U.S. culture 'taking over' Mexico?

Every time I hear some nativist halfwit complain that the culture of the United States is drowning in a sea of Spanish and a flood of Mexicans coming across the border, I have to laugh.

The truth is that the “Mexican” and “Latin American” cultures that are so feared are themselves so tainted, by the influence of the United States. Why should we fear people who want to emulate us?

HOW ELSE TO explain the fact that the International House of Pancakes, that U.S.-based chain of restaurants catering in breakfast food (such as pancakes) is a hit in Mexico?

It’s not that the food is all that special. Just about any community that has an I-HOP probably has some restaurant nearby that serves equally special and hearty breakfast meals.

The food is probably better at the local restaurant, which means my guess is that across Mexico, there are restaurants that would serve more satisfying meals than the food served up at the International House of Pancakes.

Yet the International House opened its first Mexican operation in the northern city of Monterrey (only about a one-hour-long airline flight from Houston) and it became a hit.

NOW, THE CHAIN is in Mexico City (the largest population city on the North American continent). The American Statesman newspaper in Austin, Texas, has a Mexico correspondent who reports that it is “The Next Big Thing” in the capital city.

The afternoon non-rush hour wait can be as long as two hours for a table, and reservations are just about required if someone wants to eat there on a weekend. Word is that International House of Pancakes is looking into further Mexican expansion.

All this for a chain of breakfast diners that are really nothing more than copies of the authentic diners that used to be found in virtually every rural U.S. town.

So a Mexican I-HOP is a copy of a copy of a rural diner. There may even be a couple more generations of copying involved in this. Just as a photocopy loses some detail every time it is recopied, I would guess we’re talking about the same loss of detail involved here.

I CERTAINLHY HAVE never seen valet parking on those rare occasions when I have eaten in an International House of Pancakes on this side of the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande. Yet it can be found in Mexico.

Now my intent here is not to make fun of my Mexican ethnic brethren.

I can appreciate that an I-HOP is something new and there are many people who live in the capital who want to try it once (I’d hope they don’t feel the need to go again).

But it makes me laugh because it is evidence that the great masses of people wishing to come to the United States from Latin American countries come from a base that is already so U.S.-influenced.

COCA-COLA IS A popular drink there (and still mixed with the old formula so that Mexican-made Coke tastes the way it should – not like the Pepsi clone that U.S. Coke has become). Chili’s restaurants in Mexico are considered a fun environment to eat “foreign” foods.

And the idea that Blockbuster video serves an up-scale clientele strikes me as odd because I’m too used to the miniscule selection of videotapes their U.S. stores offer up.

But many of the same brands that play big in the U.S. are just as big in Latin America. If anything, the Mexican nativists ought to be complaining about those “pinches Yanquis” taking over their culture.

WHEN THEY DO, however, they come off sounding as ridiculous as their U.S. isolationist counterparts.

Because, when you think about it, those people who come to this country are really coming here because they want to get the “first generation” of U.S. pop culture, rather than get a disseminated copy in their home countries – where the poverty may be so intense for some that they can’t afford to truly enjoy it.

Besides, how harmful to U.S. interests can a group of people really be if they think it is a big deal to have pancakes with eggs for breakfast?

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EDITOR’S NOTES: International House of Pancakes as an upscale restaurant? Only in Mexico (http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/mexico/entries/2008/06/02/ihop_goes_upscale_in_mexico_ci.html) would that happen. Be forewarned that the link in the story to the Mexican newspaper “La Reforma” requires you to pay money if you want to read the original story.

Here is one attempt to lay out the differences between the prevailing cultures (http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/culxcomp.html) of the United States and Mexico.

U.S.-based business interests (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060424/24smallbiz.htm) engage in significant financial activity in Mexico.