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Mexicans were the original frugalistas
Commentator Gustavo Arellano
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TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Tess Vigeland: Commentator Gustavo Arellano says all this frugal living has a 'been there, done that' quality for him.
Gustavo Arellano: Canning. Food trucks. Knitting. Urban homesteading. Home brewing. The rise of these DIY activities amuses me. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for people growing their own food and sewing their own clothes. These are the new ways of life in middle-class America, a way to save money during the recession. But I gotta ask: What took you guys so long to become Mexican?
All these trends are, well, old habits for my circle of relatives and amigos. Butchering a pig? My Tia Maria can do that, and doesn't have to blog every organ of it. Preserving your own food? My mom devotes an entire wall in her garage to jar after jar of pickled cactus. She's ready for California's much-feared big earthquake. Organic gardening? Her sisters each grow specific crops, then they trade produce.
This is how we've lived life as an immigrant family. Even after my parents made it, they kept their frugal ways. Why? They knew the good times might not last. And guess what? They didn't! Yet our quality of life hasn't truly suffered -- all because we were prepared.
Self-sustainment is what made this country great. But we seem to have relegated this preservation mentality to the rubes and the immigrants, the poor and the old. And it's annoying, because when young professionals and the socially hip raise chickens in their backyards, newspapers do articles with slideshows. When us Mexicans do it? People call code enforcement. But, whatever: Preserve, America! Live like us Mexicans. And save your next batch of kiwi-strawberry marmalade for your humble commentator.
Vigeland: Gustavo Arellano writes the "Ask A Mexican" column for the Orange County Weekly.
I know many Mexican immigrants and not one of them cans, knits, or homebrews. I think a lot of them, like most Amercians, have gotten used to the convenience of the American life. I think it's commendable that people are going back to the simpler (though not less arduous) way of life. And I don't think it is all due to the recession. I believe a lot of it is a change in attitude...distrusting what is in our food, taking pride in self creating and distancing ourselves from the ease of which "stuff" is obtained in this day and age.
I really appreciated this episode. I love northeast media like the New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, and NPR, but I often feel left out because I'm not an upper-class professional in the northeast (even though I am a white PhD). I'm originally from Arizona and knew what Arellano was talking about. Why we make young professionals the trendsetters always, I don't know. At a talk yesterday, someone said that Katrina made "us" realize suddenly that there were pockets of the US in "third-world" type conditions. Really, who is us? And have they never heard of James Agee or Walker Evans or indeed anyone outside of their academic enclaves. Do more stories like this, please!
