Anthony Bourdain on Mexico

This was written by Scott Koenig who lives in San Diego and travels extensively in Mexico with his family....while loving it. These are his comments on the show Bourdain did Sunday evening "Parts Unknown." There is a response from Anthony Bourdain. A very disappointing view of Mexico from someone who supposedly loves this country.
Not sure how to post a link...but you can always cut and paste.

http://agringoinmexico.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/get-over-the-volcano-an-open-letter-to-anthony-bourdain/

I think that the issues people are facing and the obstacles they overcome in their effort to put amazing food on the table in these places where " Parts Unknown" is filmed are part of the theme . I haven't seen the one where he is in Mexico but I did see the episode of " Parts Unknown" that was filmed in Punjab, India and he was talking about the problems there too. It's just not a glossy , look how great this place is, touristy type of show. It's intended to be something else and it seems to me this blogger would have realized that.

Thanks for the link on the Koening blog and Bourdain's subsequent comments. Interesting read.

I think Anthony Bourdain's response to this guy was bang on. Too many foreigner's vacationing and even living here have no idea what the average Mexican citizen (the 80%) is going through on a daily basis.

Here is Bourdian's response:

Is Mexico safe enough for Mexicans to carry your golf bag? Yes. Is it safe, safer to enjoy a margarita on the beaches of Cancun or Cabo? Yes. To be a comfortable upper middle class family living behind high walls with a security guard? Yes. To be frequent visitor from San Diego? Yes.
But is it safe enough to be the great country that Mexicans deserve? The Mexicans we spoke to clearly think not. It does this deeply afflicted country no favors to minimize its problems. Is it any less systemically corrupt today? The cartels less powerful? Is there any better chance for the voices and needs of the great majority of Mexicans to be heard, much less addressed?
80,000 dead in just a few years, 80,000 families affected forever is not a “small part of the story”. Maybe it is if your priority is vacation or sampling the 7 moles for a food blog.
I am not interested in bolstering tourism with every episode of Parts Unknown. I will leave that to others, on my former network, who usually work closely with tourism boards and government entities. I feel no responsibility to put A happy face on what I see. Or balancing–in one episode–the negative and positive, leaving the viewer with a warm, fuzzy hopeful feeling that goodwill and good intentions and a shared meal will alwAys triumph over evil. Sadly, as I have seen far too often, they don’t. I have, over the years, told many stories in Mexico and about Mexico. This is ONE of them .
Perhaps the basic misunderstanding here is this:
This was not a story about a COUNTRY–though it took place in one. As always, I did not seek to portray a country or its character in its entirety in one hour of television. That would be facile, impossible and unworthy of a far more complicated far bigger story. It was the story of a few ordinary but very courageous people, facing head in at great personal peril, a status quo that most are unable or unwilling to address.
That is all it was. To “balance” those stories–to make audiences more comfortable? To make a tourism economy more viable? Would be a betrayal of the people who spoke honestly with us at no small risk to themselves.
The points of view expressed on my programs by the way are mine. And only mine. Any suggestion that my network, or anyone else suggests, contributes, steers or influences that point of view or my choices of subject matter or even the editing process is dead wrong. Anyone who believes that doesn’t know me very well or believes in black helicopters.
Parts Unknown is produced independently by me and my partners at ZPZ production. CNN is the customer. We go where I want and tell the stories I choose in the way I choose to tell them. Period.

He did another show on Guadalajara Mexico last year and he did not make any negative comments but he did go to street food and many restaurants I wouldn't go into. Did not go to any of my favorite restaurants in Guadalajara which are more upscale than his show does.

I haven't seen his Parts Unknown series because Megacable in Guadalajara blocks a lot of CNN programming,but I've been a fan of Bourdain for years and he has always spoken very highly of Mexicans and Mexico in past episodes on other series.

Whoa, it looks like Bourdain cleared that up...but in his long, breathy reply the blogger completely disregarded everything Bourdain said.

What did he mean in his comment about Black helicopters?

Ms.Thang wrote:

What did he mean in his comment about Black helicopters?

There are a couple of posters on this forum who could tell you about the black helicopters...  

but innocent farm boys don't fly black helicopters so she won't get it.

I already found out. It means " conspiracies" .

First of all, Pedro, I have to say that you cracked me up with your latest photo, I was laughing all the way to the refrigerator to top up my wine, and then I cackled my way back to the computer, looked at the photo again, and cracked up again. Thanks for the laugh, I needed that!

Separate thought: do you suppose we could get Anthony Bourdain interested in doing a show on expats in Mexico??? BTW, he is another guy who cracks me up. I watch all his shows. And I recently read that he has to rest up between trips because he imbibes so much alcohol on visits to foreign lands. Well, he is certainly not going to avoid alcohol in Ajijic. But, we are kind people, we will let him sleep late!

But seriously folks, I was not offended by his portrait of Mexico. I was here during the May troubles two years ago, and I felt helpless, altho I went down to the Ajijic plaza and sat, just as a personal gesture of defiance a la Barbara Fritchie. These are my people, they have adopted me, and I will do what I can.

I think Anthony Bourdain is trying to help. Sometimes sensationalizing something has an effect. As he said, this is NOT a travel show. We expats seem to be in a slowly deteriorating situation. I feel a bit trapped--I can't go to Michoacan. I can't venture into the mountains north of us.

Hey, I had mafia "connected" clients in Boston. And there were killings, sometimes lots of killings. But I did not have to stay out of the whole state, like I have to stay out of the whole state of Michoacan.

I have never seen any Anthony Bourdain show of any kind. But I liked his response to that guy's blog. That blogger sounds like a piker.

Oh Rosa Venus no Anthony Bourdain ever? You are missing it.


His books are good. TV is better. Appeal is immense.

Anthony.Bourdain.Parts.Unknown.S03E04.Mexico.City.HDTV.x264-DUKES.mp4  is available for download via torrent and PB.

 

One of his funnier and mort honest reports:



I agree with him wholeheartedly but there was sure a backlash amongst the New Mexico locals to the point where he issued public apologies.

simpsca wrote:He did another show on Guadalajara Mexico last year and he did not make any negative comments but he did go to street food and many restaurants I wouldn't go into. Did not go to any of my favorite restaurants in Guadalajara which are more upscale than his show does.

He's done several shows on MX and I think I've seen them all.

Tony knows good food. I'm like him, I eat street food and it has never bothered me....

Bet he would have loved the "Hole in the Wall"

Last night we "borrowed" the show off the internet and watched it. It was interesting and well done, I thought. (Again, I've never seen Anthony Bourdain before, and had no pre-conceived expectations. It certainly wasn't a happy, shiny, warm and fuzzy travelogue about eating your way through Mexico.) Mostly, the show focused on the systemic corruption of Mexico, and the challenges, hardships and horrors that brings about, including narco-violence and all the other nightmares associated with organized crime.

That blogger is an idiot.

Rosa Venus wrote:Last night we "borrowed" the show off the internet and watched it. It was interesting and well done, I thought. (Again, I've never seen Anthony Bourdain before, and had no pre-conceived expectations. It certainly wasn't a happy, shiny, warm and fuzzy travelogue about eating your way through Mexico.) Mostly, the show focused on the systemic corruption of Mexico, and the challenges, hardships and horrors that brings about, including narco-violence and all the other nightmares associated with organized crime.

That blogger is an idiot.

Also you would have seen some "authentic" Mexican food in Oaxaca.

Rosa Venus wrote:Last night we "borrowed" the show off the internet and watched it. It was interesting and well done, I thought. (Again, I've never seen Anthony Bourdain before, and had no pre-conceived expectations. It certainly wasn't a happy, shiny, warm and fuzzy travelogue about eating your way through Mexico.) Mostly, the show focused on the systemic corruption of Mexico, and the challenges, hardships and horrors that brings about, including narco-violence and all the other nightmares associated with organized crime.

That blogger is an idiot.

Amen.

Perhaps it was cutting into that bloggers time share business........  

The population of Mexico has the art of adaptation mastered to a science. They have a word here, charco (sp?) which means puddle. But it means more in context. When asked about it, I was asked in return, "When you come to a puddle, do you walk through it or go around it?" And so it is with the many issues created by a corrupt government. They go around the problem.

While life is harder than it should be, for the most part, Mexicans are happy and have the essentials of a good life. Of course, there are the poor just as there are in any first world country to care to cite.

All in all, I have adapted to Mexico and would not return to the US on a bet. This is my home, warts and all.

 

Osoprehistorico wrote:The population of Mexico has the art of adaptation mastered to a science.  

While I don't disagree with you, and I know what you're talking about, that's not really what this show was about. In fact, it was about defiance.

If anything, the show was a testimony and homeage to resilience, courage, and the Mexican spirit, focusing on a few key people who represent those qualities and who have the huevos to speak out against the status quo even at their own peril. It was practically a love letter. I bet that blogger had never heard of the incident at Máximo in el D.F. last year, and had likely never heard of Anabel Hernández or Javier Sicilia before watching the show.

Again, that blogger is a total piker and a complete idiot.

Maybe someone should send him a link to this thread and invite him on over.........  

Jajaja. Does the guy really sell time shares? 'Cause that would justify the use of heavy artillery.