Here's one that I've become increasingly aware of, and I think it's a true cultural difference: it is a subject that rarely comes up in my experience, north of the border, or in any culture with mainly European roots, it is "respect". So important is this subject to Mexicans, that it is one of the officially recognized values promoted at my university and President Benito Juarez himself is often quoted on this subject. In my experience north of the border, respect is something seldom withheld, and is a feature of an educated and cultured person's way of dealing with others. When I was young, one of the things I noted was that the higher the status of an individual the more likely they were to show respect to all, without differences, addressing all in a friendly, open manner, regardless of relative station. Perhaps I could summarize by saying that, where I'm from we are generally treated with respect (unless we make an appearance on Fox News, perhaps). In either case, it makes me smile to see this cultural difference manifesting itself in various contexts....
It has occurred to me, since I wrote the post above, that perhaps "respect", as the term is used by Mexicans, refers to what we would commonly refer to as "courtesy". I don't know....
One of my observations from my time in Mexico was that me (an average-looking woman in the US) being with my Mexican boyfriend/husband suddenly made him a million times more appealing to Mexican women. My first boyfriend in Mexico wasn't the most attractive guy, and I remember being at a bar with him and like 7 of his (single, better-looking) friends. This totally random woman came up and sat on his lap and started antagonizing me. After I broke up with him (for unrelated reasons), it's happened since then with other guys. Any theories as to why?
Limejello, I'm going to tread into dangerous territory here... I have noticed that some girls here are more attracted to men that are taken. Certainly not all girls, but the few that are attracted to non-single men can be pretty aggressive and shameless about it. I've lived in Cancun since I was 19, so I can't say if this is worse, better or the same as the US or any other country, since I was never quite old enough to deal with those issues back home. (I've always assumed these women exist in pretty much any country, but I may be wrong.) I will say that I've noticed women here tend to be more jealous and catty with eachother... or at least they're more vocal about it than they are in the USA. Many (not all) of my Mexican girl friends have no problem telling me when I look like sh*t, when I look amazing, when I look fat, when they wish they had something I had, etc etc. Maybe that has something to do with it? Some kind of a competition between women? I dunno, just speaking from my own observations here. I'd be interested to hear what other people have seen.
Gringation, I'm going to explore that dangerous territory a bit more... Another thing I noticed when I lived in a little pueblo in Yucatan is that women found Mexican men who just got back from living the U.S. extremely "attractive". What happened fairly frequently is that the guys coming back from a stint in the US would party like crazy, exhausting all of their money, and the women would suddenly stop being attracted to them. I'm wondering if there's an assumption that if a Mexican man is with a gringa, then he (and/or his family) must have money. Not that it's by any means a conscious thing, but in my own experience, my American friends who live in Mexico that are dating or married to Mexican men have very frequently done so with men that are, relatively speaking, financially well off and educated beyond la prepa. Again, I don't think that they do it consciously, but circumstances are such that it just happens that way. In my particular case, I wonder if it's a combination of 1) the thinking that "taken" men are more attractive, 2) the thinking that "this guy is more likely to have money because he's with a gringa", and 3) territoriality toward Mexican men by Mexican women (the thinking that a Mexican man should be with a Mexican woman). Again, I'd love to hear some other people's insight...
