Posted by traveler on October 22, 2000 at 02:46:20:
In Reply to: SelfDefense Tips posted by deucebigalow on October 21, 2000 at 23:26:49:
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"One cabbie told me that the cops dont like gringos in the zona because they feel like we just go there to use and fuck thier mexican women" That's really interesting. I imagine there are some who will call bullshit on my take here, but to them i would say go review mexican history and culture and then get back to me. In the meantime, i would like to throw out some ideas (not neccessarily all mine). Of course, they are right. All the mongers want to do is use their women. Generally speaking anyway. There is always that exception to the rule and a few mongers i suppose create lasting relationships with the chicas. By the same token, using those women is all the mexican men do too. And furthermore, the chicas are using gringos (and other mongers) as ATMs. That's not the interesting part though. Sure, on the surface, consciously the cops may feel that way. I could see that maybe, but subconsciously at least, it runs much deeper than that. I think you could trace two avenues. 1) There is a great deal of concensus that the 1910 revolution was 'caused' by two 'primary' factors. A) People grew tired of the heavy hand of Porfirio Diaz as he increasingly used oppressive means to control the country and maintain his power as his strategy of divide and control became less effective as time went on. However, this reason for the revolution does not much relate to these TJ cops possible attitude about gringos in the zona. B) During the years from independance to the porfiriato, mexico existed in something close to a state of chaos. There were two basic 'idealogical' groups with differing ideas on how their new country should be run, but neither of them were able to become dominant. So, they fought and traded control of the country so much and so many times, that they were too busy depleting their financial resources (and in fact borrowing from other nations) and too busy fighting to develop the country's resources and economy. When porfirio diaz came on the scene, he was able to bring stability to the country. With that stabilty in place he was able to develop their economy, which in turn helped him fund his efforts to maintain stability. The problem was, and this is what relates to those cops possible attitudes, is that porfirio diaz developed the mexican economy by bringing in foreign companies and capital. The foreigners ended up controlling the best of almost everything. The railroads, the mines, the farm and ranchland, etc.. The mexican people were treated as second class compared to the treatment that foreigners received. That caused a lot of resentment and was one of the main factors in the revolution. And as we all now know when the revolution was over, not too many years later, president Cardenas kicked out the foreign companies and nationalized their holdings. Notice that that control of mexico's resources by foreign companies wasn't much different from spain controlling the resources. Mexicans and latin americans in general have had so much repeatedly taken from them. Their lands and resources have been taken, their leaders and heroes killed, their constitutions stomped on, their ancient culture, art, and gods were repressed. Oh yeah, and a lot of their women were taken too. Perhaps starting with the traitor bitch Malinche. Soooooooo, here come those damn gringos taking their women again??? 2) The second avenue to explore would be all the symbolism wrapped up in the woman/mother/virgin. I would expect to catch the most flack for this second point. Don't misunderstand my posting here. This wasn't about shedding a tear for the poor indians and their treatment at the hands of the spaniards, or the poor mexicans and their treatment at the hands of other foreign powers like france and the united states. I don't shed a tear for mexicans for those things. In fact, i belive their greatness today is the result of that difficult history. The mexicans are a new people, niether indian, nor european. They are a mix now. That is not to say that the mestizaje is reconciled. It is not. Many of my mexican friends relate more strongly to one or the other (indian or european) while at the same time recognizing that both were required to make their society what it is today. Now, i am not as well educated regarding the religion aspect as i am other things such as their history or architecture or art, so someone might be able to expand on that second point better than i. There were also other reasons for the revolution, primarily issues that were unresolved after independance, and also the political vacumn that was left after the spaniards destroyed the anciant indian order and were then kicked out themselves, but i knew this this would already be a long enough post and didn't want to rewrite the book right here. Please, please, understand that what i did write, i tried to put in a nutshell. An internet message board is hardly conducive to reviewing 500 years of mexican history and the mexican psyche all at once in only a few paragraphs.
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