So it was a crazy night tonight. My friends Ceme, Ma. Cristina, and I snuck in to the Peabody Museum. LoL. I’m not sure if it was completely necessary… we had tickets. Sort of. Miraculously, Prof. Carrasco behaved like a Latino and was nice enough to get us 3 tickets. Maybe because we had just been at the meeting on the Latino Studies chair. But I digress… Carrasco’s strangeness was not the issue tonight. The thing was that we had 3 tickets…. and well, the problem with that was that… huh… it was 5 of us. The solution? All three of us crazy girls decided we should sneak in to give two of them our tickets. The event was a fancy (much, much fancier than the working-class Dia de los Muertos original celebration in Mexico) version of a traditional Catholic holiday…. Lol… But it was SOMETHING Mexican! I wanted IN! Knowing that an event was being held about Mexican culture exclusively for/by/with rich white people gave me a pang in the stomach. I gotta repeat this. I wanted in. Heck, we ALL wanted in! What’s this weird appropriation of our culture, and what’s this disrespect of not INVITING us? I’m not saying give us an important place in it… not saying give us a chance to be the rightful spokesmen of traditions in Mexico… I’m saying freaking LET US IN! SO yes.. LoL. We wanted in. And well, we got in. We snuck in through a side-door…. LoL… Although not until we had tried a couple other ideas: I could get in as a part of the Ballet Folklorico, which I technically am a part of, even though I wasn’t going to be dancing tonight. But my group WAS performing… lol… OOOooOOor Ma. Christina could try to go in saying she needed to reach her office in the Museum, which she does have, even though she didn’t exactly want to go in to *work.* But neither one of our oh-so-well-thought-out ideas worked... as was expected… so we walked around the perimeter of the building (lalalaaa) until someone came out a side door and left it open. We ran to it before it closed… and we got in!! LOL… we were SO excited! We felt we were reviving the monumental feat of illegal immigrants going into the States… we felt we had forcefully broken through the class barrier... we thought we had gotten back at the darn policemen (yes, policemen, not security guards) that almost pushed Cemelli down the stairs last year because she didn’t “look” like a student and should therefore not go in the building “until she proved she was a student.” !!! Grrrr…. !!!!!!! *Instert a crazy girl with her fist shaking all up in air trying to get her anger out* The marks on the floor are still there. Luckly she was okay. But oh… the VICTORY!!! LoL… We thought right!! Yes… I know… I am all too easily pleased… hehe… but what can I say? It felt good. Even though it was silly… and maybe a just bit dangerous… Dad… not really. dont worry. and I know… lol… but they didn’t push us out though… because they didn’t see us sneaky Mexicans coming! Muajajajjajaja!!! The anarchist in me is ALIVE!!
*GasP* So last year there was a protest against the Mexican government for doing nothing about the rapes in Juarez during the event. This year, they tried avoiding such unsightly protests by giving out tickets. A couple of my friends tried getting tickets for the event. It’s supposed to be open to students, you know. They are supposed to give students some preference…. But nope… Nada. Not even though they requested the tickets in advance. Maybe they thought they were protesters. LoL…. sigh… I didn’t even try. LoL. Last year I didn’t go and this year, if it wasn’t because we got tickets from Carrasco, I have to admit that I would have never even tried to get in in the first place. Would have gone elsewhere. But it was magical. Lol. Seriously. The *expo* was awful, and the music was barely alright, but when people saw us dancing (yup. that's what some music is for) they were so happy to join us... and we had SUCH a great time! Very few times do I get to dance with my friends here in Boston. And it was amazing. We were being silly… enjoying the moment’s sweet victory… and we were dancing, singing… jumping around …teaching others how to salsa… it was GREAT. The white people easily relaxed to the music and were having fun. We gave the event some much needed life. I think they realized they were finally being a part of the culture they were celebrating (I dont think the awful "Mexican" fake chocolate was doing it.) And knowing I have my ticket to remember the night makes me feel our small victory rushing through the veins all over again.
Some things one just HAS to do... and some things one can only do with one's gente.
3 comentarios:
Dear future DIL.
Our immediate family "cultures" are variant but the baseline values are remarkable in their similarity. We as midwestern folk have the same natural revulsion to East or West coast rich folks trying to celebrate ANY peoples' function or celebration in a closed police protected setting exclusive of real poeple.
But of course that's how certain institutions work...You should be mad.
I have a concern,however,those up tight rich Ivy types are vindictive as hell. You are there
because you're a brilliant student, but there's many brilliant students...so be careful....Or as the Amish say to their young when travelling between communities..."be careful out there among them English".
(Recall Harrisson Fords' movie
"Witness".)
You are among the English...be
careful. Neither of our families have much in common with people that hold closed gatherings protected by Boston's finest. So , sorry, we worry. Q's M &D
Yup... thanks for the concern :) We were safe though :P We had tickets and IDs and everything. LoL. Last year they didnt even want to let Prof. Carrasco in!
Aw... of course your family is not like that! Not all Americans are like that at all. Our protest was specifically against the organizers of this specific event. I don't have a problem with closed events, or even exclusive events. Some issues and even some celebrations require privacy. I think there are perfectly good reasons for some types of exclusion. Q and I excluded people from our website, right?
I have a problem with PUBLIC, community and CULTURAL events that far from being inclusive show disrespect to the culture they are supposedly "celebrating" by knowingly misrepresenting it (like their Americanization of the music, poetry and food)... and by purposefully failing to represent it (i.e. invite insiders to be an important part of it). I think it's a form of cultural imperialism. And I'm glad you agree :) So yup. Don't worry too much though... the comic relief and banality of our small, almost unnoticed (only guards were suspicious, and they could do nothing, since we had tickets) little protest gave us a sense of re-empowerment and them a little dancing fun :) No real danger in that :)! What's really dangerous is our plans to write letters to the museum/school about it. But it has to be done. An official discomfort has to happen. muajajjaa...
we can be a little vindictive too :* jiji...
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