MexConnect.com Forums: General: General Forum: Anti-semitism in Mexico: Page 2

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La Isla

Jan 14, 2010, 4:04 PM

Post #26 of 34 (5733 views)

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Re: [Moisheh] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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OK : You bring the wine and I will get the Challah. I am sure the bakery in Kino Viejo will have some!!!

Moisheh

Very amusing. I´ll see if Superama carries palatable Kosher wine!

La Isla

Jan 16, 2010, 10:38 AM

Post #27 of 34 (5664 views)

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Re: [richmx2] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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Richard, sorry it's taken me a couple of days to thank you for your wonderfully informative post. Having spent quite a bit of time over the years in Spain, I am well aware of the anti-semitism that still lurks there, but in recent years it seems to have become more fashionable to be proud of possible Jewish ancestry than to deny it, at least among the more cosmopolitan part of the population. I wasn't aware of similar pro-converso sentiment in Mexico. Of course, political anti-semitism is still evident in the more liberal Spanish media, which is ardently pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel. I had no idea that José Vasconcelos had no love for my people. I wonder how common this was (is) among his generation of Mexican nationalists..

I think that Mexicans who don't have any Jewish friends think that all Jews are Orthodox and live in Polanco or Interlomas because that's all they have to go on. And the media don't help much to change this misperception. I remember an article I read a while back in Siete Días about the Jews of Mexico City - the focus was on the Orthodox community and one convert who was more observant than the High Rabbi in Jerusalem! It seemed that the lives of non-observant Jews who looked just like the average middle-class Mexican was of no interest to the journalist researching the story.

esperanza

Jan 16, 2010, 11:52 AM

Post #28 of 34 (5648 views)

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Re: [La Isla] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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There are Jewish communities in Mexico where you might least expect them: a large enclave of Russian Jews in Ensenada, Baja California, for example, and another large Jewish community in Tijuana. Read here:
http://www.jewishsightseeing.com/...6-tijuana_centro.htm

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

La Isla

Jan 20, 2010, 5:29 PM

Post #29 of 34 (5566 views)

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Re: [richmx2] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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Here's a bibliographic question for Richard: I just started classes with a new student whose second last name is Silva. I asked her if she had any family connections to Portugal or Brazil, and she said that that was what her mother had told her, but she didn't have any details about that half of her family tree. I then mentioned that if that were true, she might be part Jewish since many of the conversos who moved to New Spain were often Portuguese Jews who had converted to Catholicism but still practiced or at least remembered some aspects of Judaism. She was very interested in this possibility and asked if I could recommend a book for her to read on this topic, preferably in Spanish, but I think she could handle one written in English. Any suggestions?

Hound Dog

Jan 21, 2010, 6:16 AM

Post #30 of 34 (5531 views)

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Re: [Moisheh] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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I have never encountered any anti semitism in Mexico other than the filth that comes from the mouths of Red Necked Americans

Tell me, Moisheh, how many "Red Necked Americans" spewing anti-semitic filth have you encountered in your town or travels that are of sufficient number to warrant your disparaging an entire substrata of U.S. culture so heedlessly. These sorts of sentiments are what lead, eventually, to manifest racism.

I am remnded of a party my wife, who is a Parisienne, and I attended shortly after we moved from Mobie to San Francisco in the 1970s.

Some numbnuts asked her where she was from and she indicated that she was raised in Paris but had lived for the past two years in Mobile. The puntbrain exclaimed, "Mobile! Mobile, Alabama? How could you have lived there; it´s full of rednecks." My wife responded; "Tell me, I married one."

Thoughtless comments assigning shortcomngs to any particular group of people because of their heritage are unbecoming.

Further to the point:

I reminded my wife of that story about rednecks in Mobile and she, in turn, reminded me of another amusing story from those days. She had come to Mobile to teach French to young girls at an exclusive private school and had chosen that city partially because of its French heritage but also because her family in Paris had hosted a young girl form a prominent Jewish family in Mobile and they were hosting her in return. This young girl grew up to be an attorney in that city and later fell in love with a farrier living in a trailer in some backwoods small town in the swamplands north of Mobile she had met because of her love for horses. When one of her mother´s friends in the family´s synagogue asked her mother to describe her daughter´s new husband, she replied, " Well, I´d describe his as a redneck if he hadn´t married a jew."

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Jan 21, 2010, 7:03 AM)

richmx2

Jan 21, 2010, 2:16 PM

Post #31 of 34 (5460 views)

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Re: [La Isla] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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Isla... I can't think of any books off-hand, but I'm thinking about it. Most of what I learned was just bits and pieces scattered through other sources. Saltillo, according to local folklore was founded by a joint Tlaxcalan- Portuguese Converso expedition. The Cathedral -- and the center of Saltillo -- is where it is supposedly because the Portuguese and Tlaxcalans couldn't decide while of the two communities would get the honor, and tied a statue of St. James to the back of a mule, let the mule loose, and located the Cathedral where the mule finally stopped.

Hounddog... true the worst anti-Semite (or at least out of the closet one) I've met in Mexico was a "redneck", a gay guy from Indianapolis living in DF (and the weirdness of one minority indulging in attacks on another minority makes it doubly repellent)... but it reminds me of a friend of mine who'd grown up in rural Montana and was in Paris on leave from the Air Force. While Americans are known to TALK LOUD, this guy sounds like Yosemite Sam (in a VERY, VERY LOUD VOICE). "Yosemite Dave" and buddy were in a cafe, dissing Mexicans ... comparing them unfavorably to the "respectable Spaniards" at the next table. Leaving the cafe, the "respectable Spaniards" introduced themselves... Octavio Paz and family.

My friend still talks like Yosemite Sam (and is known to call people "VARMITS" on occasion), but at least learned to show respect for the rights of others.

http://mexfiles.net
http://voiceofmexico.com
http://editorialmazatlan.com

Rolly

Jan 21, 2010, 6:26 PM

Post #32 of 34 (5390 views)

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Re: Anti-semitism in Mexico

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Spirited discussions are most welcome on MexConnect, but personal attacks are not. If you feel inclined to get personal, please do it via PMs.

I just removed two offending posts.

Rolly Pirate

La Isla

Jan 21, 2010, 6:51 PM

Post #33 of 34 (5379 views)

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Re: [Rolly] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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Spirited discussions are most welcome on MexConnect, but personal attacks are not. If you feel inclined to get personal, please do it via PMs.

I just removed two offending posts.

Thanks for doing that, Rolly. I regret that the thread I started ended up with members of our community attacking each other for their opinions. Ironic, isn't it?

tonyburton

Jan 21, 2010, 8:22 PM

Post #34 of 34 (5336 views)

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Re: [La Isla] Anti-semitism in Mexico

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Before the discussion gets way out-of-hand, this thread is being locked. Feel free to restart the discussion on a new thread provided you have something non-personal to say which is germane to the topic. Tony

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