csheila’s blog

As I was sifting through ideas of topics to write about for this blog regarding the differences in Mexican culture and American culture, I realized that I have not mentioned the favorite topic of many: food!  Of course!  Food is such an intricate part of Mexican culture that when I arrived, I realized that nearly all of my language problems revolved around the meal times because I did not know the Mexican food vocabulary.  It’s practically a whole other language in itself! 

First of all, the food is spicy…very spicy!  Everything is made with chily, and there is quite a variety of types of chillies for all the different seasons and regions.  A hot sauce and a lime is served with just about everything from fruit to popcorn, and it’s super good; I fear that I will never be able to make nor find such salsas or sauces in the U.S. and I won’t be able to enjoy my food without their proper condiments again.   And the food is nothing like the food served in Mexican restaurants in the U.S.A.  I have yet to see nachos served with a meal, and tortillas are practically the utensils at every meal of every day.  Another surprise was that Coca-Cola is always present at every meal (including breakfast) as Mexico is the number one consumer of Coca-Cola; it is the “water” of Mexico just as much as the tortilla is the “fork”.

One stereotype that is true about Mexican food is that everything is fried.  Empanadas, gorditas, stuffed chillies, tacos (the tortillas are fried), etc.  Those are all examples of some of the main Mexican dishes in which the tortillas are made with various recipes, but all containing corn, and they are fried differently to the point of being soft, blown up, hard or crispy.  And then of course the main ingredients vary in types and amounts but they often include black beans, cheese, beef or chicken, and chillies.  Vegetables are usually served in the dishes but not as sides…and eating vegetables raw with a dip disgusts most Mexicans nearly as much as the concept of peanut butter and jelly (until they try it).  Ah, and my favorite part of every meal is the salsa served with these dishes!  They are usually made with natural ingredients of cream, chili, tomato, and salt all put into a blender and then later broiled over the stove.  An oven is nothing more than a storage unit for Mexicans as everything is cooked on the stove.

In class this week at the main university, our professor was showing us pictures from a book of all the food a typical family might eat in each country.  When the pictures of the “typical American family” and of the “typical Mexican family” came up, it was hilarious to see our various reactions.  One other American girl was in the class with me and the rest were Mexicans.  I found myself enraged that they all honestly believed that we eat fast food non-stop and that our daily dinner is composed of a hamburger and fries.  Well, our Mexican classmates also found it a bit disgruntling to see their country’s stereotyped image to be a bit skewed as well as there were food ingredients on the table that nobody even recognized.  However, they were all agreed on the tortillas, the vegetable oil, and the Coca-Cola as being likely products in any Mexican home.  They were also not thrilled about how the only Mexicans in the picture were all indeed fat, reinforcing the stereotype of the short, fat Mexican, and all we Americans could say was: “Join the club.”  Americans are portrayed as the fattest people in the world no matter how many of us are actually not overweight.  I guess that just goes to show…we need to visit and see for ourselves to understand where all these ideas come from and to accept every stereotype with a grain of salt. (Lame food joke, I know).