On race

I have alluded to the racial tension in Mexico in previous posts, but I'd like to address it here a little more directly. Mexico has an incredibly diverse indigenous population: it ranks third in the world in the number of primary languages spoken, trailing only China and India. Only 70% of the country speaks Spanish at all. Add to this the historical occupation of Mexico by white Spain, who chose to enslave the indigenous population to support their colonial industries (unlike the US, who chose to exterminate the indigenous peoples and import her own slaves). While upward mobility in Mexico is possible, it is much more difficult than in the US given the relatively weaker status of the middle class. All together, this means a society with a considerable, historically entrenched separation between rich and poor, often following racial lines and with a considerable language barrier.

This tension is less apparent in DF, but outside the district limits the bipolar animosity is much easier to identify. In Tlapa, local distrust was not limited to foreigners, but to lighter-skinned Mexicans as well. In a single day walking through town with a fair-skinned Mexican medical student, we watched as our guide was approached by a drug addict, then had to haggle with a local law enforcement officer to allow us to ride back to the clinic in the bed of a pickup truck, a commonplace mode of transportation for the locals. For Tlapans, it's not just that you're not Mexican; it's that you're not Tlapan.

As far from ideal as our racial scene is in the states, I certainly have gained some perspective here about the different masks behind which racism hides. At the very least, I do appreciate that the US manages to chase an imaginary ideal for its racial goals, rather than take the rest of the world as a benchmark like it does in so many other arenas.