By Javier Sanchez
Modelo Especial, the beer, could learn a lot from the lessons taught by Sleeping Beauty. The latest television commercial for Modelo is truly the by-product of years of over protectionism. It stands in great contrast to the rest of what Modelo values: heroism, bravery and the fighting spirit.
If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look.
I saw it and thought of one of our city councilors, Justin Salazar, because we enjoy drinking it together. Maybe Justin also embodies the characteristics sought after by the emblematic music and the proud traditions Especial is trying to embrace.
Just when I was attempting to wax eloquently, I saw a warning in the television commercial. Wait! We missed it. Like a flash, a small warning at the bottom of the screen. It was so quick I had to rewind it.
The words “Do Not Attempt”, are written in small print.
I thought to myself, this is a beer commercial where a family of women learn to make tortillas. What should we possibly not attempt?? A second look and we see a group of women flipping tortillas on the comal, and it strikes me that the commercial, while advocating for tenacity, truth and bravery, is also warning against burning your fingers while flipping tortillas! It’s as if we didn’t already know that comales could burn you and that placing items on a hot fire makes them, well, hot.
Then I thought of a fairytale with warnings.
In one of the many versions of Sleeping Beauty, a family goes to see a witch asking what the future holds for their newborn daughter.? The witch casts a spell on the child and says that when she is pricked by a needle, she will fall into a deep sleep. In order to avert such a calamity on their child, the father banishes all needles and spindles from the kingdom. He does this in order to protect his child from her fate.
It did not work. Had he taught his daughter how to use the needle correctly, however, she may not have pricked herself when encountering it for the first time and thus escape her fate. Asleep she falls.
The lesson, we are taught, is that by overprotecting our children, we keep them from learning the important things that will eventually keep them safe later in life.
We understand the need to protect our children and those closest to us. When the mama bear instinct kicks in, watch out! Exerting over-protective behavior, however, means trying to protect children from absolutely everything in the world, real life. We want them to never feel pain, harm, unhappiness, negative experiences, loss, rejection, failure or disappointment.
Guess what? That is not what life has in store. By being overprotective we prevent our kids not only from experiencing life, but also from creating the tools to succeed in it.
Over-protection leads to higher cases of children with low self-esteem which then leads to a false sense of entitlement. When we coddle our children and citizens to the point of keeping them safe from all the evils in the world, including bank failures and economic woes, or more simply never wanting them to sneeze, governments hope to show their children just how unique and special they are—like beautiful snowflakes.
We want them to believe how nothing should ever harm them or treat them unfairly. We remove personal responsibility and self-reliance. The hidden message here (much like the do not attempt message in the Modelo commercial) is that we are not capable, competent or good enough to manage decision making on our own.
This creates problems all too prevalent today in our society.
It is far more important to express freedom, individuality and resilience through attempting and failing than it is to never attempt at all. Without the ability to fail, we never learn.
We must remove the governmental and parental desire to over-protect. A person can learn a lot from watching commercials and reading fairytales.
Javier Sánchez is the former mayor of the City of Española, NM, and the co-owner of La Cocina New Mexican Restaurant.