I think I need to address one strong criticism underlying everything I've said about “El Tabador,” namely, that it may be unfair to characterize a portrayal of Mexican culture as more broadly Hispanic. In reality, Latin American cultures are diverse, and many would perhaps be shocked to be included in a criticism of a Mexican cartoon character by Telus. There are significant divergences, for example, between Mexican and Guatemalan cultures. As far as I know, there are no professional wrestler's of the type “El Tabador” represents in Guatemala, at least they're not well-known in popular culture. The national music for the former is represented by the xylophone, whereas Mexicans are known for their mariachi. The traditional dress of Mayan peoples is quite distinct in their colours between themselves, let alone compared to national cultural representations in Mexico (for instance, a tall sombrero). Though it's difficult to describe, a Guatemalan accent is also much different from a Mexican, especially taking into account the many Mayan languages spoken throughout Guatemala. Mexican food is a bit different too. Guatemalan cuisine consists much more than Mexico of beans, small tortillas, plantains, stews, and tamales and paches on special occasions. Of course, that's not an exhaustive list of every difference, and certainly with a little investigation you could find similar differences between countries in South America and the rest of Central America and Mexico.

Nevertheless, there are things that unite Latin Americans both as people with the same history and in the effect advertisements have using any Spanish-Speaking people. If Galeano is right in his description of Latin America, as a cultural group, Latin Americans have been exploited to make other nations developed and wealthy. For instance, though certainly the Incan empire was culturally different than the Aztec, both were conquered by the Spanish and other nations in Europe for the sake of the same ends. As nations today, all of Latin America also remains the source of wealth for what we think of the first world, through debt and poorly paid labour in plantations, sweat-shops, and factories. Most Latin Americans share a common language as well, which despite being spoken differently is the same in most nations. When immigrants from these places find themselves in Europe or North America, it's these very similarities and their experience as Latin Americans that helps them work together in Hispanic communities to integrate into a foreign culture. An amiability within Hispanic culture is also usually known to every member, something which they immediately recognize when meeting people from a diversity of Latin American societies.

Advertisements that use any Hispanic character have a way of trivializing all of this through their manipulation of human nature. As Hume put it, we are creatures that look for general patterns. We think after seeing different things several times over that they are the same and will be the same way in the future. In other words, we draw general principles from our limited everyday experience. Advertisers know this profoundly well, which is why they use our natural predisposition to sell phone services. So though certainly people through their everyday experience will understand the differences among Latin Americans and question being grouped together into Mexican culture, our nature as inductive beings and the actual commonalities among Hispanics can induce others to think of Mexicans and Guatemalans in the exact same way. More specifically, after seeing an advertisement for Koodo and meeting a person from any country in Latin America with a thick Spanish accent, I might think that the person is kind of like the person who has been represented on television and Internet. That's both a problem for those who understand Hispanics are different and a tremendous benefit for those who want to use those commonalities to sell products.

If this is true, I'm not suggesting that all Hispanics are the same way. I'm suggesting that though “El Tabador” has one nationality, the effect is that it may be seen as representing all Latin American people. Advertisers do this through the portrayal of the character as having a heavy Spanish accent and Hispanic name. In fact, these characteristics alone can be so powerful in the context of inequality that they easily conjure stereotypes of incompetence and silliness, especially when the character himself is being ridiculed by circumstances. All of this is reason enough why any Latin American should be concerned with “El Tabador.” You don't need to be specifically Mexican to be offended.