How The Young Women In Mexico Differ From The Young Women In The US

It stumbled on my spouse and me slowly at first, after which, as soon as we observed it, it was nearly unattainable to disregard. 

As only one instance of what we noticed, after we visited middle-to-upper finish locations in Mexico, we began to note that bands of younger ladies gave the impression to be in every single place. We might see them in teams of eight to 10, going to eating places. They have been dressed properly, very nicely groomed, fresh-faced and presentable. It was commonplace, about an hour or two into their meal, that they’d begin group singing. From what we might see, they have been high-spirited, supported one another, and had numerous buddies.

This was fairly a bit completely different from what we noticed within the US. The only strategy to say it’s that the younger Mexican ladies appear to be in a a lot better place total than the younger ladies within the US. Judging even simply by their look, demeanor, and posture, younger Mexican ladies have been extra assured and well-balanced than the younger ladies within the US.

I’ve developed some theories as to why that’s however first, let’s set the stage with some demographics, provided by WorlData.info:

Mexico:

Median age in years: 29.3

Life expectancy: 75.1 years

United States:

Median age in years: 43.6

Life expectancy: 78.9 years

This tells us that the common individual in Mexico is greater than 13 years youthful than the common individual within the US, with a life expectancy lower than 4 years completely different. Take into consideration how a spot with a a lot youthful inhabitants would are inclined to order life and tradition in comparison with a spot with an older inhabitants. Which place can be extra optimistic and forward-looking? And which place would are usually higher for youthful folks?

On a private degree, we’ve been lucky sufficient to return into shut contact with two younger Mexican ladies.

Señorita One (25 years outdated) works with me at Best Mexico Movers, my enterprise transferring folks to and from Mexico. I employed her a couple of years in the past, as an intern whereas she

was ending her worldwide enterprise diploma. By the point I employed her, she had already spent six months as a pupil overseas in an English-speaking nation. Her English was near good, and I couldn’t assist however discover that her pre-college schooling will need to have been a lot better than mine (I used to be a product of the Los Angeles Unified faculty district, in spite of everything), given her grounding in all kinds of topics (together with English grammar) with which I had solely a hazy, distant relationship in highschool. Señorita One is poised, well-spoken, and capable of talk with a lot older, considerably hardened males like me with no downside by any means. She can also be capable of converse with our shoppers (85% of whom converse solely English), our distributors (half in English and half in Spanish), truck drivers (80% Spanish-only, even within the US), and others with equal calm, confidence, and effectiveness. Regardless that she is simply 25, she successfully runs nearly our whole logistics operations, managing greater than 20 strikes on the identical time.

Señorita Two (21 years outdated) helps my spouse with the technical features of our fairly

in depth residence rework.  After visiting to take measurements and translating my spouse’s imaginative and prescient into blueprints, elevation drawings and detailed paperwork, Señorita Two contacted Mexican contractors and solicited bids, which she performed in Spanish and translated for my spouse and me. Alongside the best way, she did video convention calls with the contractors who sought the work and with us.  Señorita Two is at all times optimistic, well mannered, socially competent and sure-footed, mature, and adept. She manages the work progress day by day, mediates potential and precise conflicts, offers total path, stories again to my spouse and me commonly and lets me know after I ought to pay for work finished. As soon as once more, she simply turned 21.

Relating to the tradition in Mexico, within the occasion you might have the improper opinion, I must level out that, with regard to how these two younger ladies are handled by older, male Mexicans in Mexico, neither Señorita One (who works with truck drivers, customs officers and enterprise homeowners) nor Señorita Two (who works with constructing contractors, authorities officers and day employees) has any downside by any means being efficient working with middle-aged, generally fairly tough Mexican males. Neither the truth that they’re ladies, nor the truth that they’re younger has been a hinderance to them in any

method, from what I can inform and from what they report. Each are handled with respect and deference to their authority over a lot older males by these identical a lot older males. They don’t seem to be hindered by being feminine or by being younger in any sense, actual or imaginary.

I must also point out that, whereas these younger ladies don’t come from poor households, they don’t come from a lifetime of leisure, both, the place every thing is handed to them. Theirs has been a lifetime of having to work very exhausting for what they’ve achieved, for which they’ll take private pleasure. Fortunately, judging from my admittedly small pattern bias, in Mexico the identical forms of alternatives can be found to households with a lot fewer sources, together with our housekeeper, whose daughter was fluent in English and being educated for a occupation, similar to Señorita One and Señorita Two.

What accounts for the variations in consequence between the younger ladies in Mexico as

in contrast with the younger ladies within the US? Though younger ladies in Mexico share numerous similarities with younger ladies within the US, listed here are variations in a couple of of the inputs:

• Younger ladies in Mexico are inclined to dwell in three-generation properties, with grandpa and grandma both dwelling very shut by or in the identical residence.  This, along with the stronger household values and stronger household ties in Mexico, helps to present younger ladies in Mexico a rootedness that not obtainable to many younger ladies within the US.
• Younger ladies in Mexico are inclined to hearken to and respect their elders a lot greater than within the US. Señorita One and Señorita Two consistently ask for the opinions of older folks and draw closely upon their recommendation and experience. On a broader degree, I used to be basically shocked when first coming right here to Mexico that younger folks have been curious about what I needed to say in any respect. This was not my expertise

within the US, even after I was a visitor lecturer on the graduate enterprise program on the College of Arizona, the place, supposedly, college students paid to listen to what I needed to say (or a minimum of their mother and father did). Younger Mexican ladies will not be world-weary or cynical, like so many younger ladies within the US. They don’t consider that they already know every thing value understanding, and in consequence, younger ladies in Mexico are extra curious and extra and, as a facet profit, they’re way more pleasant to be round and to collaborate with. As I discussed within the bullet above, they’re nonetheless rooted, which provides them perspective, assuredness, and a really robust basis that so many younger ladies within the US should not have.

I hesitated to incorporate the subsequent group of variations due to the overheated and

divisive politics within the US, which partly, is the purpose—that politics shouldn’t be as overheated and divisive for younger Mexican folks as it’s for younger folks within the US. You could really feel that the subsequent group of variations is one thing that the younger ladies in Mexico should be extra involved about than they’re, or alternatively, you might be completely satisfied they don’t seem to be as involved about than their US counterparts. My goal

in mentioning them is simply to be descriptive as every pertains to happiness, optimism, and prospects for future success, with out regard as to if any of them are proper or improper.

• Younger Mexican ladies not as involved with points of sophistication, race, oppressor / oppressed, gender, victimhood, and so on., as are younger ladies within the US. From what I can see, the schools in Mexico and the tradition are extra involved with instructing their college students the best way to be docs, legal professionals, engineers, architects, and so on., than they’re in instructing social points and even what we might name “normal schooling.” That’s one of many the reason why you may see a completely skilled physician in Mexico when she or he is a number of years youthful than you’d see a completely

skilled physician within the US—Mexican universities don’t spend as a lot time instructing something that’s not pertinent to the scholar’s occupation. And that’s why Señorita Two is so competent, poised and educated at an age that, if she have been within the US, she would simply be deciding on her main. As an alternative of getting to take these different courses, she was learning topics corresponding to acoustic muffling and competing in sponsored competitions to design a foyer the place the prize was a visit to Spain.

• Younger ladies in Mexico will not be as involved as younger ladies within the US that they may quickly die from Local weather Change, overpopulation or another impending “existential menace.” In case you have been an American younger girl, how would you’re feeling about your prospects, if you happen to have been advised, taught and believed that there basically isn’t any future for you, due to all these horrible issues that are going to occur in your lifetime that horribly impression and doom your prospects? Would you be optimistic? Would you be completely satisfied? This is likely one of the

• causes given for the decrease beginning charge within the US. Younger ladies in Mexico aren’t as impacted by this, as a result of, in comparison with the US, these points will not be as central to their worldview. Mexican tradition and schooling simply lets them be younger adults.

The younger ladies at these eating places and elsewhere in Mexico that my spouse and I noticed who have been singing with their buddies usually consider that their future is brilliant and that they’ve lots to sit up for. I feel they’re proper.