Mexicans have been blamed for everything from stealing American jobs to skipping taxes and spreading swine flu. Now they’re being blamed for preemptively selling out the outdoor music festival Coachella.

This year’s Coachella, a music and arts festival held in Indio, CA, sold out faster than ever before in its twelve year history. Performers at the event include big names like Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Lauryn Hill and The Strokes. Rolling Stones’ Mattew Perpetua says the record sell out could be attributed to "a bill that arguably boasts more star power than previous events."

But according to a popular thread on the Coachella.com message board, the event sold out in record timing because of, you guessed it… Mexicans!

A user by the name of "seasponge" ignited the rumors with this:

Coachella is popular, but I find it hard to believe it has reached "sell 75,000+ tickets in 6 days" status. So, why? What did it this year? More importantly, who can we blame? That’s right. You guessed it. Mexico.

As we all know, one of the most prominent performers this year is popular Mexican Rock band Caifanes. I honestly have no idea who they are, but apparently they’re REALLY popular in Mexico. Like, OBAMA popular. Like, FRENCH FRIES POPULAR.

While Seasponge’s rant may have been sarcastic, the comments that came after were not. The OC Weekly picked out some of the gems:

Mjfritts: but I thought mexicans had no money… this is a conspiracy for sure…

The Clares: They’re already digging the tunnel to the main stage from Calexico/Mexicali.

Menikmati: well maybe all the mexicans will leave Friday night then

OC Weekly also points out that the lead singer of Caifanes Saúl Hernández went on to form a new band singing Caifanes’ classics "with authenticity."

"It’s not as if the songs have been absent from the stage for 15 years," writer Gabriel San Roman added.

Regardless of whether commenters on the message board were being serious or not, what’s interesting here is that the scapegoating that’s usually reserved for the political arena has now gone mainstream.

Commenter Karilo13 brought the conversation full circle:

I’m Mexican and didn’t purchase a ticket on time. However, I’m a pro at jumping fences and running.

[Update 2/4/11 8:22 EST: The original version of this story did not include a URL to the OC Weekly. Links have been added.]