Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

As is custom, we'll be having a Halloween party for the guys and ghouls.

PM me for time and location...probably going to be on the 31st, which is a Friday this year.

Last year's gig has apparently become legend...

http://www.teachers-international.com/wordpress/?p=67

[Guy Courchesne]

bump...

going to be a good crowd over at another poster's place this Friday. No costume required...we're all going as EFL teachers.

[Phil_K]

[MO39]

[Guy Courchesne]

What's wrong with celebrating our own culture? It would be like asking Brits to stop celebrating...wait, what do you Brits celebrate? Fog? Oh yeah, Guy Fawkes day...celebrating someone trying to blow up Parliament.

Now there's one we can celebrate!

On a more Mexican note, we've set up a small ofrenda in our home. Nothing large of course. And, there will be lots of displays down in the Zocalo over the weekend. I celebrate 8 years in Mexico on Nov. 1st as well.

[El Gallo]

Have a fun party, guys. I wish I could come but Chiapas is far, far away.

One of my students went into a rant this morning about how the gringos destroyed Day of the Dead with Halloween and that his grandchildren dress up in costumes and beg for candy in the cemetary. My reply was, |"Why didn't you teach your daughter to respect your own religious traditions, that Halloween ends on October 31, and the Mexican extension of it into the 1st and 2nd is of your own Country's making?"

[MO39]

[Guy Courchesne]

Nice reply, El Gallo.

Philk's short retort got me thinking about Mexico and tradition. It got me thinking about how silly a notion it is to view Mexico as some 18th century culture frozen in poise or prose, trying to fulfill a tourist's idea of what Mexico is supposed to be. I think you'll only find such a thing in a museum.

One of the things I love about this country, and particularly about DF, is that Mexico is a dynamic society. Ever on the go and ever changing. People here are not afraid to embrace other cultures, be it American Halloween, French music, or Argentine food. One need only look at modern Mexican art, architecture, sport, literature, media, technology, and music.

There's no loss of culture here. Only a rich blend of many cultures. To ask Mexicans to stay static is to deny them their own existence.

[MO39]

I must disagree with Guy. I think that the infiltration of American holidays and customs like Halloween and Santa Claus into Mexican life has less to do with the so-called dynamism of Mexican society than it has to do with the blind adulation and acceptance of anything that comes from the United States. For some reason, things from NOB have taken on an aura of being "better" than Mexico's own customs and celebrations.

[geaaronson]

There is no such thing as blind adoration and adaptation of all things from good ole USA. It�s more like a selective adaptation of the most entertaining aspects of another culture or those that appeal most to one�s own cultural predilictions.
IE. Disney�s appeal, McDonald�s success, Halloween�s adaptation have been executed because of their entertainment value. We don�t see Mexicans signaling to change lanes, wearing red ties in times of non-negotiations, buying spinners for their car wheels, or businesses paying their federal income taxes on a quarterly basis as you would suggest if surely theirs is a blind adaptation of American customs.
And we ourselves have adopted many of the customs of the foreigners in our midst. Beigels with cream cheese, sushi, hamburgers would not exist if they did not in themselves have some universal appeal and been introduced to American society by the Jews from Eastern Europe, Japanese, and Germans respectively who made those contributions to America�s culinary.

[Guy Courchesne]

-Edited to remove a bit of harshness I didn't put very well-

People here don't dress up in costumes or put up a Christmas tree solely because it's 'the American way' and therefore better than the Mexican way. They do it because they like it, simply put. There's something attractive about it. There's no reason to believe that Mexican traditions are at odds with American traditions here at all...just difference, and a celebration of difference at that. I'm sure we all know full well that it doesn't take much to get a Mexican to celebrate something.

There's a problem in viewing holidays as a zero-sum game, and I think we as foreigners in this country are victims to this. My own Mexican family celebrated heartily both Halloween and Day of the Dead, Christmas and the posadas and Reyes Magos. No difference there at all in the US celebrating Cinqo de Mayo (albeit incorrectly) in the Mexicanization of the US.

It's really up to the Mexicans to do what they wish.

Gearonson is right in this...

[MO39]

I understand what Guy and geaaronson are saying, and from an anthropological point of view, what they say makes a certain amount of sense. However, I still think that adopting so many customs and celebrations from the United States, especially when they have no strong basis in Mexican culture or compete with already established Mexican customs, can lead to a denigration of what is truly Mexican. I liken it to Jews in the US (some of whom are my own relatives, by the way) who, instead of teaching their children to have pride in their own holidays and to celebrate them in the bosom of the family, do stupid things like introducing the Hanukah Bush into the celebration, so their children won't feel left out at Christmastime.

[MO39]

Just to add a Mexican opinion to the interesting mix of ideas on this thread, I'm going to paraphrase a portion of an email newsletter I recently received from the Centro Cultural Jos� Mart�, located next to the Alameda in Mexico City's Centro Hist�rico.

They're having a "Festival de D�a de Muertos" tomorrow, which will include a parade around the park. The organizers are asking prospective participants to come in costumes "con motivos mexicanos", "no witches, vampires, or pumpkins or any costumes foreign to our traditions" [my partial translation].

[CharlieBaloney]

I just put a carved out pumpkin (with a witch and black cat) on my balcony. I hate to think I'm ruining Mexican culture. It took me so much time, this year it stays, but next year I'll have to reconsider.

Charlie

[Guy Courchesne]

Hopefully stays cool...I put out 5 pumpkins two years ago, but the weather was so warm they turned to mush within a few days.