Customer Reviews

The Mexicans: A Personal Portrait of a People

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First I need to state that I have never been to Mexico. The purpose of reading this book was to learn more about Mexico. Unfortunately, from what I have heard from visitors (not at tourist destinations) it can be a very dangerous place. Fortunately the author of this book does more than warn of the dangers, he share the warmth and spirit of the Mexican and Indian population. The book goes on to explain some of the reasons for the dangerous conditions, you probably already guessed: poverty. Hopefully for this beautiful and culturally rich country the economic conditions will improve.

Oster's book, based on personal experiences, gives a tremendous insight into the lives and mentality of the Mexican people. The reader gets a feel for why Mexicans and Mexico are the way that they are. This book is a must read for anyone with an interest in understanding Mexican culture.

This was a great way to approach modern Mexico. The personal portraits of the Chavo (punk rocker), the Tragafuegos (street performers who do firebreathing!) and the Guera (beauty queen so to speak) were beyond brilliant. Oster manages to weave in the bigger picture of politics and culture within the framework of talking about individuals. Very Fellini-esque in a Mexican sort of way.

Before my first trip to Mexico City in 1993, my mother bought me a copy of this excellent book. The author, who made his first trip to Mexico in 1979 as part of a White House press corps that accompanied Jimmy Carter, and was assigned Mexico City bureau chief for Knight-Ridder in 1984, exhibits a fascination for Mexico and her people that transcends the bounds of his duties there as a journalist. Oster hints at some of his political and sociological opinions, and, of course, his interpretations of people and events cannot help but color the prose somewhat, but for the most part, he presents an objective look at an impressive variety of people, and the cumulative effect of the book is that it presents what is arguably the single most comprehensive and balanced portrait of some of the people of modern Mexico currently available. While he has been criticized for not including any analysis or suggestions for change, I do not think that was the reason for the book. Oster does not impose his opinions on the reader; it is up to us to formulate our own opinions, interpretations, and, if we choose, prescriptions for change.

Oster did a good job here having the people tell their own stories and then piecing it together into a national tapestry. He has managed to weave personal story with Mexican history with social mechanics. If you live close to the border you may think you know a little about Mexicans. The book points out that you know only a little.It is more than cervezas and great fishing.Mexicans don't seem to tell their story to outsiders often. However, this is a book about dirty laundry,sort of the dark side of Mexican life and character. Admittedly, as a nation they are not doing real well and there is a reason for that. You're sure to find several reasons for that explained here. But I'm positive that lots of Mexicans love being Mexican. As an American, I could not find that reason in this book. That aside, it is a very easy and entertaining book and you will learn all varied aspects of the afor mentioned angle of Mexican life.

For those of us who have only seen Mexico from the cloistered beaches of Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas, the Baja of California and the Yucatan peninsula, or from the ports expressedly designed and reserved especially for cruise liners such as the island of Cosumel, this is a late wake up call about what goes on just beyond these artificial and carefully protected "Americanized play zones."

This is a collection of stories about the lives of ordinary Mexicans who live out their lives in the wider "unprotected zones." It is told from the point of view of the author, an American, living as a writer in an upper middle-class suburb of Mexico City. He selected his sample of subjects based on what their lives told that was important about this other darker side of Mexico. The tales of the lives of each subject not only do this, but they "stand alone" dramatically on their own in human terms. These stories give a vivid window into a reality, a worldview, and a set of existential circumstances, that are radically different than our own. It is a tableau that unfortunately is repeated throughout most of the rest of the 2nd and 3rd worlds: A world of crooked politicians and elections, corrupt police and other governmental officials, polluted air, water and land, filty rich enclaves of small minorities that control most of the nation's wealth, encircled on all sides by miles and miles of shanty towns that wreak with the smells, sounds and faces of abject poverty.

The first of these is the story of the life of the author's maid, Adelaida Bollo and her family. It is a heart-wrenching tale about the everyday trials of trying to eke out a living from a creaky platform of abject poverty, where even in the pseudo-socialist democracy of Mexico, there is no social safety net, or even minimal services for the poor, but always the daliy threats of being robbed and maimed or even of losing ones job or life by simply getting sick. Living in a corrugated-tin roof 12 by 18 hovel, where open sewage runs in the alleyways, and where there is no reliable clean water or electricity to be had, Adelaida's bus fare alone amounted to about a third of her take home pay.

Then there is the story of Gerardo Dagdug Marcos, the young, "U.S. hip," rich playboy/raconteur, who represented the "Junior" syndrome in Mexico. Gerardo (like other juniors like himself) was born into privilege, and was brutally aware of it -- so much so that he used it to bully his way through life. Brutally frank about the pedigree that made him successful, Gerardo gives us the facts of everyday Mexican life in his one line philosophy: "In Mexico those without money do not exist, period."

Then there is the fire-eater, Noe Garcia Gonzalez, a representative par excellence of Mexico's huge assortment of "street hustlers." The least of Noe's worries was that the gasoline he imbibed daily to earn his living, was rapidly killing him by eating away steadily at his brain. And as colorful, funny and interesting as each of the many characters discussed here are, they all pale in comparison to the message that stands out in palpable relief in the subtext: That the U.S. is not only sharing a 2000-mile unprotected border with a failed state, a virtual modern day dystopia, but that Mexico's national dysfunction continues to get worse and now (as the uncontrollable drug problem and illegal immigration problems along the borders of Western U.S. states, show) are rapidly bleeding into and spilling over into the U.S. Thus, it is no longer just a choice between chili peppers and apple pie, but now more than ever, a question of how many chili peppers do we want to tolerate on our apple pie?

Not only is Mexico the cultural homeland of the fastest growing political force in the U.S., but also as an over-populated, uncaring, corrupt, economically busted-out, failed democratic state, it also represents the most likely template of how other fragile democracies could end up, including our own. Although a bit dated, it is amazing how prescient the author has been. Four stars

i've lived in mexico for 17 tumultous years. patrick oster's book, albeit a bit dated now, is still spot on. the problem is not with his book but with amazon's proclivity to charge their customers TWICE and then have said customer phone from mexico to india in order to complain.

I WOULD HV NO HESITATION TO REFER EVERYONE TO THE MEXICANS. JUST DON'T BUY THE BOOK FROM AMAZON.

At first I thought that Mr. Oster hit the nail on the head with his first couple of chapters but then as I read more I became disappointed with his negative view of the Mexican people. Mr. Oster spent most of his time pointing his finger at all that is bad with mexico and not seeing the country for what it truly is, to bad Mr. Oster wasted his time, maybe the new Knight-Ridder bureau chief will see the beauty in the people and have the sensitivity to realize that Mexico is Mexico and not the United States. Maybe this is why the French have a problem with our country because we expect everyone and every place to be like "over there". Disappointed with content but well written and entertaining even though it's totally slanted.

As a student of Mexico history I think this book is right-on. Mr. Oster picks up where Paz leaves off. It a is real, not negative picture of these wonderful people.

I read this book a few years ago and think that Mr. Oster had a great way to share his observations. It's VERY NICE to know that some one out there sees the mexican culture the way it is. I completely agree with his opinion.
MARY, SAN DIEGO, CA