I love being from Mexico. I love my culture, and what it does for me. Soy una Xicana orgullosa de su cultura. Adoro el cafe color de mi piel y el acento que tengo cuando hablo. However, even though I love my culture, there are some parts that need to be fixed immediately.
For this article specifically, I want to begin by talking about the disgusting xenophobia and racism Mexicans gush out pretty often. I was met with this kind of act on Twitter - as per usual - by some ignorant person who thought it was cool to say that “Central Americans want to be just like Mexicans”. This is something you hear pretty often too considering that Mexicans, for some reason, hate Central Americans. Or they they hate everyone who isn’t Mexican. We like to think we’re the center of attention, and we think when somebody mentions Latinx that they’re automatically talking about Mexicans. But no.
For one instance, we always see Mexicans being incredibly xenophobic during soccer games especially. Whenever Mexico is playing against any Central American country - whether it be Honduras or Guatemala - Mexican fans spit out disgusting comments that are supposed to be demeaning towards the other country. And considering a large portion of Central America’s population are natives with dark brown and even black skin, there’s no doubt that these are the themes of the racist “jokes” Mexicans toss around during soccer games. I know for a fact and don’t doubt that there will be someone who will tell me just that - “it’s a game” and “it’s friendly banter”. But is it really?
Was it a joke when Mexico’s government deported their own citizens to Central America because they looked too indigenous and too brown and too black? The fact that a government didn’t recognize their own people because they didn’t look Mexican enough (despite this being bizarre on its own too because really, Mexicans don’t look one certain way. This is another topic for another day.) is unbelievable on its own. Deportation is inhumane itself because how can a country hate a certain group of people so much that they are willing to kick them out of their country? I want to put stress on that statement because coming into the United States, Mexicans call out racism and prejudices on them. But what about when it’s happening in the country where they’re from? For sure it’s completely different because for one, it’s not happening to us, so why should we care, right?
How can we claim to be an amazing culture when we show so much hatred for Central Americans? In a community that’s already invisible, Central Americans are even more erased by Mexicans. As Mexicans, we need to be standing in solidarity with them. We need to support them and help them have their voices reach across mountains and roads. Chicanxs, stop putting your voice over Central Americans. Chicanxs, we are important, but we have to address our own prejudice against Central Americans. We have to be better now.
