Ask Miss Universe

I don't normally turn to beauty queens for information about world events, but in this case, Jimena Navarrete, Miss Mexico and now Miss Universe, knows what she's talking about when she tells everyone that "Mexico isn't as bad as they make it out to be."  The news that Miss Mexico won the title of Miss Universe opened, for a change,  a space in the US media for positive comments about Mexico, and allowed the beautiful young woman from Guadalajara to become a spokesperson for her country.  People who don't want to be bothered with complex news analysis or socio-political commentary by specialists in Mexican affairs may be willing to listen to what she has to say, even if it's via Twitter or Facebook or her appearance on popular tv shows.

Yesterday was a typical Sunday in Cuernavaca, and I had a chance to reflect on Miss Universe's comments as I strolled around town.  As in most parts of Mexico, Sunday is the day when people go out with their families.  Everyone who can afford it goes out to breakfast or lunch at a favorite restaurant with the kids, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other members of the extended family.  Whoever lives within walking or driving distance gets together to share news, tell jokes, gossip, discuss the football game, or whatever else comes into their minds.  Most Mexicans attend church services of some kind on Sundays, and they dress up a bit more than usual to show that it's a special day.  Even if they don't have money to spare, they can spend time sitting in the zócalo, the main square, where there are free cultural events, usually music and dance, competing with the mariachis for hire, the music coming from the sidewalk cafes, the sound of children's laughter and squeals of delight as they chase each other around the square, the sound of church bells, and an occasional call from a vendor offering ice cream, corn on the cob, homemade candies, or other treats for sale.  Mexico is a noisy place, but it's the kind of noise that speaks about daily life in a place where people enjoy socializing and being with other people.  No one has to feel lonely in Mexico, because no matter who you are or where you come from, you can sit on a bench in the town square and feel that you're part of a group of people who are enjoying a nice day outdoors.  You're surrounded by life, and everyone seems to be having a good time.

The streets are crowded with people window shopping or just strolling around.  The museums are open and most are free on Sundays to the public, so anyone with an interest can duck inside the Palacio de Cortés or the Borda Gardens and enjoy the exhibits.  There are street vendors selling everything from peanuts to batteries for your watch, and the newspaper stands do a lively business, with many people stopping to look at magazines, read the headlines in the newspaper, or just chat with the owners of the stand, as a way to pass the time.  People here have a sense of belonging to a place and being part of a community.  They greet neighbors and friends in the street with a warm hug or a handshake.  No one is too busy to stop and say hello to someone they know.

Contrary to the image that Hollywood has conveyed about Mexico, most Mexicans are extremely hard working people, they work six days a week, long hours, and most of the time they run around at a frantic pace taking care of business.  On Sunday, things slow down.  People can take time to sit and relax, to stroll at a leisurely pace, to stop for coffee and read the paper, or browse in a bookstore.  Sunday is a day to take it easy.  In the afternoon, you can always find an old Pedro Infante or Cantínflas movie on tv.  Even though I've seen them all a dozen times, I don't get tired of watching them. They remind me more than anything else that it's Sunday in Mexico, and this is something special for me, something I won't have when I go back to work in Tacoma, Washington.  The family is sacred in Mexico. Sunday is the day when you make time for the family, when you do things together, and you're grateful that you have people around you who love you.  If you aren't lucky enough to have your own family nearby, chances are good that someone in the community will "adopt" you, and you can become an extra aunt, uncle or cousin who gets included in family outings.  You won't be left alone, unless you really want to be.  People bond together here, and feel compassion for each other.

Why don't these peaceful tranquil images of Mexico ever make it into the popular imagination of people in the US?  When they think about Mexico, why don't they think of children running and laughing in the park, or grandmothers dressed up in pretty dresses with every hair perfectly in place?  I'm not talking about the social elite, but average, "ordinary" Mexicans who continue to enjoy life to the fullest, despite all the problems facing them as individuals and as a nation.  Mexicans aren't ignorant of what's happening around them, but they choose not to dwell on the negative, especially when it's something that they can't control.  Why give up a Sunday in the zócalo because in some other place there was an act of violence that had nothing to do with them?  This seems to me like a sensible approach to life.  Why give into a culture of fear and stay home behind closed doors, just in case something bad might happen?  Bad things can happen anywhere, at anytime, but chances are good you'll make it through the day just fine.  Why not enjoy life, then?

Like Miss Universe says, Mexico isn't as bad as people in the US think.   In fact, there are a lot of very good things about Mexico that are never mentioned in the foreign press.  Maybe that's because sensational news guarantees readers/ viewers/ listeners.  Who wants to hear about ordinary life?  Still, when people ask me why I keep coming back to Mexico year after year, what draws me to a place they think of as dangerous and violent, I can only think about the families I see in the Zócalo on Sundays, and the noises they make, the sound of laughter, of music, of conversation.  These sounds remind me that life is what we make it, and being happy is often just a matter of choice.

Aren't you afraid?

A friend e mailed me the other day to ask if I was ok.  She was concerned about my safety here in Cuernavaca because she had read in The Seattle Times that drug violence was out of control here.  I try to read the newspaper everyday when I'm here, and I also watch the evening news. I talk to a lot of people in the course of the day, and I always ask about what's going on.   With my ear to the ground, so to speak, I wasn't hearing anything about violence, and I wrote to my friend to assure her that all was well.  I frankly didn't know what she was talking about.

Yes, it's true that Mexico has a serious problem with violence related to the drug trade.  No one is going to deny that.  It's scary to read about mutilated bodies found alongside the road, or shootouts between drug lords and police.  But, let's be honest.  These kind of events aren't isolated to Mexico.  I live in Tacoma, Washington now, and not a day goes by that I don't read in the newspaper about someone killing someone, criminals shooting police, crazy people shooting members of their own families, children kidnapped and murdered, the list goes on and on.  I grew up in Detroit, and lived there when it was "the murder capital of America."  I remember sitting in my living room hearing gun shots outside the window.  Everyone in my neighborhood knew to turn off the lights and duck, get out of the way of flying bullets, and keep your head down until the shooting stopped.  Every big city in the United States and lots of small ones experience violence.  (Let's not forget Columbine, Colorado, that nice upper class town where students open fired on their classmates and teachers....)  What I don't understand is why the press in the United States is so determined to paint this extremely negative vision of Mexico, when we're really talking about a global problem.

Is it a coincidence that we're talking about extreme violence and danger in Mexico at the exact same time Mexican immigrants are coming under fire in the United States for "taking jobs away from Americans," or introducing violence into the US, or draining the resources of the country with their demands for free schooling for their kids, or health care in our hospitals?

I'm not trying to simply a complex situation, but it make sense to me that, given the negative attitude in the US today toward Mexican immigrants, the media would want to demonize them, to help people "understand" why we don't want them in our country.  If in the popular imagination Mexicans are violent criminals, it's easier to take active steps to keep them out of our country.

But, back to the question of violence....
I'm staying with a Mexican friend and her family here in Cuernavaca, so I think I have a pretty realistic idea of what life is like for "normal" people on a day to day basis.  I know lots of people here and talk to people from all walks of life, I'm observant, well-informed, I know Mexico well, I'm fluent in Spanish, and I can speak with some authority about what I've experienced here because I've been visiting Mexico on a regular basis since the early 1970s.  What I'm seeing now is this:

My friend and her husband get up in the morning and go to work, their kids go to school, they all go about their normal business in a perfectly normal way.  As far as I can tell, they aren't changing their daily habits much, if at all.  They take precautions, like sensible people do in any part of the world. They make sure they know where there kids are; they don't let strangers into the house;  they lock the door when they go to sleep at night;  they don't go out, get drunk and start fights in bars; they don't wander around alone in bad neighborhoods at 3 a.m.  I don't see them acting out of fear.  The kids continue to go to their swimming lessons and play with friends, they go to birthday parties, they go out with their grandparents for ice cream.  Their parents drive around doing errands, looking for school supplies, doing their grocery shopping, filling up the car with gas.  I see people in the streets, in the stores, in the restaurants, people going to the movies and waiting for buses,  in other words, life goes on as normal.  If they're worried about violence, they don't talk about it much.  If I ask them questions, they give me straight answers, but the fear of violence is not keeping them at home behind locked doors.

So, what's going on here?  In Cuernavaca, like in other parts of Mexico, there are some conflicts between rival drug gangs, and the police are actively involved in fighting these drug cartels.  The violence that results from these encounters seems to be limited, for the most part, to people on both sides of the law who are involved in the drug war.  There have been some gruesome sights, which the US newspapers have reported with so much detail I don't have to repeat them here, but I personally haven't seen anything, nor have any of the people I talk to.  The closest I've come is a conversation with a taxi driver who reported some gunshots in a certain part of town, but he had only heard about it from someone else, he didn't know any details and he wasn't involved in it at all.  I'm pretty sure that people in the city where I live have heard gunshots from time to time, as well, because less than a month ago, a woman in Tacoma was accidentally shot while standing on her front porch talking to a neighbor.  Some people drove by in a car, they mistakenly fired on her, confusing her with the neighbor, and they shot her dead in front of her husband and son.  The neighbor explained she had had a fight with some people over some angry text messages that they exchanged, and the result was gunfire and death.  I don't think this is an isolated case. I would guess that in cities all over the US this kind of thing happens.

Since the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, people in the US have lived with a lot of fear, especially fear of things foreign.  With a war going on in Iraq that claims the live of many US soldiers on a daily basis, with the economy in crisis, and with so much uncertainty about our own future, it's easy to turn a blind eye to what's happening in our own country and focus on our  neighbor to the south, falling back into that old stereotype of Mexico as a wild, barbaric land, full of bandidos and revolutionaries, men with guns shooting at random, corrupt leaders and ruthless armies of men running down innocent people in the street.  That's the vision of Mexico we get from watching old westerns on tv.  But, if that Mexico ever existed, it's buried in the past, along with Pancho Villa.    Mexico has moved on, and we should too.

That's a topic for another day.