My husband and I, a male couple, are visiting Mexico City. Today while walking before the Metropolitan Cathedral, we separately got approached by cute young people. K’s two girls introduced themselves as university students and they stumbled over English-language questions about the tourist experience — why he’d come to Mexico, what was his fav thing to do in the city, etc. When I got approached, this time by a teenage boy, at first I got similar questions, but then the boy asked me what I thought of Donald Trump. He followed up by asking if Americans hate blacks and Latin Americans. He seemed sincere, rather than hostile.
The boy’s English wasn’t good and my Spanish wasn’t good, but he seemed to understand when I said I thought Trump a fool with a lot of money and that I did not understand the hatred.
It hurts my heart to be asked about American hatred and racism. Not surprised, of course, as it’s a topic that I have always struggled with, but the picture of American attitudes that I saw in the boy’s questions was an ugly one. Too bad.
One other little Mexican impression: I spotted two different Mexican daddies carrying their babies in chest packs. It pleased me to see that softening of the stereotype of Mexican machismo, especially the daddy whose little girl was in a white dress, the dress billowing around daddy’s belly when the wind blew.