MEXICAN CULTURE CHAPTER FOUR

Mexico; that is, traditional, provincial Mexico, has neighborhood stores all over the city and sometimes several in a single block. I don't understand how they are able to eek out a living doing it this way, but they do. There will often be two or three stores right next to one another. Three places in a row will offer the same items, at the same prices, and somehow they all manage to stay in business. Their stores always seem to be full and thriving. It amazed me then, when we first arrived here, and still astounds me some four years later.

One day during our first month in town and while we were living in a small Guanajuato barrio called Puquero, my wife came home from one of the little neighborhood stores, which was manned by the sweetest little Mexican woman. My wife loved going into her store, rather than someone else's, because this lady was not only kind as can be, but she also took the time to answer my wife's many questions. In addition, she was tenderly patient with my wife's burgeoning Spanish.

What my wife described to me one day, was that these women acted like a bunch of primitive, medieval Arab women at a bazaar or trying to buy something at an auction. They shouted, flailed their hands in the air, and all of them, more or less, acted like they didn't see my wife standing right there. They demanded that the clerk stop waiting on the gringa and wait on them. It w as as though they were terrified my wife would buy all the food in the place and leave them with the dregs.

I had yet to see this display. The first time I saw it, I think I must have stood there with my mouth agog, eyeballs bulging out of my head, and for some minutes completely speechless. I mean; it is something to see. Not only do they do this at the small Mom-and-Pop stores scattered all around the city, up and down the snaking callejóns, but they do this Mexican-Women-Wilderness-Action Play at the drug stores, the supermarkets, the movie rental places, the ice cream parlors, or anywhere where queuing or standing in a line might be required. To image this, just remember the last movie you saw that depicted a market scene during the Middle Ages. The proprietor of a tent, out of which he sells chickens, begins taking orders. All the women begin screaming all at once and flapping their arms and hands in the air in fear that someone might get all the chicken and they will get left out.

Anywhere there is a counter behind which are all the goods you want to buy and an employee waiting to help you, you will see this pandemonium break out. The customers do not line up. There is no sense whatsoever of "taking one's turn," or queuing up in a line and waiting patiently while the person in front of you gets waited on.

In a modern supermarket, and tragically, we now have two of them; you only really see this riot break out at the meat department where you have to give your order to the clerks. Otherwise, it's every Mad-Mexican-Momma for herself in the fruit and vegetable department where they can calmly pick their own produce from a nicely stacked display.

In the four years we've lived here, we have seen so many variations of the main "When Mexican Women Attack" performance. Some women will actually shove you out of the way. If you turn to talk to someone, and do not staunchly defend your place at the counter, when you turn back, there could be a little horde that has taken over your spot. It is though someone in the transporter room of the Enterprise just beamed them down. My wife, my poor wife, has been shoved, pulled, punched in the ribs, yanked, bowled over, shouted down, all so someone can get a kilo of hotdogs before her.

Here's a tip: you've got to be ready to do battle in this town to get on the bus or in a taxi. This sort of nonsense seems to go on elsewhere, Paris and in some cities in Italy, so you have to be ready to open that cab door and dive head first into the back seat before some Mexican assumes you hailed the cab for them.

So, why do Mexicans fail to queue?

We went to where the first event we witnessed took place and asked my wife's store-clerk friend. She immediately, without hesitation, without having to take the time to even think about it, told us these women were Malcriadas-badly raised.

My wife's Mexican friend's spin is what I am offering here. I am not giving you my take. It is the Mexican viewpoint of this behavior.

At first, we thought it was the fact that my wife was gringa and perhaps this was some sort of anti-gringo thing in action. But, eventually we saw them behaving in this strange manner with one another. So, it was not a we-hate-the-gringos behavior.

What makes this even more confusing is that in banks, supermarket checkout lines, government offices, they seem to queue nicely. You do not see this madhouse free-for-all mayhem at these other places. Patience seems to rule there but most certainly not in places where they are trying to buy their meat or in the small neighborhood grocery stores.

And, the following will cause your brain to go into full tilt mode. We are now seeing the clerks behind the meat and small store counters telling these pushy women that they are going to have to wait their turn. I saw this once in one of the supermarkets. You cannot carry in purses, bags, or anything else in which something can be hidden. You have to "check" your belongings at what looks like an old coat check room that we no longer see in the States.

Well, it was crowded that day and this campesino (country woman) saw a place open at the counter and darted between the lines of folks who were both checking and picking up their purses and what have you. The clerk told the erring woman that she would have to get in line and wait her turn.

You would have thought this country woman had been slapped in the face. She acted as though this was a foreign and alien concept (and it was!!). I mean, after all, there was space between the people who had queued in the line so why should she have to go back and stand in a line and patiently wait her turn? The clerk, bless her, ignored the women and waited instead on those who had queued in line.

We've been able to ferret out three major explanations for the behavior. Because we have the linguistic skill to ask, we first consulted Mexicans themselves and asked why this behavior exists. Then, we've been researching culture issues in some works by American Culture Analysts who specialize in Mexican-American culture exchanges.

The first theory that I've already mentioned is that those who engage this behavior are badly raised (malcriados) or badly educated (maleducativo). We've heard this one a lot from Mexicans who are from different parts of Mexico. Non-Guanajuato Mexicans are the ones who have come up with this explanation for this riotous free-for-all at certain events like buying some meat or boarding a bus. Why this is so is anyone's guess. It is one explanation and one only. I do not accept this as the only reason, however. Though I suppose it could be the case in some, I do not believe it is the case in all of the situations in which we see people act this way.