Nos tocó estar en México justo antes de que tuvieran lugar las elecciones para el Congreso de la Unión, presidentes municipales y uno que otro gobernador. Además de la contaminación visual, por lo que pude ver la calidad de las propuestas era francamente patética. Para la galería del horror teníamos varios ejemplos:
Un partido autodenominado Verde que proponía la pena de muerte (WTF?).
Un candidato delegacional del PRI cuyo lema de campaña era “Seguridad o Renuncio” (¿para qué votaría por tí, si vas a hacer las maletas inmediatamente?).
Una ex-deportista sin experiencia, con poca educación pero aún así se postulaba a una delegación del D.F. (Me caes muy bien Ana, pero no es suficiente para que votara por tí).
Un partido de derecha sin liderazgo, con pocas propuestas creíbles y que no supo movilizar a sus simpatizantes.
Con semejantes alternativas, no me extraña en absoluto que se haya registrado un crecimiento tan fuerte del voto nulo. Como dice el siguiente afiche:
It’s funny how people always assume that Mexicans are all brown, without taking into consideration the history of the country. Before the Spanish arrival there were already different peoples in what is now the Mexico, and with the conquest also came people from Asia, Africa and the rest of Europe.
Unilke other parts of the world, we have mixed for hundreds of years, so there is not the same kind of racial relations as there is in the United States (in my humble opinion, Mexicans are more classist than racist).
It’s difficult to focus only on skin colour when even members of your own family can look completely different from you.
I’ve mentioned it before (1,2) how the middle class in Mexico seems to to have been slowly growing and to start becoming more “brown”. While I don’t know if this trend is still continuing given the current drastic contraction of the Mexican economy, I did find some anecdotical evidence of this trend while observing the local tourists around me in my recent trip to Mexico, both those coming from recent holidays in Europe and those spending their holidays in the country.
If true, that is definitely one welcome development.
My Finnish mates made fun of me because I went to a hotel in the woods next to a lake 100 km west of Mexico City when the Finnish summer cottage cultural institution offers something similar closer to home.
The hotel is called Rodavento and is located in Valle de Bravo, Estado de México, and is part of a chain of adventure hotels. We did mountain biking and zip-lines, besides being surrounded by the lush nature.
It was both exciting and relaxing. A great getaway, I’m definitely planning to return later.
We visited the Arena Méxicoagain this time, and had a lot of fun. One of the main attractions currently is a wrestler called Máximo, whose character acts as if he were very over-the-top gay, for example trying to kiss the other wrestlers instead of hitting them. In such a homophobic and macho country as Mexico I would have assumed it to be polarising, but he seemed to be a favourite with the public.
It is not hard to see why as he was frankly hilarious. You can judge yourself below:
One thing that really caught my attention during our last trip in Mexico is the huge marketing campaigns to stimulate domestic tourism. There were ads not only talking about Mexico in general but also about specific destinations within the country (paid for by local tourism councils).
We spent a couple of weeks in Mexico for our holidays. I am currently uploading and tagging all the pictures and videos that we took during the trip, and as soon as I’m done I’ll share with you my observations there.
In Finland, mothers are celebrated on the second Sunday of May. In Mexico, the date is fixed on May 10th. Therefore, yesterday was the first in long time when I could celebrate at the same time with my mom and my in-laws.
Other than that, traditions are relatively similar. Family lunch and maybe some gifts or cards for the päivänsankari / homenajeada.
It was a victory over the French and we all know how some sectors of the American public love to hate the French
General Ignacio Zaragoza, who led the Mexican troops at that battle, was born in what is now Texas when it was still part of Mexico, so its background resounds with Mexican-Americans.
Although it is certainly celebrated in some parts of Mexico, the whole brouhaha they make north of the border as “Mexican heritage day” is as alien to most Mexicans as hard-shelled tacos.
