Home » Mexico » Mexico city, San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenque, Mayan Riviera

Latin America - part I

Mexico city, San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenque, Mayan Riviera

Hector Yague
2005-10-11 10:17:44

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speak about economic status but actually educationally-wise. Despite sharing similar colonialist roots, other significant spanish-speaking countries like Argentina or Chile enjoy a higher educational base within the population. I am not sure as of why Mexico hasn't followed suit in this department. However, this fact tints Mexican culture with a bright and rich folklore customs, like the above mentioned street commerce, or the importance of traditional music and mariachis which can be heard wherever you go, a constant as you walk down the streets. Also, some racism issues remain subtly latent here, having caucasian whites dominating the tabloids, high-societe balls, Mexican TV dramas and dominant positions in the country, and the largely outnumbering indian-gen'ed locals occupying the mid-lower end of the social spectrum. I don't know if this qualifies as racism, but it does happen.

Downtown Mexico is reminiscent of central Madrid, with its XIX or early XX century building facades and the cantinas are so very similar to those in Spain. I got some nostalgic flashbacks wandering about the central drags of Mexico.

Another thing that I've found striking is the linguistic gap. South American spanish and Spain's spanish are way more distant to each other than, say, UK's english as opposed to America's or Australia's English. Hehe I remember this afternoon when I walked into a cantina for a lunch and the waitress (called mesero here, or camarero in Spain's spanish) handed me the menu. I had a brief look at it and I was like hmmmm... "excuse me madam but I don't speak Klingon. Do you have a menu in Spanish?". I literally had to ask what every dish was about. I wrote down the dishes in a piece of paper and, for those of you from Spain, check this out. The menu was, literally, as follows:

* Dish #1: Pollo rostizado con chilaquiles (I have never heard the word chilaquiles ...