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I just received an email from someone who says I know nothing about Mexican culture. Hmmm, oh really? Because I want the best for Mexicans, I don't want an informal market which leaves people taken advantage, their kids in poverty and their future in jeopardy? Well, here was my reply and I'm sticking to it:
How long have you lived here? How long have you worked here? Do you
pay property tax, Mexican income tax, tenencia on a Mexican car,
refrendo, Infonavit, IMSS? Well I do. I have lived here since
graduating from the university. Almost 30 years. The informal market
is what it is. I don't live with Americans, I don't know any Americans
in Mexico, I don't live in a gated community, I don't hang out with
ex-pats.
How dare you make such a statement. It is ignorance on the part of ex-pats that get this shit going. As I said, people think it is really cool to see a donkey going down the street pulling a cart, a woman with a baby strapped to her back wearing a serape. Would you want to do that? Easy to sit on the sidelines with a pension check or money in the bank and say, "oh how cool life is in Mexico". Or even better, those that think the informal market is so great that people should be allowed to walk up and down the beaches selling chucherias from a wheel barrel, food they prepared god knows where. Fine, let's see those foreigners go back to their countries and allow people to sell stuff on the beach without a license, permit, sanitation of any kind. It would never happen, the same people in SMA who like to boycott big business would be the same ones raising a flag.
So the next time you see someone selling shit on the street, think about his kids at home and the b.s. they have to put up with because this louse doesn't want to follow the rules, get an education, a real job that supplies him by law a low cost housing loan, medical insurance for everyone who lives under his roof, a pension when he retires after only haveing to work 35 years. Then you tell me who doesn't understand the Mexican culture.
I am a teacher, have been all my life. I work in the public education sector as well as private. My partner works for the scholarship program giving out masters and phd grants and study abroad to any Mexican who has a university degree. Our state university has 100,000 students half of which pay nothing. Last week I worked at the University Antonio Narro in Saltillo, 80% of the student population comes from Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco, and they receive free tuition, free food, and voucher for living expenses.
And think about the states of Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Hidalgo where students have missed 100 school days this year and will never make them up because their selfish teachers union is on strike. Did you also know that these four states just happen to be the poorest in Mexico? See the relationship.
So the next you see that woman selling gorditas on the street and think she is poor and uneducated, she is. But at her own expense and think about her kids, because obviously she doesn't. Mexico is on the move and it is changing. The donkey, serape, and the cactus will soon disappear and the sooner the better.
Now tell me where I am going wrong.
How dare you make such a statement. It is ignorance on the part of ex-pats that get this shit going. As I said, people think it is really cool to see a donkey going down the street pulling a cart, a woman with a baby strapped to her back wearing a serape. Would you want to do that? Easy to sit on the sidelines with a pension check or money in the bank and say, "oh how cool life is in Mexico". Or even better, those that think the informal market is so great that people should be allowed to walk up and down the beaches selling chucherias from a wheel barrel, food they prepared god knows where. Fine, let's see those foreigners go back to their countries and allow people to sell stuff on the beach without a license, permit, sanitation of any kind. It would never happen, the same people in SMA who like to boycott big business would be the same ones raising a flag.
So the next time you see someone selling shit on the street, think about his kids at home and the b.s. they have to put up with because this louse doesn't want to follow the rules, get an education, a real job that supplies him by law a low cost housing loan, medical insurance for everyone who lives under his roof, a pension when he retires after only haveing to work 35 years. Then you tell me who doesn't understand the Mexican culture.
I am a teacher, have been all my life. I work in the public education sector as well as private. My partner works for the scholarship program giving out masters and phd grants and study abroad to any Mexican who has a university degree. Our state university has 100,000 students half of which pay nothing. Last week I worked at the University Antonio Narro in Saltillo, 80% of the student population comes from Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco, and they receive free tuition, free food, and voucher for living expenses.
And think about the states of Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Hidalgo where students have missed 100 school days this year and will never make them up because their selfish teachers union is on strike. Did you also know that these four states just happen to be the poorest in Mexico? See the relationship.
So the next you see that woman selling gorditas on the street and think she is poor and uneducated, she is. But at her own expense and think about her kids, because obviously she doesn't. Mexico is on the move and it is changing. The donkey, serape, and the cactus will soon disappear and the sooner the better.
Now tell me where I am going wrong.
Hi Chris, I think NOBers like to see the old traditional customs because so many of our traditions in the states have disappeared. It makes people happy to see things as they thought they used to be, and they think things should still be that way.
ReplyDeleteThey really don't understand that the lower income type of lifestyle is not necessarily by choice.
I too am sorry to see Nike's and Reeboks replace huarachis, but I certainly understand why and agree with you that all peoples over the world are entitled to and deserve increases in their standard of living. Very few people now days would choose to work so hard. Most young people in the states wont...
Hopefully the traditions and culture can be maintained by such groups as Juan's dance program, and by those Mexicans who are committed to providing quality entertainment programs at all the fiestas of every town in Mexico. Because seeing old fashioned traditional Mexico IS entertainment for the majority of gringos. (By the way, in the states were there protesters against the loss of the corner grocery store or do those people go to Walmart now?)