I. The identity of Mexico
few days as appropriate to reflect on Mexican identity as these in which we celebrated the feast of the Virgen de Guadalupe. No other event in the young history of our country that has been so decisive that has given us identity and unity ad. Not for anything, the struggle of the Independence began with his image almost 200 years ago. How could convene Hidalgo if a sign is not strong enough, to identify and move to other Mexicans? In the context of conquest , the appearance of the Virgin in the valley of Anahuac meant hope for those belonging to indigenous peoples to the English . And with a symbol of hope that the same was revered by Indian, Creole, English or mestizo, it became easier consolidation of a single town called Mexico.
Unlike other peoples, unity and identity of Mexico was not due to war or political causes. The fact of Tepeyac was just the fact defining a new town, town originates equally from the people who already inhabited these lands, and the English who arrived . Did not occur as in North America, where the Calvinist Puritans marked his distance, religion, behavior and properties of native peoples. English Catholicism, brought by missionaries to the Indians made everyone feel like own Guadalupe event and this allowed the mixture and the inculturation of the Christian faith.
Today we see the Virgin of Guadalupe same in hospitals, prisons, business, schools and homes. For Mexicans who live abroad, the Virgin is the bond that unites them with a far and each attack or ridicule that has been the image of the Virgin , we take it as an attack on ourselves. All this makes a cultural event which springs from a religious event. Some say that 100% of Mexicans are Guadalupe, although 85% Catholic.
So how is it possible that this country was founded on the hope for a sign of life (the pregnant woman about to give birth) alive today painful episodes of death? The failure seems to have a real democracy, rising crime, the strengthening of drug trafficking and organized crime, drug abuse growing every day among young people, neglect of the elderly, and pointless life of many men and women who arrive in extreme cases (and increasingly) to suicide.
Every day more disability according to politicians, a country in which the rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer, we live in a city where it seems impossible chaotic Can there be hope there?
A celebrated author, Graham Greene did in the thirties a tour of our country, and when asked what he saw, was blunt: 'No hope anywhere. I had never been in a country like this where all the time feels hatred. " What was it then what happened? Was it perhaps the political, social movements, our own gaps that have made this country has gone from being the prosperous nation of the seventeenth century to a country in decline?
I think simplistic to say that at the beginning of our nation is our destiny. Interpretations of "bronze race" far from being the solution to our problems, even depleting the explanation of what we are. So rather than sell on defined by our origins, we must reflect on our Ethos we have been forming and dimension n our historical beings. What moves us Mexicans to live and see the world from our own vision, why we act a certain way to death, to violence, and why we organize ourselves in society and why we still cling dehumanizing systems and structures?
II. Why are we as we are?
Some authors have pondered why Mexicans are as we are. Let me start with who is without doubt a key to understand. Our Nobel Octavio Paz reflects on the " Labyrinth of Solitude " on our feeling of inferiority and attributes this feeling precisely loneliness, " a loneliness that awakens during adolescence and are trying to overcome through the use of masks, faces outside ourselves that we represent and with which we present ourselves to others . Silence is the best weapon, it is better to be quiet and reserved to mourn and be seen, it is better to show prosperity but we lack the food . "
On this point, reflects Samuel Ramos in his book "The Man and Profile Culture in Mexico, "explains this feeling of inferiority as " a pattern of mechanical imitation to self-denigration (...) Mexican is never complete, always has a vacuum, provided and he needs something, it is never complete . " course this is also due to our political events. Since the Indians that allowed abuses of the "chieftains" to a stage that an important part of Mexican felt subjugated for political power and in the twentieth century, by a party with dictatorial profile.
The truth is that every time we ask ourselves how we are, what issues are looming negative. Since the image of the Indian asleep under a hat, to the male character, advantageously, bully.
Ramos Another point discussed is the attitude of Mexican always re violent action and seeks r an outbreak of violence to raise their self esteem and prove his manhood, referring to the call peladito says "In their verbal battles femininity attributed to the imaginary enemy, reserving for itself the role male. With this scheme aims to assert their superiority over the opponent. "
On this, Octavio Paz is an interesting reflection in the same book Labyrinth of Solitude on the phrase "Do not give in", Octavio Paz, an analysis of this word and says it is cracking open, ie the Mexican does not open, can not split can not show that he feels, that it maybe kills him happiness or rips in the depths of his being, and simply does not open because Mexican recreates a shell where you feel comfortable, where problems will not overwhelm, the split would allow intruders to privacy, to the depths of his being. A Mexicans do not like to open up, we prefer to put on a mask to face life from a perspective that does not harm us both . Octavio Paz speaks of Mexican l lonely and insecure by nature becomes fearless and sociable at parties, thanks to alcohol.
regard, Samuel Ramos insists the problem of the supposed inferiority of Mexicans "claiming that he has never assigned an inferiority in the Mexican ..." what I am saying is that every Mexican has been devalued to itself, making thus an injustice to himself " . C oncluye stating that the Mexican is not inferior, but feel inferior.
0 comments:
Post a Comment