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Over the weekend my wife and I went to the music store to buy an electric guitar for my son. He’s been taking lessons with a rented instrument for several weeks and seems to be serious about learning so we felt is was time for a bigger commitment and some long-term investment. My son’s teacher gave my wife guidelines on what and where to buy and I was brought along, as usual, to do the driving and heavy lifting because we needed to buy an amp as well.

After we arrived at the store and secured some help, my wife told the clerk, “We’re looking to buy a Squier or a Mexican.” Now I grew up near the barrio of a small Southern California town and saying you wanted to buy a Mexican there could get the gringo beaten right out of you. But stupid me — my wife was referring to a Fender Stratocaster, a favorite guitar of no-names like Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton.

Squier is the brand Fender uses to label its Stratocasters made in various parts of Asia. These Strats are lesser quality but much cheaper than the Standard Stratocaster. And much to my surprise, the Standard model, although made in America, is assembled in Mexico. Hence the name. The Mexican Stratocaster is more expensive than the flimsier Squier models but it looks, feels, and sounds to me like its more expensive deluxe and custom-built cousins.

So we bought my son a black Mexican Stratocaster with a rosewood fingerboard, plus a good little Fender practice amp. And now he’s learning “Layla.” That’s my boy!