Sergi Xavier Martin’s Youtube-won Infamy

The big news in Ecuador, besides the case of Miller Bolanos and the banning of Halloween, is the racist attack of a teen Ecuadorean immigrant on a train in Barcelona by 21 year old Sergi Xavier Martin. Eduardo Avila provides quite a summary of the Ecuadorean blog reaction.

The attack would have garnered little attention had it not been captured on security videol it was only a matter of time until it reached that locus of world conversation, YouTube.

One of the Spanish reporters referred to Marin as having a “skin aesthetic,” a verdict derived, I suppose, from his short hair, tight clothes, and demonstrated affection for violence. It always rankles to hear all skinheads thrown in with jerks like Marin: I guess the Spanish reporter has yet to see Shane Meadows’ This is England about white supremacists’ co-optation of skinhead culture.

For that matter, she likely never saw David Fuentes and his multi-racial, one-love ska-rocksteady LA-based band Hepcat. Fuentes died last month at the age of 35; fellow bandmake Greg Narvas started a touching tribute blog, Dave Remembered.