Mexico to (Miss) U.S.A.: Boooooo

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.04.07 | 12:21 PM ET

I’ve always found Mexicans to be friendly and hospitable on my trips south of the border. Sure, Mexicans often gripe about U.S. government policies—who doesn’t?—but like most people around the world, they can differentiate between individual travelers and their government. But Miss U.S.A. is not your typical traveler. Mexicans at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City last week apparently directed their anger and frustration over U.S. government policies at one exceedingly well-quaffed, strutting Rachel Smith, otherwise known as Miss U.S.A.

The booing reached such a crescendo at one point that pageant owner Donald Trump, who was in attendance, feared the audience “might storm the stage,” according to an interesting look at the incident in Sunday’s New York Times. Trump told the paper, “The level of hostility was amazing.” Trump, of course, knows a thing or two about hostility.

Audience members and cultural observers assured the New York Times that the outpouring of boos had everything to do with immigration issues, the war in Iraq and other U.S. government policies.

Booing was also directed at Miss U.S.A. when Mexico hosted the same pageant in 1993.

Writes the Times’ Marc Lacey: “So, Mexicans say, the booing at this pageant was never about Miss U.S.A. herself. It was those letters on her sash.”

What does this mean for the average traveler? Leave the U.S.A. sash at home.

Photo by borya via Flickr, (Creative Commons).