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M@tt
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 473
Location: here and there
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 Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:42 am Post subject: |
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i'm also fluent in spanish. it hasn't made any difference except that rejection from people you get to know well is more painful.
i really think this is just a symptom of a much larger cultural phenomenon here that also gets played out in other ways but i don't feel like rehashing them.
someone should start a thread on mexicans' reactions to our coming here. it could be a kind of parallel to this thread. the most universal question for me has been "what do you think of mexican women." it usually happens within 3 minutes of meeting someone (guys). women have also asked me though, which just puts you in a strange place. either way it's a question i would never even think of asking foreigners in the US. |
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ontoit
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 99
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| Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:17 am Post subject: |
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| M@tt wrote: |
i really think this is just a symptom of a much larger cultural phenomenon here that also gets played out in other ways but i don't feel like rehashing them.
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Matt,
Please do comment on this. Exploring this issue is the very reason I hooked into this board.
I'm not in Mexico, but I am an ex-pat and suspect that a lot of us encounter this phenomena living long-term in "foreign" countries. |
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dribom
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 17
Location: USA
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| Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:32 pm Post subject: Reactions |
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Hey... stilly considering Mexico versus Ecuador for Fall.
Most of my Uni profes are Mexican so they're pretty supportive. Though they want me to go to school there and not be an imperialist. My mother and father and friends are all pretty psyched and vow to visit me (pushing for MX so that they can afford tickets). I believe them since a lot did visit in Chile.
I have to say... I got a lot more flack before and after I went to Chile. I have Peruvian inlaws and boy did they feel betrayed! Eeek! Also, every Mexican American I know here in CA took my decision as a personal afront. |
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TheLongWayHome
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 1016
Location: San Luis Piojosi
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| Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Go to Mexico. Eat, drink, be merry and meet Maria. Not necessarily in that order. |
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Roy Briggs
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Posts: 18
Location: Tuxtla Gutierrez
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| Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:46 am Post subject: |
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When I told neighbors and co-workers I was moving to Mexico, ignorance came out of the wood work. The best "advice" was from my red-necked neighbor who told me not to take my dog, Murphy, because the Mexicans would eat him!
After sharing this story with my Mexican family, they fed me tripe soup one morning. When I asked them what it was, they gleefully replied "sopa de Murphy"
Murphy has been here two years now and is very happy about all the attention (and tortillas) he receives from the extended family. He immediatly understood "sit", "down", "shake", and "high five"in Spanish. I wish my understanding of Spanish had been that immediate. |
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tonydicer
Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 81
Location: Monterrey, Mexico
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| Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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| "Are you crazy? What if you end up in a Mexican jail? Don't you think you should be more responsible for your life?" |
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Roy Briggs
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Posts: 18
Location: Tuxtla Gutierrez
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| Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:08 pm Post subject: What is wrong with you? |
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Who the hell are you to lecture me like that? What experience do you have to back up your comments?
What is wrong with you? Are you that narrow minded? |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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After making only 2 posts in the past 10 months, "tonydicer" makes 38 posts in less than an hour today. That's got to be some sort of Dave's record.
I want some of the substance that he's on.  |
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corporatehuman
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 198
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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He's prolific.
Roy: How are you liking Tuxtla?? Have you lived with the same family for two years?? I'm just curious because later in february I'm thinking about heading there for work, it's really close to me right now (Chiapa de Corzo).
- Chris |
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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:49 pm Post subject: Re: What is wrong with you? |
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| Roy Briggs wrote: |
Who the hell are you to lecture me like that? What experience do you have to back up your comments?
What is wrong with you? Are you that narrow minded? |
Roy, I believe tonydicer was responding to the original question of this thread, i.e., quoting what people said to him when he told them he was going to Mexico. I don't think his comment was in response to your post. |
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tonydicer
Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 81
Location: Monterrey, Mexico
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| Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:13 am Post subject: |
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Therefore, what are the reasons why most of you Mexican bashers are still in Mexico? 
Truth is, the Mexicans are not only (shallow, superficial, and distrusting) to foreigners, they are the exactly the same way to fellow Mexicans. It is ingrained in Mexican culture.
Last edited by tonydicer on Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:29 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Cdaniels
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 663
Location: Dunwich, Massachusetts
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| Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:25 pm Post subject: Reactions to Mexico |
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| tonydicer wrote: |
| Truth is, the Mexicans are not only (shallow, superficial, distrusting, back-stabbing, adolescent, greedy) to foreigners, they are the exactly the same way to fellow Mexicans. It is ingrained in Mexican culture. |
Perhaps, but a large percent of the gringos in Mexico are much worse! 
If you go somewhere you don't understand the language, you can imagine everyone is nice and they talk about philosophy and art all the time. If I wanted to know what people were really like, I would stay in my home country and self-medicate. |
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MikeySaid
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 509
Location: Torreon, Mexico
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| Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| tonydicer wrote: |
Truth is, the Mexicans are not only (shallow, superficial, distrusting, back-stabbing, adolescent, greedy) to foreigners, they are the exactly the same way to fellow Mexicans. It is ingrained in Mexican culture. |
Wow. I've not seen this Mexico. I've been in both poor/rural Mexico and in upper middle class Mexico.
For a moment I thought "that's just ignorant he doesn't know what he's talking about." but... I thought to myself...
What if I don't know jack and am wrong about the people I've met. I've not been taken advantage of (with the exception of a 150 peso cab ride that should have cost 100, oh well)...
So here's your chance... instead of just throwing a sweeping generalization out there about "the Mexicans"... provide concrete examples.
In other words, put up or shut up. Because right now I'm inclined to stick with my initial gut reaction to your comment. |
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M@tt
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 473
Location: here and there
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| Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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i posted a series of specific experiences that were basically a mellower version of the same sentiments.
to be honest, my posts on here are mostly negative and somewhat depressing, even immature at times(!gasp!).
i recommend a two week loading phase of zoloft or prozac if you bother to look through them. jejeje
ok, they're not that bad, but i tend to write when i'm pissed off.
there is certainly a lot of variety in mexico and i'm extremely happy for anyone who has mostly positive experiences. there are also people who will say that you are entirely responsible for the type of experience that you end up with but i don't agree, i think that in a third world country you have less control over the elements that enter your daily life and some people are luckier than others. on top of that, i think mexico's culture is especially untransparent. i mean it can be very very hard to figure out just what the heck is going on around you and in people's heads, which makes it harder to avoid getting humped by the bad guys.
in favor of the "you make it what it is" crowd, i agree that attitude plays a big big part in surviving intact.
i was in mexico for the last 5 days and it just reconfirmed what i feel whenever i'm there: i love/hate/love/hate/love/hate the place.
mexico is an abusive lover. |
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Guy Courchesne
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
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| Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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| i think mexico's culture is especially untransparent. i mean it can be very very hard to figure out just what the heck is going on around you and in people's heads |
I mentioned it in the other thread, but you have noted something Octavio Paz expounds on in Labyrinth...
An excerpt...
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| The Mexican, whether young or old, criollo or mestizo, general laborer or lawyer, seems to me to be a person who shuts himself away to protect himself: his face is a mask and so is his smile. In his harsh solitude, which is both barbed and courteous, everything serves him as a defense: silence and words, politeness and disdain, irony and resignation. He is jealous of his own privacy and that of others, and he is afraid even to glance at his neighbor, because a mere glance can trigger the rage of these electrically charged spirits. He passes through life like a man who has been flayed; everything can hurt him, including words and the very suspicion of words. His language is full of reticences, of metaphors, and allusions, of unfinished phrases, while his silence is full of tints, folds, thunderheads, sudden rainbows, indecipherable threats. Even in quarrel he prefers veiled expressions to outright insults: "A word to the wise is sufficient." He builds a wall of indifference and remoteness between reality and himself, a wall that is no less impenetrable for being invisible. The Mexican is always remote, from the world and from other people. And also from himself. |
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| mexico is an abusive lover. |
Nice phrase... |
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