Paul’s words

Today’s Alpha Beta activity reminded me that one’s perception of different cultures is heavily influenced by one’s personal experience.  

In an earlier post, I talked about the “warmth” and friendliness of the Mexican teachers that we talked with last week.  I spoke briefly of my travels to Mexico and how welcoming the Mexican people are.  My intentions were to encourage people to get to know our neighbors.  

The problem is that I generalized about Mexicans and based such generalizations off of my  one year stint alone in Mexico last year.  I still believe the Mexicans to be a very warm and welcoming people, but it was unfair of me to not to qualify that a person’s experience in Mexico and any other country will be influenced by many factors that include your language, race, gender, sexual orientation etc.  Like Americans, Mexicans have stereotypes that influence their perceptions of people.  Thus my experiences as a White straight man who was relatively fluent in Spanish will be different than those of a White Lesbian with little Spanish fluency.  Other factors such as your personality, upbringing, personal connections, and whether you travel or live with someone else in Mexico will dictate your own experience.  

I still encourage everyone to go to Mexico if they get the chance.  I could paint you my picture of Mexico, but you might as well just go and see it for yourself.