Letter to Mexico Critique - Essay Example

Task: Eula Biss: Letter to Mexico In Eula Biss’ essay “Letter to Mexico”, the has an epiphany on hatred. Watching other Americans and how they carried themselves made her realize that she hated them for everything they stood for. However, she finally came to the understanding that the residents in Baja California equally hated her and other Americans. During the four weeks she was at La Cantina, she is able to see all the wrongs and discriminations that have been perpetrated on them by the Americans. She states that “I could not admit that the hatred I felt for the Americans at the cantina at La Salina was the hatred I felt for myself-a punishment for being so ignorant of the world outside my country…”(Biss, 100). Most of us often go through life oblivious of what goes on in other states enjoying the bliss of life. We depend on the media to give us a picture of what life is like, despite the fact that in most cases it often fails to depict the real picture. We make so many assumptions without even the least bit of information that can easily help us base our judgments. Racism and economic inequality is a reality that has been in the society for years, despite the fact that most people fail to acknowledge it. All it takes is a simple look around us to finally see the reality of what exists. Most people base their judgments on what they hear and rarely ever do so based on their experience. In her essay, she talks about the “white trash” she comes across in Mexico. In spite of the fact that she was an American herself, she felt like she was better than them simply because they acted differently than her. She tries to call the reader’s attention to things so inherent that they have become imperceptible to us, such as our assumptions on race. She states “In the United States, it is very easy for me to forget that the people around me are my people. It is easy, with all our divisions, to think of myself as an outsider in my own country.” (Biss, 93). Although in her country she could easily separate herself from others and act like she was better than others, while in Mexico she finally got to see herself from other people’s perspective. She used to pride herself in the fact that she was better simply because she was a well refined woman from a good background with good education. The US has always been regarded as a land that holds better promises which is why most immigrants are so quick to try and sneak in hoping to find a better life than what they have left behind. To most people’s surprise, life is not any better in America. Employers end up taking advantage of the desperation by the immigrants to get jobs and often result to hiring them with such low wages and they end up living in such poor conditions that staying back in their own country seems like a better alternative. Eventually, the US fails to deliver the fashionably good life that most people imagine they will likely to enjoy once they set foot there. She states “Two men, in particular, were often talking loudly out on the patio on what they could build, and what they could sell and what it could cost and what they would make” (Biss, 92). To Biss, this felt nothing different than the promises laid upon the Mexicans during the NAFTA agreement that did not benefit the Mexicans in any way. Most of us go through our lives trusting that we are better than others simply because we do not want to view the world from another person’s point of view. In true sense, there is no way of knowing whether or not we are better than others. We often believe that dissociating ourselves from others, acting like we are not like them makes us better. The truth is that when alls said and done, we can never really leave our identity. The country we are from is what defines out, despite the fact that we may want to believe otherwise. Nevertheless, this does not imply that everyone from a certain heritage or culture get to evidently be harshly judged based on historical events. Even though she did not have much to do with the injustices that had been inflicted on the Mexicans, she still felt like she was partly to blame. She felt guilty for the simple fact that she goes to enjoy something at the expense of the Mexicans. The NAFTA agreement was signed in the hope of improving the economic status of Mexico. However, ten years down the line not much had changed. A lot of farmers had lost their jobs. Most of the companies in Mexico were mostly owned by the Americans. In addition, as much as a few millionaires may have sprung up in Mexico as a result of the NAFTA agreement, the gap between the rich and the poor had widely been heightened. She states that “I did not know then that NAFTA had in effect eroded many of the rights and protections provided by the Mexican constitution” (Biss, 98). In most cases, Americans often move in to undiscovered lands giving the natives of the lands hopes of civilization and in most cases end up failing to deliver on this promise. They often end up making use of the opportunity and exploit the people of the land especially in terms of labor. Ultimately, although there may be a little development that comes to the country, most of the citizens often end up at a disadvantage while the rich enjoy the exploits. One evening while she was passing time at the La Salina, she addressed the bartender in Spanish. To her surprise, the lady in turn responded to her in English. In a bad full of people, only two people spoke Spanish. This further goes to prove just how much the Americans were taking over the country without even realizing it. People no longer felt the need to address each other in Spanish despite the fact that it was their country and their culture. The song Hotel California is played every hour in the cantina. “In school in Ensenada I learned the words for many different kinds of food and some parts of the body. I did not learn how to say, ‘The excesses of my country are paid for by your country.” (Biss, 100). Which further shows how people are left to live in the dark about certain truths that would highly help enlighten them and help them see the veracity of what goes on around them. The cause as to why most of our values and beliefs and heritage is dying is simply because most people are so quick to try and mimic other foreign cultures and end up forgetting our own. The end result of this is that we often end up forgetting our won heritage, or at other times whatever little is left of our heritage has been tarnished by the foreign culture. Work Cited Biss, Eula. “Letter To Mexico”. Writing As Revision.4th.Ed.Beth Alvarado and Barbara Cully.New York:Pearson,2011.89-104.Print. Read More