Becoming Mexican

by guera in Expat Life on 14 September, 2007

One of the things I find interesting about living in a different country is the extent to which we are willing (and able) to assimilate into the local culture. There’s no danger of us ever being mistaken for Mexicans with our fair skin and blonde hair (not to mention Australian-accented Spanish), but its nice to really embrace some of the Mexican customs and get the most of our time here.

Our first proper expat posting (as opposed to a few 6 month stints in various places - more of a long working holiday) was in the Middle East. It was extremely difficult to experience the local culture due to the restrictions on women and in particular their interaction with men who were not in their family. Arab Men (at least where we lived, I don’t want to horribly over-generalise) do not socialise with, talk to, even make eye contact with a woman who is not their wife, mother, daughter, sister… At the one and only work function I attended with my husband, there was no-one I could actually talk to. Needless to say we didn’t get invited over to a colleague’s house for dinner or ever meet their families. There were very few ways to meet the women - short of introducing yourself in the shops, which is really not the done thing. So the majority of my time was spent with other expats, who, with their tales of different adventures from all over the world, were a very interesting bunch. But it was still disappointing to have spent 18 months there and not had any meaningful conversations with the locals.

Thankfully, our Mexican experience is an entirely different one and we have many opportunities to observe, learn and participate in the daily lives, and extra special days of your average Mexican.

Today was one of those days. This weekend the Mexicans celebrate their independance from the Spanish conquistadors. The celebrations begin with a fiesta on Saturday in the main square in town, and in the main square of every town in Mexico, where they have fireworks, stalls and loads of people. It culminates with “El Grito” said by the President in Mexico City and the governors of the various states elsewhere. Its pretty stirring stuff - often a very emotional and impassioned “call to arms”, including many cries of “¡Viva México! ¡Viva la democracia!”. Apparently the drunk vaqueros (cowboys) also like to shoot their guns in the air to celebrate so we’ll be watching from a safe distance!

So today, Guerita had a fiesta at school where all the kids dress up in their best Mexican outfit and learn about the flag and the national anthem and generally have loads of fun with all things red, white and green. Last year, being fairly new in town and completely clueless about what to expect with these things, we cobbled together the only red and green things Guerita owned and topped it off with a dodgy sombrero, but this year we were prepared and Guerita was very excited about “Mexican Day”. This is the outfit she wore

Well, its actually the matching smaller one I bought for Chiquitita. They both looked so sweet dressed up like little señoritas! It was by no means the frilliest or the most OTT outfit there - they do seem to like to go all out with the costumes. Two brothers at the school had the cutest “charro” outfits (the black and white Mariachi suit - a bit like this). I love the fact that Guerita (and us vicariously) get to really participate in Mexican life. Although at times it has been a challenge being one of the only foreigners in the school, this is one of the benefits of being at a local school rather than an international one. There’ll be plenty of time for her to embrace the festivities of Anzac or Australia Day when we go home, so while we can, we are going to make the most of it - we’ll hang our “Señor Chilli” from the rearview mirror