Anonymous
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The U.S.A. ? Mexico cultural divide
http://www.mexidata.info/id404.html
By Carlos Luken
February 21, 2005
While waiting in line at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the Tijuana to San Diego border crossing that is accurately labeled the world?s busiest, one
has a unique opportunity to study and understand what can only be described as the great cultural gap between Mexico and the United States.
Dozens of men and women offering their wares while running from car to car, as they contentedly dodge traffic and would be collisions, Others are
selling car-to-car coffee drinks from a nearby imitation Starbucks. Yet more inspired vendors bring in their catering wagons late at night in order to
sell tacos, tortas and tamales to the thousands of early morning commuters who, on many days, wait up to two hours to cross into the U.S. legally to
get to work, school or to do their weekly shopping.
Other resourceful entrepreneurs have radio-equipped teenagers, uniformed in brightly colored vests, doing car to car currency exchange transactions
for tourists who are exiting Mexico with no longer needed peso bills and loose change.
More conventional merchants sell newspapers, magazines, soft drinks, candy or curios.
What?s wrong with this picture? Nothing!
For many Americans it might seem uncomfortable to even think of having their workers in the middle of traffic, dodging cars, breathing exhaust fumes.
The OSHA and insurance liabilities would be mind-boggling.
Nonetheless, while this may not be the American way to do things for thousands of Mexicans and their families along the U.S.-Mexico border it is the
only way. It?s not that restrictions and regulations don?t apply, for they do exist although they are simply laidback or conditioned to local
circumstances.
In an hesitant plan to adapt, Mexican franchisees of Carl?s Jr., Kentucky Fried Chicken or MacDonald?s have tailored their menus to local cravings by
adding jalapeno peppers, nachos and hot sauces, for while all have drive-thru windows they can?t afford drive-bys.
At any given Mexican factory or shopping center, on any street, you see people dressed in jeans and sport jerseys invariably using cell phones,
listening to music on their MP3 players or working on laptop computers. But in doing so, few have read any instruction manuals and many will already
be getting more output from their electronics than the manufacturer thought possible.
Mexican factory workers on both sides of the border are highly sought after, not only because of economic pay scales but too because they rebuff
patterns that other workers follow. Even those without the benefit of a formal education are resourceful and creative, and they often contribute
important insight or solve difficult problems.
Perhaps the most distinctive cultural difference between Mexicans and Americans is in their thought processes. While a person from the U.S. has been
taught to think objectively, in a vertical and sequential process with each step preceded and/or followed by another in a logical pattern, Mexicans
have learned to think subjectively. A Mexican thinks more of the result than the process that leads there. Unfortunately this sometimes means that the
shortest distance between two points is crossing in the middle of the block rather than going all the way to the corner. Some learn the hard way while
others get there faster.
This is a hard concept for people of other nationalities to accept. Many it would seem are more enamored by the rules and procedures than with the
results. Whereas ?when in Rome do as the Romans do? may be a popular travel principle, history illustrates that the Roman Empire took advantage of
other cultures and incorporated them into its own.
Recent events and media coverage of immigration matters have stirred-up a hornet?s nest of controversy regarding immigrants. In my opinion, these
actions have been politically encouraged in an irresponsibly unchecked manner, to the degree that they have reached dangerous xenophobic proportions.
The mood reminds me of the era just before the civil rights riots of yesteryear.
While there is an undeniable security issue that has been recently exacerbated, one must accept that the conditions that lead to September 11, 2001,
were present long before that unfortunate date. One must also acknowledge that no links have been made between any terrorist suspect or act and any
Mexican immigrant. There is more probability of terrorists infiltrating the U.S. through well-financed and sophisticated drug smuggling organizations
than via coyote networks.
In this writer?s opinion both countries should work more constructively towards an immigration solution. This while striving to recognize and take
advantage of cultural differences that in the long run will be of mutual benefit.
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JESSE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3370
Registered: 11-5-2002
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Excelent article, thanks Anon.
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