Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Was Mexico all about revenge or about need?

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Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on August 30, 2006, 01:29:40 pm ---Still, how did Ennis know about it so specifically? I can't imagine his coworkers, when exchanging travel tips, recommending it as a destination for sex tourism. But maybe they would taunt each other with the "You been to Mexico?" line.

--- End quote ---

Well, I wouldn't exactly call it recommending a destination for sex tourism, but I've always assumed that Ennis did pick it up from talk among his coworkers. When I think that Ennis was doing a man's job to support himself at an age when most kids don't even have a driver's license, I've always imagined he picked up a lot of stuff from older coworkers joking and talking about things they probably shouldn't have around a young boy--but I guess you grow up early and quick when you're in a situation like Ennis's. But that doesn't answer the question, How did his coworkers know that Mexico was the place?

nakymaton:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on August 30, 2006, 02:32:37 pm ---But that doesn't answer the question, How did his coworkers know that Mexico was the place?

--- End quote ---

From seasonal agricultural laborers? I don't know much about the history of agricultural laborers in the western US, but I think there may have been more seasonal workers traveling from Mexico and other parts of Latin America than I realize. (I know there are a lot of seasonal agricultural workers today, more than most people think about, even in places that are awfully far from Mexico.) I don't know how much ranches (as opposed to farms) hire seasonal workers -- but we know from AP's "Getting Movied" essay that most sheepherders were Basque and then South American, and that she was worried that it might be historically inaccurate to have a couple Anglo kids herding sheep.

And, yeah, I think Ennis would have been much less sheltered from rumors than, say, his daughters would have been.

serious crayons:
I lived for a couple of years in a farm town in northern Minnesota. All -- or at least almost all -- of the migrant agricultural workers were Spanish-speaking, and were commonly referred to as Mexicans (though some may have come from Spanish-speaking communities in the southwest U.S., I suppose).

Also, Ennis probably had non-Mexican coworkers who were from the border area and had heard hearsay about what people go to Mexico for. I know that people go to Canada for cheap prescription drugs, though I've never done it myself or talked directly to anyone who has.

Front-Ranger:
It is sad and ironic but it seems like the thing homophobic men talk about most is homosexuality. Some people focus most on the thing they fear and hate. You want to hear about Hillary Clinton, just dial up Bill O'Reily or what's his name, you know, the drug addict.  ::)

moremojo:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on August 30, 2006, 03:50:30 pm ---It is sad and ironic but it seems like the thing homophobic men talk about most is homosexuality. Some people focus most on the thing they fear and hate.
--- End quote ---
Sure enough...and methinks they focus on what they fear and hate in themselves. Why would a man secure in his own heterosexuality get unduly worked up about the issue, unless maybe he became the unwelcome object of a gay man's attentions? And even then, why can't a straight man regard the admiration of another man as a compliment rather than a threat? One should be wary of overgeneralizations, but I perceive that women tend to be a lot less hung up on the issue of sexual identity than men, and are more open to experimentation, and I think this has a whole lot to do with the differences between how men and women are socialized in our culture.

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