In
comparison to arriving in Cuernavaca versus arriving in Cabo, it is way
different here. Everyone is asking you
to join this and that and it makes me wonder if someone who looked Latino and
possibly Mexican were to walk out if they would treat them the same. The only people that have spoken Spanish
first to me have been the mechanics or maids here. Everyone else is straight English here unless
you specifically talk in Spanish with them and they are thrown off guard.
I
don’t think I’ve seen this many people dressed up for Fourth of July in the
United States unless it’s a “Star Spangled Hammered” party or a bbq. Everyone is decked out in American flag
bikinis and clothes of Red, White, and Blue.
The hotel and restaurants have had firework shows and buffets and
such. It blows my mind that to come out
of the country for vacation, you are still surrounded in English and
Independence Day of another country.
During dinner the song “I’m proud to be an American … “ was playing and
I laughed a little because of the irony.
I
was surprised to see that the complimentary margarita’s we got when we entered
the resort had chili powder around the edges, which I didn’t expect knowing it
was out of the tourist “normal.” Also
the drink from Mexico City that I tried – Paloma
– is also here but is renamed The Dove.
And thirdly, Cuernavaca and Mexico City had a lot of Aztec life going
around – not for show but mainly for rituals and such, yes they may have gotten
some tips because of the rarity but you could tell that they really believed in
whatever God and beliefs they are pursuing.
In Cabo San Lucas, they have someone walking around overly dressed as an
Aztec with a camera guy following him around asking for pictures. I highly doubt he truly practices Aztec
traditions. This is one way that life is
exaggerated for tourism and for the flow of money. Lastly, I asked the cab driver about a salsa
club around, he told me the name of one – La
Hacienda. This surprised me because
I always thought that haciendas in the past were bad memories due to the debt
peonage and such.
There
was an excursion that my mom and I found online that took you to someone’s
house where they taught you how to make traditional Mexican salsa. During the classes she explained that she
likes to keep her class availability difficult to find so that it doesn’t attract
too many people. She likes to keep the
classes small so that they have people who truly care about Mexican culture and
learning the art of Mexican food. This
was the only person throughout my trip that mentioned something anywhere near
negative about tourism. Everyone else
was all about money for the majority of the time when asked how they felt about
tourism. One taxi driver said that he
thoroughly enjoyed tourists because he liked to learn more about our
cultures. He said his favorite was the
tourists from the United States, which he may have just said to get a better
tip, but he said he liked learning about the history, geography, etc. My homestay brother was somewhat similar as
well – he was intrigued about the history of the United States.
I
also asked the taxi driver about the stereotype I learned earlier about
American women being weak and he said what Dr. Flynn had mentioned earlier,
that all they wanted to do was party, go out, and that they were easy. I think the stereotypes tend to differ on the
placement of the tourists or travelers of course but I also think there are
several different stereotypes, just like all American women look like Kim
Kardashian – which is a stereotype I heard while in Brazil a few years
ago.
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