Is Mexico Industrialized?

Perhaps you pride yourself on staying current with the news, you are reading this because you want to learn more about Mexico, or that you've stumbled upon this blog and liked the photo on the right. Think about what you know about Mexico what comes to your mind?

One perception of Mexico is that it's a purely undeveloped country filled with men wearing sombreros and colorful Mexican ponchos living in a huge cactus filled country. Surprising many who visit Mexico*, the country is filled with diversity and is much more developed that we are led to believe from this spreading falselore in the United States.

One of the reasons for this is that, like much of Europe, the buildings here are built from block and cement, not of wood like they are in the US. While Americans consider cement buildings for homes as strange and typically inferior, Mexicans and those Europeans that I have befriended and talked to about this topic, find it equally strange that while our commercial buildings are typically built from cement, our homes are built out of wood and are more susceptible to damage from storms, tornados, and hurricanes. Houses built from block more effectively insulate against hot summer days. Air-conditioning is minimal if existent at all. 

Notice where Mexico is listed on the far left.

Our media diet also contributes to our false understanding of Mexico. We gorge ourselves with stories of assumed Mexicans crossing the border and Hollywood's portrayal with comical, but not accurate, movies like Nacho Libre. Synthesizing these factors, we are lead to believe that Mexico is Hellishly dangerous and Mexican day consists of dealing drugs, drinking tequila, and eating tacos. We forget, or are just pridefully unaware that many cities in the United States have a much higher homicide rate than cities in Mexico. Because we are familiar with our own communities, we discredit the danger of our own areas and magnify danger of the unknown.

The culmination of our unawareness of Mexico is pity. Pity towards another culture and people. Tourist pity comes from other developed countries' citizens visiting Mexico while they view the country through the lens of their own culture. These tourists look down and degrade Mexico. To make maters worse, these people then go and return home, sharing their experiences of assumed Mexico with their friends and family. We are happy that they had fun in Mexico, but we wish that the tourists that only stayed in the resorts took the opportunity to see the rest of what the country offered. They are fixed on believing that their customs are automatically better rather than being willing to view another culture based of what is considered right or wrong in the one they are currently visiting. Mexicans don't want pity, they want to be respected and understood and when visitors create this mental divide between the countries, more uneducated assumptions are spread about Mexico.

Anna and I don't disagree that there are places in Mexico that are underdeveloped, there are also places that are just as developed, if not more, that my own country. Here are a few photos to illustrate this from the capital of Mexico, Mexico City, a smaller town called San Miguel De Allende, and the city where I study, Santiago De Querétaro.

San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato 

Mexico City even has a China Town

A street in Mexico City

One of Mexico City's subway stations 

When I am asked by my Mexican friends what I have liked most while in Mexico, I gratefully respond that I have been able to witness and interact with authentic Mexico. I have learned for myself what Mexican culture really is, rather than what we hear and see in the United States. I have opportunity and responsibility to share this knowledge with others.
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*Ideally in places outside of the tourist havens like Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.