The naked and the read

Now that Gods, Gachupines and Gringos is starting to sell (the print copies were delayed unconscionably longer than I thought it should, though the Amazon “kindle” version is for sale now, and there are pre-publication orders being taken.  The book book should be out early to mid January), I’m getting … not “fan mail exactly… but “suggestions” for the second edition.  Not that I was really planning to write a second edition, but I’m sure they are well meant.

My favorite so far is from an e-mail correspondent who wondered why I didn’t write more about nudism in Mexico.  The short answer is I never thought about nudism in Mexico, nor — to my knowledge — have any of the profesoriati written learned treatises on the subject.  Or even pop fiction.  Other than a brief mention of the sartorial customs of the Otomi (or, rather, their lack of sartorial custom), I don’t think I said anything about naked Mexicans.

My correspondent wondered if it was a “Catholic thing,” but then contradicted his own easy suggestion by noting that Argentines and Brazilians, shall we say, dress down? Or, rather, un-dress down?

The only discussion I’ve seen of the Mexican nudity came out after my book was supposed to be at the printers (Gustavo Arellano, “Ask a Mexican, 12-June-2008 ):

Like gabachos, an alarming number of Mexicans are out of shape. According to a 2003 study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 24 percent of Mexico’s population is overweight. That’s the second-highest obesity rate in the world following–wait for it–¡los Estados Unidos! (The Mexican’s present-day note: A 2008 study found the same results. I’d cite the exact survey, but here comes la migra–gotta run!) Unlike gabachos, Mexicans respect the public when it comes to flashing our flabby chichis, pompis and cerveza guts–so when we’re out near the pool or by the beach, we cover up. It ain’t Catholicism, machismo or an homage to our swim across the Rio Grande. It’s good manners.

Good manners has a lot to do with it. I’m not Mexican, and I live in a gringo ghetto resort town for now, so my Mexican-acquired standards have somewhat dropped — I don’t always iron my underwear, but I do think twice before wearing shorts downtown. I was taken aback this afternoon to see a tourist eating at a downtown sidewalk cafe shirtless.

It wasn’t that the shirtless fellow was aesthetically unpleasant, and Mexicans do show off their bodies (sometimes when they perhaps shouldn’t). When I had the body to do it, I did (at least in venues where it’s expected) and… as Mexicans (and Argentines and Brazilians, and everywhere else on the planet) do if they can. Alas, sometimes our vanity outruns our good taste, and of course, there are those who flaunt what they don’t got. In Mexico and everywhere else.

My correspondent didn’t mention (and I completely forgot) that the world’s record for the most naked people in one place was set in Mexico City last year. And…who can forget the string of naked farmers’ protests?

My seat of my pants… or, rather no-pants  (oh, you know what I mean) thinking is that nudism is largely a European thing (mostly having to do with  some German “back to nature” yadda, yadda movement of the early 20th Century) .  If nudity has any meaning here (beyond the obvious one of not having clothes on),  as seen in the farmers’ protests, it is  a traditional way of showing disrespect and contempt.  Shop-lifters, policemen drunk on duty and other social miscreants are sometimes stipped and exposed by angry mobs.

There’s nothing wrong with the human body, but personal dignity is a paramount virtue in Mexican culture.  Shaming a person can be considered a human rights abuse (though it’s very difficult to prove) and, as Don Benito said, “respect for the rights of others” is the basis of peaceful co-existence.  As Gustavo noted with much more humor than I, it’s just a question of good manners.

For the record… while I have no documentary proof, I am certain Benito Juarez, General Santa Ana and even Vicente Fox, were naked at some point in their life, and I can guarantee they came into the world that way.  And, one is free to read Gods, Gachupines and Gringos: A People’s History of Mexico naked.