{"id":53494,"date":"2022-07-12T14:58:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T14:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/?p=53494"},"modified":"2022-07-12T14:58:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T14:58:37","slug":"on-being-asian-american-in-mexico-student-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/2022\/07\/12\/on-being-asian-american-in-mexico-student-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"On Being Asian-American in Mexico & Student Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by Augsburg student, Mina, about her time abroad with CGEE in Mexico and her poem,\u00a0Los Feminicidios<\/em>. Thank you to Mina, for sharing your experiences with us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Being Asian-American in Mexico<\/b><\/p>\n

Mina Himlie, Augsburg class of \u201823<\/span><\/p>\n

I am used to being the only Asian person in the room. I grew up in a small town that is 99 percent white, including my parents. I don\u2019t have many Asian friends, and even in the Twin Cities I haven\u2019t made any Chinese American friends. Before the start of my study abroad semester, I didn\u2019t give much thought to how being Asian would affect me while I was in Mexico because I didn\u2019t think being surrounded by a different race would be any different from my everyday experiences. Through the Global Twin Cities Scholars program I learned about Mexican culture and realities in terms of immigration. Between the cultural preparation and the completion of my intermediate level Spanish classes, I felt as prepared as I\u2019d ever be to spend a semester abroad in Mexico. Even so, I was not prepared for the different way that Mexican culture constructs race and racism.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my time in Cuernavaca, I have not seen many people visibly of Asian descent. I have, however, been asked many times by strangers where I came from. On its own, this is usually an innocuous question. People can usually tell that my friends and I are tourists, whether that\u2019s from our English, our accents, our clothes, or something else, and they like to make small talk. However, it starts to come across as racist when they don\u2019t accept \u201cthe United States\u201d as an answer to their question.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day I was out with my sister (also Asian) and her boyfriend (white). They were looking at some notebooks, and I was making small talk with the vendor. He asked where we were from, and I replied that we were from the U.S. He shook his head and pointed at my sister\u2019s boyfriend. \u201cHe\u2019s from the United States,\u201d he said in Spanish, \u201cbut where are you two from?\u201d This was the most direct anyone has ever been with me about my ethnicity. It also reveals something that we have talked a bit about in classes and discussions with Mexican students from International House: the popular idea in Mexico that only white people are from the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could go on with countless other incidents like this one when people have asked, \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d and gotten an unsatisfactory answer, so they proceed to ask, \u201cWhere are your parents from?\u201d and \u201cWhere were you born?\u201d until I answer with an Asian country, but I won\u2019t. It is clear to me that when they ask, \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d what they really want to know is my ethnicity. If it was just once or twice, it wouldn\u2019t bother me. But it happens a lot here, possibly due to the social construction of race and racism.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the first guest speakers my group received was Dr. Raziel Vali\u00f1o. She spoke on the topic of the social construction of race and class in Mexico. Dr. Vali\u00f1o\u2019s lecture introduced us to a phrase that I\u2019ve heard too many times to be comfortable in the discussion of race: \u201cRacism doesn\u2019t exist in Mexico.\u201d She, I , and the rest of my classmates disagree with this sentiment. She explained that because there was a lot of mixing between races in Mexico, the way Mexican culture constructs race is different, and almost everyone is considered \u201cmestizo\u201d or mixed race. So though it might not appear in the segregated way that it exists in the U.S., racism still shows up through colorism and classism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of this mestizo reality in Mexico, it is not generally considered racist to comment on someone\u2019s physical, ethnic appearance the way it is in the United States. Despite knowing this, the number of times it has happened makes me feel frustrated and exasperated. Like a microaggression, intentional or not, it builds up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In situations of intercultural communication like this, I feel that the CGEE program does a good job of emphasizing empathy and seeing things from the other culture\u2019s perspective. What I had to remind myself of is that my perspective matters too, and both things can be true. Those strangers might not be intentionally saying racist things, <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> they still bother me because I interpreted them as microaggressions. They are allowed to bother me, but I\u2019m not allowed to go off on someone for saying something. Being in Mexico, or any new cultural environment, requires self-reflection, not just cultural understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Los Feminicidios<\/b><\/p>\n

By Mina Himlie<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019 there were<\/span><\/p>\n

10 cada d\u00eda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yo no pude encontrar<\/span><\/p>\n

More recent numbers,<\/span><\/p>\n

Pero, does that matter?<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter what<\/span><\/p>\n

Hay demasiado.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Son un gran problema aqu\u00ed en M\u00e9xico<\/span><\/p>\n

But they happen in the U.S. too.<\/span><\/p>\n

We just don\u2019t have the language for them<\/span><\/p>\n

Escrito en nuestras leyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The United States<\/span><\/p>\n

Ha declarado una guerra contra las mujeres<\/span><\/p>\n

With the draft to repeal Roe v. Wade.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just the most obvious declaration of war.<\/span><\/p>\n

What about las mujeres ind\u00edgenas<\/span><\/p>\n

Who are 10 times more likely to be disappeared<\/span><\/p>\n

Or murdered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMissing\u201d and murdered indigenous women are not <\/span>missing<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are disappeared.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What about las situaciones de violencia dom\u00e9stica?<\/span><\/p>\n

Las violaciones?<\/span><\/p>\n

El abuso?<\/span><\/p>\n

El miedo que sentimos when we walk alone?<\/span><\/p>\n

Las cosas que hacemos para protegernos\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Without a second thought:<\/span><\/p>\n

Keys between our fingers<\/span><\/p>\n

Llamadas con amigos, reales y falsas<\/span><\/p>\n

Theorizing escape routes<\/span><\/p>\n

Mirando la mapa\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be sure the Uber driver isn\u2019t kidnapping you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All of these things are part of<\/span><\/p>\n

La guerra contra las mujeres<\/span><\/p>\n

In both the United States y M\u00e9xico.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pero en los Estados Unidos and Mexico<\/span><\/p>\n

We are fighting back.<\/span><\/p>\n

We take to the streets.<\/span><\/p>\n

We make our voices heard.<\/span><\/p>\n

And we demand the right to live.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

El futuro es feminino<\/span><\/p>\n

So fuck the patriarchy,<\/span><\/p>\n

And do it like a girl.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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