United States.

Regardless of the reason, for once it seems the racism between Mexicans and Blacks is not so bad.