Good Indian, bad Indian

The picture above is by Siqueros, one of Mexico's greatest muralists, alongside Orozco and Rivera. I actually saw this mural. Some of this posts other pictures were not taken by me though.

(Note, I didn't put this when it happened, but at this point I do not care. My composition class is over now, but I'll mention a few more stories from it probably)

As my Spanish class with Rosalva was one-on-one, we got into some odd conversations. We read a piece in the textbook (for our reportage unit) on one indigenous Mexican town's "Dance of the Conquest," unusual in its portrayal of Malinche as a heroine (people in the town claim her as one of their own).

We got onto the subject of one of America's Malinches: Pocahontas. Rosalva said that in America we love Indians only to bury them (also referring to the portrayal in Dances with Wolves). I asked her whether it was true in Mexico as well. She said "yes." It's funny how the whole "good indian" v. "Bad Indian" thing works out, at least in "traditional" histories (just as racist in both countries perhaps, but still interesting, things are beginning to change in both countries). Here's the U.S.A.'s "Good Indians":

here's our "Bad Indians" :

I realize this is starting to change, with the current work on the Crazy-Horse monument. The 19th century view is still alive to some people though. What we put on pedastals does not necessarily jive with our present-day reality. It's more our version of where we came from and what we choose to define as "national."

Anyways in mainstream Mexican History, it's just as racist...

Good Indians:

(The statues were taken by me, the other one of Cuahtemoc, I got from a web search.

Bad Indian:

That last one was Malinche, Cortez's translator and mistress. She's also in that first picture, but I couldn't blow it up big enough to accurately show her making out with a suit of armor. Oficially she's considered the reason for the downfall of the Aztec Empire. Rosalva said that it was just another myth like Cleopatra or Eve, that was intended to put women down. She claimed some Meztisos (mixed-race Mexicans, the majority of the country) hate her because they blame her for creating the Meztiso race ("Hijos de la Malinche"). They'd rather be 100% Spanish.

As for Rosalva's opinion, she sees her as a curious victim caught up in Cortez's plan.

I'm not sure I agree with her version or the old version. The fact is that many nations in what is now Mexico were tired of paying tribute to the Aztecs and thought the Spanish were there to help them (they were wrong, the conquistadors demanded more). Rosalva gets offended though when people insult pre-Collumbian nations (she has problems with Apocalypto too).

As far as present-day Mexico goes, Rosalva's statement that I pass for an upper-class Mexican probably says something about the current upper-class. I've found people who look like me more at the top of the hill than at the bottom (upper and lower are literal here in Cuernavaca) I'll get to my environmental racism observations later (or seeing how this blog is going, "earlier").

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.

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.

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."

Salto de San Anton

Today I finally made it to Salto de San Anton (after some difficulties finding it) I could only see the waterfall from the top, but it's still one of the better parts of town, a popular place for flower sellers and gardens. True there was litter in places along the river and true, the water did smell slightly, possibly of sewage. But it's hard to take away the true awe that those tall cliffs inspire.