GUANAJUATO MEXICAN CULTURE

Living in Mexico - Cultural Ineptitude

GUANAJUATO MEXICAN CULTURE: I am concerned with Mexican Culture. Are you as a potential expatriate concerned too? During a recent conversation with an American Gringa, I made the point that since she doesn't speak Spanish, how can she know if she is accepted in the Mexican community? The woman didn't speak enough Spanish to even survive and yet she claimed all her friends are Mexicans and she is accepted by all of them. How does she know this? How does she know whether this is true or false?

When Americans move to Mexico, most of them remain monolingual. They cannot cross the threshold of the cultural portal because they cannot speak Spanish. What they do is ferret out the bilingual Mexicans as their only means of communicating with the rest of the Mexican world. This means they have to depend on a limited, specialized and usually well-to-do, better-educated group of Mexicans of a higher social class to interpret and translate for them.

Essentially, these gringos never are able to have more than a tainted view of Mexican Culture. Language is the key and thus the cultural door remains closed and locked. Gringos are forced to listen to interpretations from their bilingual Mexican pals who may give a view couched in biases and prejudices. The monolingual Gringos will never know the difference and their knowledge of Mexican culture remains skewed and stagnant.

Even well heeled bilingual Mexicans cannot escape their culture in which, much like the Orientals, they will not tell you something that they think might distress you. The rationale for the Mexican is simple: Tell the gringo what they want to hear to maintain peace and harmony. Say what's pleasing and what you think they want to hear. And, rarely do the well-heeled and educated bilingual Mexican escape their biases. Some do. A lot don't.

What hope then, does the gringo have who limits themselves so gravely in not knowing the language?

An interpreter is no proxy for the real thing. Apart from the highest degree of Spanish fluency, you will never truly know what is on the minds of your Mexican friends and nor will they know what's on yours.