lounging with the tiki

One of the things I enjoy most about Mexico is its celebration of the individual.


If you want to express yourself, Mexican society generally lets you get away with things that Nordic culture would declare beyond the pale.  In one sense, it is my own private libertarian refuge.


Now and then, something comes along down here that challenges my own acceptance of that concept, though.


When I lived on the beach, there was an ancient beach hut just two lots from where I was staying.  A small brick shack with a palm frond roof.  It was representative of the shacks that once lined the beach. 


Most are now gone.  Replaced with the type of houses that would be indistinguishable from any California beach.  Houses that blare the owner’s self-importance.


The beach shack had some nightmare memories for me.  A young couple lived there that treated one another badly, but they treated their baby much worse.  I won’t even mention how low on the totem pole their German Shepherd puppy was.  Every time I walked by, I was treated to some new horror.


But they are gone.  And so is the shack.


Apparently a woman from north of the border bought the lot.  I thought she would attempt to incorporate the shack as part of her building project.  A friend of mine did that to great effect.


But that was not to be.  She tore down the little brick shack with the thatched roof, and is building what appears to be -- a larger brick shack with a thatched roof.


Now, this is Mexico, and people can build whatever they darn well please on their land.  But I am curious what advantage came from tearing down something with character to replace it with what looks like a cross between the Disney Jungle Ride and the Tiki Lounge in Seattle.

 

But there is one advantage.  As you can tell from the photographs, it is a small place on a narrow lot – tucked between two much larger houses.  Nothing about this revamped beach shack will ever shout anything but humility.


And it is an individual take.  In that, it fits with Mexico.


I just purchased a new  book for my Kindle: Mañana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans by Jorge G. Castañeda.  According to the review I read, Castañeda, a former foreign minister, sees three traits of the Mexican character getting in the way of the nation’s future: an individualist streak, a discomfort with confrontation, and a suspicion of foreigners.


It is the individualism trait that fascinates me the most.  I celebrate it; Castañeda seems to denigrate it.


As I read the book, I will share more.


In my individual way.