Whenever you have the chance to visit Mexico, come to Oaxaca. The state capital of the same name, 6 hours away from Mexico City, is a World Heritage Site, has a long history, a strong Indian component to society and a beautiful downtown with lively markets and good food. Within 60 kms you will find plenty of towns specialising in different handicrafts, historical sites and Zapotec and Mixtec archaeological sites. Its people are very warm and the weather is also quite agreeable.
This BusinessWeek article on Mexican microlending and a newspaper note I bumped into detailing the growth of luxury brands in Mexico made me wonder on whether it is ethically sound to sell high-ticket products to a consumer if said person can't afford it.
On one side you have the free will of your customer, on the other the fact that you may knowingly sell them something that will cause them more trouble than enjoyment. I'm all for giving all the necessary information to the consumer, but he/she has to take their decisions independently.
I truly wonder who was the idiot who decided on the dialing scheme in use in Mexico. Absolutely user-unfriendly, it means that a person roaming there doesn't actually know how to dial a number as the standard international form (country code + area/mobile code + number such as +52 55 5555-5555) just doesn't work. To make matters worse, the number you dial to a mobile phone changes every time depending on where the caller and the receiver are. Absolutely insane!
I've heard before criticism of Mexican TV saying that the actors and acresses there depicted have very little in common with the average Mexican (if there is such a thing). I think it shows a certain aspirational aspect of the Mexican psyche, where being fair skinned is desired.
Mexicans use TV to escape, not to see themselves the way they are.
Even though certain sectors of society rant against neoliberalism and whatnot, the truth is that Mexico has become a rather consumerist society. Everybody is trying to sell you something in TV, in the street and even when you're driving as the photo shows. Status is more and more about what you own, less and less about who you are.
At least it means that the economy (at the macroeconomic level) is in good shape with the Mexican Peso being surprisingly strong.
One thing that I really don't like about many Mexican women is the amount of make up they use, especially around the eyes. I understand that the social pressure to be beautiful is rather strong, but looking like a raccoon won't improve your chances of finding the man of your dreams, really. You're more beautiful if you accept who you are and smile (there's nothing more beautiful than a woman smiling) than if you end up looking like a sunburned geisha.
I didn't feel unsafe in my travels throughout Mexico, but it is true that you find more than enough well-armed security guards and policemen everywhere, and there is plenty of stuff in the crime section of the local newspapers.
Security (or the lack of it) has been named as one of the main reasons for the lack of growth in Foreign Direct Investment in the country, and is one of the most important areas that the government has focused on, with mixed results.
As you may have noticed in other instances, the contact between different cultural groups will produce unexpected and sometimes some rather comical results. This is the case in Acapulco, which has been a port facing the Pacific for over 300 years and a mass tourism destination for at least 50.
Acapulqueños are renowned throughout Mexico for their usage of a word to refer to friends, acquantainces or whomever they are talking with at the moment: "Brody", deriving from the English "brother". A word that is used all the time, it is the trademark of their speech together with their lack of pronunciation of the letter s.
