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ew contrasts between American and Mexican cultures are more striking than the way in which each views and treats its senior citizens. America’s seniors are often cloistered in assisted living facilities or nursing homes far from family and friends. Mexico’s oldest – los ancianos – seem more often vibrant alive and interactive, and are notably present in its public life nowhere more than in its villages. It’s hard not to see the paradox in these contrasts. The nation with a far superior capacity to maintain its seniors’ quality of life, and which has taken great
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friends and many live within their extended families. There’s a lot to suggest that this lifelong connectedness affords them greater comfort in their advanced age. Americans move further and more often from their place of birth than do those living in any other First World nation, with the result that they more often live far from the oldest among their living relatives. Affordable senior care facilities make it far easier for American families to live separately from their aged relatives. Maybe there’s also something to be said for lifestyle when it comes to keeping Mexico’s ancianos animated and mobile. Economic necessity and a thinly stretched social safety net keep many Mexicans working into advanced age, but the work A ritual gathering of los viejos seems to leave many no worse RQ &KDSDOD¶V SOD]D for wear and sometimes even to hold disability at bay. pains to make transportation and public A lifetime of meals simply and sparuse facilities accessible to its disabled, ingly prepared has left many lean wiry. has also segregated its seniors from the It’s not unusual to see these ancianos social mainstream on a wide scale. navigate dauntingly high curbs and cobThe paradox is a reflection of the two nations’ cultural perspectives. In Mexico, ‘family’ trumps ‘generation gap’. Mexicans are far more likely to respect and cherish their oldest generation and revere it for its wisdom and life experience. Many among the current crop of los ancianos are the children of those who participated in the century-old Mexican Revolution. They’ve witnessed and lived history as it’s unfolded through the greatest social transformation in the nation’s history. American media’s fixation on youth Two generations sit in marginalizes its oldest save for the rich, Chapala’s plaza powerful, or otherwise famous. blestone streets to remain a daily village The result is that America’s aged seem presence on its sidewalks, in its public more often perceived by their offspring spaces, and at its public events. as unpleasant reminders that they, too, In the end, though, nothing can betwill in due time grow unfashionably old ter capture the special place that Mexand less socially relevant. ico’s ancianos occupy in its social fabric Particularly in Mexican village life, los than their images. ancianos remain connected to lifetime
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El Ojo del Lago / August 2013