A Little Story About Piojos
“When it comes to lice control, Pronto gets straight A’s.”
A June 3, 1992 magazine advertisement for the product, Pronto, The
Complete Lice Killing System.
“Can you imagine that, mija, an advertisement with a gringuita with her
piojos?”, she asked. “Piojos?,” I said. And she replied, “Yes, piojos!” And
we laughed at the thought. But I knew that her laughter was for a
different reason than mine. She laughed because it proved to the world
that gringos get piojos too. And now, they actually advertise it!!! I
laughed because she laughed at the idea of it all. You see, when she
was a young school girl at the Central School on Church Hill in Miami,
Arizona, she was humiliated and embarrassed when she and all the
other Mexican kids were singled out from the Anglo kids and sent to the
nurse’s office to be checked for pijos. “The teachers never checked the
heads of the gringitos,” she recalled. And the humiliation she suffered
remained in her memory after all these many of her 72 years. And now!
She can throw her head back and laugh and laugh because the gringita
in the magazine advertisement for some kind of head lice shampoo
product is telling the whole world that she has piojos! Ah, justice has
been served, mamá. ……ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,…
A June 3, 1992 magazine advertisement for the product, Pronto, The
Complete Lice Killing System.
“Can you imagine that, mija, an advertisement with a gringuita with her
piojos?”, she asked. “Piojos?,” I said. And she replied, “Yes, piojos!” And
we laughed at the thought. But I knew that her laughter was for a
different reason than mine. She laughed because it proved to the world
that gringos get piojos too. And now, they actually advertise it!!! I
laughed because she laughed at the idea of it all. You see, when she
was a young school girl at the Central School on Church Hill in Miami,
Arizona, she was humiliated and embarrassed when she and all the
other Mexican kids were singled out from the Anglo kids and sent to the
nurse’s office to be checked for pijos. “The teachers never checked the
heads of the gringitos,” she recalled. And the humiliation she suffered
remained in her memory after all these many of her 72 years. And now!
She can throw her head back and laugh and laugh because the gringita
in the magazine advertisement for some kind of head lice shampoo
product is telling the whole world that she has piojos! Ah, justice has
been served, mamá. ……ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,…
Dr. Christine Marin Curator/Archivist and Historian of the
Chicano Research Collection, Department of Archives andd
Special Collections, Hayden Library, Arizona State University
E-mail: Christine.Marin@asu.edu
Chicano Research Collection, Department of Archives andd
Special Collections, Hayden Library, Arizona State University
E-mail: Christine.Marin@asu.edu
Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues in Phoenix, Arizona
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