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Hound Dog

Sep 26, 2009, 4:26 PM

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Larrainza

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Drive up the mountain beyond Chamula from San Cristóbal in the Jovel Valley until you nearly drive off the edge of the earth on the way to Aldama also known as Santa Magdalena and you are in Larrainza. A mountainous place of immense charm and incredible rustic beauty famed for its ceremonial huipiles and according to local lore a place with the finest hospital in the highlands and then you are in the place local people tell you to go to be straightened out from diseases you have acquired simply by existing on the planet and you are in the realm of what local indigenous folks consider to be a hospital of quality staffed by foreign doctors and that is where my wife´s indigenous Chiapas friend recommended she send me for my gall bladder operation but was concerned that his friend went there to have his gall bladder removed and they accidentally removed his pancreas and so he is no longer with us but I´ll tell you this, that is one damn clean hospital which is hard to appreciate if you do not have a pancreas. His friend is with the angels but boy was that a hygienic operation.

Hound Dog

Sep 27, 2009, 5:01 AM

Post #2 of 4 (1429 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Larrainza

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I forgot to mention that Larrainza is also a Zapatista stronghold and they do not like what they disparagingly call "gringos", a term we found out included our Mexican friend from Ajijic. They will, however, allow you to spend your money in town. By the way, Those of you tempted to throw around the term "gringo" at Lake Chapala should bear in mind that that term should not be lightly used in Chiapas. It is an abiding insult down there and if anyone other that a close friend uses that word you have most definitely been deeply insulted.

If you don´t need to use that hospital I just posted about but, say, have a toothache, on the road from Larrainza to Aldama, there is a primitive shack that has a sign out front announcing dental services on Thursdays. Once you have resolved your tooth problem, head the five or so kilometers up to the mountain village of Aldama where the views are spectacular but don´t try to buy a home up there. Rather, head on back to San Cristóbal for the night where Mexican law usually prevails.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Sep 27, 2009, 5:40 AM)

Papirex

Sep 27, 2009, 8:42 AM

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Re: [Hound Dog] Larrainza

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Bob, I agree with you on the true meaning of gringo. I was born and raised in Napa, California. California used to be a Spanish possession before there was a nation of México. There was a high percentage of the population that were of Mexican decent living there then, probably a higher percentage than live there today.

I learned that gringo is a very disparaging term from some of my Mexican schoolmates in grammar school. The term gringo probably comes from Griego, the Spanish word for Greek, or anyone that speaks what seemed to be gibberish, an un-understandable language. It did not come from the color of the US uniforms in the Mexican-American war in the 1840s, they were blue.

I lived in Brownsville, Texas on the border next to Matamoros, México for a while in the early 1970s. I still have one of the Spanish-English Dictionaries I bought at that time. The entry for Gringo starts, Gringo (disparaging). All Spanish-English dictionaries published at that time began the translated definition for gringo the same way, (disparaging).

No one ever calls me a gringo, if anyone ever does, I will know I am being insulted. One of my wife's nieces told me a few years ago that if I ever heard her or her friends describe people as gringos, that they never meant me, it is just an easy way for them to describe all outsiders.

The meaning of the word may be slowly changing, but not everywhere yet. You can usually tell by the tone of voice if you are being insulted, the word doesn't have to be preceded by pinché, the tone of voice says it all. It is never a good idea for any English speaker to call themselves a gringo here. When necessary, I always call myself an Americano, everyone here understands that.

In their ignorant innocence many ex-pats use that word improperly, and sometimes assume honorary titles that a person may never use themselves. It marks them as an ignorant outsider when they do that.

Sorry if I'm drifting in this response, but it bothers me a little when people try to impose their own definitions on the language and culture of México. If we live here, we should try to assimilate, and not try to change things, the Mexican people may, or may not do that.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

Hound Dog

Sep 27, 2009, 9:18 AM

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Re: [Papirex] Larrainza

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You are Papirex, I went with Bob and a Mexican friend from Ajijic to Larrainza looking for a rug. The nice lady from one of the two stores there asked her son to take us to a house where the lady made those rugs. My friend and I went with the little boy into a narrow street and knocked at the door. The woman who opened the door listened to the little boy and told both of us we do not like gringos get out.

My Mexican friend got pissed off and started a big fight telling the lady she was no gringa and that Marcos their beloved leader was a gringo too. I thought we were going to get into real trouble and grabbed my friend to get back to the main road quickly.

The lady´s Spanish was poor but she knew the meaning of gringo. As a rule the Tsotsiles and Tseltales call the mestizos kaxlan (not a nice word as a rule) , the US and Canadian "people from up north" , Europeans, "people from the other side "and the Asians "people from the other world".

This lady summed up the general feeling about strangers to the village by regrouping everyone under gringo which was meant as an insult , there is no doubt in my mind about that.

I heard taxis refer to us as Americanas but gringas no way and if I would have heard it, they would have gotten hell and lost a ride.

Brigitte

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Sep 27, 2009, 11:26 AM)