I have mentioned before that one’s success at any expat life is dependent upon one’s ability to adapt to cultural differences: from whatever culture you came, to whatever culture you go. External influences (age, health, money, government policies) may play a role in how long one can be an expat, but the question of how happy one is as an expat comes down to how well one can fit in. Because the culture will be different, and the culture does not adapt to you, you adapt to it. Or be unhappy.
I covered the mañana culture in Mexico before, and it is one of the large cultural changes. Coming from TYPE A America, where everything is about efficiency, speed, and acquisition (of things), moving to a culture where things . . .
will . . .
get . . .
done . . .
eventually (mañana, not necessarily tomorrow): well that takes much getting use to.
Likewise, there is the challenge of the relationship between honesty and politesse (A word I learned from the Rolling Stones, thank-you-very-much).
People here are extremely polite, and basically honest, but emphasize more of the former than the latter. So to avoid offending you, they’ll agree with you when they really don’t, commit to something they have no intention of ever doing, answer a question they don’t actually know the answer to, or give directions to a destination they don’t know. In Mexican culture, this is all understood, and no one would get upset about it. For expats, it’s another story.
Another cultural difference I have alluded to is what I call the “Robin Hood” culture of Mexico. There is an interplay between the concepts of fairness and legality that is just different here. Drop a wallet on the street, and some local will move heaven-and-earth to get it back to you, intact with all the bills and credit cards. Why? A dropped wallet is a misfortune that could befall anyone, and it is only right and proper to help someone who has had such bad luck. These same folk think nothing of conducting as much business as possible “off-book” avoiding charging/paying the value-added tax which funds much of the government. Why? The government is viewed with suspicion, as another entity looking out only for special interests. In a similar vein, nice houses here often have a large exterior compound wall with concertina wire, broken glass and nails, or electrified fencing. Why? If you have wealth and don’t protect it, it must mean nothing to you, so some people view it as available to others who have less (hence the prevalence of petty theft). The wall and wire are statements of both privacy and security: go find someone who doesn’t care about their stuff.
Of course, if you’ve seen the Disney movie CoCo (97% on Rotten Tomatoes!!) or witnessed Dia de Muertos in person, you are familiar with how Mexico views the family and death: you take care of your own, and death is a tragicomic end not to be feared. A skeleton elicits laughs or smiles here: terror NOB. Katrinas, lovingly-maintained roadside shrines to pedestrians killed (oh, so many), and sugar-candy skulls (calaveras): very different indeed!
The final obvious difference brings these observations together: the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. A nation which emphasizes taking care of your own (vice relying on the government, which is usually corrupt or ineffective), where family is the most important thing and work something you do, not who you are? A place that laughs at death and knows how to party? Where life may be unfair, but people are ready to go the extra mile for those in need? How would they deal with a deadly, global pandemic?
Mexico is 10th largest country (in population) and 15th in GDP. They currently have over 200,000 CoVid19 cases (11th overall) and 27,000 fatalities (7th overall). Yes, there is the same mix of resentment of the government, ridiculous conspiracies, and magical thinking as other countries/populations. The medical system does better for the wealthy than the poor and is inadequate for large-scale intensive care needs. The federal government initially tried denial as a national policy and still is not stepping up to secure the economy. Yet, there is no panic. Why has the nation weathered the storm so well?
In a word: Culture. Corona beer faced a marketing catastrophe: it doubled down and came out smiling. Mexican society is more unequal than America’s (as measured by the Gini coefficient); people aren’t happy about it, but still no one is out protesting about it. The economic consequences of the lockdown have been severe, yet somehow people are getting by. Extended families look out for one another, and for neighbors and friends of friends.
Think culture matters? Nicholas Kristof had an interesting Op Ed piece in the New York Times yesterday. He detailed something called the “Hispanic Paradox.” Hispanic Americans are part of a marginalized ethnic minority, yet they drink less alcohol, commit fewer crimes, die less frequently of drug overdoses, and are less likely to commit suicide than the white majority. On top of discrimination and poverty, Hispanics are less likely to have health insurance than either black or white Americans, yet they have the longest life expectancy among those three groups. Interestingly, as immigrants give way to second- and third-generation Americans, these advantages gradually recede. The overwhelmingly largest group of Hispanic Americans? Mexican Americans.
No one cultural point (e.g., faith) explains the paradox. But anyone familiar with the culture of Mexico, its web of family and friends, its relentless sense of joy and personal satisfaction, and its acceptance of life’s indignities or death’s inevitability, would not have any difficulty explaining it.