All of this travel talk reminds me of one of my own Mexico City airport nightmare stories. I won’t go into detail. I’ll just tell you that I remember walking from one end of the airport to the other, loaded down with bags and on the verge of missing my flight, when a fellow American stopped me and pulled me aside.

“I’ve been in Mexico a looooong time,” he said. “And what you don’t want to do is let them know you’re upset.”

These turned out to be words of wisdom. I quickly found out that showing your vulnerability was asking to be taken advantage of. If that were the conclusion of this entry, though, I would be leaving out an important part of the story.

If you look back in history, you can see how our governments have been setting the stage for relationships between the two countries for centuries. From Santa Anna to Calderón, who has been taking advantage of whom?

I’ve heard many upper class Mexicans talk about the hypocrisy of indigenous people. “They seem nice and polite,” they say, “and then they do something behind your back.” What they don’t tell you is that the person in question may be the housekeeper who is paid 50 pesos for a full day’s work or the gardener or the woman selling tortillas on the street corner. We are talking about people who have been placed in a powerless position in society and are expected to smile, be polite and bow their heads in response.

So going back to the American tourist lost in the Mexico City airport…

If we look at the Mexico/US relationship we see one in which one nation’s power has been exerted over the other nation. We see a relationship in which Mexicans should be folkloric for the benefit of the tourists, always smile, be polite and be grateful that they live next to the Empire. There’s a saying in Mexico that goes like this: Poor Mexico- so far from Heaven and so close to the United States.

In this situation, there are very few ways to fight back. One of these ways is indifference. “Dónde está el baño?” You may ask in a heavy American accent. “Allá,” they may respond and vaguely nod their heads toward nowhere. Another is what is often labeled hypocrisy.

All of this may not make it less frustrating when it happens to you, but it helps to look back in history, to study how the relationship between the United States and Mexico has evolved. Before coming to Mexico, it’s a good idea to learn about where Mexicans are coming from. It’s a better idea, though, to learn about where you are coming from.

Source: Tierra Adentro