Hey Laredo, we are different

"You people from Laredo are different. Can't quite put my finger on it, but you are unique!"
This from an insurance company rep who has visited me periodically for over ten years.
"You from Laredo? What is it about you people that makes you walk around like you're hot shit or something?" This from a wealthy, influential, slightly drunk man I met recently at a cocktail party in San Antonio.
Back around the turn of the 19th century when the Anglo carpetbaggers were invading the TexMex border towns, they wreaked havoc on the poor, simple, uneducated mestizos and Indians from Brownsville to El Paso with one exception. You guessed it, Laredo.
Laredo was the only community anywhere on the border with significant sophisticated and educated gentry.
The Río Grande Valley area was quickly and thoroughly taken over by the thieving Anglos. The educated gringos gained ownership of the fertile Valley by the fraud they were able to perpetrate on the illiterate locals.
These "whites" kept total control of the Valley and practiced discrimination toward the mesquins, equivalent to the plantation owners' treatment of the Blacks of the Deep South until the 1960s, when the most significant cultural freedom change in the history of the U.S.A. began to take hold. I have a tendency to believe that the beautiful mestizo Valley women became influential in their roles as wives of the Anglos and mothers of their gringo husbands' children.
The rednecks met their Waterloo when they came to Laredo. They were totally rebuked by a Laredo establishment that was even better educated than these invaders and far more sophisticated.
The tables were turned on the gringos and "they" became the victims of discrimination. The venerable old families of Laredo completely rejected these foreigners. The gringos were not able to break into Laredo's "in-group" no matter how many dollars they owned.
Their women were socially ostracized by the Damas de Laredo.
Time has changed Laredo's attitude toward gringos. However, there still exists a pocket of Anglos who band together socially and consider the locals as nothing more than a bunch of mesquins. They associate strictly for the purpose of doing business.
Laredo has achieved a status in the world of international trade that is incredible. This relatively small isolated city is expert in dealing with the intricate import and export laws and duties of the U.S.A. and Mexico. Our skills are well-honed to deal with the Mexican business establishment.
Doing business with our neighbors to the south is very different from the "American Way" of doing business.
It is my opinion that successful Mexican businessmen are not total anarchists in the world of laws that impart ethics and fair play in business, they simply believe that the movement of money transcends government bureaucracy, thereby creating business with the spoils of business going primarily to the those that already have money, AKA those that have vs. those that don't.
I had a Mexican businessman tell me that bribery at border crossings was okay with him, because, in business, it is understood that everything has a price, even the illegal entry of legitimate goods into Mexico.
He went on to say, "I understand financial transactions. What I have great difficulty understanding is the nonsense of classification of goods in relation to import duties."
And the bribes go on. . . and the bribes go on . . .
We Laredoans know we are good, because San Antonio, our greedy, jealous, big city neighbor continually and greedily tries to steal our thunder. The Alamo city even calls itself the Gateway to Mexico. They seem to forget that annexing all the property 150 miles south of their present city limits may be difficult.
Their claim to fame has always been greasing enough politicians' palms to keep government money pouring in for the area Army and Air Force bases. Recently, they ran short of grease, cause Kelly AFB is gone.
Laredo, on the other hand has been continuously sharpening its international business acumen, being proactive rather than reactive.
Laredo's mayor, Betty Flores, and the city council persons have been and are doing a magnificent job in a city complicated by the dichotomy of grand affluence and abject poverty as well as the advantage of being the Gateway to Mexico and walking the fine line of national and international political correctness.
I especially admire Mayor Flores' passionate quest for Laredo's continued prominence. Nothing worthy has ever been accomplished without great passion!
Are we the U.S.A.? Yes or No. Are we Mexico? Yes or No.
Well then -- what are we? We are unique, we are Laredo!

(Please send your insurance questions to Henri D. Kahn, c/o LareDOS, 1812 Houston St. 78040; fax 791-4737; or e-mail laredos@icsi.net.)