Owning My Ignorance

In Merida: drawing in the dark- a favorite pastime.

I don't know about you but I realized after visiting Mexico a couple times this winter that I was operating on bad assumptions about it that are at least a few decades old. When I visited there in high school it was really a fairly undeveloped third world country, or at least that was my impression. My recent experience proves that this is not the case at all. I was amazed to see how prosperous, modern and vibrant the nation is. Of course it still has lots of poverty, but I'd been operating on very old, outdated predjudices about our neighbor.

Unfortunately, the discourse in my nation has not helped straighten me out. I know that my assumptions are shared by many in the US who hear nothing but bad news in the press about Mexico (and many other nations!) and expecially from our hater-in-chief president who calls Mexicans "rapists", but in a last ditch effort to appear reasonable, adds "I assume some are good people". I had to own an unfotunate fear of Mexico because all I hear in the press is stories of drug murders and illegal immigrants fleeing economic oppression and nothing else from my environment disagrees.

There is a great danger in being disconnected from reality in any form. While I can't really blame myself for following the assumptions of my fellows, I should know enough to be skeptical about forming opinions without solid evidence. What have I missed as a result? The world is full of creative, loving, vibrant people making their lives better. It shows if you really look! I hope I've learned a valuable lesson.