How to Wear Mexican

There seems to be an intrinsic need to classify every aspect of one’s life as well as everything and everyone that one is surrounded by. In such a way, one finds that nations are classified based on the many features in which they are similar or differ from others. Every country arranges others in an unofficial way to have a record of what the country doing the organizing believes the country in the catalog should be like. Every country is guilty of such practice. The definition of culture emanates from this procedure. Culture is not something one thinks about while living in one’s country of origin; one simply lives the life one has without classifying certain details as part of the culture. Culture is a simply a lifestyle that takes another name once one departs the motherland to inhabit a foreign country. It is only after said relocation that one begins to grasp the importance of the everyday details one never before deemed as customs and traditions, but which have now acquired different dimensions.
As a young child growing up in a very small town in Mexico, it never occurred that life there was culturally rich. However, upon arriving to a foreign country one finds a new truth: everything one previously considered as a simple lifestyle becomes what constitutes the culture of one’s country. The new idea starts to gain ground when one’s thinks about the past. One necessarily begins to appreciate every detail of the precious past and regards the present as rather monotonously dull. One realizes that, indeed, the past from which one came from and to which one could return if so one wished is full of customs and traditions. Yet, such only takes the name of culture because one is now observing it from the outside. When one was still active in it, that culture was simply a way of life. Being Mexican is precisely that: a way of living. Such living must be experienced in order to be understood, appreciated, and loved. It is not a culture that one can express through a theory or learn about at school.
Certainly, there are traditions and customs, which uphold Mexican living. For example, speaking Spanish (or rather Mexican since it is a variation of the original Spanish). Then, there is the unofficial national religion: Catholicism, and passion for soccer. The culinary practices as well as the world famous tequila. The music, the education system, the importance of the family along with its complicated hierarchical system, the freedom children can enjoy, the celebration of national holidays in very specific ways, wedding ceremonies, and even poverty to name a few. These are, however, not labeled as customs and traditions when one lives in Mexico, they are simply part of the way life is. They do not completely encompass Mexican living, but provide an insight into a far from perfect, yet enjoyable and happy life.
It is worth the tautology to say that one learns to be Mexican only by being Mexican, which necessarily includes spending a great deal of time living in Mexico. It is only by living there that one learns to love the motherland and understand its flaws. One cannot miss what one never had. Nonetheless, there are many who depart at such early age that prevents them from absorb what being Mexican is. There are others who choose to portray themselves in a certain way, which they believe best in order to benefit from hiding their identity. Others do not realize they are incorrectly representing what being Mexican means in an effort to be accepted. Finally, there are those who attempt to be immersed in said ‘culture’ while in a foreign country without having spent any time in Mexico. The results are often an outrage to the idea, which they wished to represent. It is a complete failure because they only receive filtered theory without any practice. They only take what is appealing whereas those living in Mexico take the pleasant and the appalling. It does not matter how great, modest and passionate their attempt is, they will never be able to wear Mexican properly. One only learns to do so by having the suit carefully tailored to fit one’s body using the direct experiences that one accumulates through life in Mexico.
Suits are tailored to fit the customer not customized to order.
Dear beautiful Mexico, if I should die away from you, let people say I am only sleeping and take me to you!


xoxo,
Poison Drops

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