Taxistas

It's become so commonplace that I rarely ever think about it: taking taxis. During my homestay time I took them to avoid being late (although the bus, if I could find it, was cheaper). Now I take taxis to avoid being stuck in rain.

Riding in a Taxi with friends or homestay family the Taxista ignores us, generally. Yet riding alone, I nearly always wind up chatting.

It's a great way to practice my Spanish, which I've heard from Taxi drivers is pretty good at this point. Starting out, I had problems with the difference between "derecho" (straight) and "derecha" (right) which used to lead to problems. Now I can talk easily.

The Taxi drivers are usually eager to talk and sometimes start the conversations themselves. It's something I hope to come back to. The headlines nearly always portray Mexican-U.S. contacts as violent. The reality is that most Mexicans I've met are eager to chat and eager to please foreigners. Given the dollar-to-peso rate this should surprise no one.

They nearly always want to know where I'm from originally. I'm happy to tell them Tennessee, which is famous here for Elvis (who lived in the one part of the state I've not been to, although I'm happy to share the same birthday).

I often ask if they've been to the U.S. Often they have, although East Tennessee hardly ever. California seems to be the state I hear most often, although once I met a Taxi driver who had been as far north as Idaho.

Once I was asked whether or not I thought Mexican women were pretty. I honestly answered "Yes." I've had similar conversations with other non-Taxi-drivers, some of them finding it strange that I actually prefer brown-eyes to blue ones. I've heard the Spanish conquest imposed a standard of beauty here that only gets reinforced by U.S. media.

Mostly though taxi-drivers just wonder what brings me here. I've learned to focus primarily on telling them that I study Spanish, which is part true. Somehow I've never felt comfortable saying "Migracion y Globalizacion." Then of course there's trying to explain that back in the U.S. I study Creative Writing. My lack of a clear future plan is also a little bit of a problem too for some. I've never heard anyone particularly say that they were confused by my answers but I've sensed it.

I've told some here that I want to teach English in a Spanish-speaking country. For a while that seemed the most promising option. I've met one woman here who does that, while being a writer on the side. The only problem is that I like the U.S. in some ways. As much as I love certain things about Mexico, there's just something wrong about coming into other as a foreigner. I especially don't know if being involved in other countries' politics would even be right for someone like me.

I told all this to one particular Taxi driver, and he said that I should translate books from Spanish to English, or maybe even write the full history of Mexico for U.S. audiences (he sensed my interest in the history of the places we were going through). In the meantime though I could always become the first comercial Nopal (cactus for eating) grower in Tennessee. I've heard they require almost no work.

Hacienda

After visiting the Ixlilco Ejido we stayed at an Hacienda linked to Antonio's family. I did not mention it there becauses that post was too long already. It was a learning experience. Now, haciendas are quaint resorts for tourists. Previously, they were where the upper-classes kept the Indigenas and Mestizos growing shugar for them, often holding them there through debt.

Above: The beginning of the Hacienda system, using "encomienda" slavery (debt came later after slavery was illegalized. Picture by Diego Rivera

In the 1940s hacienda owners had to choose which part of the land they wanted to keep. Usually this meant their house.

It was very luxurious compared to my time in Ixlilco. We still had class sessions though, often talking about what we saw and about the differences in legal systems and what "The Law" means (why, for example "illegales" is considered an OK term here in Mexico by those who have been illegally to the states, but isn't really the best term to use for them back in the U.S.). And of course, Ivan Illych's "To Hell with Good Intentions."

The hacienda was one of the most beautiful places though that I've seen here in Mexico. With cane-warehouses converted into pools, I wasn't sure of what to make of past and present here. They seemed distinct, contradicting, yet both here.

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").