I’ve heard from a friend of mine who has a Spanish speaking girlfriend with him when he goes that it helps a lot if someone in your car speaks Spanish, but he still always hides most of his cash keeping 50-100$ to pay off just in case. It may happen to Mexicans too but believe me they are looking for American license plates.
I think the idea is that the chances of an American being willing to pay the bribe is higher than a Mexican being willing to do so.
And BTW, I didn’t call you a liar or even insinuate it. I simply said that you cannot just “ask anyone who lives in SoCal”—I live in SoCal and I just cannot agree with what “everyone” here “knows”. To repeat myself, I’m not saying it doesn’t happen (and whether it happened to you or friends is immaterial as evidence that it happens to everyone). It certainly sucks when it does happen, the whole arresting and beating and throwing into Mexican prison... I’m just suspicious that it’s not quite as widespread as all that. No offense intended, brah. :-)