»f ICIA prof tells Aggies
* exican ‘types’ wrong
THE BATTALION Page 11
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1979
By JAMES HAMILTON
tv.rtn Battalion Reporter
Today’s prevalent definitions of
3viet rK culture — from both social
aOthropoligical standpoints —
accurate, a UCLA anthropol
professor told a Texas A&M
Kty audience Tuesday night.
ITe. Limon spoke to the MSC
Iniittee for Awareness of Mexi-
American Culture on the topic
m l Identity and the Texas-
„ Community.”
_pn sa id that throughout Texas
■there have.been several mis-
tions,” cenilefinitions of Mexican cul-
first notion of Mexican cul-
provi Jlwhat 1 call a stereotypic cul-
* ’iLimon said. This consists of
■pL of alledged behavior pat-
R va lue patterns and beliefs that
e attributed to a population by
opl#external to that population,
"in this case, external people per-
ived Mexican culture and began
K te a series of observations
..jey think Mexican people
whetbfcall about.
display Jjmon said the first stereotyping
rces - .Mexicans in Texas can be traced
omb si ck to Texas’ pre-statehood days. .
said it began when American
oviet
> fronti
snian sas
>rth win
et and ,j
ie reside
Jvacuats
settlers first encountered Mexican
farmers and ranchers in what is now
the southern Rio Grande Valley.
“The first contact was essentially
hostile and resulted in a dominant-
subordinate system of social rela
tions, which more or less tends to be
characteristic even today,” Limon
said.
He added that the most common
stereotypic ideas were that Mexi
cans were lazy, inclined toward
criminal mischief, and hypersexual.
“We are dealing with unrealities
here,” he said. “Never mind the fact
that most of these people did and
still do work from sunrise to sun
down. A study of the land transfers
in southern Texas might lead one to
certain types of questions about
where the criminality really lies, but
never mind that fact.
The point is that the perception
of Mexicans was very early tainted
by this business of criminality — the
Mexican as a bandit.”
Limon said the situation became
worse in the early 1900s when the
movie industry began. He said that
many of the first movies were West
erns in which the villains were usu
ally portrayed as either Mexicans or
Indians.
He said that during the late 1950s
and early 1960s, “limited” an
thropological research was done on
the Mexican population of southern
Texas. The researchers examined
Mexican family life, religion,
medicine and “core values.”
Their findings, Limon said, indi
cated that Mexicans didn’t think to
ward the future, had an enormous
suspicion of their fellow men and
women, and possessed a “deep and
pervasive sense of fatalism.”
Limon disagrees.
“I came from Laredo, Texas,” he
said, “and I have cousins spread up
and down the river (the Rio Grande)
on both sides. I don’t like that pic
ture in some sort of emotional, vis
ceral way.”
Limon said he does agree with
some of the other findings, such as
those that indicate a sense of strong
family unity.
“Most of us will agree that the
family is important in Mexican cul
ture and that there appears to be a
different importance for the family
— different, that is, at least in inten
sity from the data we have on
Anglo-American society,” Limon
said.
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