HispanicNashville.com: 2009 "You Are So Nashville If..." winners are heavy on the Mexican food and English Only

Monday, July 20, 2009

2009 "You Are So Nashville If..." winners are heavy on the Mexican food and English Only

Symphony conductor Giancarlo Guerrero mentioned twice
20th edition of annual Nashville Scene contest

Every year for the past 20 years, the Nashville Scene has held a fill-in-the-blank contest called "You Are Nashville If...":

If you want to find out what's on people's minds—what makes them grind their teeth on the drive to work, what makes them spit their morning coffee, and what makes them consider chucking the remote by the time they hit the sack—don't do any of the things the media typically do to take the city's pulse. Don't conduct a poll. Don't hire telemarketers. Don't put a guy with a clipboard at the foot of the escalator in Green Hills Mall. Instead, just ask people to finish this thought: "You are so Nashville if..."

As in previous years, the 2009 edition contains subjects that have been featured on HispanicNashville.com. This year, it's Mexican food and language politics.

Specifically, the entries focused on the social-media-friendly mobile taco behemoth (definitely not a cart) Mas Tacos, the upscale "Mexican gourmet" Gulch restaurant Cantina Laredo, and the English Only special election. With the multiple mentions, all three cement their place in Nashville's 2008-2009 zeitgeist.

Also, Nashville Symphony conductor Giancarlo Guerrero has become so intertwined in our city that he was mentioned in conjunction with both Mexican food and the English Only vote.

Nashville seems to be behaving much better as a city than we were in 2005, when the Scene found it necessary to issue a memo to "all y'all who bitched about having to learn how to say 'all y'all' in Spanish."

Here are those 2009 entries:

MEXICAN FOOD

You drunkenly tried to order a chicken taco from an unfortunate tourist in a Winnebago. Dan McNamara (this was the second place entry)

You live on Nolensville Road but just drove to The Gulch to eat Mexican food. Lindsay Bergstrom

You don't understand why those Giancarlo Guerrero Nashville Symphony ads don't tell you where his Mexican restaurant is. Mike Bodayle

Your local taco stand has valet parking. Barbara Lamb [no relation -ed.]

You know you've eaten tacos from the Mas Tacos truck, but you just can't quite remember what they tasted like, looked like or cost you. Larry Mell Morgan

You condone paying $10 for tableside guacamole as long as it's served to you in The Gulch. Andrew Cole

ENGLISH ONLY

You tweeted something in Spanish to @ericcrafton just to get on his nerves. Andrew Cole

You were the only English First donor who actually lives here. Meredith Hunter

After English Only failed, you requested a copy of the Metro budget in Roman numerals. Daniel Dunn

You voted for "English First" but ordered Rosetta Stone off the TV ads to learn Spanish. Jerry Klein

You appreciate all he did in defeating the English Only amendment, and you feel really guilty, but you're going to have to remove Mario Ramos from your Facebook friends now. Larry Mell Morgan

You wouldn't pee on Eric Crafton to put him out if he was on fire. Lucas Leverett

You wish you lived in Eric Crafton's district so you could run against him, or at least TP his house. Lucas Leverett

You caught the swine flu at a Cinco de Mayo party at Eric Crafton's house. Michael Williams

You were disappointed that the "English First" ballot wasn't bilingual. Mike Bodayle

Eric Crafton wants to deport Giancarlo Guerrero. Unknown

You think that English Only is good, only you don't speak English that good. Unknown

Eric Crafton's life is a foreign affair. Wando Weaver

You'd like to teabag Eric Crafton with a burrito.