Money

The thing that has surprised me the most about Mexico is their attitude towards money. Because of how the United States has been, and still is, treating Mexico I was expecting a lot of anger and discontent towards the US. For example with their media campaign against the country, portraying Mexico as the cause of the drug scandal while ignoring the root of the problem, America’s addiction. Furthermore I was expecting (or hoping for) this anger to translate into a realization of American ideological flaws, i.e. capitalism. This is not what I’ve encountered. Although people here are not particularly fond of the Unites States it’s in a different way than I expected. For example when we are with our friend Eugenia she always manages to slip into the conversations with her fellow Mexicans that we are European, not American. For me it seems like the dislike towards the US is for most merely a rather shallow one, people know they are not supposed to like America because of what it has done to them, but they don’t understand that the problem lies within ideology, an ideology most of the western world (more or less) shares. I am of course generalizing and there are some small and active rebellious guerrilla groups here in Mexico that have come to this conclusion. The point I’m trying to make is that the people who get their hands on money fall into the same mindless consumer cycle as most of the western population. The ultimate goal here, as in so many other countries, is getting rich. So rather than being the outcast aiming for something different (as I was hoping for), Mexico seems to me like the battered and beaten underdog, desperately trying to participate in the race for capital.