During my trip to one of the pyramid sites, Teotihuacan, thankfully saved from Spanish destruction, I booked a tour guide on Airbnb. I did not expect as many people as eight other visitors, but we were all eager and enthusiastic for the trip, if not somewhat competitive as well. One girl from the US in particular liked to show off her Spanish as well as her closeness to her amiga blanca.
At first, I thought the designated driver of our fancy Nissan van was Alejandro because I did not read the email prior to departing. He was actually the brother of Alejandro, Sergio, and spoke little English. We waited in front of the gate of the tour site for Alejandro together and I was a bit puzzled.
Soon Alejandro emerged and the answer to my question was revealed.
He said some things that struck me as particularly revealing. For example, he repeatedly said he had Arab blood and then later said his "Mayan" heritage was 42 percent. Only then I realized he took one genetic test exam to get such results. One of my other self-conscious friend, who also interacted with another ethnic group for a living, took this kind of test as well. Alejandro commented on the other Mexican American couple on the trip in regards to their shorter height, and commented that shorter people were possibly “purer” in their indigeneity. I also read recently that someone has argued the study of genes in the history of science directly related to the study of eugenics.
Alejandro also talked about the language his mother spoke. He said when he traveled to Arizona, another “Hopi” man heard him speak the language and remarked, “how come you speak my mother’s language?” At first Alejandro slyly pretended that he did not understand. Later he said to the man in English, “It’s because we are brothers.” Alejandro clarified that his version is called Nahuan rather than Hopi. I loved that story, more than the test story.
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| Old paintings in a royal house |
In the introductions, he asked us to say what we expected from the tour. I said I was interested in Aztec design and paintings. He concluded by saying there will be all of what we expected. Yet during most of the tour of the structures, we barely saw drawings. He emphasized a lot of the water-levelness of building structures, well-designed acoustics, technological as well as drainage accomplishments of the Aztecs, in somewhat of a defensive manner. He bragged about the availablity of fresh fruits in the Mexico agricultural economy vis-a-vis the Global North, something which tourists often exclaim to him during their travels. He also joked frequently about possibly scary situations but soon laughed it off. He recalled when the sites were less guarded and regulated, he and his friends used to relax around and do what many teenagers did in the absence of their parents.
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| "We humans are made of different colors, like corn." |
When we approached lesser visited sites, of the royal domestic quarters as well as his own house, there was more presence of Aztec aesthetics.
Alejandro's talk about pure Aztec Indians reminded me when Walid showed me a video clip where people seeking refuge claimed to be "suri" (Syrian) in their primary spoken Arabic. The "real" Arab would interview them about their origins with a fluent "non-creole" Arabic dialect. One girl with dark skin giggled in response to the question "where are you from" and said "ana suri" and looked away in shyness. In the same edited clip a purported Afghani man among other men in an outside environment, possibly waiting in line for some distributions, said similar things. While Walid found it entertaining and funny, I thought the video clip was cruel. Privileged spectators joked while people seeking refuge adopt new social orders. Still, Arab men tend to be quite funny and self deprecating in most circumstances, and I also found the interactions filled with humorous energy. After all, who would've imagined that being an Arabic-speaking "suri" was so globally accepted to be politically important?
Now after my travels in Mexico and I think back to this clip, authenticity in this day and age is so regulated by our notions of purity and whiteness.
The same instance is repeated when Zayn in the film Capernaum tried to claim that he was related to a dark skinned baby.
An Ethiopian worker took him in and left her son with him and could not return on time due to rounded up in jail after encountering the Lebanese authority. The fixer who tried to take the baby from him understood the kinship relations from the standpoint of his precariousness, and joked about the improbability that Zayn and the baby were actually related, but then decided to exploit it. Zayn also claims to be Syrian in order to get provisions from a stand during moments of desperation.
During this competition for resources under capitalism, authentic suffering and/or civilization becomes the true measuring stick for humanitarian attention-- will the real Syrian / indigenous person please stand up? Or rather, has the struggle of the Syrian leaving a warzone or an indigenous person trying to maintain their identity by any means necessary inspire the other people who are also not indigenous or Suri by descent?
In some senses, Alejandro was the only person who I could speak to on his indigenous identity and his life during my two weeks in Mexico, partly because he liked to as a mischievous man and his slightly self-absorbed personality, partly because I paid for this Airbnb experience. I unfortunately realized that white supremacy existed in Mexico very quickly, even though I had subconsciously hoped for something else.
Still, the Mexican-Spanish language and music are relatively open systems (more like Linux than Windows or Apple), and overall people did not assume anything about my personhood as quickly based on my looks as some other white-passing / white supremacist cultures in the world.
