Cultural Differences

I never realized Cinco de Mayo was such a celebrated holiday in the U.S. until I came to college. I took Spanish through all of high school and I learned a lot about Latino and Hispanic cultures, and I know what an incredible holiday Cinco de Mayo is for the Mexican people. However, I think its meaning has been muddled by the typical college student looking to drink their college careers away.

UNH prides itself on being a school of great diversity and acceptance of world cultures. Although this way be the vision of UNH, the students don't seem to quite understand how to be appropriately accepting. Cultural appropriation is the act of stereotyping or misrepresenting a culture that is different than your own. On Cinco de Mayo, this is a huge problem and people don't seem to understand why or how their actions offend those of Mexican heritage. By dressing up in ponchos, fake mustaches, sombreros, and other stereotypical Mexican cultural artifacts, those people are demeaning the Mexican culture and are being insensitive while belittling the importance of their holiday.

That being said, others were posting on Facebook all day calling people out for wearing the Mexican garments and celebrating the holiday. Some people were pretty rude about how they approached the party-goers, which to me seems counter intuitive since the whole issue is based upon educating and accepting others. I think the better tactic would have been to talk to the people about how their behavior is portrayed and perceived by others. And maybe trying to educate before the day so that they are more aware and receptive of the message. Anger is not going to fix social injustices by any means.

One thing to help put this whole issue in perspective is this idea that draws a connection to a more intense, but absolutely equivalent, scenario: we all appreciate MLK Day and respect the black culture and understand the oppression of the culture. So, since some people have that day off as a holiday, does that give people the right to dress in black face for any ceremony for MLK?

When you think about it on a broader scale, the celebration and appropriation of other cultures is wrong no matter what culture you are trying to emulate through stereotyping. THIS IS NOT TO SAY WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CELEBRATE AND APPRECIATE OTHER CULTURES. It is to stress the importance of accepting ALL of the culture, not just the bits and pieces you want to accept.

Rant over.