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In this session, we're discussing Mexico through American eyes, reversing the gaze.
This is how Americans view Mexicans.
To do so, we are meeting in a Mexican restaurant, Cuchara, in Houston, Texas.
>> So I actually wanted to ask you about this restaurant, because I think
Americans, they love Mexican food, but they tend to go to a very traditional,
not traditional, very typical type of Mexican restaurant.
>> Or what they think is typical.
>> Yeah, what they think is typical, and
I think you've taken us to kind of a different place.
And so I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about what makes
this place different from a typical Mexican restaurant.
>> Yes, I chose to come to this restaurant because it doesn't
fall into the typical cliches of fiesta, siesta, sombrero,
the loud mariachis, and presents more of how Mexicans,
modern Mexicans perceive themselves.
With component that is important to the Mexican legacy, but
of a nation that's more mature, that's more contemporary,
more modern, and inserted within the global sphere.
>> And the food here is really different.
I mean, when I think of Mexican food, I think of burritos,
and fajitas, but that's not what we're seeing here, right?
>> Yeah, there tends to be this idea
that's sort of a cliche that Mexican food is Tex-Mex.
And Tex-Mex is a cuisine of its own.
But Mexican food, with all its diversity because along with Chinese and
French food, it's one of the most diverse cuisines in the world,
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there's more to ate then what Americans tend to believe.
And that's why I chose to come here to try some of these very diverse dishes.
>> It's delicious.
>> Yes.
>> So, do you think that our understanding of Mexican food
is somewhere related to our entire view of Mexico?
And, I think there's a range of complexity in the way we view Mexican culture,
Mexican politics, Mexican people.
Some positive, some negative.
Maybe, can you analyze, and go into some of that?
>> Yes and, actually, there tends to a more standardized view of what Mexico is
both, with the positive, and the negative.
In terms of the positive, I would say that certain Americans who wish to like Mexico,
tend to see in Mexico, search for Mexico what's authentic.
It's the little town, Tepoztlan, in central Mexico or
the little town in Oaxaca or Chiapas and everything that's indigenous that speaks
to the ancient civilization where people would come from a traditional
society that has not been inserted or in a way polluted by modernity.
And it's true that part of Mexico is that but it's not only that.
However it precludes certain Americans to see how Mexico can be a modern country
that will have the elements of ancient civilization and the modern.
So that's for the positive part.
>> Tell us about some of the negative stereotypes.
Well, of course we know them well here in Texas, right?
So, Mexicans as illegal immigrants,
Mexican government as corrupt, Mexicans as poor.
>> Mm-hm.
So, all these negative prejudices can be dated back to history
in the 19th century as both countries were emerging as nations and, sharing a border.
And being so different,
Americans went out of their way to make sure that Mexicans were not Americans.
And that Mexico was not American.
They were very different in language, in religion, in customs.
And, that part of that legacy from the 19th century speaks to the prejudices
that we see today that have been exacerbated by the economic downturn
in Mexico since the 1970s that has exacerbated immigration,
or more recently with drug-related violence.
So?
>> So, you've talked to us about some positive and negative stereotypes.
And I'm wondering if you could help us think about how we should be thinking.
What's a way that we can, perhaps, move beyond some of these stereotypes?
>> I think, for the case of Mexico and
the United States, stop thinking about Mexico or the U.S. as the other.
But rather, a region with a common history, the region of North America.
Sharing a common border with a flow of people
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and with flow of ideas and
a blend of cultures more than people are willing to realize today.
>> And so we can stop thinking about burritos and fajitas and
start thinking about what are some of these dishes.
>> Yes, and to think that there's more Mexico.
There's Mexico beyond chips and salsa or fajitas.
And that there is nopales with panela cheese or mole verde,
there's green mole with pipian or the different tacos.
And, well, let's just give it a try.
>> I think we should eat, yeah.
It looks delicious. >> [FOREIGN]
>> [LAUGH]
>> Thank you.
Dr. Anne S. ChaoLecturer
Dr. Julie FetteAssociate Professor
Dr. Jeffrey FleisherAssociate Professor
Dr. Moramay López-AlonsoAssociate Professor
