Jenny and I were at this restauraunt called Chipotle last night, never going there again by the way, and it made me think of todays culture; or to be more accurate, todays preception on culture.
What makes mexican food mexican? You eat a burrito or carne asada fries and you say to yourself "hot diggity dog this is some damn good mexican food" but in actuallity it's tex-mex. So in search for my inquiry i though what mexican food is there? and what makes mexican food mexican food?
Theres mole, chilaquiles, Tacos, etc. Those are as close to "Mexican" as you can get.
Scenario:
You walk into a taco bell and order a taco then you eat it. Did you have mexican food?
Theres many people i know that wont consider taco bell "real" "mexican" food. SO what makes it mexican or not?
What if i say all the cooks in the back, including the one who made your taco, are straight from mexico city. Did you have mexican food?
How about if i say you had this taco bell taco in Mexico?
What about now?
This question makes me ponder on how diluted our culture has really become.
They say America is a melting pot of culture but just because you have a mexican a filipino and a a indian living on the same block doesn't mean you have all forms of culture on your block it just means his ancestors are from south america his ancestors are from the philipino islands and his ancestors are from india.
This also makes me feel a little empty inside because i know jack shit about any culture, including mexican culture. I can barely speak spanish, actually i don't even make any type of effort to really learn spanish. I'm actually taking japanese classes next semester. Am i helping to dilute and kill my culture?
What is my culture and what makes anyone knowledgable of my culture?
Fuck it, enough mexicans speak spanish.
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2 comments:
I like chipotle burritos
I like taco bell
hahah
I wouldn't say it's Mexican food but I like it.
I'm an American , like your an AMerican.
you're culture is american
because you live in america
a part of your culture also is hip hop...
your ethnicity is Mexican..
I'm sure you do some things that contribute to Mexican culture, but for the most part..the question is do you really practice Mexican culture?
I don't speak tagalog, although I'd like to.
I'm far from practicing FIlipino culture..
It's a touchy subject to some.
I acknowledge that my ancestry and background are Filipino, but I accept that I'm an American.
What is America ?
people from different backgrounds, and at times cultures living in this US of A...that's America
Lets stop all this focus on background...all these titles Asian American, Latino AMerican, African AMerican only seem to keep racism alive.
How about this:
Being Mexican or American or a b-boy is just a label. People need labels to understand their life, put it into some kind of context. That's why Taco Bell is "Mexican food". The company needs a label that you understand so that they can speak to you and get your business.
There are two things: you and the world around you. One thing that people spend too much time on is trying to cater to the world around them, and they forget that they, themselves, have their own "personal culture". If there is any culture you should concern yourself with the purity of, it's that. And what is personal culture? It's the unique combination that equals your personality. It's the food you like, the music you listen to, the movies you love to watch over & over again, the books you get lost in, the fashion that makes you feel good when you wear it. It's not the outside pressures of what you "should" like. It's the honesty of what you DO like. That's the most important culture.
Having said that, we are all made up of the things we experience and how we choose to react to, and interact with, them. Some of that is outside of your control, but a big part is your decision. What takes away your decision is when you feel obligated to follow a path others pressure you into. Should you learn Spanish? Should Mane learn Tagalog? The answer is only if you want to.
Here's the big reveal: all culture is your heritage. Not just what your family say it is, but all of it. You have every right to say, "My people built a Great Wall throughout China" just as much as anyone from Beijing has the right. Being human, your birthright is all human achievement. Your people built the Roman Colosseum and the pyramids in Egypt, created Stonehenge in England, were slaves kidnapped from Africa, and also flew planes into the World Trade Center. If you were to leave Earth and meet aliens, would you only represent the Mexicans?
You can take pride in knowing that if you learn Japanese, you are learning the language of some of your people. If you B-Boy, you can take pride in knowing that you have every right to that dance--as much as anyone who grew up in the Bronx. How much you respect it is up to you, not some guy on a panel telling you what you SHOULD do. But if you agree with that guy, if what he says makes sense, then fine. But you decide what your personal culture is. And the world's culture is at your disposal to help you define what "personal culture" means to you.
Don't forget, there would be no "Mexican culture" if the Spanish hadn't injected their own beliefs into the Native Americans living in what we now call Mexico. So there's no such thing as pure culture--only pure personal culture. The only thing you can purely represent is yourself. Besides, if you want to look at your heritage--as so many people pressure everyone to do--how far do you go back before you stop? Because if you keep going, if everyone keeps going, we all end up back at the same spot. That's why the world, and everything in it, belongs to us all. That's our real heritage.
Word.
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