I got this email on Friday from Krispy Kreme in Mexico. It really goes to prove the differences in how Americans think about time and how Mexicans think about time.
The purpose of the email was to promote their “new” Christmas doughnuts. However, they sent the email the day after Christmas, and these doughnut styles have been in the stores for weeks now.
Latin American cultures do not think about time like we think about time in the United States. They are not time oriented, nor do they plan very far in advance. I’m generalizing here, but I have observed that, in Mexico, people are much more important than events.
The person who sent this email was probably busy with Christmas parties with friends and didn’t get around to sending the Merry Christmas email until after Christmas.
Either that, or they are really early for next year.
Today is the day that Mexicans commemorate the day in which the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego. Many people make pilgrimages to the Basilica and there are various celebrations. They say to be Mexican is to be Guadalupano (or a follower of Guadalupe).
I wrote a paper called, “The Early Foundations of Mariology” for one of my seminary classes. You can download it here (PDF). It talks about Mary in early church history.
I’ve also visited the Basilica many times. Each time I’m there, I take a some pictures. Here are some pictures I’ve taken, uploaded to Flickr and tagged with Guadalupe.
I’ve read and written many things about the Virgin of Guadalupe. Here are some previous posts I’ve written about this day:
Resources about the Virgin of Guadalupe
A recent study by the Secretary of Work and Social Provision revealed that one in eight (more than 1 million) children between the ages of 5 and 13 work and 2,500,000 teenagers must work to help support their families.
Of teenagers aged 14-17, sixty percent work, and of those who do work, almost half (47%) work at least 35 hours a week, causing the number of teens who don’t go to school because they work to be more than 1.4 million.
Article in La Jornada (Spanish)
(Via: Vivir Mexico)
(Photo by: Javier Valdez)
As I’ve mentioned before, Halloween is growing in popularity in our part of Mexico City. The stores are full of Halloween costumes and other things related to the holiday. I think I’ve seen more stuff related to Halloween than Day of the Dead.
Christians, however, have definitely taken a stand-off approach to Halloween. The picture that accompanies this post was taken at ExpoCristiana two weekends ago (click here to see the pic). In case you don’t know Spanish, it says, “Say ‘No’ to Halloween.”
Tomorrow, in my Youth Culture class, we will be having a discussion about a Christian’s perspective on Halloween and The Day of the Dead. I want them to think about their own beliefs instead of traditional teaching. It should be interesting. I’ll report back.
In the meantime, what’s your perspective on Halloween?
This Saturday, Jon and I went to ExpoCristiana, a gigantic Exposition of Christian books, music, and everything else imaginable. We went with Huberto and some of the young people from his church.
While we were there, Jon and I made an incredible cultural observation: Mexican young people love bracelets.
I snapped these pictures on my camera phone for proof. We spent at least 10 minutes standing at this booth looking at the bracelets.
So, I guarantee that this is something I will use in ministry. I need to get some bracelets made up to promote the Seminary program and our website, or, the next time someone invites me to preach at a camp or something, I need to get some bracelets that have to do with the topic.
After all, you have to identify the culture to use the culture to reach the culture.
For some reason, yesterday at Popeyes, they asked me for my name. Actually, I know why they asked. It was because they took 20 minutes to fill my order even though we were some of the only ones in the restaurant.
Anyway, they asked me my name, and I told them Dennis, with the best pronunciation I could. Dennis isn’t a very popular name in Mexico. Denise is a girl’s name, so they always look at me funny when I tell them my name.
As you can see from the picture, the girl didn’t understand me and put “Tenes.” I guess that’s close. I think I’m going to change my name to to Juan Gonzalez.
