moie website

It would be nice to know that the Mexicans had forgotten or forgiven the Mexican War that quickly.

If I still lived in downtown Tucson, rather than farther northeast, I'd probably have been woken up by mariachi music this morning. The Cinco de Mayo festivities can get quite excited in this part of the world!

Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday? Hey! Don't give me any bad news about Halloween.

Viva Cinco de Mayo? Certimente! Con mucho gusto!

But I think not a few of those brave and loyal Mexican souls who crossed the Rio Grande to serve under gringo sergeants and petty officers in our faraway wars on behalf of democracy were thinking of permanent residency and citizenship in someplace rich, stable and outside Mexico.

Anyway, Mexican music is good and so is the food, and Salma Hayek and Vanessa Bauche are even better. So,

Bienvenidos!

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

I have searched the usually indispensible Internet Movie Database and can find no reference to anyone named Vanessa Bauche. Who is this famous Chicana Diva whose charms have so caught the attention of the redoubtable Arnold Harris?

Redoubtable Arnold Harris calling Incomparable Dean Esmay...

You will find Vanessa Bauche as the female lead in "El Patrullero" (Highway Patrolman), a rather intelligent low-budget Spanish language film produced a few years ago in Mexico by Alex Cox, a rather interesting Brit film director. It tells the story of a rather idealistic young Mexican example of Smokey at his very best. Until the corruption gets to him and he becomes part of it.

Vanessa Bauche plays the role of Maribel, a whore with a heart and also a drug problem, whom our young highway cop alternately screws and tries to save. She is drop-dead gorgeous, and talented as well.

I never watch foreign language films dubbed in English, and I am less interested in the small-talk laden details of the dialogue than I am in the character interrelationships. And these I can fugure out without understanding the language that I am hearing on the screen.

Now, Dean, why in hell couldn't you find her in IMDB? Just go to the main page and in the upper lefthand corner, type in "vanessa bauche" (without the quote marks) and click on it. Up will pop her name, and her 1973 date of birth. Click on "awards and nominations" and you will see that she won the Silver Ariel award three times in Mexico since 1995 as best supporting actress.

Then go to Google, and you will find all kinds of references to her, including a website with her picture.

(Ah, to hell with it. I'll email you a link.)

Best of all, go to the local video rental place, look in the foreign film section, and take home Highway Patrolman / El Patrullero. If you don't agree she's one of the most beautiful and talented young ladies in Mexican films, I buy you the tamale.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI