Blog #8: Brandon's Final Blog

Stereotype Challenged by Reality: A Look Back

Our trip to Mexico was one of the most amazing and enlightening things I have ever done.   The country is a beautiful and diverse place filled with friendly people and incredible food.  But the trip was not just about a vacation; it was an academic journey through the history of Mexico, and more specifically the state and city of Oaxaca. As our trip unfolded it became increasingly clear that what I had pictured as Mexico was mostly based on stereotypical assumptions and ignorance. 

             Mexico is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, yet there is an undercurrent of class struggle and political unrest which corrupts the incredible visual beauty of the place. The tales of unrest are written all over the walls of the city in the form of detailed and expressive graffiti and sayings.  For the most part I noted that the graffiti stayed away from the church squares, but just within the time we have stayed in Oaxaca the political expression has made its way onto one of the church’s surrounding buildings right on the zocalo. As a white American who has never strayed outside of my country’s borders, this political unrest is a surprising contrast to my assumed stability that I have seen and heard about in the United States media. 

This conflict of the real versus the myth version presented to us falls into earlier discussions of the enormous role of tourism, as the Mexican government would fight to keep the illusion of stability to be able to continue to entice American and other foreign tourists to the region to continue to pump money into their economy.  This contrast between myth and reality is present all throughout Mexico, either through my misconception of facts or though media presentations and American stereotypes.

It is very interesting for me to observe first hand how diverse Mexico truly is, while maintaining a sense of national identity which makes everyone Mexican. But Mexico is similar to the United States in that there are lots of different versions of a Mexican, whether it be the indigenous peoples or those of Spanish, there are a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds that diversify the nation.  This is new to me, who has only ever heard a person referred to Mexican, there has never been a denomination attached and now I realize that this is ignorance on my part to just assume that Mexicans were simply that and nothing more in terms of ethnicity. 

I was terrified at first of the language barrier and my ability, or inability, to speak Spanish.  However, although most people I talked to about Mexico said that they would be both unable and unwilling to speak English it became evident to me from the first day that most people were willing to bare with me in a conversation even though I lacked some of the basic knowledge of the language, like verb tenses.  On more than one occasion on this trip did I have to force myself to speak exclusively in Spanish, because my failed attempts at speaking Spanglish simply by adding an “o” to the end of English words was frustrating for me and made no sense to the people I was trying to communicate. I’ve always been told that the best way to learn a language is to speak it with someone who knows it, and that was proven to me as I learned more Spanish in the last two and a half weeks than I had through most of my high school classes. 

It was interesting to see the contrast between my assumptions and what turned out to be the reality, but more importantly I realized that what I experienced here couldn’t be generalized to the rest of Mexico because it has regional differences like anywhere else in the world.  The thing about this trip that I will always remember though is the hospitality of our host family and the people of Mexico in general.  I always felt welcome no matter where I was, from our family’s parties to the clubs.  This trip was my first experience in a foreign nation and it couldn’t have gone better, I managed to stay healthy and happy as well as getting the most out of the city and my schooling.