Article
Beyond Sombreros, Tacos, and Espa̱ol
ID # 3786
The City of Monterrey
I’d like to tell you about Mexico, and why we desperately need to have a better understanding of the country and it’s people. Before I go any further, let me make something clear: I’m a gringo. That is, I am a white US American. My experience in Mexico is limited to 6 weeks spent in various towns and cities across the Yucatan Peninsula, and I don’t speak Spanish that well.
Finding Mexican Culture in North Carolina
In North Carolina there is a large population of recent (last several decades) immigrants from Latin America, many of whom are from Mexico. It is, therefore, surprising to find that many North Carolina citizens are ignorant or uniformed about Mexico and Mexicans. Now, just because someone is Mexican does not make them an expert on Mexico. We can only ever really take an individual’s experience for what it is: that individual’s experience. That’s why you should talk to a variety of Mexicans and hear what they have to say about their home country: the food, the culture, the politics, the geography, anything! Here’s a tip: when you ask someone where they’re from and they say Mexico (or anywhere really), ask “where in Mexico?”. When they reply with “Chiapas” or “Nuevo Laredo”, for example, even if you’ve never heard of that place, you’ve made an opportunity to start a conversation and you show that you understand the expanse of the geography and culture of Mexico and do not only know the nation as ”where all those immigrants are coming from’.
The Sonoran Desert
Geography of Mexico
A lot of the images of Mexico we have in the collective US conscious are of deserts, cacti, and small, isolated rustic villages. Like most stereotypes, it originates in some kind of truth. In this case, a majority of the US-Mexican border goes through the Sonoran desert. When Arizonans look across the border, much of what they see is desert. Arizona shares this landscape, but Arizonans know that other parts of the US like North Carolina are forested and verdent. It is the same in Mexico. Most of southern Mexico is extremely green. The southern states of Chiapas and Campeche, for example, are covered in jungles. And just like the US, some parts of Mexico are very rural, while other areas have massive cities. The capital, Mexico City, is the most populated city in the western hemisphere according to some rubrics.
Downtown Merida, Yucatan
Ethnic Identity in Mexico
Just like it’s geography, Mexico’s people are very diverse. ‘Mexican’ isn’t really an ethnicity, it’s a nationality, just like ‘American’. About 15 percent of Mexicans are ‘white’, meaning they have purely European ancestors. About 10 percent are indigenous, which includes a vast number of different ethnicities, identities and languages – from the Maya of the Yucatan to the Kickapoo of North Central Mexico. The remaining majority are mestizo: an ethnic identity born out of intermixing of the European and Indigenous population over the last five centuries. Many who identify as mestizo don’t have any European heritage at all, but due to discrimination against indigenous people in Mexico, many people’s parents, grandparents, or older ancestors chose to be mestizo and speak Spanish rather than face the discrimination that came with being indigenous. Overall, Mexican culture is a blend of European and Indigenous influence that coalesces into the broad mestizo Mexican identity. Mexico is after all named for the Mexica – the Aztec people who ruled most of the modern country at the time of Spanish Conquest.
I hope you’ve learned at least a little bit. If anything, maybe you’ll have better questions to ask next time you chat with a Mexican. And if you are Mexican, by all means tell all the non-Mexicans around you more about where you or you parents come from. Any little bit helps when you’re trying to build bridges and not walls.
Further Resources:
Culture Kit:
Articles:
You Call it Corn, We call it lxi’im
Trust Me, The World’s Not Ending…
Videos:
Video: The Creation of Culture in Oaxaca, Mexico
Monterrey image: http://www.agimmobilier.com/resource-center/Monterrey.htm
Merida image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/eit1mx/5243203082/sizes/m/in/photostream/