When I heard first this comments I was a little offended I must admitt, one of the comments that got to me the most was: "Imagine waking up one day and remebering you're Mexican" as if it was something terrible, that made me feel bad, but then I taught to myself why would I be ashamed or feel bad in any way about being Mexican in fact I´m quite proud of belonging to a culture that is so rich and has such an interesting past, I wouldn´t want to have any other nationality, there are so many things we can take pride in: Our pre-hispanic cultures, our art, our architecture, oh! And i forgot our food, which they dissed in their comments by the way, but can you really blame them, I mean most of the fast food chains that sell Mexican food abroad sell this mixture between norhern Mexican food and southern American food known as Tex-Mex, this crazy hybrid is all they know, and actually this food is in fact all about chese and tortillas, shamefully our great diverse cuisine has been reduced to this dishes that aren´t even Mexican; If a foreigner saw a Chile en Nogada he would not recognize it as Mexican food, when in fact this is one of our most traditional dishes, the same with Mole, a very complex sauce to cook that is a challengeto make, even for traditionally French trained cooks.
So I believe we shouldn´t be appalled by this rude remarks, we as Mexicans should just remember the culture we belong to, distinguish between facts and fiction, and not wear the shoe if it doesn´t fit. As I see it, the only way to stop this is to know before we talk, If you were to ask in the streets about American food, for example, people would immediately tell you: American food is all fast food and junk, the only things they know how to make are Hamburgers and Hot-Dogs, they have no traditional food whatsoever, when actually that´s a lie, they have different regional cuisines, like Créole Louisiana food which has a wide variety of dishes such as Gumbo, a preparation that consist in a thick spicy sauce with shrimp and other shelfish, or Crawfish Étouffée, a dish that shows the main characteristics of créole food; But we don´t really know much about these dishes because that´s not what´s commonly labeled as American food, I say this because I think is important that we avoid falling into this stereotypes ourselves and really get to know other cultures before we jump to comment about them, so we don´t take part in this type of ignorant rants, and if we ever hear comments with no base in reality we should just turn a deaf ear because comments like those at the end of the day, end up saying more about the people that tell them rather than what they´re talking about.
So I believe we shouldn´t be appalled by this rude remarks, we as Mexicans should just remember the culture we belong to, distinguish between facts and fiction, and not wear the shoe if it doesn´t fit. As I see it, the only way to stop this is to know before we talk, If you were to ask in the streets about American food, for example, people would immediately tell you: American food is all fast food and junk, the only things they know how to make are Hamburgers and Hot-Dogs, they have no traditional food whatsoever, when actually that´s a lie, they have different regional cuisines, like Créole Louisiana food which has a wide variety of dishes such as Gumbo, a preparation that consist in a thick spicy sauce with shrimp and other shelfish, or Crawfish Étouffée, a dish that shows the main characteristics of créole food; But we don´t really know much about these dishes because that´s not what´s commonly labeled as American food, I say this because I think is important that we avoid falling into this stereotypes ourselves and really get to know other cultures before we jump to comment about them, so we don´t take part in this type of ignorant rants, and if we ever hear comments with no base in reality we should just turn a deaf ear because comments like those at the end of the day, end up saying more about the people that tell them rather than what they´re talking about.
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