So! Here I am in Mexico City! Mexico City is now one of the largest city in the world – 22,000,000+ people! And each time you go out on the street here you understand what that means!
Walking up the sidewalk – as I did today that I made today a shopping day – is an experience to make the meek kill and the strong blaspheme! You are pushed off the sidewalk into the street by surging pedestrian crowds, in the street you are utterly ignored by the brutal arrogance of drivers, who, in their turn, get hopelessly trapped by pedestrians that through themselves into the streets desperate to cross or beggers at the open windows of cars! I call this the unregulated society – you can do almost anything you want – you want to sell something! Just lay it out on the sidewalk – don’t worry, every one will walk around you into the street. Ignore red lights! There are no rules, just do it!
At the same time, go into a store to buy some envelopes, as I did today.
You talk to a clerk in a ‘Papelaria’. “I need three large mailing envelopes” you say. “You must buy a package.” She says after consulting with two or three people. ‘Very well’, you say, how many in a package and how much? “Twenty in a package”, she tells you! “Twenty five pesos!” “Fine”, you say, “I will have twenty.” (you are already thinking about leaving most of them in the hotel room). She goes away- disappears. Just when you are becoming convinced that she has forgotten you and will never come back, she comes back with three envelopes in her hand. “Six Pesos,” she says. You reach in your pocket and count out six Pesos. “No!” she says firmly and indicates another clerk!
The other clerk has your envelopes and she writes up duplicate orders (yes carbon paper still exists) and hands them to you. You try to give her your six pesos but she points to a little booth in the middle of the sales floor. You look at it – it is nothing but a box, you can not see anyone! But you see a small little trough in the counter and a tiny hole in the wall of the box! What are you to do? The second clerk who has handed you the two order forms and kept your envelopes, somehow indicates that you must give these forms into the box! You slip the forms through the little trough, into the box and when you are certain there is no one in the box at all, a set of fingers pushes the forms back out at you – on the form now you see written in large black writing $6.00 pesos! You perceive that the hand expects you to push the six pesos into the hole in the box, and you do so. After a moment both forms are returned to you, they have been stamped! So you think: ‘I have paid for my envelopes, I have stamped, duplicate, forms to show that I have paid!
But now you can’t get the attention of the clerk who has your envelopes! She is doing all of this to someone else – someone who understands, probably. In a moment the clerk who has your envelopes returns to you, and she looks at you, and her smile is such that she is saying: “Odd, isn’t it”, and you see your three envelopes laying on her counter and so you hand her the two stamped forms. She takes the forms, examines them, and stamps them again. When she is sure they are all in order, she detaches one and puts it into a bag, along with your three envelopes! You now have all three of your envelopes in a bag along with your copy of the order form stamped twice! But you can’t just take your envelopes walk out of the store! You have lost your nerve! It can’t be this simple! What if some mistake has been made? What if the form she put in your bag does not have the right number of stamps! What if you are followed from the shop by the security guard with a rifle and he wants to see your form – and form is not right! What then? You linger and look at the clerk – holding your bag of three envelopes. The question forms on your face and in the insecure hunch of your shoulders: “Is that All? Can I leave now, can I take my envelopes and just walk out of here? Just like that? Is it really that simple?”
She smiles. Yes, she is saying, that is all there is to it! You may take your envelopes and go!
A half or three quarters of a block away you look back over your shoulder and see that there is no security guard following you and you relax, having successfully purchased three mailing envelopes. You are proud of yourself!
Getting breakfast in the morning is an ordeal that I often put off till noon because it is so difficult for me to get the service that my temperament will tolerate before I’ve had coffee. You sit down in a café and the waitress brings you a menu – it may take a little while if there are lots of people, but it’s not bad. I try to catch her attention when she brings the menu and I say, “Café Americano, porfavor, con Crema!”. I say this desperately because I know it is not going to work! She lays the menu down and walks resolutely away! then she comes back to take your order – you don’t just shout out that you want café she wants you to look at the menu before she will take your order! She walks away to give you time to read the menu
When she comes back she does not have the café. So you order “café Americano, con creama”, and your breakfast eggs. “Huevos Rancharos, por favor, pero huevos no crudo, por favor”. (In mexico eggs are likely to be served very, very sunny side up, almost raw. She looks at you kindly but a little as though you’ve lost your mind and the turns and walks away - into the kitchen. After a moment she returns to the dinning room but now resolutely ignores you – not in an unkindly way – but for her now you don’t exist! (realize that I still don’t have coffee). After a while a man comes out of the kitchen and walks up to your table and stands looking down at you. He may be the owner of the restaurant or the cook, some authority figure. “Si!” he says as though he is responding to a question from you. “Café Americano, con crema, y huevos rancharos, pero el huevos no crudo.” Now you hope that this man, this authority figure, is saying to himself as he stares relentlessly down at you ‘why couldn’t the waitress handle this?’ But you suspect that he thinks you are as crazy as she thinks you are. “no crudo!?” he says flatly! “profavor”. You say. He turns and marches back into the kitchen.
After a while the waitress brings you your eggs – and these suckers are cooked – make no mistake about that! But you still don’t have any coffee. “Café Americano, con crema, porfavor.” You call out to her. She smiles and begins wiping down tables, taking orders - on her way toward the kitchen. After a while she returns with coffee, maybe with cream or maybe not. You drink your coffee slowly wondering how you will handle it if you really have to have a second cup. You wonder what she would do if you ordered a second cup before you had finished the first cup, but you give it up – it is too mad – she would probably send the man back out!
Now the odd thing about this process is that it is not a hostile one, these people are trying to get you your breakfast. And it is also not so much a matter of language, everyone knows what you are ordering from the first. She sends the man out in order to make sure you get what you want, not out of peak! Maybe she is afraid to be the one to tell him that his usual way of doing eggs will not do. Maybe he will shout at her: “don’t tell me how to cook eggs!” I don’t know but I have faced this kind of situation so many times that I have been able to analyze it.
It appears that the Mexican way of life does not encourage on the spot adjustments and improvisations. It seems like people here (at least the shop clerks and the like that one has to deal with as a traveler) have been told how to do things and what to expect. It seems like they have not been asked to think it out and they don’t. It also seems that Mexicans are extraordinarily patient with each other and with themselves. Forget the cream! No matter, if it is important it can be fixed later! You certainly cannot overwhelm a waitress with your temper or by being demanding – she will just wonder away.
You may think it absolutely mad to go through three clerks and a six step process to buy three envelopes but her smile suggests that maybe, just maybe, she knows what you are thinking and maybe a bit complicit! But what the hell – it’s a job and this is how it is done!
I met a man in a bar last night. He was the owner of the bar. He was very gracious and spoke perfect English. His function he tells me is to be the man in the box when the bar gets busy in the afternoon. Every transaction, no matter how slight, if it involves money in any way, goes through him). We had a wonderful talk about Mexico and traveling and what it is like to be in Mexico and have money where money is so scarce! He confirmed my sense that Mexicans do not take responsibility. He attributes it to an attitude that forbids workers to suck up’ either to the customers or even the boss. That they will not do it! I pointed out to him that he was ‘the man in the box’ and he said he realized that but he was a little embarrassed by it. He said that they had tried a more modern approach but it did not work. I did not want to ask him what had gone wrong with the more modern approach because I suspected that he would tell me that the employees were all thieves. I decided to forget it.
Well, it is a different culture – that is why traveling is fun.
Today I was just wondering, I could afford a little time, I have nothing to do. I spend a good part of every day just wondering the City – what a marvelous city is it! I love the excitement of it, I love the architecture – at worst most of it is charming , but most of all I love the people!
Today I was wondering in el centro. I wandered through various street fairs - they are not street fairs here but part of everyday life. I love looking at the vendors stalls and looking at the people buying and selling potatoes or secondhand shirts.
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At last I come to a point where it seems there was nothing going on so, instead of making my way back the way I came, I headed off toward my hotel – in a general way – I didn’t have a map. I found myself walking more and more in desolate and deserted streets. I think nothing of it! I come on an open space, some sort of plaza, but not nice and without trees. What it has is people - men. Men sitting beside building or leaning against the fountain (there is not a plaza in Mexico City, however modest, that lacks a fountain, however dry). I note that there are plastic tarps stretched along one side of this plaza and I say to myself ‘Um, that looks like what homeless people back in states do for sleeping – they stretch plastic tarps on the ground for sleeping – just like that – fancy!’. I look at all the people! So, without making any decision in the matter I wonder through! (I want to see!) I am immediately aware that I am the focus of all attention! But I think nothing of it! A young man comes up to me and asks me for money, he asks for five pesos. I refuse!
Now why did I refuse? I still don’t know if that was wise or not - to refuse. What I think my reason for refusing was that I knew when the young man came up to me – way he put himself in front of me, put himself in my way – he did not beg from the sideline, letting himself be bypassed – he put himself in my way! I think what was in my mind at that moment was, 1) that I was in over my head, I knew I had made a big mistake in being here, and, 2) I knew if I showed any money there would be no telling where it would end.
Instinctively I decided to make an absolute show of authority and disinterest. I smiled at the young man absently, moved around him and went on my way. A moment later he was in front of me again – and this time I saw that other men were beginning to gather as well – and I had no reason to think they were concerned about my welfare! He once again demanded five Pesos. I said. “No! Senor, no es possible!” I was absolutely calm and authoritative, although now I fully understood that I was in some very bad trouble! The young man now understood that I would not give way, that I had drawn an absolute line, that force was his only option. He demanded one peso! I could not get by, he was in front of me and the others (whom I did not look at, but I non-the-less knew, were gathering around me. I stood – looking the young man in the eyes, “OK,” I was saying silently - he understood perfectly, “are you going to attack me or not?”
I was carrying my green bag, over my neck and over one shoulder. I have always said that the green bag was a rouse – that I would hate to loose it but if I did it would not matter much. The young man put his hand on the strap of the bag but seemed to realize that the strap would not break and that I would not likely let him have the bag without a fight! Then he saw my watch and he grabbed that and ripped it off my wrist and he ran away!
I walked on out of the Plaza looking up at the buildings as though nothing had happened, but I was waiting for the impact of these men falling on my back, or to see the young man in front of me again – knowing that any show of fear or any reaction would excite the problem – that he would be back at me or the others would! When I reached the edge of the square and saw other people there, men and women and children in the street ahead I said to myself: “OK, you stupid, cocky, lucky son of bitch, you got out of that one! Did you LEARN SOMETHING?!”
As your god is my witness yes – I learned something!
I waited for the emotional impact. I waked back toward the hotel, saw a ‘supper market’ (hard to find in Mexico), explored it, bought some things – then back into the street – walking back to hotel, waiting for the emotional impact to hit! I got to my room. Closed the door behind me! No impact! ‘What is this!’ I say: don’t you realize what could have happened there! Don’t you realize this was serious!’
And I do realize!
What I realize is that I should never have been on those deserted streets, even before I saw the plaza, and that I should have turned away the moment I recognized that I was approaching a homeless enclave in the plaza, that the stupidest thing of all was to decided to walk though it! At least I could have just walked past – I didn’t have to actually walk into the place!
Finding myself in the place I did the best thing – I showed no fear and an absolutely resolute demeanor. I don’t think anything else would have worked! Had I, in anyway, put myself in their power – mentally – there would quite possible have been no stopping until they had everything I was carrying and done who knows what damage to me.
He has my watch with my blessings.
I also knew that I had humiliated the boy who took my watch. I am glad I had the watch for him to take off my wrist – he is welcome to it.
I know that I have in no way completed my opening statement – said why I love Mexico! But I do love Mexico! I have loved every town I have been in since Monterrey. I did not like Monterrey but from then on I have been reluctant to leave every town I have been in! San Louis Potosi, San Mequel de Allende, Guanajuato, and now Mexico City! I hate leaving this City! It is so exciting, so absolutely stimulating! So enormous!
