you must have felt a little odd as a Spaniard in such a situation... - did you experience any discrimination because of mistaken identity - i.e. being mistaken for a Mexican citizen?
Actually no. Spaniards are more "european-like" when it comes to facial characteristics. Mexico is a country where a few of the population hold the majority of the money. It's no coincidence that the poor people, the migrants, are the ones with the "indian face", while the rich ones have more "european face". You are born poor and you die poor, from the cradle to the grave. There is no middle class, no way to climb the ladder in a matter of two or three generations, not even through hard work.
It also helped that I had a work visa, good english level, 2 grand in cash and a collection of credit cards. With those things it's difficult to be discriminated anywhere, neither the US nor anywhere in the World. On the contrary, when my brother went to LA to work as a teacher -with work permit, contract by the local council and everything legal- he had a hard time trying to rent a car, because he has always been an active "anti-globalization" and had no credit card.
I think, perhaps, the tightening is more because of 9/11. Many of them had easily obtained drivers licenses. Of particular concern are commercial drivers licenses where the person can use an 18-wheeler to haul large quantities of bad things.
I don't think so. I was there in 2002, well after 9/11. Actually, I got an international driving licence, issued by the spanish DMV according some treaties dating from the 50's -it had a booklet format, resembling some old passport-. It's valid in all the countries that accept it, but as in the US the responsability lies in each state, I mailed the TN DMV and they told me they didn't recognize that driving license. For that reason I went to the station to get my license, but when I told that my address was a hotel, I was denied the license for not being a resident.
Then I said, "so, what am I suppoused to do? You don't accept my driving license but you wont issue one for me? So, I'm not suppoused to drive here or what?" Finally, after a chat with the inspector and a letter from my company manager stating what was I doing there, they gave me the driving license. I must say that both theoretical and practical test was hilarious compared to what we undergo here.
Most of my colleagues told me why was I going through all that. None of them took the annoyance to get a US license. They expected, in case to be stopped by an officer, to show the international license -multilanguage- and after a startled look by the officer to be let loose. I rather have everything sorted out, both in case an officer stops me or I have any kind of accident and the insurance don't want to be responsible.
Still seems easier to get forgiveness than permission...
Raul
