Word: mexicanization
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...cross-pollination creates a lively cultural blend. In Juarez, a popular hangout is the Kentucky Club, where mostly Mexican patrons select from such jukebox favorites as Duke Ellington and Julio Iglesias. Across the river in El Paso, Mexican teenagers from Juarez buy heavy metal rock LPs from Star Records, a music shop, since such disks are scarce in their city...
...Matamoros, on the southern tip of the Rio Grande Valley, Mexican and American white-collar workers sip Scotch and water at Blanca White's, while a marimba-and-drum combo plays local salsa-flavored music. Young women from Matamoros cross into Brownsville daily to attend Texas Southmost College. They party on the U.S. side in blue jeans and T shirts, on their home turf in cocktail dresses. Affluent Americans in El Paso drink margaritas and munch tamale and chili canapes at black-tie affairs. When they visit friends in Juarez, their parties start earlier and linger long into the night...
Familiarity, it seems, breeds tolerance. "The Mexican American in Nogales, Ariz., is not reticent to say he's Mexican," says Paul Bracker, a local businessman. "There is a healthy attitude here toward heritage." Says Robert Stuchen, vice president of the Capin Mercantile Corp., one of Arizona's largest employers: "My kids are not aware of prejudices here in Nogales. We're probably more Mexicanized than the Mexicans are Americanized." Merchant Fred Knechel, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Calexico, Calif., across the line from Mexicali, contends that there are "class prejudices but not racial prejudices on the border...
...First City National Bank of El Paso. Her husband Javier, 32, works as a supervisor at a racetrack in Juarez and speaks little English. They live in El Paso, and she became a U.S. citizen four years ago. She enjoys the international mix. "We celebrate most of the Mexican holidays because my husband gets the days off, and we celebrate American holidays because the bank takes them...
...nortenos on the other hand, are often viewed by interior Mexicans as having sold out their country by acquiring American habits. Some Mexican Americans also feel this friction. George Uribe, 60, was born in Mexico City, has a Mexican wife, but has lived in Nogales since childhood and is now a U.S. citizen. An executive in a large vegetable-distribution company, he concedes that "people in Mexico City tell me I'm a traitor. They say, 'Think of your patria (country).' " Says Uribe: "My patria, hell. I don't want to starve. I want to make a decent living...