[Xmca-l] Re: Stereotyping Latin America and Mexico at the U. of Louisville

[David Preiss]

Well, I am sorry to say that el día de los muertos is a very different
tradition than halloween. Just for starters:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-cubias/dia-de-los-muertos-is-not_b_6056734.html
And the attire of el dia de los muertos does not involve mostly sombreros
and moustaches.
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/media/dia-de-los-muertos/
http://intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/28/video-day-of-the-dead-in-oaxaca/
Not surprised, Martin, that you saw that strange mixture in a mall in
Bogota. I would not be surprised to see the same in a Santiago mall. (And
aren't malls a reflection of North American influence in Latin America?).
Here, our own day of the death is hugely different than halloween and now
halloween is very popular (mostly about children picking candies from
neighbours). Yet, a mall is not a university and does not intend to educate
and foster understanding of cultural differences. Quite the contrary, the
mall intends to eliminate those differences to promote consumerism. So, I
would not use a mall as a standard to judge the way a university president
should act.
Let me say that I am not myself a radical, as many may have inferred by my
years long email history in this list. I just think that USA-Latin American
understanding is one of the main challenges we face in the 21st century for
obvious reasons and I am tired of seeing how the incredible cultural
diversity and multiple contributions that Latin America make are reduced to
stereotypes. At the end of the day, it is not Latin America the one that
loses, anyway.



On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 8:08 PM, Martin John Packer <mpacker@uniandes.edu.co>
wrote:

> Yes, talking of stereotypes it is unfortunate that many people associate
> Mexicans with agricultural workers.  I lived for a year in Mexico City, and
> didn't meet a single agricultural worker!
>
> Martin
>
> On Nov 1, 2015, at 5:43 PM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi again,
> >
> > For me the problem is that this isn't Mexican cultural dress. In fact if
> we want to go totally deconstructionist, why are they all wearing the same
> kinds of hats, the same kinds of mustaches, the same kinds of dress?
> >
> > These are the signs of the stereotype of the Lazy Mexican. Mexicans are
> anything but lazy. If you look around in the fields where many harvest our
> food, they don't look anything like lazy.
> >
> > I'm not sure what the message is to have all these administrators dress
> up as Lazy Mexicans is supposed to mean. Even if it is for Halloween, which
> is a pagan holiday originally called Samhain…
> >
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
> >
> > It wasn't until Christian conquest of the pagans that it become All
> Saints Day, or Dia de Los Muertos.
> >
> > Which now has been appropriated into Halloween with trick or treats and
> horror. Given the material aspect of capitalism, it sort of makes sense
> that the spirits are transformed into dead bodies and zombies… and now Lazy
> Mexicans…
> >
> > Oh well.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Annalsia
>
>
>