It is astonishing to me that so many people visit my site and respond with a knee jerk reaction when presented with an opinion they disagree with. Because I dislike pinatas, and feel that Mexico’s culture fosters violence, people choose to ignore my warning and accuse me of bigotry.

If I say America is a violent society, and it is, who am I stereotyping? White people in Texas who pack guns? Blacks in New Orleans who lost their homes? Or suburban white kids who shoot up their schools? Saying America is a violent society may be generalizing, but it isn’t racism.

Mexico is a nation of many races - indigenous populations, mixed race populations that combined the indigenous DNA with the European conqueror’s DNA, even nearly pure blooded European stock. Who am I being racist towards when saying that Mexican society, their culture, is violent? No one. I am not assigning violence to any DNA profile, I am assigning it to an environment that promotes violence through bloody bull fights and pinata bashing. There is a huge difference. The police in Mexico carry machine guns! Why would the police need machine guns if Mexico weren’t a violent society?

Unfortunately, my comments about Mexican culture seem to have taken the spotlight off of why I created this site - to educate people like you about the dangerous influence pinatas can have on our impressionable youth - so I wanted to take a moment to reinforce that I have nothing against Mexicans, my uncle is married to one and I have half Mexican cousins. I just don’t like their violent sports and festivities like pinata bashing.

Someone posted a comment on my site that he bets I think guns kill people.

Is anyone so naive as to think they don’t? Every statistic has shown that when access to guns, hand guns in particular, is constrained or eliminated, violent crime, and deaths by violence, go down. It is incontrovertible, despite what the NRA says.

So yes, I think guns kill people.

And giving kids a pinata is like giving them a loaded gun and hoping nobody gets hurt.

My campaign to educate America about the insipent danger of pinatas is an uphill battle. I know that. I routinely face derision for waging my battle, but if I can spare just one child, or one parent, the pain and suffering that is both physical and mentally, then it is worth it.

People will say, “so should we ban baseball too since your daughter used a bat?” No, of course not. The point of baseball isn’t to beat something into pieces and encourage violence. But that is the point of pinatas.

People say “should we try to protect the world from every conceivable form of suffering?” No. It isn’t possible. But when there are obvious hazards that serve no useful purpose other than “fun” which is derived primarily from acting in violence, then why should we encourage that kind of activity? We shouldn’t.

People say “what’s the big deal, it’s just a pinata.” But you know, people used to say, “what’s the big deal, it’s just a cigarette.” Or a cherry bomb. Or a switchblade. They’re all harmless, right? Pinatas are no different than a cigarette, a cherry bomb or a knife. Sure, they can all be used safely, but the potential for harm out weighs any other value. And so we regulate and/or ban these things.

There are now two studies that show direct links between pinatas and violent behavior. There are no free speech issues. So why should we tolerate the ongoing availability of pinatas? We shouldn’t. And I will continue my fight to stop pinata related violence.

It is bad enough that video games routinely intice our youth to violence. I read a new grand theft auto game was coming out soon and I honestly fear for the safety of the parents who’s children play that game. I was trying to find something not so violence ridden for my daughter and came across a pinata game.

The clerk told me it was a sandbox game like GTA. Why am I not surprised? I suppose you urinate on prostitute pinatas when you’re not bashing their heads in for candy. I sincerely hope whoever the next president is takes a good looong look at regulating the sale of violent video games like grand theft auto and viva pinata to our children.

I don’t want people to think that just because I think pinatas are evil that I don’t want kids to have fun. So I look for non-violent alternatives to pinatas to suggest. Here’s one I quite like. Burying goodies in a sandbox and having the kids dig for “gold.” I love it. No bashing of animal effigies and no follow up bashing of parents. 

Read more here

A reader just sent me a link to what I can only describe as the perfect example of pinatas inciting violence.

This particular pinata is of Osama bin Laden, and the website even extohls consumers to “kick his ass off.”

It really isn’t much of a leap to go from beating on this rather generic arab looking pinata to beating actual arabs. Even if Osama is a terrorist, pinatas that can incite actual hate crimes against law abiding arabs in our country legally should not be available for sale.

Would we tolerate this pinata if it were a black man? Or a jew? No.

A reader just sent in this somewhat interesting discussion of pinatas by a group of Berkeley parents. There are some good alternative suggestions in there…

We were at church today and I was told that it is traditional for hispanics to celebrate this most holy of days by - you guessed it - bashing in pinatas! Argh! That’s all well and good for them to do in Catholic places like Mexico, but the reason it came up today is because my church was having a pinata party after the service! I couldn’t believe it! And they wanted us all to bring our kids to whack at the pinata while we had donuts and coffee.

Its bad enough that these horrible things have invaded birthday celebrations, but now they’re desecrating the resurrection of our Savior with it.

I informed the pastor that if the church ever had another pinata themed event I would be switching churches.

A recent sociology study by UCLA students and faculty that is currently being submitted for publication found that nearly 60% of Los Angeles area gang members had participated in pinata parties as youths. The study also found that most gang members incorporated pinatas into their ongoing criminal activities.

Examples included:

• shooting at pinatas with shotguns while blindfolded
• using captured members of rival gangs as pinatas, assailing gang members would hand one of their own a bat, blindfold him, send him after the “pinata” and yell out the customary “arriba” and “abajo” to make it easier to hit the suspended “pinata” gang member
• using pinata parties as recruitment tools for young gang members

Personally, I find this behavior both despicable and unsurprising. It corroborates Dr. Hans Fischman’s 2005 study on pinatas as “gateway violence” and proves once again the link between pinatas and violent behavior. Once the study is published, I don’t know how the city and county governments in Orange County will be able to continue to refuse the call for banning pinatas. 

source: Jason Crawley, student researcher on the paper, UCLA

A recent report documented over 36,000 cases of pinata related violence against animals in 2005 that were reported to animal shelters, vets, and animal welfare groups. Most incidents resulted in broken bones, maimed or damaged eyes and ears, and long term socialization problems. Over 14%, however, resulted in death.  

Some other interesting statistics in the report: 

Average age of animal beater: 11 

Most commonly beaten animal: Cat 

Second most commonly beaten animal: Tropical Birds 

Most beatings took place within 48 of the perpetrators’ exposure to a pinata.  

source: Orange County Humane Society report to city council on causes of animal abuse, Feb 2006