| | |  Vallarta Living | July 2008 
Love is Alive and Well in Mexico
 Katie Weatherall - PVNN
| | Here in Guadalajara, love struck couples young and old seem to be everywhere, which is a delight to see. | | |
In the wake of Bridget Jones, the world has now realised the state of eternally single affairs that bestow the average Londoner. The novel/film and others of its ilk hit the nail on the head when it comes to the plight of our modern single age.
Running alongside this is the Sex and the City phenomenon that brings New York into the fold confirming ideas that your match is not met until you are at least 40 and all dating options have been strenuously exhausted, bar of course what happens in Hollywood.
However, I come to Guadalajara and discover that the cynical me is wrong and the curse of singledom has not struck the whole world down as I had previously thought. Love struck couples young and old seem to be everywhere here, which is a delight to see. A warm embrace can be witnessed on the bus despite the bumpy ride, perched on a bench by every one of the city's beautiful fountains, or waiting in line at a bustling Taqueria.
The other thing is the immediacy at which I am asked whether I have a novio. It goes 'Hola... ¿Como estas?... ¿Tienes novio?' That is not to say they are shocked that I personally do not have one, it just seems to be expected that somebody would in this loved-up country. So much so that I am daily asked for updates as to whether the elusive novio has been found yet.
Quite the opposite assumption is made in London where having a boyfriend/girlfriend casts you in the bracket of 'Caution! This person must be weird.' Now, there are quite clearly complex sociological reasons for this that I, as no expert, cannot come up with. There are some reasons however that have crossed my mind.
The main one is dating culture. In England, people will very rarely ask people out on dates. Only if they are in an exceptionally confident mood or alas, drunk, does this happen. Then if first date goes well, you are hard-pushed to expect a second.
Yet I am here for three weeks and it seems that people do want to date. A fellow Global Volunteer was 'asked out' twice in one day whilst she dressed their wounds in the Cruz Verde, where there is certainly no alcohol involved. This would be a truly rare occurrence in London.
The flourishing dating scene is no doubt encouraged by the Mexican passion for dancing. I was asked this week by a Mexican if it was true that at parties and bars in England people don't instantly get up to dance and need a few drinks first to numb the embarrassment, which of course it absolutely is.
You may find for some people in England that dancing is only an annual event that happens at the office Christmas party where everybody gets so drunk that they embarrass themselves so much that they do not speak to their colleagues until the next Xmas bash. Note: Brit sitcom The Office starring Ricky Gervais is observational comedy. This pretty much sums it up. Dancing is the key to love and Brits do not dance.
Another factor that aids all the dating, is television content. Soap operas are globally the most viewed television genre and effect society with their story lines. Popular soaps in Mexico have characters that are sexy and glamorous, where English soaps are notoriously full of overcast gloom.
Among the thousands of soap operas Latin America has turned out over the past 40 years at the rate of about 100 a year, are classics Marimar and Kassandra. They are love stories which have plenty of sub-plots and move along at a brisk pace. Their characters overcome countless obstacles, such as social class, family ties, conflicts of interest, to finally win through despite all the ambushes of fate.
In all of them, morality and goodness triumph and the bad guys get punished in a happy ending where everyone is reconciled. As apposed to Eastenders, set in London, which never sees a happy ending and viewers are subjected to the love affairs of unglamorous geriatrics (honestly), which are enough to turn anyone off the prospect of love. Not to mention the influx of US shows on Mexican television where the likes of Mischa Barton and Brooke Shields are never seen to be single.
I shall not go into the part that religion, the decline of the family unit, divorce figures plays in this equation at this moment.
So the plan is, now that I have cumulated all of this information, to not return to England, to find a novio and quick. It'll be easy.
Katie Weatherall is a participant with Global Volunteer Projects. Having travelled to Guadalajara, Mexico from London, England; she is working as an intern with Publico newspaper and BanderasNews.com as part of Global Volunteer's Journalism placement project for the month of July 2008. In October 2008, she starts her final year of her degree in Journalism at London College Of Communication, after which she plans to pursue a career in journalism. |
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