By Tom Bridges
January 2003
“We stopped on our way down in some town where they had a MacDonald’s. I couldn’t believe the prices. We spent more than $100 (pesos) for a couple of hamburgers, fries, and a couple of Cokes. The thing that surprised me the most was that there was a Mexican family in there having a birthday party. “Where do they get the money? I guess the Mexicans just can’t forego an opportunity to have a party.”
This was overheard in a trendy Ajijic eatery not long ago. I doubt the storyteller was aware his preconceived opinions were showing. I doubt even more he would be aware how insulting such a statement would be to many Mexicans. I don’t think most would be too upset about the crack about partying, but they might be quite upset about not being able to afford that party and even more incensed about not being able to afford to eat at MacDonald’s.
Ya’ know what? I don’t blame them. I understand some foreigners here may have led a rather sheltered life, but that doesn’t mean such a person has license to judge the correctness or rightness of happenings outside his limited experience. There are many foreign people living here who are sensitive to the Mexican culture and are quite active in the Mexican communities trying to do their best to give a helping hand to the most needy.
Those people have enough problems getting through to the people they are trying to help, without being further hampered by thoughtless individuals advertising unbelievable ignorance as though every U.S. or Canadian citizen visiting the area had a God-given revelation on how to save the Mexicans from themselves. That kind of attitude is insulting and I, for one, thought it went out with decline and fall of British Colonialism.
It seems that when some folks from up North come to Mexico, they somehow have the mistaken idea that they are richer and therefore better than the people in their host country. I guess they have never met the norteamericano who rode up to a farmer’s field and tried to buy it from the old man, who listened patiently on his burro. He tried to impress the old farmer until the farmer said he didn’t have much time to devote to this deal today, but the gentleman was welcome to come back and talk some more in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, the farmer had to fly to Mexico City to see to his manufacturing concern, make a deal for one of his houses there. Then he was going to spend a week in his house in Guadalajara. Before you think that he was bluffing, let me assure you that he wasn’t.
I don’t suppose these people have ever had the chance to meet the local family who goes to the U.S. to shop for D9 bulldozers, or noticed that the majority of people in Mexico own their own homes, paid for with cash on the barrel head. The fact of the matter is that most Snow Birds can’t even come close to affording the life style of the Mexican affluent. Yet, without understanding the culture or the problems of Mexico, they pontificate about what is wrong with the culture exactly as though they had walked a mile in a pair of huaraches.
Well, I guess you get the point. We are not colonizing Mexico we are visiting here. Some of us appreciate our time here and are embarrassed by the actions of our less-than-sensitive compatriots. Therefore, on behalf of the many folks who do their best to be good guests and try to make a difference in their adopted community, I implore everyone else to be aware that many Mexicans understand English and recognize a disparaging remark, even if that remark is made in abject ignorance.
Perhaps it would be well to consider the United States also has it’s share of dismally poor but to judge the U.S. by that standard would be a terrible arrogance. Couldn’t the same be true of Mexico? Are you sure that the nondescript couple sitting at the next table isn’t a well-connected politician or power broker? Would you know? Caution could be the better part of valor, don’t you think?