What are the meanings of 'straightness' in Mexico?
'Straightness'. A person behaves with straightness ("rectitud") when
that person tells the thruth and acts fairly to others. Somebody "is
straight" ("es derecho") in the same circumstances, and it also means
being loyal to a friend.
What are the cultural associations of this concept?
Usually, smaller towns are perceived as more honest than big cities.
The bigger the city, the more distrust their inhabitants generate.
People from Mexico City are called "chilangos" and they are generally
regarded as undeserving of trust by the rest of the country. People
from Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana and other cities with over two
million people are regarded as "chilangos-light", having the same
attitudes to a lesser degree.
Mexico City, for instance, was pictured in "National Mechanics", a
movie made in 1971, where the characters explained how their society
worked: everyone abused everybody else, and so in the end nobody lost.
In 2004, there were some TV commercials showing a girl going to a
public school with her mother, and being received by the principal who
said they could not admit the daughter if her mother did not pay the
extra quotes. This lady tells her husband, who is a mechanic. He tells
a customer her car needs an expensive piece. The customer works for
the government, and tells her boss to suggest a bribe to a a
constructing company, the company tells the customer the project is
going to cost more, and at every step of the way the amount is
increasing, to pay for the original request and get a profit. At the
end, the story rewinds to the principal admiting the girl to the
school, and a voice says "break corruption's chain, do you have the
[moral] value, or is it worthless for you?" (in Spanish, moral value
and worth are the same word.
So, there is a duality. Some people want everybody to be honest, and
some people think being honest in a world when many people are not is,
if not foolish, naive. The perception is: "if I behave, and the others
don't, they will rip me off". When I was a college student, somebody
stole my backpack at a cafeteria. I complained to a classmate, and he
told me "just like you lost yours, somebody might lose theirs"
suggesting I should steal from somebody else, so that I did not be the
one who lost. That's the way a segment of the population big enough to
warrant TV commercials on the subject thinks: "if everybody does it, I
must do it, even if I'd rather not".
Cops are another thing. They are generally regarded with distrust.
Mexico was shocked when this year some cops where lynched by a mob who
mistook them for kidnappers. The public in general does not trust
cops, and again, the bigger the city, the more intense the distrust.
In my personal experience, Mexico City's transit cops would not give
me a ticket even though I asked for it. They openly requested a bribe,
and negotiated with me the price. After I paid, one time they were
kind enough to escort me to a place I knew, when I explained I was
lost. In other mexican cities, cops sometimes give hints to see if I
offer a bribe. At Guadalajara, a cop told me: "Hey, don't be like
that. Let's get an arrangement". When I told him I'd rather pay the
ticket, he said: "You are doing the right thing. We would not do it
too, if it were not by the lousy paychecks we get" and then let me go
without an infraction. In Monterrey I did not stop at a light, and the
cops gave me a reprimand and let me go. Sometimes I get tickets, do
not think I always get away. And I have often been scorned by friends
who do not understand why I do not pay bribes, if they are cheaper and
take less time than getting a ticket and going to the bank to pay it.
Paying a bribe is generally perceived as a necesary evil, and being
mildly corrupt; requesting or accepting it is seen as being very
corrupt. In 2004 there were a series of scandals where politicians
were shown requesting millions of dollars in bribes, taking a
briefcase full of bills and literally filling their pockets with
money, or spending money in Las Vegas. In the past, these cases were
not publicated. Nowadays, with more liberty of press, politicians are
routinately ridiculed and exposed because of these behaviors. Some
people are shocked, others just laugh and make fun of it.
What are the everday sayings or attitudes associated with straightness here?
"Lo cortés no quita lo valiente" - "Being corteous does not mean you
are not brave".
"Soy derecho" - Means "I am straight". I am truthful, loyal, honest.
It appears on a couple of songs, for instance, one from the group
Maná, that says:
"yo soy derecho y no te fallo" - "I am straight and don't let you down".
Sources:
Memory, I was born and raised in Mexico and have lived at least six
months in nine cities in the North and Central states of Mexico,
including Mexico City and towns with less than 20,000 inhabitants, and
briefly visiting several more.
National Mechanics film.
http://cinemexicano.mty.itesm.mx/peliculas/mecanica.html
Tienes el valor, o te vale.
http://www.esmas.com/fundaciontelevisa/valores/395788.html
If you look up "Soy derecho" it appears in a number of pages in
google, relating to the concepts I explained above.
Chilangos:
http://wais.stanford.edu/Mexico/mexico_chilango51403.html
The lyrics of the Maná song can be found here:
http://blogs.ya.com/nuncaestas/200411.htm
(Please explore 'straightness' in its broadest sense, ie. not just
heterosexual, but anything that connotes 'straight' in any sense of
the word.) |
