Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

I received a great insight today, at our get together at Xochimilco, and I owe a great debt to another poster named notamiss for it.

The Inner Mexican.

There's something that draws foreigners to Mexico...something you won't understand unless you have this quality, I've come to believe. Notamiss gave it a name...the inner-Mexican. I think it's something we have in us that brings us here. It's not Latino...it's not the quest from the exotic..it's most definitely and uniquely Mexican in nature.

It's something in you, no matter where you're born, that brings you to this country and keeps you here. It's a sense and view of the world in different terms, maybe like the sliver in the Matrix, or a sense that something's not right with the world. I dunno. It's inner, like she says.

I'm rambling...but I think if you live here, you know what I mean. More on this as the thread goes along...I'd like to hear from folk in the know.

[MO39]

In spite of my respectable outer image, I think my Inner Mexican has an anarchic streak of rebellious attitudes towards many, many things.

[Guy Courchesne]

I think we had a little too much fun yesterday, resulting in this topic. Your Inner Mexican is going to be the title of a book I think.

Hey, we switched the clocks ahead last night didn't we?

[MO39]

[Linda T.]

Yes, Guy. You are DEFINITELY on to something here. Although I'm still in the states, I feel the tug most strongly when exposed to the warmth of the sun, bright colors, and the spanish language. Not only through its melodious flow, but through the way that cups are allowed to break themselves and keys are allowed to lose themselves (with no need for blame), while certain negative emotions are experienced solely because people put them upon themselves.

Is there a group in Guadalajara that gets together like the one in Mexico City does? I sure hope so because I suspect that is where I may wind up.

[TheLongWayHome]

Sounds like (not wishing to p�ss on anyone's bonfire) that the 'inner Mexican' is your romantic ideal of Mexico that has somehow been fulfilled or lived up to.

[mapache]

Although my childhood images of Mexico were that of Tijuana and I refused to go to Spain in my twenties because I thought Spain was like Mexico, I have always been attracted to the romantic culture of the old TV show Zorro, that I watched religiously as a boy. The colonial architecture and old fashioned politeness (usually genuine but sometimes not) called to me, too.

I never heard of Chiapas before I came he as the result of failed plans for a tourism business. (the gringos believe Chiapas is dangerous partly because of urban legend and the rest because they wrongfully believe in the US government still saying so because of Zapatistas)

Now when I go to the US or Canada, I find myself longing for my home in Chiapas with its free spirit of living and freedom from intrusive government like Cheney's Big Brother eavesdropping. I love the people here - especially their zeal for life with big families, friendly neighbors, a quiet respect for others' religions and big and frequent fiestas with music, food and dancing (OK - also cerveza). Poor or not, they live life to the fullest and I noticed more people smile more often here than in the drab condition of my homeland divided religiously and politically over its dark clouds of torture and war. Mexicans don't go out of their way to make enemies which is, I believe a good philosophy to live by.

[Phil_K]

[notamiss]

As I mentioned to Guy, there are different kinds of Inner Mexicans. Some are a yearning, but others, like mine, are unsuspected, and only come out when one has been living here for a few years. It's a different kind altogether than the "romantic ideal" one mentioned by TheLongWayHome.

I never had any wanderlust, any desire to live elsewhere but in my own native land, where I felt entirely at home. It never occurred to me, let alone attracted me even to vacation in Mexico. Nevertheless, fate brought me here, and after a few years I found little by little that I was settling in.

The signs are small and insignificant; they may even be missed at first, but over time they add up. The little rituals and courtesies, or different ways of saying things that seem strange at first, finally become natural and normal. The realization that there are things you don't know how to say in English. And other examples.

[Phil_K]

[TheLongWayHome]

[MELEE]

I first came to Mexico when I was 17. I wasn't here long enough to discover my Inner-Mexican, or maybe it wasn't there and that trip seeded it? But that trip did give me a taste for visiting foriegn cultures. As I travelled in my early twenties, both as a student and as a recent grad, that was fuelled. And I came to Mexico, thinking it would be any other great destination. But I did discover I had an Inner-Mexican. Now I'd even go as far as to say "I was born on the wrong side of the boarder."

While my spouse is Mexican, I met him here. And I don't consider him to be what's keeping me here. We have a friend who recently went to the US on a "fianace visa". He asked me--why didn't you get one of those for me? I was like WHAT? then we'd have to live there! No WAY. He can go. I'm fine right where I am.

[notamiss]

[MO39]

I find it very telling that the posts on this string that pooh-pooh Guy's "Inner Mexican" insight are not particularly thrilled at finding themselves living in Mexico and are here only because of their Mexican wives.

[Guy Courchesne]