Regionalism

I asked the question: Why would someone from Chihuahua City speak so disdainfully about the people of Guanajuato? Actually, from our trip through Mexico in the Spring of 2007, I could be asking that question of several of the cities and states we visited and of the people we talked to in those places. I recall one conversation with a cab driver in San Luis Potosi who called Guanajuato, and this is hard to say, the dirtiest place his family had ever visited. Amazingly, in this man's first visit to Guanajuato with his extended family, they were so offended that they haven't been back to Guanajuato since.

The sad truth is that though other cities in Mexico can present a pristine picture of clean streets, Guanajuato, the city, is not one of them. There is a town in the State of Guanajuato that is wonderfully clean called Dolores Hidaglo. It is much smaller and yet people manage to put their trash in trash bins, unlike the people of the city of Guanajuato.

Though how the city of Guanajuato thinks what constitutes a clean street is not the issue of this chapter, what is the point is that Mexicans from different regions in Mexico have very distinct opinions about other cities and states within the Republic. Mexicans feel so strongly about the different regions of their own country that they have a word in their uniquely Mexican Spanish vocabulary for this phenomenon: Forajeros. Whereas we gringos are called Extranjeros, which means people from without or strangers, the word Forajeros means foreigners. I find this astounding!

The concept of Regionalism is so strong in Mexico that within this word, Forajeros, there are all the nuances of exclusiveness. What I mean is that the aversion, suspicion, and the we-wish-you-weren't-in-our-region-so-get-out normally reserved for the Extranjeros (we Gringos), is bound up in this cultural meaning of this word. This bears repeating: I find this astounding!

Because of the masks Mexicans wear that require the skillful Gringo expat's careful and methodical investigation to find out what's really underneath it all, the general run-of-the-mill monolingual Gringo is not going to know of this regionalism concept that exists in each and every state in the Republic of Mexico. Unless you have the linguistic skill to ask, you will never know of the regionalism that causes your pal from Chihuahua City to talk despairingly about the citizens of Guanajuato and call them cold and clannish.

I was talking a couple of weeks ago with a Mexican friend over breakfast. He wanted to know about our trip and where we went exactly. When I got to the part in our itinerary when we visited Reynosa and Ciudad Victoria (cities in La Frontera or Border Towns), I could see his face doing a Mexican hat dance. When I asked him what he was thinking, one word came out of his mouth: Pachucos.

Here was the Regionalism Dynamic that Mexicans hide behind masks coming into play.

The Pachucos were a minority group in La Frontera or the Border Towns. They were Hispanic youths who migrated from West Texas to Southern California and who culturally were neither Mexican nor Texan. They were something in between culturally and they knew this. So, they set about creating a subculture of their own, complete with their own language. Their dress, customs, and language became distinct from traditional roots—whatever those were. Their arrogance, their propensity towards violence, and their bizarre dress earned them the reputation of being gang members in the 1940's American Press.

Though you will find Mexicans in the Heartland who speak irreverently of La Frontera, or Border Towns, and refer to the people as Los Pachucos, some will mention instead the Pochas of the border cities.

The original meaning of Pochas was "the discolored ones" and referred to the youth of the border towns as neither Mexican nor American culturally. This reminds me of the Pachucos because the Pochas have even invented a bastardized version of Spanish that is often called, Pochismos. Mexicans often will point to the existence of the Pochas or Pochos being the direct result of the negative influence of the American culture. Though Mexicans want American or modern technology, they don't want to become Americans in the process. However, the youth of the border towns seem to have this cultural identity crisis in which Pochismos has risen. They try acting like both cultures.

I did not know for the longest time why those in Guanajuato with whom I would speak about the border towns spoke of them with such disdain. It was almost like they didn't even acknowledge the border towns as part of Mexico. Really, if you have sufficient fluency in Spanish to talk to those in Mexico's Heartland about La Frontera, you will see exactly what I mean. If you can get them to talk, and many will change the subject while acting really uncomfortable talking about the border, they will have nothing good to say about the cities in La Frontera.

Without fear of contradiction, not one Guanajuatense with whom I've spoken about the border towns has ever said anything good about them. Not one. This is indeed an excellent example of Regionalism at its best (worst?).

Another idea or Regionalistic Concept that those in the Heartland will tell you about the Border Towns is that of the Veteranos.

These young men are essentially murderous cutthroat, robbing gangsters that would shoot you just to watch you fall. It is probably these unsavory types that most unenlightened Americans think represent all the people in Mexico. I know Americans who I cannot dissuade of the stereotype that if they take one step into Mexico, no matter where, that they will be killed. Some of my relatives think I have to dodge bullets each time I step out the front door.

These Veteranos are members of the murderous gangs of the border towns about which you hear constantly in the Americans press. For some reason, the American press never makes the distinction between the border towns and the rest of Mexico. If the Mexicans I know will not acknowledge Las Ciudades de la Frontera as their own, why should the American Press force them to? I mean, really!

Some of the shopkeepers in the border towns are indeed rip-off artists. They've earned this reputation through their dubious and dishonest wheeling and dealing, so they have nothing to cry foul about. They are devils and will seek out your weakness and exploit it. They regard Americans as suckers and take advantage of the uninformed visitor from America.

Once my friend, Mark, and I were walking through the streets of Ciudad Juárez at about noon on a Saturday. This enormously fat Mexican was standing on the corner, in broad daylight, hawking the most foul and immoral services. A policeman wasn't standing more than three feet away from him. This guy waddled over to us and offered us not only a host of illegal drugs, a list he recited in a booming voice loud enough to be heard over the roar of the traffic, but in addition, offered us women or men or both for our sexual pleasure.

If Americans end up maintaining their stereotypical image of the evil and duplicitous Mexico, it will be because of cities like Juárez that will keep the fire fueled. If Mexico wants to put an end to the world regarding them as lawless, corrupt, and immoral, then they need, as a group-oriented nation, to put a stop to what exists in the border towns.

Something that I find so fascinating is that in Guanajuato, there are three barrios, Puquero, Cerro de los Leones, and Cerro del Cuarto that the Guanajuatenses in the rest of the barrios speak of as they would speak of the youth of La Frontera Regionalistically. One of my wife's ESL students had a sociology project to do in which she had to do a door-to-door survey in one of these barrios. She and her team hired a city police officer, during his off time, to escort them safely through this barrio.

In the Puquero barrio, in which my wife and I used to live when we first moved to Guanajuato, the youth were also a bit like the Pachucos, Pochos, and maybe even a little like the Veteranos. They even had a dialect that to this day I cannot comprehend. The house in which we were living was previously occupied by a Canadian lady who got firebombed for not playing along with some extortion racket the youth had going.

Sounds like La Frontera youth, if you ask me!

This Regionalism is most certainly an interesting concept to keep exploring. Though I've had conversations with connected people in Guanajuato, like our friend, Doña Carmen, I can't quite (yet) get out of them why they think Mexicans are kinder or sweeter the further north you go in this contradictory but wonderfully interesting country.

¡Viva México!

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