The Protocols of the Elders of Zapopan

So we we passed through the Sunday antiques market today as part of a long meander. There are plenty of oddities to rifle through--faded votive paintings giving thanks to the Virgin of Zapopan, taxidermy, comics explaining Mexican history, old B movie posters, masks, hard bound tourist guidebooks from the 1960's, and various other curiosities.

One of the things I don't like about it though is the prevalence of creepy anti-semitic items on display. There are always Nazi helmets, Spanish language copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Henry Ford's "The International Jew", and even vendors selling framed photographs of Hitler. The strange thing is that although Guadalajara is known for having a lot of blonde and fair skinned Mexicans, these folks are just your average mestizos, which is to say the result of "race-mixing". If they're hoping to sign up with the white supremacists, oh boy are they in for a surprise. We normally do our best to avoid them, but today I just couldn't help myself from staring. I was at another booth, but this guy wearing army surplus fatigues hawking black and white Nazi prints caught my attention. He evidently mistook my look of stunned horror for one of extreme fascination with Nazi memorabilia. He winked at me as he motioned to a large photo of Der Führer issuing a Roman salute. It was only then that I noticed the writing on his camouflage hat. It said "ISRAEL ARMY" in big letters, with some writing in Hebrew underneath. It was so baffling, I really wish I brought a camera.