Blog 5 – Cosmology and “mal de ojo”

 

I would like to reflect on Cosmology.  As an overthinker, I like questioning my purpose and existence. For that reason, I was surprised to learn what cosmology meant. “Cosmology is the union of all of these sciences, focused on understanding how the universe came to be, how it has evolved, and how it will continue to change in the future.”  The analysis of how cosmology varies between Latin America and the West was eye-opening. Realizing that indigenous look at the universe from nature and spiritual perspective, while western societies tend to focus more on calculable science, made me reflect on my own life experiences.

My mom believes in energy. When we were little, she would use indigenous (Zapotec and Chatina) traditions (p.8) that she learned from my grandma to take away the “mal de ojo” (bad energies). She would do it by passing an egg over us and then breaking the egg on a glass of water. She has done it since we were babies. However, it was never a problem for me until I started growing up. I started getting very critical and skeptical about all of her methods. Honestly, it didn’t make sense to believe that passing an egg around someone’s body would have any real effect. I started to even get ashamed that my mom believed that, and I tried really hard to convince her that there was no way that her traditions worked.

This class made me rethink my own ideas and be more open to other ways of seeing life. Learning how western knowledge has been imposed and how indigenous knowledge is not always recognized made me do more research on the topic. I now feel ashamed of feeling ashamed about my mom’s traditions.

Blog 4 – Is this authentic?

I am not from Peru, and I have never been to Peru. However, learning about shamans through the podcast and readings resonated with me. The material allowed me to reflect on how cultures have adapted first to the colonizers’ arrival and, more recently, to meet tourist demands.

I am from a city in which one of its principal economic activities is tourism. My family works in the hospitality sector, and without foreigners coming to “consume” our culture, I wouldn’t be taking this class at UBC.

I want to reflect on two things this week: the word “authentic” and the idea that our cultures change to meet tourists’ expectations.

Authentic?

Have you ever been to a restaurant that serves food from your country of origin with a group of international friends? Well, I bet you were asked if the food was “authentic.” But what does even authentic mean? In that situation, I would say that authenticity would be that food tastes like home. However, that is such a subjective definition. Who chooses what is authentic and what is not? Why do we care so much?

I like the food because it is constantly changing. Most of the Mexican cuisine is the explosion of indigenous and Spanish flavours. (e.g. Chiles en Nogada, buñuelos, Rosca de Reyes). So why are we so afraid of food changing?

I have tried food in Mexican restaurants abroad, and yes, most of the time, they do not taste exactly the same as what I am used home. However, most of the time, they are great! It is very unrealistic to expect every single restaurant to taste the same! There are many reasons why dishes taste different. Restaurant owners substitute the “authentic” ingredient that the “authentic” recipe calls for because either the ingredient is not available or it is too expensive. Are they attempting against the “authenticity” of the food?  I don’t think so.

In my opinion, we should be open to change, not only in our ideas but also in our food preferences.

Meeting tourists’ expectations

I had the opportunity to go with a couple of friends to a medicinal centre in my state’s mountains. We wanted to have the “experience” of the temazcal and “una limpia.” The reading made me rethink my experience and my incentives to go there in the first place. With this type of tourism, are we helping the community, or are we just extracting their knowledge for our amusement? Should we promote this type of tourism? If it is local tourism, is it okay? Or is it the same as having Canadian or European tourists? What do the people working on the medicinal centre think about tourists? Do they want tourists to stop coming?

Let me know what you think…

 

Picture 1,2,3  – Capulalpan de Mendez, Oaxaca, Mexico. Summer 2017

Spam prevention powered by Akismet