Some Random Mexican Thoughts

Two mexicanos have told me how terrible the mexican banks are. Each time I just sort of shrugged it off. In the past 8 weeks, I´ve almost exclusively used only ATM´s, which means my contact with banks has been only with a machine. However, just recently I tried to cash some traveler´s checks. What a hassle! The banks take the attitude that you the customer are an annoyance that they have to put up. I think this was the attitude of the American banks over 50 years ago. One teller turned her nose up at me and said, in effect, "We don´t DO travelers checks."
The ATM´s usually give you only 500 peso notes. This is the equivalent of $50. These notes are very hard to change. As a matter of practice, everywhere in Latin America it is very difficult to buy anything with other than the exact amount of money required. In South America, I believe the reason is that the vendors tend to stash their earnings in the deep recesses of their clothing and keep small amounts immediately at hand. However, they don´t have this excuse in Mexico. Anytime you buy something, and offer a bill slightly larger than the asked-for price, you will get this sigh of frustration, and the subsequent plaintive request: "Don´t you have an extra 3 pesos?" or whatever to make the change easy to produce, like a 10 peso coin or a 20 peso note.
After getting my 500 peso notes at one bank´s ATM, I promptly went into the bank, stood in line for the necessary time to work my way up to the teller, and asked for smaller bills. She looked definitely irritated. She asked me what I wanted. I said 100 peso notes. She said, without looking in her drawer or anything, "I don´t have any." Right, this is only a bank. I said that I was willing to wait for as long as it took for her to go to her boss and see about getting more 100 peso notes. She looked completely disgusted and offered me one 200 peso note and six 50 peso notes. I took it.
When I lived with the family in San Cristobal, one of the young girls in the house worked in a local bank. If it´s any consolation, I know that the banks treat their employees even worse than their customers.
Another fascinating aspect of life is the telenovela. These start at 4 o´clock in the afternoon and continue until late in the evening. There are basically two networks in Mexico and they compete with each other in offering telenovelas. These are soap operas with a cast that always includes beautiful women. The theme is (almost) always infidelity. Some one is always jumping into some one else´s bed and the spouse of the one is always walking in unexpectedly on the other two.
In addition, all the women have incredibly pale skin and could easily pass for northern Europeans, some even with blonde hair and blue eyes looking like they came straight out of Scandinavia. The people all live in mansions and have maids. The maids all have darker skin, walk with a shuffle, and act very subservient. It reminds me of the racist tv which we had in the states back in the 40´s and 50´s.
I think this is a reflection of the underlying racism which still exists so strongly in Mexico and is a leftover from the colonial era. It also goes a long way toward explaining Latinos´ support of Hilary Clinton and non-support of Barack Obama. It´s kind of the polar opposite of some American males. The one group is racist and the other misogynist. Perhaps in the course of time the novelas will start showing equally beautiful women but with browner skin. In the meantime the novelas do absolutely nothing to improve the situation in Mexico, only continue to exacerbate it.
The senora of the house that I stayed in in Oaxaca had her portable tv set propped up on the kitchen counter and was able to cook meals, talk on the phone, and eat, all at the same time while watching telenovelas. These shows have become popular all over the world. When one is particularly successful in Mexico and elsewhere, it gets copied for American tv (Ugly Betty, for example).
My first day in Xalapa was very hot, probably in the high 80´s. I was looking forward to it cooling down at night. How does the saying go? You should be careful what you wish for. In came the cold front the next day: drizly rain and dropping temperatures. The climate here reminds me a little bit of Lake Tahoe in the fall. It might be gorgeous one day, and remarkably warm, and quite cold the next. When I went to bad the night before last, I was almost shivery and used the blanket. It felt like the room was freezing cold.
My little electronic travel alarm clock has a thermometer in it, which in my experience has always been quite accurate. There I was in bed, reluctant to take my socks off because of the cold, and the temp on my clock said 68 degrees! I may be in for some trouble adapting again to the Plumas County climate in March!
Hasta luego!