posted
No. The armpit of the world is located further north of the equator. Mexico is merely the crotch of the Americas.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
One of my friends ( ) is on his mission right now in Mexico. His mission covers the area just north of Mexico City. For the first part of it he was in a very small town that I can't remember the name of, and now he is in Pachuca. He has said that it is dirty and the people are very poor. But he has also said that the people are wonderful and a lot more generous than Americans. I remember when he got to Pachuca he was excited because they had a Domino's Pizza. He would definitely say that saying is wrong. But I guess it depends on how you define "the armpit of the world".
Posts: 1635 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
My brother-in-law used to travel back and forth to Durango, Durango (city and province name) in Mexico. Since he would be in factories fixing R/F devices, he would generally be taken out on the town after work each evening.
From what he has told me, in that area the difference between wealth and poverty is an immense chasm. There's relatively no middle class, just the wealthy and the terribly poor. This was an industrial mecca post-NAFTA that mainly built furniture, doors and other wood products. Factory workers were paid next to nothing.
One thing that stuck out in my mind was his tale of going to a grocery store/shopping center. The entire center was surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Inside, in the parking lot were guard towers with armed guards. A shopping center guarded like a medium-security prison in the US.
Also, if you are traveling outside of the tourist destinations, be prepared to see armed soldiers supplementing the police force. And, I've been warned, do NOT look them in the eye or study their features if they are in uniform. Apparently the soldiers are so poorly regarded that their families often come under attack or ostracization when their sons join the military. A solider who sees you looking at him in that way will think you are trying to memorize him and figure out who his family is.
Edited to add: Mexico certainly isn't the armpit of the world. If taken warts and all, it probably better than 60% of the countries that you could visit.
quote:Apparently the soldiers are so poorly regarded that their families often come under attack or ostracization when their sons join the military.
That's odd--military service is compulsory in Mexico, or at least it was a decade or so--so you wouldn't expect a stigma like that.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
When I was in Mexico City/Orizaba, I thought the entire country smelled like a mixture of diesel gas and corn tortillas. I can't stand the smell of either one to this day.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I will violently defend my dear Oaxaca against any Mexico naysayers.
The only parts of Mexico I found repellant were those where America had made the most headway - Cancun, PV, Acapulco. Any town with a mall and a WalMart Supercenter is in danger.
What I found in my travels in Oaxaca (the central valley area and smaller villages toward Ocatlan and Mitla) and southern Quintana Roo was a beautiful culture full of life and vibrancy where art is a way of living.
The Mexican people I met and befriended were hard working and honest, family centered and hospitable. Many dreamed of the chance to come to the states, but only as a chance to make money for their families. For the most part they disagreed with American imperialism and capitalist inequality.
Were I not indebted and in the midst of my education, I would easily move to Mexico in a heartbeat. In fact, in a few years I just might.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) is on his mission right now in Mexico. His mission covers the area just north of Mexico City. For the first part of it he was in a very small town that I can't remember the name of, and now he is in Pachuca. He has said that it is dirty and the people are very poor. But he has also said that the people are wonderful and a lot more generous than Americans. I remember when he got to Pachuca he was excited because they had a Domino's Pizza. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
He would definitely say that saying is wrong. But I guess it depends on how you define "the armpit of the world".
