Friday, January 17, 2020

singing the cultural blues


Yesterday afternoon was the kick-off of the church's cultural awareness program in Melaque.

The series was initiated several years ago to introduce foreigners to the cultural differences between their native cultural and that of Mexico.The topic yesterday was the distinction between hot climate cultures and cold climate cultures -- Mexico and the southern United States being the former, and Canada and the northern United States being the latter.

I have long been agnostic about the procrustean amputations necessary to stuff complex cultures into those two tidy boxes. It reminds me of that old joke. There are two types of people -- people who divide everything into two categories, and those who don't.

With all of its intellectual shortcomings, it gave the presenter a framework to talk about the deconstruction of Mexican names, Mexican extended family relations, and why some Mexicans consider some of our actions reflecting our culture as baffling, humorous, or offensive.

Even though I have had to personally contend with it up close and personal recently, I particularly enjoyed the refresher course on the importance of the roles and relationships of padrino and madrina -- what northerners would call godparents, even though the duties are far different. (My particular brand of Christianity knew no such thing. The only godfather I knew growing up was Marlon Brando.)

In Mexico, a girl can have baptism padrinos, first communion padrinos, and a multitude of quinceañera and wedding padrinos (often a different one for each aspect of the party).

That list of potential padrinos for one little girl raised a question with a member of the audience. This was the essence of his question: "Because Mexican families have so many children, is it possible for a person to be a padrino for more than one child?" The answer was yes.

But the presenter failed to comment that the question proceeded from a false assumption. Mexican families do not have a large number of children.

Had the question been asked in the 1960s, the assumption would have been true. Sixty years ago, the fertility rate for Mexico was between six and seven. That meant that, on average, a Mexican woman would give birth to six or seven children.

That has drastically changed. As Mexico's economy improved (Mexico now has the 15th largest economy in the world) and more Mexicans moved into the middle class, family size diminished. The fertility rate is now 2.1. On average, a Mexican woman now will give birth to two children during her lifetime.

The 2.1 figure is important. That is the level at which a society will maintain its current population. If Mexico's fertility rate falls below that level (and it will undoubtedly do that in the near future), it will join Canada and The States with fertility levels that result in a decreasing native-born population. Canada's rate is 1.8. The States' is 1.9. As a result, all three countries face the reality of fewer young people working and paying taxes into a system that will contain a much larger contingent of old people.

In the near future, the questioner may need to re-phrase his question. "With fewer children being born, will adults ever get the chance to be a padrino?"

Not to worry. There will always be an opening for a wedding padrino de los botanas.

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