👻Mexican Ghost 👻

“Desde el otro lado”

Hi, I don’t usually use this account to complain about anything but, with all this cultural appropriation madness. I felt that I have to express myself. First of all, I wanna apologize for my english, I know it sucks, I hope you can understand me.

I recently saw a post that says that “if you are not mexican, you can’t makeup yourself as a Catrina or as a sugar skull”. This post really annoyed me, cause, as a mexican, I’m totally glad that other cultures thing that our traditions are beautiful and intresting, I don’t understand why It is supposed to be forbidden if you are white, black, or whatever the fuck you are, to paint yourself as something you find interesting from other culture.

Now, I know i can’t speak for every culture, but I can speak from mine,Mexicans are known worldwide for being shared and open with their culture, we actually feel proud every time foreign people shows interest in our culture, we are the kind of country that actually loves when people from another countries shows interest in our traditions.

It’t really peases me of that now, a bunch of people says that its forbidden for foreign to show their admiration from our country, i personally fell glad that the world is seeing the beauty in other countries, in other cultures, and not just in european or american (usa) cultures.

As a MEXICAN i can tell you that, if you are white, black, asian, latin, or whatever the fuck you are, you can totally dress as a catrina or paint yourself like a sugar skull. If you understand the meanings behind all that i think It’s totally fine to use it.

I can’t find it offensive at all, i don’t understand, the word is so big, and there’s something called “globalization”

now:

THIS IS OFFENSIVE:

NOT THIS:

THIS IS OFFENSIVE:

NOT THIS:

I hope you understand my point, Im not saying that Im defending the Mexican culture appropriation, im just saying that maybe people on tumblr are overreacting, with all this happening, I think people is forgotten that we all are humans, and even with the borders, countries, cultures and continents WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS THAT LIVE IN THE SAME PLACE.

Hi, it’s zabinynje here, this post has about two years and… some things have change in my mind about a lot of what wrote here, I’m still in debate with myself but I have actually learn a lot more about  cultural appropriation that what I knew when I posted this.

Now, I know that a lot of mexicans who responded to this didn’t agreed with me, and all of you have totally valid points. but it wasn’t until I read an answer of a blog that I cleared my mind. We mexicans are not a full entity that think the same way, many mexicans are gonna find offensive that white girls (or any kind of race, it’s just an example) use our traditions as a costume, and many others are gonna be fine with it.  I’m not the mexican representative of what you can or can’t do, just because I dont find it offensive doesn’t change the fact that maybe it is.  

Now, before this post blows up again, I would like to write what I have learn, because when I wrote this I wasn’t fully aware of a lot of things.

Cultural appropriation is really something important and I have learn that this year, because dressing as a culture but not making the effort to learn the meaning behind it, and making it just because “it’s pretty” is not okay, using a culture as some kind of accesorie and don’t even care about the traditions, the history behind what you want to wear and the problems of that community is not okay. making fun of people who say it’s offensive and saying that you can do whathever you want is not okay, thinking that you have the right to do it and nobody can’t tell you anything because they are just exagerating is not okay. Say something is dumb, ugly, hood, or anything else ultil another race uses it, and then sunddenly it’s edgy is not okay. Because we as mexicans have suffer a lot from stereotypes, from cruel jokes, from racial representations, from offensive costumes and from racist people, and we have the right to complain if something does’t make us feel confrotable.

I thought about deleting this, but it will still be here on tumblr, it never really dessapears, so I decided to edit it instead. this is the answer that help me clear my mind, it says almost everything I think of the situation here, but I screenshooted in case you can’t see it. 

what really amazed my about @solar-jellyfish was this, and i’ll quote: 

“ What I hate about this is that these people think they have the right to do it just because they can, and they get angry when others say they are wrong or when they say it’s offensive and they can’t do it, this angry people demand it, and they even  attack us by being racist, as you can see in the tweet, they don’t even care about our culture, they just hate mexicans or other people telling them not to do it, they don’t even know what catrinas or sugar skulls mean, they’re just angry because someone else is telling them that they can’t do something. “

and it’s true, this this people are used to to do whatever they want, they think thye have the right to use whatever they want to use,  and if others find it offensive then they attack them and they make fun of the people who complain calling them exaggerated  or making fun of it. 

Now… from everything I wrote before I still thing that this   “Mexicans are known worldwide for being shared and open with their culture, we actually feel proud every time foreign people shows interest in our culture, we are the kind of country that actually loves when people from another countries shows interest in our traditions.”  is true. We are proud of our traditions and we love to share the meanings and the history, but we are not a costume, and if mexicans (or any other race or culture) tells you that what you are doing is offensive to them, then you have to understand and you have to listen.

I think the world is an amazing place and you can learn and experience from other cultures, you can even love more than just your culture, or your country, you can visit some place else and experiment their traditions or even learn about it on internet or ask a person of the culture you are interested, but please, respect the culture, respect the traditions, respect the history and respect the people.

Hi, I don’t usually use this account to complain about anything but, with all this cultural appropriation madness. I felt that I have to express myself. First of all, I wanna apologize for my english, I know it sucks, I hope you can understand me.

I recently saw a post that says that “if you are not mexican, you can’t makeup yourself as a Catrina or as a sugar skull”. This post really annoyed me, cause, as a mexican, I’m totally glad that other cultures thing that our traditions are beautiful and intresting, I don’t understand why It is supposed to be forbidden if you are white, black, or whatever the fuck you are, to paint yourself as something you find interesting from other culture.

Now, I know i can’t speak for every culture, but I can speak from mine,Mexicans are known worldwide for being shared and open with their culture, we actually feel proud every time foreign people shows interest in our culture, we are the kind of country that actually loves when people from another countries shows interest in our traditions.

It’t really peases me of that now, a bunch of people says that its forbidden for foreign to show their admiration from our country, i personally fell glad that the world is seeing the beauty in other countries, in other cultures, and not just in european or american (usa) cultures.

As a MEXICAN i can tell you that, if you are white, black, asian, latin, or whatever the fuck you are, you can totally dress as a catrina or paint yourself like a sugar skull. If you understand the meanings behind all that i think It’s totally fine to use it.

I can’t find it offensive at all, i don’t understand, the word is so big, and there’s something called “globalization”

now:

THIS IS OFFENSIVE:

NOT THIS:

THIS IS OFFENSIVE:

NOT THIS:

I hope you understand my point, Im not saying that Im defending the Mexican culture appropriation, im just saying that maybe people on tumblr are overreacting, with all this happening, I think people is forgotten that we all are humans, and even with the borders, countries, cultures and continents WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS THAT LIVE IN THE SAME PLACE.

Hi, it’s zabinynje here, this post has about two years and… some things have change in my mind about a lot of what wrote here, I’m still in debate with myself but I have actually learn a lot more about  cultural appropriation that what I knew when I posted this.

Now, I know that a lot of mexicans who responded to this didn’t agreed with me, and all of you have totally valid points. but it wasn’t until I read an answer of a blog that I cleared my mind. We mexicans are not a full entity that think the same way, many mexicans are gonna find offensive that white girls (or any kind of race, it’s just an example) use our traditions as a costume, and many others are gonna be fine with it.  I’m not the mexican representative of what you can or can’t do, just because I dont find it offensive doesn’t change the fact that maybe it is.  

Now, before this post blows up again, I would like to write what I have learn, because when I wrote this I wasn’t fully aware of a lot of things.

Cultural appropriation is really something important and I have learn that this year, because dressing as a culture but not making the effort to learn the meaning behind it, and making it just because “it’s pretty” is not okay, using a culture as some kind of accesorie and don’t even care about the traditions, the history behind what you want to wear and the problems of that community is not okay. making fun of people who say it’s offensive and saying that you can do whathever you want is not okay, thinking that you have the right to do it and nobody can’t tell you anything because they are just exagerating is not okay. Say something is dumb, ugly, hood, or anything else ultil another race uses it, and then sunddenly it’s edgy is not okay. Because we as mexicans have suffer a lot from stereotypes, from cruel jokes, from racial representations, from offensive costumes and from racist people, and we have the right to complain if something does’t make us feel confrotable.

I thought about deleting this, but it will still be here on tumblr, it never really dessapears, so I decided to edit it instead. this is the answer that help me clear my mind, it says almost everything I think of the situation here, but I screenshooted in case you can’t see it. 

what really amazed my about @solar-jellyfish was this, and i’ll quote: 

“ What I hate about this is that these people think they have the right to do it just because they can, and they get angry when others say they are wrong or when they say it’s offensive and they can’t do it, this angry people demand it, and they even  attack us by being racist, as you can see in the tweet, they don’t even care about our culture, they just hate mexicans or other people telling them not to do it, they don’t even know what catrinas or sugar skulls mean, they’re just angry because someone else is telling them that they can’t do something. “

and it’s true, this this people are used to to do whatever they want, they think thye have the right to use whatever they want to use,  and if others find it offensive then they attack them and they make fun of the people who complain calling them exaggerated  or making fun of it. 

Now… from everything I wrote before I still thing that this   “Mexicans are known worldwide for being shared and open with their culture, we actually feel proud every time foreign people shows interest in our culture, we are the kind of country that actually loves when people from another countries shows interest in our traditions.”  is true. We are proud of our traditions and we love to share the meanings and the history, but we are not a costume, and if mexicans (or any other race or culture) tells you that what you are doing is offensive to them, then you have to understand and you have to listen.

I think the world is an amazing place and you can learn and experience from other cultures, you can even love more than just your culture, or your country, you can visit some place else and experiment their traditions or even learn about it on internet or ask a person of the culture you are interested, but please, respect the culture, respect the traditions, respect the history and respect the people.

Well…this is a little hard for me because I’m actually  having a lot of thoughts exactly about this topic.

I used to think that if people did it with respect and knowing the meaning behind it, it was ok, I used to think that our traditions were so pretty and wonderful that people actually wanted to know more about them and that was the reason  why they wanted to dress up as catrinas or sugar skulls, but now… I’ve seen why Poc people or people in general get mad when people use their traiditons as costumes or something, and i’m kind of in the middle of what I used to think and what I think now, for example, look at this tweet:

https://twitter.com/TheAffinityMag/status/921843252420075521

What I hate about this is that these people think they have the right to do it just because they can, and they get angry when others say they are wrong or when they say it’s offensive and they can’t do it, this angry people demand it, and they even  attack us by being racist, as you can see in the tweet, they don’t even care about our culture, they just hate mexicans or other people telling them not to do it, they don’t even know the difference between being light skinned and being caucasian, they don’t even know what catrinas or sugar skulls mean, they’re just angry because someone else is telling them that they can’t do something.

I guess right now with all the racism towards latinos and the cultural appropriation I don’t think many mexicans feel comfortable with it.

But … yesterday was one of the catrina parades in Mexico City, and I saw a lot of tourists enjoying it, they got they faces painted (it was a massive event where they all dressed up the catrinas and people in the street painted the faces of everyone)  I thought it was awesome because they actually came to learn about this celebration. I guess that depends on how you approach this day that mean a lot to us, the meaning behind it, and to actually care about latin culture, not just use it as a costume and forget about our problems after Día de Muertos..

But, I can not speak for every mexican about how they feel with all this…

 I’m sorry if my answer got you more confused or if it was to long, but it actually helped me a lot to clear my thoughts on this. I hope that at least I clear a little your doubt.