The Zen of Being Mexican

When millions of people are constantly walking, working, taking the metro and peseros, driving, shopping, talking, selling and buying all at the same time and in the same places there could be lots of disagreements.  Mexico City is crowded every day, every night, all the time.  Yet, it works.  Traffic moves, although sometimes very slowly.  Metros arrive at rush hour and people squash together and make room for more.

How do the Mexican people handle it all?  With grace, humor, kindness, and patience.  They slow down.  They accept the fact that traffic happens.  They understand when friends are late.  They stand in line for everything....the bakery, metro tickets, the pesero.

But I have only been here two months.  After an entire life in the United States...and in New York, home of some of the most impatient people in the country, I still have trouble "being" Mexican.

This weekend Ken and I, along with a friend, went to Acapulco.  Monday was a holiday, so it seemed a good time to go.  The bus ride down, on Friday, was very smooth and easy.  I had made lunches (including snacks and dessert) so we had no worries about food.  The movies were good.  We arrived when it was still daylight.  The trip took five hours, as it was supposed to.

Acapulco is beautiful and relaxing.  I felt very lucky to have the chance to see this magical place.

However....coming home on Sunday was not the same smooth trip. The bus was late leaving the station.  Then, when the video began...it didn't.  The driver, however, kept the audio portion on.  I didn't mind too much when it was light out and I could read, but when it got dark, and no reading lights were available, it seemed ridiculous to have the audio portion blaring.  Then we hit traffic.  Miles before we got to Cuernavaca, the cars and buses were just crawling.    I couldn't see my watch, which was just as well.  If I had known how late it was, I would have been very hungry.  Finally, we passed Cuernavaca, but, as we got closer to Mexico City, traffic became congested again.  We got into Mexico City more than two hours late.

The Mexican people on the bus gathered their things and left.  But not me!  No, the New Yorker in me just had to let the people in charge at the bus company know that I had been inconvenienced by the lack of video (this is the video I wouldn't have been able to understand.....).  So I began to babble in the few words of Spanish I know about the video.  Ken and our friend, Juan, just stood to the side trying not to laugh.  The bus company employees were very nice to me.  They sincerely tried to understand what the problem was.  No water?  No, no I had my free bottle of water.  Traffic?  How could I complain about traffic?  This was MEXICO CITY!  Traffic was a way of life for everyone.  Finally, Ken and Juan tried to explain.  The bus company people laughed, but not in front of me.  The American woman who couldn't speak Spanish was upset because she hadn't seen a video in Spanish?  They couldn't believe it.  But they never once walked away, or stopped listening, or asked Ken and Juan to tell me to leave them alone.  They were Mexican.  They knew how to be patient.

Maybe, some day, I will know too.