Job Discussion Forums

[Samantha]

I can't believe how relatively well this thread has stayed on track. Good for us!

This is indeed a great point for pondering (the selfishness aspect), and my thoughts are that the noise issue should be chocked up to the differences in our cultures because nothing will change here. Mexicans don't consider it selfish to have a great time and make noise at some ungodly hour. They consider it sharing the fun or something. My husband and I have had way too many conversations about this and I actually convinced him to call the police one time at 3 a.m. for a party up the street. (And the police actually came and told them to put a lid on it! ) This is why the entire neighborhood attends these affairs...because nobody can sleep anyway.

The car stereo suddenly blaring at 3, 4 or 5 a.m. on a weekday is a completely different story from a weekend party. It is obnoxious especially since, with judgement normally impaired by the evening fun, they seem to play the worst music imaginable to wake up to. We have zero tolerance for the one guy in our hood who tries that periodically. Everyone works in the mornings, so he is outnumbered.

I will take neighborhood noises of any kind and at any decibel over this LOUD Banda music in Sinaloa. If it isn't being played somewhere until the wee hours, it is being practised. Check out the link for Banda El Recodo, our local guys who are famous around the world (and be thankful you don't live within miles of the "practise" spots of them or one of the many, many others here). Their many fans must be completely deaf.

http://www.bandaelrecodo.com.mx/

[Guy Courchesne]

Instead of asking the question, I was going to post a remark about the cultural perception of selfishness, which I think in Mexico differs from that of Americans or Canadians. I think your average Mexican would look at this thread and see yet another example of a foreigner passing a value judgment in a country that is not theirs to judge.

I don't like noise at night either...don't get me wrong. I think selfishness is not the right word though...or at least, it is the word a Mexican might use to describe the idea that my neighbors should conform to what I want....and that would be applied to foreigners or Mexicans equally. That is called 'bad education' here.

I'm trying to imagine a Chilango, living in a the suburbs of a small mid-western US town. The evening hours passing slowly...only the sound of the clock to mark the passage of time. All of a sudden, the Chilango bolts up, thrusts open the window and screams 'OYEN VECINOS!!! SOMEBODY MAKE SOME NOISE BECAUSE THE QUIET IS KEELING MEEEEEE!!!

Bad form.

[cangringo]

Very good points on the selfishness aspect. I happen to love most of the noise because I think that most Canadians and Americans have become...well I'm sorry but boring (can't even cheer for your hockey team during playoffs at 9 at night in Vancouver ) and I love that Mexicans have loud parties and invite us. I can't sleep if I know there's a party going on and we're invited. The only bad noise is the dogs and that only bothers me when they start at 3 am or some such ridiculousness...chasing them down the street with broom in hand really just amuses the neighbors.

On that same note we do have a vecino similar to yours Samantha, and he doesn't get invited to parties. He gets drunk and drives around and on the nights when everyone else is quiet because we all work, he insists on staying up late and blasting terrible music from his car. We wouldn't mind so much except that it's outside so it rattles our windows constantly...if he partied inside it wouldn't really bother us. Oh and then they start chuckin beer cans and yelling - yeesh. He is a pendejo and the neighborhood really just has nothing to do with him.

The litter is another matter though, it is pretty bad and our friends here hate it and they hate that it's associated with Mexico.

[M@tt]

i'm convinced that most of the country suffers from permanent hearing loss. there's no way you could spend your whole life there and not be at least partially deaf.

from the responses here though you would think mexicans did nothing but throw loud parties. in reality the noise has almost nothing to do with parties (which might be excusable) and a lot to do with excessive honking,
loudspeakers on trucks,
loudspeakers in the zocalo,
loudspeakers on the sidewalks,
loudspeakers at every freaking corner store
--the worst one in the entire country being "JUST PRICE" in DF. i've never been closer to buying a rifle and sniping than when i lived on the 6th floor across from JUST PRICE and had to listen to their idiotic announcement blaring 12 hours a day from enormous concert speakers they put out on the sidewalk. never mind that the entire storefront is one enormous tacky advertisement that's impossible to miss unless you're blind.
i hope they go under.

and, i hope they heard me screaming those profanities from my window.

just had to get that out of my system. now i'm off to sleep, in utter silence.

[sickbag]

As I mentioned above, my use of the word selfishness was probably a response to my rude awakening the other night. I actually like the fact that Mexicans seem to do what they want when they want. It's a refreshing change from staid Anglo-Saxon culture.

It still amazes me that people see nothing wrong (or dangerous) about driving the wrong way down a road because it's quicker than going the long way round. Or, my personal favourite, seeing a family (of four) using one bicycle to get to school/work in the morning along one of the busiest roads in Puebla.

[MELEE]

THE BAND RECODO ROCK!!!

[cangringo]

No it's not just loud parties but the speakers don't bother me that much, of course I only hear them when they drive by so it's not that bad. There are the guys selling their wares but that doesn't bother me either. I like loud music so that doesn't bother me. I am fairly sure that a lot of them must be deaf though

I admit we don't have anything blaring all day and that would bother me.

I saw a car with a car seat the other day, that was a shocker...of course it was in the front seat...

[ls650]

When I visited San Cristobal de Las Casas, every morning I was woken up by the gas delivery trucks. They drag about 3 or 4 meters of heavy metal chain behind as they drive through the narrow cobblestone streets. The idea is to make a hellacious racket to attract attention.

It works... they make a noise to wake the dead.

[hlamb]

[cangringo]

It's funny because I was thinking about this very thread on Friday night when we were trying to sleep. I was especially hoping for no dogs or anything because I work on Sat mornings. Our neighbors had a party (we think they are new and has a housewarming) and it was all fine, didn't mind the badly out of tune singing or the loud music until one or two people started the shouting. It was just a ha ha or anything resembling that. It was the most irritating noise you've ever heard and went on til 5 in the morning. Wouldn't have been so bad except that they were outside and would do it every 2 mins or so. Anyway it only really bothered me that night and the morning after - now it's just an amusing story.

I guess that was my payback for saying I don't mind the noise

[travelingirl68]

I am not really sure how I stumbled on this thread - maybe all the noise that I experience here in India, and the sleepless nights because of it brought me to you guys!

I live right across the street from the gas company here in Bangalore (as in gas cylinders used for cooking) and starting at 7AM thru about 6PM, I hear the sound of trucks pulling up, and the clanking of canisters being loaded and unloaded. (I work late afternoons thru very late nights).

We too have the passing street vendors and cries of 'Tomadoooos, Paaaaaayper, etc.' have become a favorite sound of mine here. The dogs are probably the biggest nuisance for noise, street dogs rove in packs on every block, and their barking and fights for territory are a constant source of noise pollution.

I have heard the same types of 'noise complaints' from people living in China as well - this 'problem' seems to be everywhere... In Kazakstan in the villages, it was the all night doodling of roosters and the early morning call to prayer over loudspeakers on top of cars, or the day-long call of vendors with every type of fruit and vegetable, or the trucks delivering gas canisters... In Detroit and Albuquerque, it was gun shots and car alarms and police sirens and ambulances... In a year in South Dakota, it was the hog processing plant (sound AND smell pollution), and a next door neighbor's breathless raspy self-gratification... Aah, to find a place in the world where there is utter quiet - Bryce Canyon... And there it was the sound of my own ears ringing in the silence.

As far as India, Mexico, China, Kazakstani style noise, I think it is related to the difference between 'collective and individualistic' cultures, and has nothing to do with 'selfishness' on anyone's part - it just seems that way when you are desperate for sleep and peace!

[corporatehuman]

We have those gas trucks here too. The noise here isn�t all that bad, but I�ve become accustomed to waking up at 5:30 or 6:00. I asked someone about those gas trucks, I can�t remember if it�s just to warn people, or if dragging all that metal releases static electricity or something. I think there is a reason besides noise.

Big noise here are the cars with bullhorns, and at night, if you walk even a little bit out of town, there are an excessive amount of dogs. And if you are alone, it�s real scary. Last night I was with a group of 10 guys, and I must have seen at least 20 to 30 dogs, all snarling and barking at us from the sides of these houses. A few times packs have sort of tailed me, or come real close and barked at me, still never bitten.

Roosters, cars, gas trucks, trash truck, and all those places that sell burnt cds constantly blast music all day. But I do like the acceptance of noise, if you want go ahead and light those fireworks at 3 or 4 am to celebrate a saint. The tolerance is great. My last day in the United States i had a big party, the only time I�d had one in suburbia, on a saturday night, nonetheless. And the neighbors threatened my mom the next day (After I left) that they�d call the cops. Vecinos!

Chris

[cangringo]

Chris, I agree with you on the tolerance. I am very happy about that. We had numerous complaints about quiet parties where we used to live. It seems that no one can stand anyone having fun in Vancouver.

[englishsettler]

wellllllcommmmeeee to LATIN AMERICA !!! lol
Dont even think about going to colombia....omg, too too noisy.
I totally relate to this, im from uk, very strict after 11 policy there but hey, this is mexico and people are different. Not a great place to get a great nights sleep though lol

[MamaOaxaca]

I was reading something last night and it hit me.
The answer to "What's with all the noise?"

SNOW

Lack of snow. Mexicans do not know the increadibly blissfully peacefully quiet of snow. The sound of falling snow. The stillness of a nighttime snowfall on a windless night. The choreography of the flakes lit by streetlamps. The way deep snow seems to buffer all the sound. The absence of crickets, frogs, locusts in the winter night. The increadible brightness of the morning sun relecting off the snow covered world. The sound of the snow crunching underfoot. The feel of the icy air in your nose and on your cheeks.

To know and savor quiet, one must know snow.