Month: March 2024
Who are you?
Latest editorial from my magazine The Eye, if you aren’t already following us be sure to check it out:
“Identity is never singular but is multiply constructed across intersecting and antagonistic discourses, practices and positions.”
Stuart Hall
Who are you? What is the first trait you think of to describe yourself?
Is it your gender?
Is it your nationality?
Your race?
Perhaps a description of the kind of person you view yourself to be?
Tensions feel high lately. Not only in the world we see through our phones and television, but in real life. The conflicts across the world remain a safe distance away, beyond our ability to affect change, other than voicing our outrage and hoping we fall on the right side of history.
There are tensions closer to home, things we can do something about. On the outer edges are the migrants, avoiding the immigration officials as they move towards the unknown. Inside our bubble we cling to our opinions about the situation- no, not just the situation- we cling to our opinions about the people- how we imagine them to be, where we imagine they have come from and where they are going.
On the inner edge we have tensions between the outsiders: the travelers, tourists, digital nomads, snowbirds, expats and gringos versus the locals, nationals, long-term residents, the “Mexico experts,” who are pushing back. Blame for everything that seems to be going wrong is thrown around like a tennis ball or maybe I should say like a pickelball.
Last year I was sitting at my favorite sushi haunt in Terminal 2 of CDMX when the man on the stool beside me attempted to engage me in conversation. I am not the kind of traveler who enjoys idle chitchat with strangers. He was undeterred and proceeded to tell me with a hint of pride that he had been living in Oaxaca City for the past eight years.
‘That’s nice,” I responded out of politeness.
“Where do you live?” he persisted.
“On the coast.”
“How long have you been there?”
“Twenty-six years,” I said turning back to enjoy my unagi.
“Oh. You win I guess,” he said.
“It’s not a contest,” I replied.
People are always having conversations like these, asserting their identity and experience to justify their entitlements and points of view. But who are you really? Take away the cloak of where you happened to be born, where you live, your job, your religion, your gender, the amount of stuff you have collected on your journey and the opinions you have formed, based on the information you have. When you strip those things away, what are you really entitled to, that someone else isn’t?
Aren’t we all just minnows in a school of fish moving through the water on the momentum of each other?
March is usually our Women’s Issue. However, in the spirit of shedding our identities, rather than clinging to them so fiercely, I am calling this the ‘Achievement Issue’. Our writers have profiled people whose accomplishments are inspiring.
See you next month,
Jane
Don’t hide away on International Women’s Day
Back in 2020 some feminist associations in Mexico called for a “Day Without Women” on March, 9 to denounce femicide, inaction by the authorities and, more generally, sexism in Mexican society.
While this tactic was used in the campaign and film ‘A Day without Mexicans (2004), to highlights the idea that the American economy is dependent on Latinos- gender inequality is not the same. The main point of the film was to show what would happen if Latino immigrants took the day off. Basically, the economy would take a massive hit.
However, I would argue that the last place women should be, to show an impact, is staying home. Home is already the domain of many women. The space we, as women, need to claim is public space.
When I was in college we had ‘Take Back the Night.’ The first Take Back the Night event began in England in 1877 as a women only protest against the violence and fear women encountered walking the streets at night. The first Take Back the Night March in the US was held in San Francisco in 1978 to protest violence against women, particularly sexual assault.
Ranked as the second-highest nation for femicides in Latin America, just below Brazil, Mexico’s cases show a sustained rise, recording over 920 in 2022. This count is perceived as even higher by most of the population due to the substantial number of unreported and uninvestigated instances.
According to the WHO, globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner.
Given the space we need to claim for ourselves is public space, I plan on celebrating my ability to go to work and move freely through the world, hopefully harassment free. Stand tall and take up space to show we will not hide away.
Jane Bauer 