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Going through some old boxes of books, I came across this newspaper article that I saved for just such a moment as right now and rather than rewrite the whole thing, I went to the archives of the SD Union and payed a couple of bucks for it.
Keep in mind the date of this article, 1990.
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The Chilango Chill
A warm welcome isn't likely for Mexico City transplants in the nation's 'provinces'


Gregory Gross Staff Writer
PUBLICATION: San Diego Union, The (CA)

SECTION: LIFESTYLE

DATE: May 13, 1990

EDITION: 1,2

Page: D-1



You say you're tired of being seen as "the ugly American," weary of being told "Yankee go home," fed up with having people abroad look upon you as the scum of the earth?

Cheer up. It could be worse. You could be a chilango.
Chilango is slang for a person who hails from Mexico City. And in much of Mexico, especially northern border states such as Baja California, people think of them with the same fondness they might have for, say, an outbreak of malaria.
Or worse.
"Chilangos are worse than the AIDS virus," said one Tijuana journalist, who, like many sources in this story, talked on condition of anonymity. "At least AIDS kills its victim and leaves him in peace. Chilangos never go away."
Regional rivalries are nothing new on either side of the border. Witness, for instance, the resentment of Pacific Northwest residents over the influx of Californians. Chicago columnist Mike Royko has all but made a career of poking fun at his more rural Midwestern brethren in Iowa.
But this is different. It's different when you hear of families from Mexico City being ostracized socially and their children harassed in school, of businessmen who have to hide their capitalino roots or risk losing business.
It is a conflict with roots in Mexican history and in the modern rise of the northern states, whose residents resent being treated as distant stepchildren by Mexico City, the seemingly all-powerful center of political, economic and educational life.
It also represents a clash of lifestyles, the relatively calm manners of the north vs. the aggressive urbanized ways that typify Mexico City. They're, pushy, arrogant, rude, say the nortenos. They cut you off in traffic, cut in front of you in line, they park on the sidewalk if they feel like it.
Chilangos, for their part, often see themselves as being on a higher educational and cultural level than their cousins living in what Mexico City residents call "the provinces."
"Chilangos think they are superior. They think they have the best opportunities, the best culture, the best connections. We hear this complaint frequently in Tijuana," said Samuel Schmidt, a political science professor at San Diego State University and a chilango himself.
One local lawyer put it another way: "How would you like it if people were coming from 2,000 kilometers away and trying to tell you how to do everything?"
Schmidt, who lectures once a week at the Autonomous University of Baja California, tries to disarm the anti-chilango biases of his Tijuana students with a bit of humor.
"Before we talk about national politics, I say, 'I know you hate chilangos and I am a chilango, so let's not discuss it,' " he said.
Not funny are the bumper stickers and posters that used to appear here and there in northern Mexico: "Serve the motherland. Kill a chilango."
"It's not a joke," one journalism student said. "A lot of people here hate them, absolutely hate them. My father thinks they're invading us."
Until he was murdered two years ago, Hector "Gato" Felix Miranda, the controversial columnist in the Tijuana weekly Zeta, frequently railed against chilangos in his weekly column. He even appointed himself secretary-general of the mythical Committee for the Eradication of the Chilango in Baja California.
Nor is this hostility limited to the north. "Chilangophobia" extends as far south as Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city. There, chilangos are blamed for everything from reckless drivers to a lack of rainfall.
In 1987, Mexican newspapers carried accounts from the northern city of Hermosillo of a 9-year-old boy beaten to death by a group of schoolmates. The reason: He was a chilango and he "talked funny."
"They hate us, they detest us, they attack us," Manu Dornbierer wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior in 1988. "We are the enemy within."
How did it get like this?
Chilangophobia has its roots in two factors, in Schmidt's opinion.
The first, he said, was the Spanish conquest of Mexico, which left Mexicans leery of domination by outsiders, even regional ones. The second was the rise of a powerful federal government that ruled from Mexico City. Finances are one example of that rule, Schmidt said. The border states generate much of Mexico's financial wealth, but have little control over it. The federal government draws tax money from the states and then redistributes it, to the great irritation of nortenos.
"They feel they are subsidizing cheap life in Mexico City," Schmidt said, "and in some ways, it is true.
"One trip in Mexico City by subway costs 100 pesos, about 4 cents. One trip in Tijuana in public transportation system can cost 1,000 pesos, or 40 cents. They look at this and say, 'We are subsidizing the Mexico City subways.' It's a centralization of power that nobody likes."
It does seem at times that all roads lead to Mexico City. When the federal judicial police made a major cocaine seizure last year in Tijuana, federal anti-narcotics officers had to fly to Mexico City with the confiscated coke to make the announcement there.
Even local complaints about alleged abuses of suspects by federal judicial police in Tijuana form a part of the regional schism, Schmidt said.
"The people look at this as another abuse from the center," he said. "So when they see all these chilangos coming up here, controlling everything, they hate them."
Anti-chilango feelings even surfaced last year in the politics of Mexico's dominant political force, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI.
The PRI's candidate for governor of Baja California, Margarita Ortega Villa, didn't enter the race through local politicking, but was tapped for the nomination by the PRI hierarchy in Mexico City, Schmidt said.
When she became the first PRI candidate ever to lose a governor's race, local PRI loyalists pointed their fingers to the PRI delegates sent from Mexico City to run the campaign, Schmidt said.
"After Margarita's defeat in Baja, in the first PRI assemblies, they were blaming the chilangos," Schmidt said. "They were screaming, 'Chilangos go home. We don't need help from the center.' "
Then there is the matter of culture.
"You have to talk in terms of chilangos vs. nortenos," a local lawyer said. "Chilangos say, 'You nortenos always shout when you talk.' Nortenos say, 'You chilangos sing when you talk.'
"Nortenos consider themselves to be very open, very frank, very hard-working, very direct.
"Chilangos consider themselves very sophisticated, better prepared. To them, the best of the best is in Mexico City -- operas, theaters, concerts, galleries, writers, attorneys. To them, Tijuana is a cultural desert."
Baja residents and other Mexican nortenos chafe at this image, perhaps justifiably. As of 1980, five of the six northern Mexican states had more residents with 12 years of education than the national average -- and the one that didn't was only one-tenth of a percentage point behind.
Still, the "country bumpkin" image persists, and with it, norteno resentment.
Mexican writers and thinkers throughout the country have decried this anti-chilango feeling, calling it "regional xenophobia," a "pathological hatred" -- even, in the words of a full-page ad from a Mexico City expatriate in Tijuana's El Mexicano, "northern neo-Naziism."
"It's absurd, it's incredible," journalist Jorge Aviles Randolph wrote of the hostility. "But it's happening."
But while one may not see "Kill a chilango" posters and bumper stickers anymore, nortenos and chilangos alike agree that the attitudes that inspired them still run strong.
"It's a cultural problem," Schmidt said. "How to do away with that, I don't know."

Chilangos refer to themselves as Chilangos. At least the ones I know do, in the same way that I refer to myself as a Gringa. I imagine it all has to do with who is using the nickname, and the intent behind the use.

I think the tension between Chilangos and Mexicans elsewhere is a simple culture clash. D.F. is, obviously, urban in the extreme. Along with that goes a busier and less friendly, hospitable lifestyle that is so typical in most of Mexico. Nonetheless, among friends and neighbors, the Mexican relationship values remain the same, IMO.

It is the same in Argentina; those from Buenos Aires are referred to as "Porteños". The rest of Argentina views them in pretty much the same way the rest of Mexico views Chilangos...

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

It is the same in Argentina; those from Buenos Aires are referred to as "Porteños". The rest of Argentina views them in pretty much the same way the rest of Mexico views Chilangos...

The Chilango's are wannabe Porteños!

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

It is the same in Argentina; those from Buenos Aires are referred to as "Porteños". The rest of Argentina views them in pretty much the same way the rest of Mexico views Chilangos...

That 1990 article was very interesting and somewhat revealing as to the Baja locals mindset back then. I haven´t heard too much about it lately but after the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City when tens of thousands from Mexico City moved to Baja, mainly TJ and Mexicali, it was very well talked about in similar terms the article mentioned, especially with the new custom of horn honking and impatiences by the Chilangos [in those days still somewhat a derogatory term on the border] and their wearing black shoes, dark suits and long sleeved starched white shirts and ties in Mexicali when it was 110. They got a lot of laughs from people in those days.

Shoe shine guys showed up all over the place and long lines to get into the VIPs and Sanbourns, not to mention capachino everywhere all of a sudden. Too bad they didn´t bring the ruffled deep fried bread slices also. Alan

A friend of mine's father is from Mexico City. He said, "Chilango" is the name given to anyone from Mexico City. Just like someone from Guadalajara is called "Tapatio". I have no idea why though!

For many years (1821-1970's), the federal government (Mexico City) seemed to ignore Baja California and considered it a far away, unimportant province... Money paid in taxes for services, highways, etc. never seemed to get back to Baja. The southern half (Baja California Sur) was a federal territory until 1974, and federal things (like Highway 1) got built faster there than in the northern state... Example, in the spring of 1973, all of Highway 1 was completed in the southern territory, but had barely pushed south of San Quintin in the northern state. Baja Californians were pretty much fed up with the feds up to that year!

If you go back to the Mexican War, 1846-1848, you will read how many key people of Baja California were excited to become part of the United States, so finally some progress would come to the peninsula! Of course, at the negotiations for the territory split, we returned the peninsula to Mexico. The pro-annexation people of Baja had to seek asylum in Alta California fearing reprisals for their actions. Alta California was even further away and easily annexed by Americans, first during the Bear Flag Revolt (California Republic) then soon after by the United States military.

So, anyway... the Chilango bigotry dates way back, specially in Baja California...

Originally Posted by Bob H

Just like someone from Guadalajara is called "Tapatio". I have no idea why though!

And....we have the Jarabe Tapatio, known also as the Mexican Hat Dance:

Jarabe Tapatio - YouTube

Jarabe TapatÃ*o - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by David K

For many years (1821-1970's), the federal government (Mexico City) seemed to ignore Baja California and considered it a far away, unimportant province...

Not much has changed since the 1970's in that regard.

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

Not much has changed since the 1970's in that regard.

So this disrespect continues on??? I guess 'Chilango' will be used for many more years?

Many here in Baja's political circles refer to the peninsula as Mexico's forgotten bastard son...

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

Many here in Baja's political circles refer to the peninsula as Mexico's forgotten bastard son...

So it sounds like lack of govt. attention is viewed in a negative light. Do you think it has its advantages?

Originally Posted by DebMer

So it sounds like lack of govt. attention is viewed in a negative light. Do you think it has its advantages?

Well...these evaluations and observations are somewhat passé since Baja became a warfront in the drug war. We've been rediscovered. We're no longer, by any stretch of the imagination, considered "the provinces," as they would in the past refer to Baja.
Now...we're the leading edge in Maquiladora development , as well as host of the most travelled international portal in the world.

Tijuana is world class in the international business world and, as a tourist destination, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

Baja is now a national asset, and these archaic labels..."provinces"....as well as "Chilango" will suffer a long, hard death in this country that sees as it's most valuable quality, veneration of its history.

Originally Posted by DENNIS

Well...these evaluations and observations are somewhat passé since Baja became a warfront in the drug war. We've been rediscovered. We're no longer, by any stretch of the imagination, considered "the provinces," as they would in the past refer to Baja.
Now...we're the leading edge in Maquiladora development , as well as host of the most travelled international portal in the world.

Tijuana is world class in the international business world and, as a tourist destination, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

Baja is now a national asset, and these archaic labels..."provinces"....as well as "Chilango" will suffer a long, hard death in this country that sees as it's most valuable quality, veneration of its history.

"Tijuana is world class in the international business world and, as a tourist destination, the possibilities are seemingly endless."

Possibilities are like wishes- nothing happens unless imagination and effort is applied. I don't know if they see it in their heads. I've never heard reference to a 5/10/20 year Master Development Plan for Baja or seen a "vision" of what they want Baja to become. The business world always finds its way first because direct money is involved. The service sectors will follow. Nothing will thrive in an atmosphere of insecurity though. jmho.

Very true.

When my wife hears someone speaking with a Chilango accent, she sneers and mutters.

Originally Posted by sargentodiaz

When my wife hears someone speaking with a Chilango accent, she sneers and mutters.

This happens everywhere in the world. My Mother-in-law is from Berllin, and every single time she hears a German accent from Bavaria, she does the exact same thing !

Originally Posted by Bob H

This happens everywhere in the world. My Mother-in-law is from Berllin, and every single time she hears a German accent from Bavaria, she does the exact same thing !

And in Bavaria they react the exact same way to the 'Preussen'