Reed and I are readers, so it makes sense that reading is one of our strategies for deepening our cultural awareness. In Spanish, we read classic Mexican literature and the non-fiction of Mexico's leading intellectuals. Often our reading becomes part of our weekly Seminar with both of our Spanish teachers. Aside from improving our ability to converse fluidly in Spanish, these seminars also give us valuable insight into the underpinnings of culture, which, in turn, helps us recognize the significance of our social interactions with Mexican friends.
Last night we went to a party given by a Canadian couple to say 'thank-you" to all their Mexican friends. We felt honored to be included. Our hostess's brief, emotionally rich expression of gratitude to all those Patzcuarenses who have welcomed them into the community was especially touching. Of course, it is the couple's cultural openness that has opened Pátzcuaro's doors.
In the course of the evening, I spoke with Letty, a middle-aged Mexican woman who lives in the nearby neighborhood of Estación. In the course of our chat, Letty mentioned she always reminds her daughter to greet all the neighbors on their street with a pleasant "Good morning" or "Good afternoon." She added, "it is important that we are always amable (friendly)." Then she delivered the cultural punch line, "Because if you are sick and need medicine from the pharmacy, your neighbor will get it for you. Don't have money? No de importa -- it doesn't matter, they'll buy it for you." Ka-ching!
One of the cultural traditions of indigenous communities is the idea of mutual obligation (each helps the other). It is the ties of mutual obligation that provide labor for many special tasks (building a house, repairing a car, providing a meal, even loaning money, etc.). These ties fall under the broader rubric of self-sufficiency. This family-based self-sufficiency takes up the slack by performing roles that we in the US often assign to government.
When the US economic crisis hit, our Mexican friends were blasé about the crisis. "Oh, we're used to it; we know how to cope," they'd remark. It was a cultural puzzle that has taken us just about three years to put together. Recently, Reed and I have become aware of the bonds of mutual obligation that exist within the Mexican family, but we weren't sure about how that cultural practice did or did not exist outside the extended family structure. Letty's comment provided the missing link.
The Canadian couple who were our hosts had also experienced the 'neighborliness' that is grounded in this sense of mutual responsibility. When our hosts needed a delivery of bottled water, their neighbor -- who runs a small juice shop from her house -- said she'd take the delivery and they could pick up the water when they returned. Now keep in mind that our hosts are recent arrivals -- they will only be in Pátzcuaro for three months!
On our recent trip to Tabasco state, we had another encounter whose roots reach down into the same cultural soil. After visiting an archaeological site all morning, we returned to the bustling city of Villahermosa tired and hungry. Our driver suggested a good restaurant, but when we walked in the restaurant was filled with about 150 women of all ages. The waiter told us that an 'association' was having a meeting, but they'd be happy to set up a table for us, which they did.
As we waited for and then enjoyed comida, we observed the festivities with growing bafflement and fascination. I noticed at least four or five of quite-pregnant women, then I noticed another four or five women with infants. When we finished our meal, we asked the waiter the name of the association. He leaned forward and spoke slowly, enunciating clearly so we foreigners would understand his Spanish, "Se llama baby shower" (it's called 'baby shower'). The waiter then explained the concept of 'baby shower' to us, clearly believing that we had no idea about it. He concluded by adding that women honor brides in the same way.
We could scarcely control ourselves. Here was a cultural stew that drew on multiple cultural traditions. First, of course, was the use of the English phrase 'baby shower' to describe this very Mexican event; most astonishing was the waiter's apparent lack of awareness that the term is English and hence we - obviously US-ians - would understand it. From his point of view, it was purely a Mexican tradition -- that was abundantly clear from his careful explanation, which also drew explicitly on the traditional Mexican concepts of mutual responsibility and mutual obligation.
In a nutshell, then, in two quite distinct geographical regions of Mexico, Reed and I enjoyed two distinct experiences of the indigenous cultural tradition of mutual obligation / mutual responsibility alive and actively present in contemporary mestizo (Spanish / indigenous mix)-- that is, non-indigenous--community.
But we also experienced the porosity of the cultural traditions between Mexico and the United States, especially in the West, Southwest and California. The 'baby shower' was the most obvious, but there is another. As a youngster growing up in Palo Alto, California, it was unthinkable to pass anyone on the sidewalk downtown without exchanging pleasantries: 'Good morning' or even just a simple smile and 'Hello'. It is obvious to me that the roots of this custom, which I assume is long-gone today, rest in the original Mexican culture that was California until the mid-nineteenth century.
No comments:
Post a Comment