"fear" v. "common sense"

There's one story I forgot to tell about Lucha Libre night.
It seemed at one point that the guy selling Luchador masks had quit going around and selling them. I asked one of the guards/ushers at the door about where the man who sold them was, and he pointed me to portly mustached man wearing a Spider-Man T-shirt. The Spider-dude said that I needed to follow him outside where all the masks are.
Then Vinnie (a native of New York and current roommate) caught me and told me that I should ignore the offer or else ask Spider-dude to bring them back inside.
"But isn't that rude?" I asked.
Eventually I pretended to agree with Vinnie. As it turned out a different man (not Spider-dude) came back with masks during another break. Vinnie was probably right.
"Being rude" is what gets people into trouble in Tennessee (the steriotypical image of the guy with a shotgun saying "get off my property!" comes to mind, even though that's never happened to me). Politeness is valued here too, perhaps more-so at times. But there's also a whole set of assumptions that, being from a small town, I never really learned, about cities.
For me, suspecting the worst of other people is something I got over. In middle school I was nervous the swimming pool for fear someone might laugh at me, especially when I was with my parents. Learning that people aren't going to laugh at or humiliate you usually (which as a child I assumed was the worst that could happen) was a part of growing up. From there on, I made the logical jump that people are good until proven otherwise, and that planning for the worst was doublethink.
On one car ride to a club (can't remember which) I had a talk with some girls from Minneapolis who told me that it's not fear, it's Common Sense.
Well This is what was Common Sense:

• Wear a seatbelt (Seatbelts are often sunken into seats in Mexico possibly from disuse?)
• Motorcycle helmets (I actually rode a motorcycle with Raul in Ixlilco, with no helmet).
• Wash your hands before eating ... (And look like a paranoid Gringo Idioto!)
• Tall walls with broken glass = just creepy (they're the trend on this street)

A Note on that last one: I've come to appreciate them as an excellent sustainable re-using of glass. Same goes for making cattle fences out of matress springs, which I saw in Ixlilco. Maybe instead of all these key cards at Warren Wilson College, we should invest in some tall walls with sustainable broken glass...

Libras on "Lucha Libre" and souveniers.

I saw my first Lucha Libre match last night. It wasn't very crowded, but I'd say there was a fairly good-sized crowd. I hadn't really realized how much audience participation was involved. It was a routine trick of theirs to throw each other out into the audience. I'd say whoever runs it was taking some chances when they had Mystico, their biggest star, loose.

I'd say it was worth it. They had some pretty awesome souveneirs. I got a red and blue mask with two eagles. I didn't see the luchador associated with it (if their is one). Earlier I bought a souvenier sun and moon at Universal, my language school, which often hosts various craft vendors. At the time, it looked like just the thing for one of our blank walls, but I'm not sure whether anyone back at home will want it. I mean seriously, a blue sun?

Don´t Panic!

I was talking to my friend Goose (Josiah Guzik) today. He told me that I should only write about one conversation or event per day. Or at the very least keep things simple. I´ll try to do this blog daily with that style. Is that alright with everyone?

Okay, so some of this will make more sense when I do more back-dating. The embassy talk clarified much of what follows. My journal and notes can help me with back-dating.

But I assume people want to keep hearing from me especially with events in Juarez being what they are right now, never mind that I´m not in Juarez! Oh, and I´d go off on a long diatribe against wrong policies there, but I´m just a Gringo Idioto! For now I´ll say that Mexico´s problems, especially along the boarder, are at least partly the U.S.´s problems.

Several conversations today. I´ll leave Betty Ramos aside for now, even though she came again today (see below for her theories).

The big news is that last night some students were held up. I would say ¨mugged¨ but that implies physical harm rather than just taking the money and running. Funny this is the first time anything like this has happened. (I´ll try to connect to classmates blogs in the future to fill in narrative gaps). Also, interestingly enough, it corresponded with analyzing a newspaper article in my Spanish workbook about the rise in use of burglar alarms and security guards in El Salvador´s capital (the article was not current).

Rosalva (my teacher) and I had a long discussion in Spanish about gun control in the U.S., even though we had just barely gotten through talking about a previous ¨Minivacas¨article which talked about dog-sized cows that required less land. We also touched on the many ways of indicating cause and effect in Spanish and their connotations.

Theoretically there are even stricter gun laws here in Morelos than in the U.S. even if they are not followed. Some police are corrupt here, and they may have been involved. But we have support of local businesses on our street and the local Catholic church. I learned some of this at a meeting we had as a group.

Also we have a new security guard to join our old one. We also have a new emergency cell phone system. So please, don´t panic!

Today in Class

Today Rosalva (my Spanish teacher) beat me at Spanish language scrabble. We also discussed the composition-style and guidelines of journalism, and how to detect bias. The examples the textbook used had to do with bullfighting, a sport Rosalva deplores. Actually seeing as its status as ¨sport¨ is disputed, I should probably think of a different term.

I handed her an outline of my ¨advertisement¨ describing Stinson Lake. I realized after writing it that I hadn´t adhered to the guidelines very well in terms of selling the place, or describing the kind of people attracted to it. I realized that I had to expand the ad to include places in the area. I think I just wrote about it because all this warm weather was getting to me.

Why I now allow google ads

In short it is because I have no certain job future. So, I figure Google can have their fun with what I write, if I can make a few cents off it. I don't think most people read blogs much anyway, and if you're here by accident well go ahead, click on an ad! You might just as soon be reading the latest "learn-Spanish-quick" page or some fancy resort page as what I write here.

Oh, and one thing: It'll all be over if the Peugeot Automobille Lottery takes over my e-mail account again, and changes my name to "Peugeot Automobille Lottery." Yes this actually did happen once. Got that! Don't be evil, Google.

Update/Backdate: High v. Low Context

(The "Sacred Heart," at left in Robert Brady Museum, at right, the low-context "sacred head")

Okay, so here's the deal with "high-context" v. "Low Context" cultures. I have some issues with it. We've read about these concepts in a book by Mexican-Canadian Betty Ramos (who now lives in Mexico). The book is called The Geocontext and as of now it's only available here in Mexico despite being in English. It was cheifly written for buisinesspeople, but her central idea is that Mexico's "high-context" culture should complement the U.S. "Low Context" culture to form a "Geo-Context" culture. She admits that this will not be easy because of values on both sides of the fence

Especially here in Mexico, the demonization of the "Malinche" (a term used for Cortez's translator/mistress, fluent in numerous languages) has implications, especially for women who want to exist in a "Geocontext." She had many complicated things to say about the whole "Malinche" buisiness, which could fill an entire other post.

So, without further ado here are the high and low contexts, as best as I can sum them up.
Please note that these are Ramos's opinions, not mine. I am not sure what to think at this point. Some people have said that their homestay parerents were anything but "high context."

Low Context
As the name implies, in a "Low Context" culture people are more "to-the-point" and direct in conversation. Prices are not negociable, "yes" means "yes" and 4:00 means 4:00. Hence the context does not matter as much as it would in a "high-context" culture. Also, people value individualism and the present, rather than society and the past. This does not mean they are bad team players, as their ability to put aside emotions makes compromises more easy at times.

Laws have to be written out in order to be followed. Lawsuits are more common in some low-context countries. At least in theory, equality is considered important. The United States, Brittain, Germany, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico are all low-context, as is arguably Russia, under the system that Betty Ramos uses.

High Context:

With high context cultures, the context matters a good deal more. The language is used is often more flowery and less direct. "Yes" often means "No" or "Maybe." 4:00 can mean 4:15 or 4:30, especially for social gatherings. Hence in order to express true apreciation, you have to make sure it sounds like appreciation, not dismissal. Politeness is important, and takes a much longer form. To thank someone, one should not just say "thank you." One should also include why one is thankful.

However, joking complements on physical appereance are also accepted in some high context cultures, even though in low-context cultures they are considered harassment. This is because the context in which they are said matters.

Emotion generally matters more in high-context than in low-context societies. Indeed, the word "romance" can also refer to a group of languages (Spanish, French, Portugese) derived from "roman" latin. Emotions in high context culture are often reduced to steriotype and the export of Mexican soap operas does not exactly discourage the steriotypical image. However, like all cultural standards, those surrounding emotion are also a bit complicated (see below).

High-context cultures put more emphasis on one's standing in society, which is different from the low-context concept "self-esteem." Most words in English (a low-context language) that include "self" have very few translations into other languages. Social obligations, particularly involuntary ones such as loyalty to one's family are seen as important.

In terms of countries, Mexico, Columbia, and Japan are all high-context. Southern Europe (including Spain and Italy) is also somewhat low-context, or at least it has been in the past.

Problems that I see with this scheme:
It's not bad, but I see some shortcomings. Even Betty Ramos sees shortcomings within the scheme, such as the difference between "male" (in most countries low-context) and female (in most countries high-context) cultures. She also mentions differences between regions and even individuals. Many cultures (such as in Northern Mexico) are already mixtiures of "high" and "low" contexts.
I've got a few of my own problems with it.
First off: "High" v. "Low"? Any scheme that divides the world into two categories seems suspicious. I particularly have some issues with where exactly to put France in this scheme (pretty low-context, but not as low-context as Brittain? Or is it more low-context?). Also assuming that Mexican customs will resemble Japanese ones just because of them both being "high-context" may get you into trouble, particularly concerning "piropos" (complements and cat-calls flung by men at women).
"High" and "Low" are somewhat charged words to use in any situation, as they imply that one is better than the other.
In addition Ramos mentions Catholic v. Protestant influence on the U.S. and Mexico, saying that high-context Mexican culture, with it's emphasis on social hierarchical obligation and non-verbal communication can be seen as Catholic-influenced, whereas Protestantism has had the opposite influence on U.S. culture.

At first I thought this made perfect sense, noticing that religious signs here usually had images of saints rather than directly stating everything through words, like in Tennessee, my home state. Then I started thinking and realized Tennessee was "high context" compared to the "low-context" northeastern United States. However the South-East is also more historically Protestant and the Northeast more Catholic.

So, I'll keep what Ramos says in mind for what I should say, but I don't know if I can reduce the world around me like that.

Sightseeing in Mexico City

A group of us decided to go sightseeing in Mexico City. We walked down the Paseo de la Reforma, passing a statue of an Aztec hero (I've forgotten which, I have photos of two different ones this one came out better) and an office buiding with huge white wings painted on its windows

...before stopping for breakfast at Sanborn's, a place that was owned by Carlos Slim , the world's richest man, who currently also owns Mexico's telephone company, and apparently an insurence company as well. Basically he grabbed up a monopoly on the telephone company after it was privatized, thus defeating the whole presumed purpose of privatization (more competition).

We then headed to La Plaza de la Constitución , passing the Torre Lationoamerica. Not knowing its history, some of us called it "the knockoff Empire State Building." To many of us (including myself) it seemed a particularly ugly building. However, the purpose of this blog is not to insult Mexico (many other people are already doing that). After all functionalist architecture was ours before it was theirs, and the building has held up through earthquakes.

The Plaza looked more like Europe than like New York City. It was a wide plaza, with detailed Colonial-Era buildings, not overcrowded or invaded by modern skyscrapers. The buildings here were built mostly by the Spanish on top of Aztec ruins.

All that remained of the Aztec Plaza was the Templo Mayor's ruins. The Spanish seemed to have literally ripped the top of it off, but it still had one or two Quetzicoatl heads still in good condition. We were too cheap to pay to go down into the ruins. It was supposedly the site where the Aztec empire began, where the ancient wandering Aztecs saw an Eagle standing on a cactus (which is now the national symbol on Mexico's flag).

Instead we went to the Metropolitan Cathedral located right next door, and looked at the very impressive arched ceiling and various golden facades honoring saints. It was such an impressive building that it probably would not have been free if it had been built to honor pagan gods instead of Catholic saints. Actually it wasn't entirely free for me. I was required to take off my hat. I set it down and lost it for all eternity (as happens with all objects misplaced in big cities).

I saw some people dressed up as Aztecs outside of the Cathedral, including one person who was performing sagegrass clensings. I did not think that was an Aztec custom. It could just be for the benefit of North-American tourists.

It was very crowded. People were on stage outside in the middle of the square playing music at a free concert. I was not there at the moment when the kissing record was broken, but even when I was there locals held signs reading "besos gratis." I took a few of them, although as Mexico is a Mediterrainean-settled area, kissing on cheeks is probably not as much of a statement as it is in the U.S. I also got a picture taken with a group of people dressed up as various Johnny Depp characters, and one as the Joker.

We then stopped by the Palacio de Bellas Artes where we saw spectacular murals by Orozco, Rivera, and Siquieros, including the famous "Man at the Crossroads" At first I though it an irony that the museum required 40 pesos for entry and 30 extra for photos if so many of the most famous artists were socialists. Actually, as I later learned Mexicans can now get in free. I loved Orozco's execution of Cuatemaloc mural, but the most interesting as far as this blog is concerned was Rivera's "Carnival of Mexican Life," depicting in its first pannel the pre-conceptions of tourists and foreigners, which are not the full story. If it were painted today, Rivera would have ironically had to include a stuffed Frida Khalo doll.

We headed back through a few market stalls. Some sold souveniers for tourists, or food. Others sold knockoff or bootleg products to Mexicans, including the laughable G.U.S.S. jeans and Versacci brand T-shirts (Versacci does not make T-shirts).

That evening after dinner at McTaco's (I'm not making that name up) and a terrifyingly fast taxi ride, we took the bus back while two girls stayed in town for a free concert. They were playing a dubbed-over American movie starring Nicolas Cage as some sort of magician in Las Vegas. I was too tired to really pay attention.

Coming soon to this post: Photos

Evening in Mexico City: Dancing at the World Trade Center

Well I was among the people who stayed in Mexico City after the embassy talk.

I'd have to say that the section of Mexico City we were in reminded me of New York City, only with more palm trees. The neo-classical park statues, the tall buildings, the buisinessmen and political officials in their formal suits. True less of them were wearing coats than I remember in NYC (I've only seen NYC in the winter). Oh, and yes, there were beggars on the streets, but there are in NYC as well.

It could be just my limited range of personal reference. Both Mexico D.F. and New York City were modeled after European cities. In Mexico City's case, the French Invaders based the Paseo de la Reforma directly on the Champs Elysees (This is a blog. I don't have to wory about accents for French).

Mexico D.F. is more strictly zoned it seems than Cuernavaca. I did not see the kind of contrast between houses that I saw in Cuernavaca. And to make my time there even more New-York-ish, I saw a production of the Vagina Monologues which was translated into Spanish pretty directly, except for a few cultural references. It was intended to raise money for a women's group in Ciudad Juarez. I ate out at a restaurant with a karioke bar, although I did not sing, as it seemed (from what I heard) their selections were mostly songs I did not know.

Later that evening I found out that some of the girls had met up with a group of guys with parents who worked for the government. We all went out to a dance club with a view of the city. The music was a mix of Spanish and English language songs, and like many dance clubs here in Mexico they showed music videos for some of the songs. This was the first time that people have ever tried to check my card for a club here in Mexico. Somehow the Mexican guys got us in. No clue how that happened.

Some of us wanted to do sightseeing the next day, so we had to take a taxi back. I had a feeling that the guys felt slightly insulted that we left. From all I've heard of Mexican culture, they are less adhearent to strict scheduals at least as far as pleasure is concerned.

Oh, and one more thing: The building where the club was located conviniently had names in both Spanish and English written in several places. I missed the Spanish name, but in English it was the World Trade Center. I wonder if it was coincedental, or whether New York's WTC built in the 1970s served as an inspiration. Vinnie told me Boston also has a (still standing) one, and Wikipedia (which if you didn't guess by now I really love) lists several buildings by that name.

Embassy talk.

The only requirement for the day was that we go to the U.S. embassy to talk to the various officials there. That was the first part of our day.

Embassy officials are bound to be biased to supporting U.S. policies, whatever those are. Administrations have changed since they started their work, but policies often have not. However I found the talk to be refreshing in some ways, because, being a Warren Wilson student, I've heard the anti-NAFTA, anti-border-control arguements many times, perhaps too many times.

Concerning the boarder control issues, the consulate official pointed out that it's not as hard to enter the U.S. as Russia. Another official pointed out that Guatemala's boarder swith Mexico had some difficult steps involved for immigration as well, and even suggested that one of us write a paper on the subject of Guatemalan immigrants to Mexico. Of course he was trying to change the subject, but that doesn't make Guatemala any less important.

As far as NAFTA, the trade and agriculture delagates' response could be summed up by saying "There are winners and loosers" while adding that there are more winners than loosers. The particular example that we discussed was an example (brought up in Ixlilco, but not recognized by the locals as related to NAFTA) of no longer being able to sell onions. Of course it's true that they've started on new industries in Ixlilco, such as tomatos and figs, but especially with the tomatos they need government assistance to do so. Their particular village had good connections with PAN, so they could get help with greenhouses for tomatos. It seems to me that "loosers" may well stay "loosers" without that kind of help.

I heard another thing that I'm sure will come up again on this blog. One man (they were all men) said that the army was trusted more here than the police, which is why they are often deployed for civil purposes.

I'm not convinced, although I've heard before that the police here are often corrupt, perhaps due to their low salaries. The embassy personnel claimed that Mexio's attempt to create a more high-paid police force was met with violence. I didn't ask, but I've read in newspapers about private contractors taking some responsibilities as well, which I consider to be an even worse solution, and which has caused some controversy.

Oh, and one more thing. I heard from the embassy personnel that the military training given by the U.S. is primarily non-compbat training, including PR work. This was meant to be reassuring, but to me it sounded strange, and possibly a waste of money. Training other countries' militaries is one thing, but training them on how to promote themselves has a very weird ring to it in my opinion.

The Ancient Mexico

Some may say that studying in Mexico is strange. Tradition holds that one should study in a country with a long and proud history of artistic and scientific accomplishments, such as Brittain, France, or Italy.

In actuality certain parts of Mexico were indeed centers of learning and power.



















Recently I visited the site of an ancient observatory, a city where Zapotec and Maya studied in ancient times. It included a cave with an ancient ¨telescope¨consisting of an opening to the sky, and (in ancient times) a bowl of water below to reflect. The opening was set up to coincide with the sun´s position at summer solstice.

Despite having no weapons beyond flint, they pulled off some great accomplishments including the invention of the number zero (long before it was though of in Europe) the notion that the Earth goes around the sun, and the ability to design a plaza where the echo of clapping sounds like a sacred cocateil (the last of these has yet to be accomplished by modern people, maybe for lack of trying). To me it seems racist to attribute these accomplishments to aliens, but many people do.

Of course these civilizations eventually ¨collapsed.¨ After the gradual collapse, here in Central Mexico,the Aztecs and later the Spanish conquered the remaining nations. Although many Indians thought the Spanish would be better masters than the Aztecs, they turned out to be just as demanding in some ways.

Mexico´s current rulers also rule from Mexico City. According to my teachers Mexico generally remains a hierarchical rather than equal society (it was hierarchical even in pre-Aztec times). I don´t know if I believe it, I haven´t been here long enough. The language brough by the Spanish doesn´t help much (givden that it distinguishes between tu and usted).

Last Week´s Homestay (in summary).

Last week we had the rural homestay. I stayed with fellow-student ¨Goose¨ (real name Josiah) at the house of Raul, a former migrant to the U.S. (he worked at Wendy´s during his time there) and current repairer of electric appliances. He was happy to have us stay with him, so that he could review his basic English vocabulary.

His son-in-law, also named Raul, was the commissioner for the ejido. A note of explaination: An ejido is a piece of land given by the government to rural residents. Under current laws they can be bought and sold. Raul´s job is to co-ordinate local and national policy´s governing the ejido. He always followed our group wherever we went and whomever we talked to during class sessions in his town.

In short the groups that we talked to and visited included government officials, small-scale commercial farmers (of shugarcane, figs, and, tomatos) and cooperative workers who raised various animals, most notably organic chickens. We talked with a group of people who had migrated (with varying legal statuses) to the U.S. It struck that the one who had worked in Agriculture in Salinas had never heard of Cesar Chavez, but he did say that he hadn´t worked there very long.

At the town center I played basketball with some local children. It struck me also that basketball seems more popular here than in the U.S.

The town was generally supportive of PAN (Mexico´s more ¨right-leaning¨ party, which encourages trade with the United States). It wasn´t for any large reasons though, mostly just because of the loans for tomato greenhouses they had recieved. Antonio, one of my professors explained that Mexican politics is very personal and paternalistic, relying on what we in the U.S. would call ¨handouts.¨

We also met with some recipients and local leaders Madres de Opportunidad, a group of mothers who recieve government assistance. They cannot recieve money if they have children in the United States. This has less to do with legality and more to do with money. Due to the rate of the peso to the dollar, people can work for very small amounts in the U.S. and come back with more money in Pesos for their family.

My own host family (perhaps due to work in the U.S.) had a synthesizer (keyboard) a DVD burner and a PS2, but no shower. It was alright with me. I learned to prefer bucket baths anyway.

La llegada (the arrival)

Note: This is the first of my psedo-chronological catch-up posts. I've done quite a few things by now, classes, homestays, etc. This is how I got to Cuernavaca.

The flight went smoothly. I did wait a good bit, but my ipod kept me going for that time. I thought they'd arrive earlier, so I had an airport staffer announce my name. It was interesting the whole pronunciation issue. I had to explain that it wasn't Poe-oonds.

Moises drove us through Mexico City. If I understood him correctly, Mexico City restricts who can drive on which day of the week. However, that sounded so confusing that I wasn't sure if I'd misunderstood him.

Eventually we got to Cuernavaca, passing the statue of Emilio Zapata on the way. I'd have to say that the scenery, particularly the mountains on the way there, impressed me.

In later days I started to miss pointless things such as signs being separate from walls and not painted onto them, or that houses not have walls reinforced by glass bottles or barbed wire. Looking back on those days now, I'd say that it was rather childish of me to desire everything to resemble East Tennessee.

In fact in an early class excersize, we were asked how many of us had relatives in another country, and I remained sitting, thinking that I was not like the Mexican staffers who had sons or nephews working in the U.S. (rather common for many people I've met here, but I'll return to that later). It had not registered with me that I was now in a different country . In fact I sometimes even, without meaning to, referred to the United States as "here."