Arnold, One Hot-Blooded, Blue Eyed American

Arnold, One Hot-Blooded, Blue Eyed American
Originally uploaded by lorenzodom

Hot-Blooded, Blue-Eyed, but not All-American

September 14, 2006, California:
“California police are looking to find out whether hackers broke into the governor's computer and downloaded a recording of a private conversation in which he said African-Americans and Latinos are ‘hot-blooded.’” - Information Week

Good for Arnold.

I don’t know about African-Americans, but I agree with the Governator—a lot Latinos are hot-blooded.

I’m a “Latino,” a Mexican-American born and bred in Northern California and I am very proud of my Latin-American heritage and the passion I inherited because of it: the passion for photography, the passion for writing, the passion for my family and friends, the passion for experiencing love and all its splendor, and most of all, my ardent passion for this wonderful life!

There is a beautiful Spanish saying which I like to use whenever I’m out drinking with my friends: ¡Al amor, el dinero, y el salud; y el tiempo para gastar lo todo!

To love, money and health; and the time to spend it all!

People waste so much time these days over these frivolous issues. This is not Watergate again, as some pundits are saying. Get a grip, get a life.

Like I’ve said before, let’s not make a mountain out of a mole hill, una tormenta en un vaso de agua, زوبعة في فنجان (zawba3atun fii finjaanin), Sääsest elevanti tegema, Делать из мухи слона,Van een mug een olifant maken, tehdä kärpäsestä härkänen, Fare d'una mosca un elefante—an elephant out of a mosquito.

Let me tell you a secret: Arnold Schwarzenegger is really not a cyborg.

Believe it or not, he is actually a human who is apt to, and in my low-brow opinion—allowed to, make off-color remarks from time to time. Cut the guy a break, he’s got the equivalent of a third-world country to manage.

And you know, regardless of what a lot of people may believe, the world is not flat, men and women are not equal (we are very different), people of different cultural heritages have different preferences, different tastes, different traditions and different ways of engaging this wonderful life.

So, as the French might say, Vive le Difference!

Because the truth is, as the philosophizing fool, the comedic genius, Steve Martin, once said, “It's like those French have a different word for everything!” As do Mexicans and Germans and Vietnamese and Turks and Ethiopians and New Yorkers. Yo! Get the fuck out of my way!

Language translates into so many things: how we see the world, our values, our pastimes, what we pay attention to, what matters to us most, and how we feel about the world and this wonderful life.

Have I ever mentioned that I think that life is wonderful?

If anything, I truly believe Arnold may have underhandedly meant it as a compliment. For I have always admired him for his own passion and exuberance for life.

Perhaps the greatest body builder that ever was (seven time, undefeated Mr. Universe), movie star, real estate mogul and now Governor of California. That to me is a sign that this guy loves life,that he is passionate and hot-blooded and not afraid to tell like it is.

The true national anthem for many Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans like me, is not Mexicanos, al grito de Guerra; no, it is El Rey written by the country’s most famous composers and lyricists— José Alfredo Jiménez.

The song has been recorded innumerable times and it describes the soul of many people who value the power of individual will, and the will to determine one’s own life. It is a particularly great song to sing-and-slur after a few too many shots of tequila.

El Rey

Yo sé bien que estoy afuera,
pero el día que yo me muera,
sé que tendrás que llorar.

Llorar y llorar,
llorar y llorar.

Dirás que no me quisiste,
pero vas a estar muy triste
y así te vas a quedar.

Chorus

Con dinero y sin dinero
hago siempre lo que quiero
y mi palabra es la ley.

No tengo trono ni reina,
ni nadie que me comprenda,
pero sigo siendo el rey.


Una piedra en el camino
me enseñó que mi destino
Era rodar y rodar.

Rodar y rodar,
rodar y rodar.

Después me dijo un arriero
que no hay que llegar primero
pero hay que saber llegar.

Repeat Chorus

The King

I know well that I don’t matter,
But the day I die
You will cry.

You will cry,
You will cry.

You’ll say you never did love me,
But you’ll feel sad thinking of me,
And that’s how you’ll always be.

With or without money
I do as I please
And the law is what I say.

I have neither throne nor queen,
Nor anyone who understands me
But the king I will always be.

From a stone along the road
I learned that my fate,
Was just to roll and to roll.

To roll and to roll,
to roll and to roll.

Then an old mule driver told me:
Its not about getting there first,
Its about knowing how to get there.


Of course, it sounds much, much better in Spanish, especially when you’re really-really drunk. But there you have it.

Admittedly, it is a very machismo, very male, song in a way; but it is also a song about individuality, about the greatest feeling one can experience—lost love, about passion, and about being hot-blooded.

It is very much the equivalent to what some might argue is the American equivalent unofficial national anthem of a certain generation: My Way especially as sung by old blue eyes, the late and great Frank Sinatra.

My Way

And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

(written by Paul Anka).



Arnold Schwarzenegger happens to have blue eyes too…and, he’s hot-blooded.

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