grey fox la stephanque: Dear people mad at me for wearing calavera makeup,
I’ve decided to respect your opinion, but strongly disagree with it.
Nothing about wearing this makeup was mocking, degrading, oppressive, or ignorant. I didn’t paint my face like a sugar skull and walk around telling people I was dressed as a mexican, I was celebrating the imagery about death that surrounds Dia de los Muertos. Wearing the facepaint as part of Halloween means that I understand people I encounter while doing so will also understand the significance, and that, to me, is a beautiful thing, cosmopolitan as that may be. Also, I am getting my face painted again this Thursday.
I’m adopting these cultural ideas & images, and appreciating them- deal with it.
YOU DON’T SEEM TO GET THE SIGNIFICANCE IF YOU THINK THIS IS A HALLOWEEN COSTUME.
And I don’t need some white girl to celebrate my family’s imagery for me.
This is not about halloween. This is not “appreciation” if you want to appreciate Mexican culture, sit yourself down and watch. Go find a celebration being held that is open to the public. Wander your local university, find the latin@/mexican heritage groups and watch. It’s not the sugar skull makeup that is degrading or ignorant it is you wearing my culture when you don’t understand it’s meaning and you think it can be employed as a fucking halloween costume. It is not yours to use. It is not yours to wear. I do not want you to appreciate my traditions when you are going to do so without asking. You do not get to borrow someone’s culture and wear it as a mask without asking.
It is not yours to take. It is not yours to wear. Dia de Los Muertos is not Halloween. We do not play trick or treat. This is in alignment with the Catholic All Saint’s and All Soul’s day but has been a part of our culture long before colonization. Do you know about Mictecacihuatl? No, probably not. It’s not common anymore to be able to find the roots of things before Europeans invaded and colonized and adapted our culture to fit their expectations but Mexican culture has changed and flourished and continued on. We are fucking used to people stealing our things, “adapting” our symbols and traditions and our ideas and images and it has been a long history of cultural oppression and what you are doing is adding to that.
You are saying you don’t care. You are saying that you as a white person can come in and take our things and make them yours and I’m not sorry for being upset. I have every fucking right to be angry. You notion of “cosmopolitanism” is what has hurt my family, and fellow Mexicans and what has created this culture of self-hatred within the community. Your “cosmopolitanism” invaded Mexico, segregated the indigenous people, destructed the original cultures there, and then divided us - Mestizos. It has broken the native cultures up, and we are a mixed race people. But being white at some point, some where has not gotten us treated any better. We’re still “those mexicans”. We’re still different. We’re not welcome in America even if we’re fucking from here and our culture apparently is up for grabs, but only the parts you like. Only the stuff that looks pretty or shiny or benefits you, or works as a fucking costume because you’re not creative enough to think of something on your own.
Guess what? This is about honoring the dead, and you basically shit all over our ancestors and our problems when you do this. Our dead family members have all had to deal with people like you - problems like this. Our dead have had enough racism and “cultural borrowing” and cosmopolitan imperialism, thanks. We don’t need you for this. We don’t need you to add to it. And if you want to stop and admire how we honor our family, and our ancestors, and our dead you’d fucking do well to sit the fuck down and stop pretending like “cultural adaption” is something complementary and not the source of oppression that we had to overcome to create new cultures and traditions.
You want the significance of Calavera makeup? The significance is that in spite of dumbass white people, we continue to hold onto what is important to us.
C’mon son.
OHHHHHH lmao
Btw she decided not to respect it, its ok people she made the executive order to just not give a fuck“You do not get to borrow someone’s culture and wear it as a mask without asking.”
Ask who? The King of Mexico? I got news for you, unless you were born in a cave, everybody’s wearing someone else’s culture. You think you’re some kind of precious cultural snow flake? HEY GUYS, STOP EATING MAPLE SYRUP, YOU’RE EATING MY CANADIAN CULTURE! AND DON’T EAT CROISSANT EITHER, YOU’RE DISRESPECTING MY FRENCH ANCESTORS! AND NO PASTA EITHER, ROMAN EMPIRE, ETC. e_e
For starters, you DON’T NEED to be a doctor on mexican anthropology to even dare to speak about Dia de los Muertos, most mexican people aren’t even aware this celebrations (like the girl namedropping Mictlantehuatl) are not purely prehispanic or posthispanic conquest but a blend of both traditions, as many other celebrations from mexican culture like Virgen of Guadalupe Day or Posadas (even Quinceañera partys are a mix of european traditions and mexican ones), and I relly hope this person isn’t fond to watch things like Jersey Shore or South Park because they are AMERICAN CULTURE and thus, you can’t enjoy it since you’re so mexican you piss Corona and shit tacos, most of the greatest art moves come from people who wanted to imitate other cultures (like Reinassence being italians wanting to be ancient greeks)
The amazing thing about traditions from all cultures is that they explain the ideas of people, I’m fond for asian culture and practice a martial art from Korea, and my teacher, a korean-born man, is happy to teach us what it means to be a samurang, and I learn from it, he’s not lecturing me about how “you can’t use that uniform if you don’t know what it means to be a true samurang, you can’t even be one if you’re not korean”.
And for Godivadarling, I want to tell your make up it’s beautiful and I support it, and not all mexicans are offended by americans or any other race using our culture to express themselves, also, thank you for all great american culture: Bukowski, Chet Baker, Elvis, Superman, Batman and Joel McHale
