"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