Colonial mentality
Amar te duele
According to Wikipedia:
"When a colonial power is strong, and cannot be effectively resisted, often a population may have to simply accept the rule of the foreigners as an inescapable reality. As time progresses, these colonised natives will sometimes procede to mimic the foreigners in power as they begin to perceive the 'foreign way' of doing things and acting as different, and since the foreigner is also in power, the foreign way comes to be seen as the 'better way'. The foreign way is then held in a higher esteem than previous native ways.
In much the same fashion and with the same reasoning of 'better-ness', the colonised soon identify the foreigner's racial strain itself as superior to the native racial strain. The natives soon strive to 'marry up' and give their children a better standing in life than what their native genes could give them."
I hope that the colonial mentality, as described in the second paragraph above, will one day die a miserable death in Mexico. Unfortunately, that day seems to be far off, particularly since so many Euromestizos are actively fanning the flames of race-based discrimination, in order to preserve their privileged place in Mexican society . On a positive note, it seems that more young people among the educated classes have mostly liberated themselves from this racist mentality, at least in the major cities. I see quite a few diverse-looking (at least in terms of skin tones) couples, both straight and gay, among the mestizos in Monterrey. Moreover, at el Tec de Monterrey, Mexico's premier private university, you will find Mexican students of every shape, size, and color (although güeritos are still over-represented). On the other hand, it must be pointed out that racism against people with a very strong indigenous appearance is still prevalent in all traditional mestizo areas (i.e. all of Northern and most of Central Mexico). Mestizo men of the most diverse social backgrounds have confided to me over the years that they would never "get with" an "india" because basically they are "too short and ugly." A few years ago, one guy from an upper-middle-class family in Mexico City started spouting off some very offensive, racist remarks in this vein, after a night of drinking tequila. (People's true attitudes, however ugly, always seem to come out after a round of tequila.) It would seem that, among a certain class of obnoxious Mexicans (I´ll call them the obnoxiorati), expressing such retrograde attitudes is a badge of pride and pedigree, a way of separating themselves from the "rest of the brownies". In Monterrey a few years back, a gay guy complained to me about all of the "short, dark people" from San Luis Potosí that were coming into "his city" to work the factories. I wonder if he had any inkling that such an attitude is morally repugnant, or at least not politically correct. I guess not, since he couldn't resist to show off his crude racism after only a few drinks.
Any way, I'm glad to see that progressive film-makers are taking up this very real set of social problems. Amar te duele (English blurb) is a fairly interesting film that takes on classism, racism, "colorism", and adolescent relationships in contemporary Mexico City.
posted by Crazyhands @ 8:35 PM
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