Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Hispanic Heritage Month is here, and I thought it would be a good time to get some things off my chest. Whenever I go to the library, or listen to the radio, or whatever, people are always talking about Hispanic culture, which is lovely - it's great to have all the Latins in the US acknowledged. BUT. People keep saying things about Mexican culture that are just so untrue, and I wanted to point them out so I could do my bit to contribute to a True Image of this wonderful culture. (I'm Mexican on one side of my family, American on another.) Here are some of the Culture Myths I've noticed:

-Mexican culture is "macho." *sobs* Everyone says this and it is unbelievably far from the truth. If you don't believe me, just go read a few good Germán Dehesa essays, or some Mafalda cartoons, or something, and you'll see what I mean.  Women and men are treated exactly equally - the thing is, nobody cares if you're a man or woman. They just look at you as a human. The result is that women don't have this whole history that women in the US do, of being denied their rights and being told they don't count. Of course, historically, women in Latin cultures weren't allowed to vote and all that stuff, but they often had more legal rights than women in, for example, the US. For instance, women were allowed to keep their maiden names after marriage, which in itself shows that they were seen as their own people rather than being attached to their husbands. Some other facts that show how respected women are:

-the entire city of Guadalajara was founded when the men who wanted to found it were bickering about where it should be, and a woman who was there got fed up and said it would be in the place where they were at the moment, and they listened to her. Result: the beautiful, amazing, wonderful city of Guadalajara.

-One of Mexico's best poets and playwrights, Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz, wrote in the 1600s, openly, as a woman, and nobody batted an eyelid. In the 1600s!!

-Both of Mexico's presidential candidates right now are women.

-Women don't think they have to prove that they can be "like men." Instead, they know that they can be feminine and yet be strong - being feminine doesn't mean you have to be weak. This means they can be themselves (yes, a lot of women are quite feminine, thank you). On the other hand, if you happen to not feel very feminine, that's 100% okay too.

Okay, some more culture myths about Mexico:

-The Spanish who conquered it slaughtered all the Native Americans. Not true!! A lot of them died from disease, but it wasn't because the Spanish were trying to kill them. The ones who survived carried on with many of their old customs. A few decades ago, for instance, in very rural areas, many people didn't even speak Spanish.

-The children of Mexican immigrants to the US feel rebellious and come into conflict with their strict, horrible families. I've noticed YA novels portraying this a lot. Again, not true!! Mexican families are usually some of the most loving, accepting ones I've ever heard of. They do expect you to be a nice, polite, caring person, but that's all.

-A lot of novels about Latins seem to involve ghosts and dead people and stuff like that - I don't know why. Traditionally, Latin culture has absolutely no references to magic or anything like that. It's very grounded in reality.  We do have the Day of the Dead in Mexico, but the media portrays it as way more grisly than it really is. It's actually quite a minor holiday, not at all like Christmas or Easter, and there's no emphasis on death or ghosts or skeletons - it's just a day to remember your loved ones who have passed on, and quite beautiful. 

-Mexicans can be classified as "brown." *sobs again* This one's complex to explain. Lots of Mexicans are brown-skinned; some even look mulatto. Others are super, super pale. So it's very inaccurate to call us "brown people." But there's another reason I object to calling us this - it's irrelevant what skin color we are. If we must be grouped, I'd rather we were grouped according to culture, not skin color, which has nothing to do with who we are. It seems to me degrading for people to assume that we can be labeled according to that. Imagine if Mexicans started referring to Americans as "Blond People" all the time instead of calling them Americans.

Anyway, I guess all of this is just to ask that please, please, you take everything the media says about Latin culture with a grain of salt. It's so sad for me to see my culture being turned into something shallow, alien to everything I've grown up with. I really want to show people what it really is like, both in its beautiful customs and traditions, and in its happy, independent, fun-loving worldview. I hope this helps with that. If you want to learn more about real Latin culture, which I would definitely recommend, feel free to ask me for the names of books, music, movies, etc. that would give you a good idea of it! I'd be very happy to share them (and, aside from portraying Latin culture, I promise they will all be funny, interesting, entertaining, etc. in their own right). And, to conclude, if there are any stereotypes or misconceptions about your own culture that you've noticed, feel free to share those too! I definitely want to be sure that I'm not getting a skewed picture of anyone else's culture :)

Okay, that's it. Probably a very long thread, but hopefully interesting :)