esperanza
Jul 5, 2009, 11:32 AM
Post #8 of 12
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Re: [chinagringo] Hotels? - Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Leon
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I think that many of us--myself included, and among the worst of offenders--are guilty of what I call 'contempt prior to investigation'. I always felt the same way you do about San Miguel de Allende, until March 2009.
This past March, my partner and I were invited to a culinary event in San Miguel. During the course of the event, we met a group of San Miguel residents who are multi-cultured, highly intelligent, vitally interested in all things Mexican, speak at least moderately decent Spanish, and are totally contrary to the assumptions both my partner and I had made of folks who choose to live in the insular, primarily American, foreign community in San Miguel. To say that we were flabbergasted is putting it mildly--flabbergasted and ashamed of ourselves for our assumptions. These lovely people have become our good friends, and these days, we both see San Miguel with slightly different eyes.
All that being said, of course there are still foreigners in San Miguel who fit the stereotype. But why associate with people you don't care to know?
San Miguel de Allende has a much larger Mexican population than foreign population. The truth is, whether you associate primarily with the Mexican population, you are still going to stick out as a readily recognizable foreigner. Unless you have extraordinary Mexican cultural literacy, you won't 'get' a lot of conversational references. You don't have the necessary frame of reference, and it's likely that you never will have. You can't escape that reality: you weren't born and raised here. The little songs that every Mexican child knows from the cradle are unknown to you. The films people your age saw as teenagers are unknown to you. The wordplay that is endemic in Mexico is unknown to you. Imagine, for example, trying to make Spanish conversational reference to Princess Summerfallwinterspring, from the Howdy Doody shows of your childhood. What Mexican of your age group in Mexico would know what in the world you were talking about? Imagine inserting "N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best..." into your conversation! And no matter how desirous you are of educating yourselves on 'the real culture and people of Mexico', Mexico is not a one-culture, one people country, nor is it your personal cross-cultural resource.
Of course you know that when I say 'you', I don't mean you personally. You are coming to Mexico with the best possible intent, the same intent that most foreigners strive for. It's just all but impossible to achieve.
http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com
(This post was edited by esperanza on Jul 5, 2009, 11:36 AM)
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