When I moved to San Juan Cosala, I felt like I’d dropped out of the world. No longer do I read the newspaper every morning, the electronic newsletters I receive from various sources, or the news stories my friends and coworkers used to email me during the day; no longer do I regularly discuss current events and politics with anyone, because there is no longer anyone around with much interest.
For better or worse, I grew up learning to eat breakfast over the morning paper, with everyone commenting over the stories in their section of it. In my new home, breakfast usually happens under the blare of the morning soap operas. I’ve sighted newspapers only a few times in this town, and always as packing material, not reading material. Most people don’t have telephones in their houses, let alone an internet connection. And if you think Americans are bad at geography, come ask a San Juaneco where in the world Ethiopia, Thailand and Haiti are, and whether those are countries or cities or what.
My extended family of in-laws has very little interest in politics. No one ever votes, for example, or even know what issues they could vote on. Right now there is a strong national television campaign to register voters for the coming elections this summer. I doubt a single one of my relatives has ever registered. That’s probably true for the whole town. The only person down here who shares my interest in politics has been my (very conservative) American brother-in-law, who visits San Juan often.
Obviously, there are a number of things going on here. Poor education and poverty are major factors. I guess I should be clear that I’m not slamming my family and neighbors, but it iss fair to say my life here is very different than it used to be.
An interesting aspect to this change, though, has been that I have had to become much better at articulating my opinions. It’s easy to get by on generalizations and judgments when the conversation participants all mostly agree with one another. “You know what I mean” has no place here, because no one ever does.
Surprised, and maybe perplexed, by my interest in politics, world events, and environmental issues and activism, my in-laws have put me on the spot to explain my support for or opposition to candidates, propositions, and laws. Sometimes this has been easy to do, but other times I found it was more difficult to really explain my opinions than I thought it would be, and not only because I’m doing so in broken Spanish.
I’ve been asked to explain the reasons for and the nature of US involvement in both World Wars, in Vietnam, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. I’ve been asked about US/Cuba relations, about US immigration laws, the reasons for the current economic depression, and why I think China has become so powerful. I’ve done my best to answer, but realize there’s a whole lot I don’t know.
Last week, Obama visited Calderon in Mexico City. Apparently they discussed drug and arms trafficking and climate change, (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/18/content_11209404.htm, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/17/content_11198589.htm) but the visit was largely a symbolic goodwill trip. At the breakfast table, over the loud telanovela drama, my mother-in-law asked me whether Obama would be any different than Bush, and what this could mean for Mexico. I realize I don’t really know.
Mexico is an interesting place to be, and being here is certainly influencing my perspective on some things. I’m going to keep working on this black hole feeling. I do, after all, have a (mostly) reliable internet connection. Three cheers for that.
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