Who is My American Neighbor?

Before I left for Mexico I read ¨The Labyrinth of Solitude¨. It is a collection of essays by Octavio Paz, the Mexican Nobel Prize winner of liturature in 1990. These essays introduced me to the culture and character of the people of Mexico. I learned some history about the ambivalent relationship the people of the United States and the people of Mexico have between each other.

On the flight to Mexico City I read a monograph produced by The Woodrow Wilson Center entitled, ¨Perceptions and Misconceptions in U.S.-Mexico Relations.¨ It is a collection of lectures by scholars, writers, politicians and business people from the United States and Mexico presented at a conference two years ago.

Currently, I´m reading ¨A History of Mexico¨, by Henry Bamford Parkes. John gave it to me before I left for Mexico. I just reached the description of the end of the Diaz dictatorship in this volume. I can´t say how I´d be reacting to Mexico, the culture and the people if I hadn´t informed myself. For example, I learned that fiestas are very important and happen very frequently for families, neighborhoods and cities. There are lots of fiestas on the weekends. Loud, happy dancing music is played and very often fireworks are ignited. Firewords are part of celebration in Mexico. But the first time I heard explosions, especially on the weekend at night, right in my neighborhood by Evelia´s house, I wondered what was up. In the United States there are laws against fireworks in most cities in the East - in my city of Plainfield, particularly. In the United States I ignited fireworks only at New Year´s and Independence Day as a teenager when it was legal! I´m glad I knew about the fiestas in Mexico ahead of time!

The other thing I am learning in Mexico confirms something we learned in Spanish tutoring class with Gorqui Chica, our teacher who is from Equador. He explained that we all are Americans - Canada, United States, Mexico, Central America and South America. Gorqui gave the class another word for ¨Americans¨- ¨NorteAmericanos¨. In Mexico, there is even a better word (however, there is no word in English), ¨Estadounidenses¨. Those who are from Mexico are Mexican. Those who are from the United States are ¨United States -an¨ See? There is no word in English!

I came to Mexico to learn Spanish because I wanted to stay in ¨American¨to learn. In my hometown of Kansas City, Kansas there was a Mexican community near my home. A few of my friends in High School were Mexican. I want to learn about my neighbors in America, in Mexico. And I want to learn about my Latino neighbors in the United States - in Plainfield. This sabbatical is helping me understand not only the language (I think I´ll only have a superficial use of the language - it is slow going for all of us!), but I am understanding the people more deeply than I ever expected. Thank you, good folks of Grace Church for this marvelous gift.