DfDeportation's Blog

Mexico’s warm greeting for Miss USA By Michelle Malkin  •  May 29, 2007 09:23 AM

Do you remember what happened in Guadalajara in 2004 during an Olympics qualification soccer match between the U.S. and Mexico? Let me remind you:

The boos nearly drowned out “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and a few dozen fans chanted “Osama! Osama!” as the United States was eliminated by Mexico in Olympic men’s soccer qualifying.

A loud anti-American crowd hollered as Mexico beat the United States 4-0 Tuesday night in the under-23 tournament, claiming a berth in the Athens Olympics. Mexico had already eliminated the U.S. baseball team from Olympic contention.

As U.S. players left the stadium for their bus, several fans — some clutching beers — chanted “Osama! Osama!” in reference to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Police in riot gear had to protect the American players. Bags of urine were tossed at the US team.

Just a tiny minority of America-haters, right? Wrong. Throughout the week-long festivities leading up to the Miss Universe pageant last night, Miss USA, Rachel Smith, was booed and heckled. First, at a national costume event (half-way into the news segment):

Ms. Smith, who fell during the evening gown competition but recovered gracefully, was subjected to hatred again last night during the Top Five interviews, when hecklers in the audience launched into chants of “Mexico, Mexico” and disrupted her entire interview. The two hosts of the pageant, Vanessa Minillo and Mario Lopez, did nothing to chastise the crowd for the rudeness shown to their fellow American.

At least the hecklers didn’t yell “Osama.” Or maybe the microphones just didn’t pick it up this time.

Meanwhile, as Heather Mac Donald points out, the White House continues to attack opponents of mass amnesty as “nativists.”

Yeah, we’re the nativists.

***
Update: A diehard Miss Universe follower e-mails me that another Miss USA, Kenya Moore, was booed in Mexico during the 1993 pageant.

Pageant blogger Sophie Evans notes that Rachel Smith was booed throughout the entire program last night

More flashbacks:

Go back to March 2005, when Mexico beat the U.S. 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier…

Some Mexican fans responded by chanting “Osama! Osama!”

…For Mexico, the game was a measure of revenge for the United States’ 2-0 win in the second round of the 2002 World Cup, a game that dented national pride. But that match was played in South Korea, not Mexico, where the Tricolores are 54-1-4.

A large banner in the upper deck proclaimed: `”El Gigante No Ha Muerto,” or “The Giant Is Not Dead Yet.” There was booing and whistling during “The Star-Spangled Banner” and derisive chants whenever Kasey Keller took goal kicks.

Reconquista, what reconquista?

The origins of this intense rivalry, explains fan Gerardo Gonzales, are historical - and he is not talking soccer history.

“Every schoolboy knows about 1848,” he says, settling in for a lazy afternoon of serious soccer talk at a local cantina. “When they robbed our territory,” referring to when Texas, California, and New Mexico were annexed to the US at the as part of a peace treaty ending the war between the two countries, “that was the beginning.”