Aqui in Parras
6 de Junio
Since one of the main purposes of studying in Parras is to study appropriate technology, the theme of development has preoccupied my mind. What is development? What is improvement? And what is undeveloped?
Parras is by no means the undeveloped world (putting aside the fact the terms developed and undeveloped really out to be discussed), as its residents have cars, electricity, running water, mobile phones, and lots of styrofoam cups. While one might assume that most of these amenities are recent additions, in fact the history of Parras´s development extends back a ways into history. For example, Thomas Edison installed a micro-hydroelectric system that served Parras before New York City had grid power.
9 de Junio (Continuing…) I´m writing now in the Parras town library, which is in a beautiful building and is a good place to work. Its meeting spaces, work spaces, and computers are well-used by the community, I think, but its books are very rarely used. Since its on my route to school, I dropped in a few days ago, and was unexpectedly given a tour of the library: its offices, bathrooms, children´s section, and every section going by 100s in the Dewey Decimal System — 100 Obras Generales & Filosofía, 200 Religión, 400 Lingistica, 500 & 600 Ciencias Puras & Aplicadas, 800 Literatura — I´m trying to give you an idea of the thoroughness and pacing of this tour. Each section occupies only a single bookcase in a library building which is much more spacious than the Arcata branch. Isabella (the librarian) would pull books off the shelf and deliver an impassioned mini review of the time, of which I would understand about as much as I would from reading the book myself.
I gather it might be a rare opportunity that someone shows even the limited interest I showed in the library and its books, because at one point she said that a lot of people (even teachers) are irritated by her expression of her bibliophilia. I must admit I could understand their irritation a little. More to the point I´m trying to drive at, though, is that their irritation underscores a theme about Parras and development. There are no bookstores in this town of about 23k-40k people (I´ve heard so many different population figures that I´m just going to state a range). T.V. is where news, info, culture, and entertainment come from. Parras has its own TV news program, which I haven´t seen yet, and a ton of internet cafés. There is only a single weekly newspaper (Lonny, the program´s engineering teacher, compared the paper to the Arcata Eye, and the guy who publishes the weekly to Kevin Hoover, the Eye’s editor, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.)
Anyway, each morning I usually watch the TV news with my family over breakfast. We get an assortment of news about el Copa del Mundo (the world cup for soccer, which Mexico is crazy about, of course), drug busts in Monterrey, the current political race for Mexico´s president (the one-term limit means Vincente Fox will be replaced). There are almost always a few images of gringos in U.S. military attire as part of an update on the U.S.-Mexico border story. I am embarrased to say I don´t know much about this, and what´s more, don’t know much about the way Mexicans feel about this. I would assume that, unless you’re intending to cross to the U.S. it wouldn’t inspire particularly strong feelings, just like how in the U.S. unless you’re near the border it’s pretty easy to ignore. The news also has a horroscope segment given by a woman wearing jewels and interesting mystical headgear.
I´m pretty sure my family gets satillite T.V. but not really sure about this. In any case, they have a few very new Sony television sets, which is indicative of the fact that my family is probably the most modern of all the families hosting students for our program. This means that, with my host family, mean can wear shorts (even at meals); their home is quite American in its setup, with a living room complete with matching sofas; there is a T.V. in the kitchen/dining area where almost all gathering is done, the shop at el Mercado, the big air-conditioned supermarket; instead of a central tuled courtyard with fruit and avacado trees that opens onto all the rooms they have an indoor hallway; they listen to Spanish-language hip-hop and other popular Mexican music that I like, far hipper, I think, than anything MY parents would ever listen to in the United States, they eat dinner around 7pm or even earlier, instead of the more common 9pm dinner time around here (unfortunately, I´m often not home yet, and end up eating dinner later than the rest of the household). Their dinners are frequently American-style, with pasta, mashed potatoes, ham, hamburgers, etc. I think they served American-style food particularly frequently the first week so I would be comfortable, but the Mexican food Ana Luz makes is much better. If I have the option, I ask for Mexican style food for lunch or dinner, and that resulted in much tastier food. Carlos (my host-dad and the director of the Parras UTC campus, who is currently in China for the Alexander von Humboldt conference with Francisco, our Spanish prof, and Ajay, one of last year´s Parras participants) was happy to see that I can eat, and will enjoy, a generous addition of hotsauce to a meal.
Mexicans have a lot of pride in their country and culture. Before he left for China, Carlos burned a bunch of mixes of Mexican music to give to foks in China. Isabela, the librarian raved about Spanish-language literature. Politicians have slogans like ¨por Mexico¨ (for Mexico), and say things like they´re for the good of all Mexico as some abstract concept or aspiration, something that, to my ears sounds distinctly old-fashioned, seeing as how I am accustomed to a political schene where self-interest is more emphasized than patriotism (or rather, where the rhetoric of one has been used to hide the reality of the other, but I digress). On jeans, car windows, sides of buildings, you often see a giant currive M symbol, which presumably stands for Mexico, but I´m still unsure what it´s really about.
Along with all this pride, tradition, and patriotism, however, there´s still a strong urge toward development in such a fashion so as to mimic the U.S. Frankly, the dynamic makes me feel a little weird. People can be seen walking the streets wearing ¨Polo¨ brand T-shirts, or other US brands. These are extremely expensive, relative to income here. I saw a ¨American Idiot¨ album Green Day shirt a few weeks ago, which was kind of funny. Anything with an English-language word on it seems fashionable even though English is not very widely spoken. There are many US movies in the theaters, and El Codico DaVinci has been a conversation topic a few times. The kids at my house watch the Disney channel, which has a lot of repackaged American content, overdubbed with Spanish audio tracks. It must be strange to grow up watching TV shows where people´s mouth movements never match the sounds coming out of them. I´ve watched the Simpsons several times in Spanish, which seems like a good way to learn the language.
Anyway, I obviously stand out as a gringo, but I feel doubly self-conscious about it because of the fact that I must represent so many of these other notions people have about people and life in the United States. One thing about these notions is that, at least with me, my life, and Humboldt County, they are pretty far off-base. It is troubling seeing the level of influence the United States can have on culture, as much of this influence, I feel has been negative. I´ll take transportation as something that I care and know about: There are Fords and Chevys (esp. Fords, who maintains a large manufacturing operation in Mexico) all over the streets here. The other day I saw a Lincoln-brand Luxury pick-up truck. Autos have become an important indicator of status, and people are spending rediculous amounts of money to mimic exactly what we have done in the United States. It makes me truly sad that our country isn´t setting a better example. I could go on for a few pages on the topic of transportation in Parras, but I will save that for later. Next Friday, I will be giving a presentation in Spanish to UTC students about sustainable transportation. I´m planning on putting the English draft and translated version online.
Differences in transportation issues between Parras and Arcata are more profound than you might imagine. For example, one part of my presentation includes traffic statistics about bike-car collisions, and efforts to have irresponsible motorists who injure cyclists more aggressively prosecuted. In Mexico, the rule of thumb is if you can drive away from the scene of an accident, drive away, because both drivers will be thrown in jail when the cops show up. That´s for collisions between autos. Between a bike and a car — well, there´s an investigation going on to find out who killed a bicyclist a few weekends ago (of course, maybe it´s really no better than in the US - read this recent Journal article about a collision and injury suffered by a green wheels member). But, aside from that last unfortunate similarity in the Journal article, differences between Arcata and Parras sometimes make it hard not to feel like I come from a very different world which would be nearly impossible to explain to people here, or for them to imagine. And even though I´m here in Parras experiencing all this, a conception of what it would be like to live here permanently still hasn´t actually dawned on me.
My hope is to send about one email of this length every week. Writing these gives me additional opportunity to reflect and process, something I always appreciate. Soon, I´ll put these emails up on some kind of blog with pictures and links, too.
aaron :: Jun.19.2006 :: México ::