4x4

in much the same way that mtv culture has influenced the way the youth dress in the developing world, the wealthier mexicans have embraced the all-american bigger is better attitude to their motors, and then added their own dash of off-road spice.  drive our raised toyota around traffic in london and you smugly look down on bmw X5s and mercedes m-classes; the only thing that blocks your line of sight is a truck or bus.  in southern baja california we're just another motor.  yes we have the bull bar, the fog lights, the big white letters on the sides of our wheels etc. but so does everyone else - supersized.  they tint ALL the windows including the front windscreen, they have REAR bull bars (backing it up), they sport wheels which would look more appropriate on a 747... and in the evenings, while they repeatedly do the block, the subwoofers blast bass lines to not hip hop but to latin music, sometimes jazz...

when we first arrived i ridiculed these phallic monstrosities but not anymore.  while an old mechanic was nodding approvingly at our protruding winch and telling me how useful they are, another 4x4 rolled in to the garage with a leaking radiator - he'd just hit a deer at 100 km/h - a potentially dangerous collision were it not for that mean looking bull bar at the front.  those tough looking fog lights genuinely do highlight the potholes in the dirt roads, and the badboy tinted windows definitely keep the inside of the car cool under the burning sun.  so ridicule no more - now we respect these heavily accessorised trucks for their functional value - but just in case it is an image thing and the size of our truck and my manhood is being challenged, i've purchased his and hers cowboy hats for e-j and me to wear when driving in urban areas, and at my next weekly shave i'll be leaving an all-american all-mexican all-man walrus tache sitting defiantly on my upper lip. your move mexico.