What's new

Why do Japanese people think of Mexico as Ponchos and Tacos?

ok, so read this:

The United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), or simply Mexico (Spanish: México (help·info)), is a country in North America, bounded on the north by the United States; on the south by Central America with Guatemala and Belize; on the west by the Pacific Ocean; and on the East by the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea[1]. Mexico is a federal constitutional republic, made up of 31 States and a Federal District that contains the capital, Mexico City which is one of the largest cities on Earth.

Covering almost 2 million square kilometres its territory is situated in the central and south[2] portion of North America. It is the 6th largest country in the Americas by total area and 15th largest in the world. With a population of about 108 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

As the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper-middle-income country. Federal elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since 1910 that the opposition defeated in a Presidential race the party in government, in this case, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional: PRI) who had been in power since 1929. As a result, Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional: PAN) was sworn in as President on December 1, 2000, and served until 2006. The current President is Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, also from the PAN.

and for Japanese ppl:


violà XDDD


XD

Well, at least they know something about Mexico. if I say "chile" they would think about peppers and stuff like that XD
 
mika_r, good thing you brought the politics subject up. This new president of ours is gonna take over our country. Mexico has been declining economically over the recent years. It is now third or fourth I think as an economic power in Latin America being overtaken by Chile and Brazil quite recently. And the situation is getting worse and worse with all the drug-related executions among police and cartels, Monterrey, has now become an important stablishing place for drug dealers as it is the biggest city near the border. Some experts now say Mexico is becoming the next Colombia. Monterrey is number one in Latin America as far as standard of living and security is concerned, but this really doesn't reflect what's going on right now.
Felipe Calderon, our new president pressumably cheat on these past elections as I know quite a few people that were volunteers collecting votes on the election booth and said there were some irregulations. They all said they didn't report it for fear they were going to be fined or something. This is definitely crap and It is all going downhill from hear.

yukio_michael, tight pics you got there on Flickr. And, yeah, Mexican culture revolves around food, lmao.

Mauricio
 
I've been wondering if world cultures is a subject ever learned at schools in japan. I've never gone to japan, but as i meet japanese people in chat rooms text chatting or voice chatting or the rare times i have met them in real life they know nothing about Hispanic people or our culture. When i mention mexico they go "Tacos? Ponchos?".
Me myself i don't know about many countries either but i have browsed books and seen documentaries on discovery channel or something to know at least a little something about various countries.
I agree that the average Japanese know very little about Mexico... and that is just a neutral statement.
But then why should they be overly interested in us? As a user said here, Mexico... and Latin America for that matter, is far away. Even Brazil that had significant Japanese immigration in the 1800s, is probably not very well known.
You have to browse a high school Japanese book of history (中学歴史) to know why.
For starters, they devote a lot of space to show the historical development of ancient East Asia, especially China, neighbouring countries, Japan... and then half of the book, begins to look more like western (i.e. Eurocentrist) point of view... very few spaces left, devoted to European Middle Age, Renaissance,... till WWII and afterwards. Just one or two pages for each topic.
But that is pretty logical... I think that a Latin American could complain of Japanese ignorance about us if we in our high schools devoted 100+ pages to the ancient history of China or Japan... and since that is not so... well. 😌
I also noticed Chinese people also seem to not know about Latin america at all. When i studied in college we had Immigration courses, world history, world cultures, and all kinds of stuff that introduced me to a bit from various cultures... korea, japan, vietnam, thailand.. europe, africa etc..
Yes, we also "study" a little about each of these countries and regions... but it is "very little". Not because these countries are not necessary... they are... is, that they are far away and not connected very much with our historical development.
Of course, one can desire that a Highschool student could study 100+ pages of Thai or Korean history and culture... but that is not possible.
Also note i'm talking about Educated japanese young people.
They probably know very much about other things of more immediate relevance to them.
I, for my part, do not regret that they know little about Mexico first hand. What I am worried about could be influenced by second-hand impressions... as some other user said: Vision of California Gangs or Speedy Gonzalez...
(Although Speedy Gonzalez rocks :D ).
 
Last edited:
mika_r, good thing you brought the politics subject up. This new president of ours is gonna take over our country. Mexico has been declining economically over the recent years. It is now third or fourth I think as an economic power in Latin America being overtaken by Chile and Brazil quite recently. And the situation is getting worse and worse with all the drug-related executions among police and cartels, Monterrey, has now become an important stablishing place for drug dealers as it is the biggest city near the border. Some experts now say Mexico is becoming the next Colombia. Monterrey is number one in Latin America as far as standard of living and security is concerned, but this really doesn't reflect what's going on right now.
Felipe Calderon, our new president pressumably cheat on these past elections as I know quite a few people that were volunteers collecting votes on the election booth and said there were some irregulations. They all said they didn't report it for fear they were going to be fined or something. This is definitely crap and It is all going downhill from hear.
yukio_michael, tight pics you got there on Flickr. And, yeah, Mexican culture revolves around food, lmao.
Mauricio
I am impressed!!! You look less indoctinated in the PAN/Yunque thing than the average "regio" (= dweller of Monterrey).
By the way... "Long live our one and only legitimate President, Lopez Obrador". ;).
Cheers.
 
This is an magazine of a University in Mexico, edited by the History Department, and in this number (21, Summer 2005), it dedicates to Japan...


(Just copy this in you browser and carefully eliminate spaces).

If you know some Spanish, enjoy.

Regards.
 
I am impressed!!! You look less indoctinated in the PAN/Yunque thing than the average "regio" (= dweller of Monterrey).
By the way... "Long live our one and only legitimate President, Lopez Obrador". ;).
Cheers.

Nah, I just hate Mexican politics, that's all. After talking with my Literature teacher, I just convinced myself that you have to be corrupt in order to become a politician. If you are not corrupt, you will definitely get some follow co-politicians mad and they will do whatever to get you of the throne. You will also get some drug chiefs mad too and you'll get killed or something.

Mauricio
 
Maciamo wrote:
Talking about Mexico, did you know that the last Empress of Mexico, Charlotte (wife of Maximilian) was a Belgian princess (daughter of the King of Belgium, Leopold I) ? After the execution of Maximilian I of Mexico during Republican revolution, Charlotte went back to Belgium were she lived as a widow in a castle north of Brussels (now part of the National Botanic Garden).

Terrible and sad story, that of Charlotte... was a sad love story between her and Maximilan. She lost her mind while in Europe, trying to find help for her husband, and finding it nowhere.

Maximilian at the bottom was not a bad guy either... but sadly, was a puppet of Napoleon III and the Mexican Conservatives... and that bring his ultimate death.

There were a number of Belgian agents and volunteers operating in Mexico at those times... There is a lot of Historical material about those times in the Internet...

Regards.
 
Mexico makes me think of narconews.com,
Chiapas and Zapatistas, and their recent disputed election that brought the last two stolen US presidential elections to mind.

Also Mayan pyramids, sombreros, calling cards at the local Mexi-mart, and the spontaneous Cinco de Mayo caravans that pop up every year with cars driving up and down Main street. It's awesome. Spontanaity rules. I fear the city will institutionalize the thing one day, demand a permit, and ruin all the fun.
 
Haha, I can't say that USA is really much different.

A town I used to live in gained a different pronunciation because of how many Mexicans lived there. It wasn't "Anandale" It was "Ha-nun-dah-lay!"

I work with several Bolivians, they get furious when people call them Mexican!
Bolivia's culture is very different (only because I have read about it and asked them) from Mexico. In fact I don't think I've ever seen them eat Mexican food.

Really, anyone who hasn't been to a said place and has not learned about it leans towards stereotypes, it's just human nature.

I see Japanese in a much different way (at yet the same) from how I did years ago.
I never wanted to go, as I was afraid of total culture shock. But now that I've been there, I can't think of any other place that is more agreeable and that feels like home to me.
 
Mexico sure needs some good PR here in the US; all I ever hear are bad things on TV and in the papers?
Uncle Frank

Ha,ha,ha... so many tasty opinions to comment... but I will comment this one for insighfulness, uncle ;)

Without wanting to be rude, that Mexico be looked bad in the US in certain circles and media, actually means very little, if you know how to separate the real facts and the real trends and look at them from the correct political view.

(!!???)

In other worlds, if we wanted to be the "big amigos", as some understand it, as actually the treacherous government we currently have, actually want, we simply have to sell cheap our own natural resources... privatize oil, and relax more our laws (even more), and destroy our left-leaning Costitution from 1917, and things like that.

What some evil and perverted people in the USA and Mexico want, is that we become "Colombia II", has some other poster here already said.

O.K... let's see if these perverts get away with it... but in the meanwhile, let me explain with more detail the meaning of my first paragraph.

The real reason why there has been relatively good relationship between Mexico and the USA since the 1920s, and specially since 1942, have been the capacity of Mexico to defend itself from unwanted intrussion from the USA and other countries. Remember that Mexico was practically the only Latin American country were there was not CIA sposored coups d'etat, the only country in Latinamerica with friendly relationship with Cuba... but also the country that accepted and respected more USA investment after WWII.

Sorry but it is the truth.

As our nationalism, both in practice and spiritually, began to suffer in the last, say, 20 years, everything has been downhill.

That conservative US diplomacy and media, and the "neocons", and the "Monroists" of allways (who knows what name have now) speak bad of Mexico, means nothing... on the contrary... that will be a good sign that we are doing "something" good... Currently I am pessimistic... since are precisely the US "Big Bussiness", corporate and financial interest, the ones that currently try to put Mexico "in a good light"... but actually what we see is social decomposition.

Really, the 2006 elections were a great oportunity, lost. I will not see any oportunity for an improvement with the current gang in government. Actually, they are a "collage" of the leftovers of the worst parties that supposedly were defeated in many struggles of the Mexican people, during 2 centuries.

So, let's see what follows.
 
I think they look at the world as Americans look at America? Gucci in Italy, Chocolate in Belgium, Expensive brands in Paris, Sombreros, tacos, tequila in Mexico, etc.
chocolate is from mexico, :eek: also the chewing gum, tomatos etc etc are originally from Mexico, what about Mayas, Aztecas etc I have seen mexico in some Japanese animes like digimon :)
 
Back
Top Bottom