Goodness snakes
Today: Zito Madu, a journalist and author of The Minotaur at Calle Lanza.
Issue No. 252
Shedding the Skin
Zito Madu
Shedding the Skin
by Zito Madu
I had seen the coat of arms of Mexico many times in my life, but during the 2014 World Cup, after Mexico scored the one and only goal of their opening match against Cameroon, a friend of mine of Mexican background posted an animated gif on Twitter of the eagle devouring the snake and then shrieking and spreading its wings. It was magnificent.
I was already a fan of the Mexican national team because they had players I adored like Giovani dos Santos, Andrés Guardado, and Guillermo Ochoa and, though he wasn’t with the team at the time, Carlos Vela was and remains dear to me. Plus, on a more contrarian level, it was fun to support the main rival to the United States—a team whose identity seemed built on exclusions based on race and class, an attitude reflecting the worst aspects of the country’s wider society. The Mexican eagle devouring a snake made it that much easier to cheer for them for the rest of the tournament.
I’ve hated snakes since I was a child. I grew up Catholic, so I absorbed the idea and image of the snake as devious, deceitful, and evil very early on. The snake represented the devil, indelibly, an idea reinforced continually in books, TV, movies, and songs.
Keep us breathing fire!
For $3/month you can read this whole post and get our weekdaily newsletter too!