I love the Mexican way of life. It’s so different to what I’m accustomed to at home in England, where everyone is in a constant stress about everything; for example work, money or other material possessions. Mexico knows its priorities i.e. health and happiness, with utterly no concept of being on time, becoming stressed or putting too much importance towards a particular thing. This relaxed view of living is why I prefer Mexico to the country where I was born, but there’s some times when I miss the order of home, when I wish that the famous Mexican punctuality (or lack of it) would just sharpen itself up a wee bit. I justify this statement by two recent experiences.
The visa office on Calle Alcalde in central Guadalajara is about the size of my Guzmán house, and epitomises Mexican organization perfectly. It’s only open from 9 until 1, provoking hundreds, maybe thousands of people to fit in the smallest waiting area known to man, preparing themselves for their number to be called out from the annoying little red computer in the corner. There are no instructions on the walls and certainly no one there to provide you with any help. How anything gets achieved in there I will never know, nor how I eventually managed to obtain my Mexican visa extension after hours of proverbial blood, sweat and tears.
But let’s revert back to the most important thing in the world, football. I can’t imagine anyone putting up any road blocks if I didn’t bother to extend my visa (that would involve some effort on the Mexican government’s part), but incompetence with regards to football stadium administration is plain unacceptable, because it means that I might actually miss events in the games. And miss parts of the games I have done and do so regularly every time that I endeavour myself to go to the Estadio Jalisco. Yes, it seems that it is irrelevant how early I get there or even if I buy the ticket beforehand; I will always be doomed to miss the elusive kick off, and, often, important goals or incidents. Chivas against Tigres I would normally imagine to be a fairly nonevental fixture, but in the recent meeting on Easter Sunday it was packed (well outside the stadium anyway). The queues snaked around and doubled back on themselves to attempt to reach the six – yes, a whole six – ticket booths trying to accommodate the 60,000 or so people trying to get in to watch the game. I was of the opinion that this was a pretty poor show, as I really wanted to show my parents who were visiting a game of Mexican football, but no-one else seemed concerned. Why would they be bothered though – they’re Mexican, and regardless whether they managed to get into the stadium or not, I’m positive that todo would have been tranquilo.
I have mellowed out a lot since I arrived here (you have to) but I will always be English at heart and therefore have an innate sense to be organized and make the most of time. I still think that the Chivas admin team would need only to hire 20 or so staff, in order to fill up the stadium and make sure everyone actually sees the games that are raved so much about. By the same token the visa office in Guadalajara should buy a new building with a little bit of space, and hire a handful of workers to actually explain what the hell is going on. But I’m not complaining. Mexico is a great country because of the total lack of worry towards organization. Us English people from the ‘first world’ can really learn a lot from the Mexican way of life, and I pray that it doesn’t change. We don’t want to turn into characterless, administrative robots that sue each other every day i.e. gringos. However as I say, sometimes the ‘mañana’ attitude towards life can be as infuriating as it is enlightening!
Nicky Bremner
