Welkom bij Mexico

Ik begrijp er geen woord van het Nederlands (en ik ben met behulp van een “Google Translate”). MexFiles en een aantal andere Engels-talige schrijvers waren het onderwerp van een artikel van “El Pinche Holandés” (Jan-Albert Hoosten) voor De Nieuwe Reporter. “David” Grabman was(dicht genoeg, maar mijn naam is “Richard”,  Washington en Mexico ingezeten Malcolm Beith, zijn Ganchoblog (Patrick Corocoran) en Arizona gevestigde Border Reporter (Mike Marizco) alle genoteerd, en een paar anderen – Marjorie Drake (Maggie’s Madness) en Hermosillo de basis “La vida mafiosi” zijn beide genoemd.

I don’t understand a word of Dutch (and the first paragraph is a machine translation so may or may not make sense).

MexFiles and some other English-language writers were the subject of an article by “El Pinche Holandés” (Jan-Albert Hoosten) for De Nieuwe Reporter.  “David” Grabman (close enough, but my name is “Richard”), Washington and Mexico resident Malcolm Beith, Ganchoblog (Patrick Corocoran) and Arizona-based Border Reporter (Mike Marizco) are all quoted, and a few others — Marjorie Drake (Maggie’s Madness) and the Hermosillo based “La Vida Mafiosi” are both mentioned.

The wrong name doesn’t bother me… I get kind of a thrill out of the way I’m described in Dutch:  “historicus” sounds like I should be a Roman Emperor.

Although Jan-Albert speaks and writes very good English (better than mine), it was easier to interview by email than by phone.  So, I just happen to have a copy of what I wrote him in response to his four questions about writing about Mexico — in Mexico.

Can you tell me something about your own blog? What do you want to achieve with your blog and how important is it to you?

The Mex Files started basically by accident.  I was sending out emails about my life in Mexico after I first moved here in 2001.  One ended up forwarded to an Australian woman, who had just been laid off from her programming job, and had time on her hands.  She was interested in this new thing called “blogs” and took the liberty of reposting one of my emails (about the Pope and Brittany Spears both arriving in Mexico City on the same day) on a little blog she set up in my name.  It’s become something of a Frankenstein’s monster since then, as my interests have evolved from the purely personal to cultural and political issues.

The biggest factor in starting to write regularly was simple frustration with  the cultural gaffes I witnessed every day from expats and tourists, ignorance and obvious mistakes in U.S. and Canadian media coverage of Mexico.   My own interest being Mexican history, I was shocked when a British teacher I met on a Mexico City bus thought Mexico had been a Nazi ally in the Second World War; by an American antiques dealer and part-year resident telling a Mexican  about the need to privatize PEMEX (and not realizing the Mexican was the editor of one of the larger national newspapers);  by a references in U.S. news article to the “teeming slums” of a rather nice middle-class neighborhood; by the rudeness and abrupt behavior of foreigners in a culture that puts a premium on manners and deportment; by continual observations — even by foreign residents — of Mexico through their own prejudices and preoccupations.

I had to return to the United States for a time (where I worked as a reporter on the Texas border and wrote my book on Mexican history).  I had time to work on the Mex Files, and it occupied more and more of my time.  I wonder why I do this, depending on a very small income from another job, and occasional donations.  The Mex Files creates some sales for my  books, and my Mexican publisher (who hired me to work for him).  There is some satisfaction in being recognized  — in a small way — as a reliable and knowledgeable source in my field. Financially, it¡s a drain, but I always go back to Benito Juarez’ famous quote:  Among nations and among neighbors, respect for the rights of others is the way of peace.  Unless we have mutual respect for each others’ cultures, relations between Mexico and its neighbors to the north will not improve, to the detriment of people on both sides of the Rio Bravo del Norte.  Mexico is important to the United States, and the United States to Mexico, not just as trading partners, and neighbors, but as  American cultures who can learn from each other with their different perspectives in thinking about resource scarcity, cultural diversity and international relations.

Neuza, who writes a Mexican-American blog, “The Unapologetic Mexican” talks about “The White Lens”, the tendency in the United States to interpret the experiences of racial minorities through the majority’s expectations.  Through the Gringo Lens, history is not important, but “race”, in the sense of bloodlines, is.  In Mexico, it is just the opposite.

A recent post of mine was quoted on another site, by a writer who, in U.S. terms, might be called “conservative”.  It elicited the comment “the piece in question came from the Mexfiles, a far-left blog … One likely could safely assume the blog in question is also a fan of Venezuela´s Hugo Chavez…That´s the Mexfiles for you.” I probably am to the “far left” in U.S. terms, (and have on occasion defended Hugo Chavez, if it matters), in the sense that I tend to draw my conclusions and attitudes from the Mexican intelligencia and “progressives” who are “leftist” in U.S. terms.  But then again, I’m not trying to justify U.S. attitudes to a U.S. audience, but present MEXICAN attitudes to an English-speaking one.

To me, regular Mexican media are not enough to be well informed, as I feel they usually don’t give enough context to really get into the story. That’s why I read more and more blogs and independent media to complete the picture. Do you feel the same way? Do you need blogs and independen media to be really informed?

As said, I think FOREIGN media does a terribly superficial job.  Right now, everything is drugs, drugs, drugs, with a large side order of immigration.  And, I don’t think any national media, especially commercial media, is going to do more than skim any story.  It’s hardly a conspiracy, but all corporate executives pretty much think the same way, and — especially in television and radio — the media is concentrated into a very few corporately controlled groups.  The print media is better, although, given the challenges faced by reporters (not just the threat of violence, but the low pay and relatively low readership of papers in a country without paper mills, nor the resources — trees and water — to make paper products affordable), they are limited in what they can write about.  One thing that has struck me is that public intellectuals — writers, artists, academics — have much more access to the media, and are much more influential in public discourse, than in the United States and Canada.

Correspondents and foreign writers suchs as Malcolm Beith, Patrick Corcoran, David Agren and yourself regularly link to eachother’s blogs and comment on that. I notice there is a kind of dynamic between these different bloggers, a kind of ongoing online-discussion between American and Canadian expats about Mexican news. Do you feel the same way about that?

At times, it feels like we’re playing tag!   Sometimes our different perspectives (and different geographic locations in a very large country) give me a better understanding of some particular issue than I might get from either the Mexican, or foreign, “mainstream media”.  And, at least for now having the disadvantage of being in a small, not very important provincial city, and having other commitments, I can’t write on, or hope to be aware, of everything.  Nor can they, but between us, we often are able to present a more complete picture of an event or issue than any of us could do on our own.

Are expat-blogs like Malcolm Beith’s and Ganchoblog useful to you?

Of course, and I hope I am to them.  We disagree on some interpretation… but, “the truth is out there”