“You’re the first people from allá that don’t slam the door,” said the taxi driver yesterday.

I don’t mean to harp on the door-slamming subject, but it seemed like quite a coincidence that I had a conversation about it after writing my last entry. My family and I all loaded up into the taxi when the driver turned to me and asked me why so many Americans do it. “Are the doors stronger in the U.S.?” He asked ironically.

After going on about the doors for a while, he paused before turning to me and saying, “Mexicans are always nice to Americans. Why can’t Americans be nice to us when we’re there?”

I thought about telling him that Mexicans aren’t all that nice either, that meanness seems to cross all borders as well as kindness and generosity. But I bit my tongue.

My mom had just flown through Mexico City. She doesn’t speak much Spanish but probably speaks more than a lot of other people that pass through the same airport. After a delay in Houston, she was ready to board her flight in Mexico City 45 minutes before scheduled takeoff when they informed her that that goes against company policy. Apparently, no one can board a Mexicana flight 45 minutes before takeoff. They told her she would have to buy another plane ticket if she wanted to get to Veracruz.

What followed was a debacle worthy of several blog entries. She was sent all over the airport to get special permission forms from Continental Airlines, which were filled out incorrectly by personnel and had to be redone, then sent to other offices, then to baggage claim, and back to the Continental offices and who knows where else, and all to board the next Mexicana flight to Veracruz about 10 minutes before takeoff. So after about 400 pesos in mordidas and a four-hour delay, my family finally arrived in Veracruz. The worst part is that this was all perfectly avoidable.

So the taxi driver was right in wondering why we can’t all just be more hospitable and helpful to our foreign visitors. The unfortunate part is that we have all kinds of ways of slamming doors.

More on that next time…