Chapter XI: Recreations and Social Life

The Mexican National Theater in Mexico City is one of the most costly and elaborate in the world. Among other things, it has a glass curtain, made at a cost of thousands of dollars by a great jewelry firm in New York. But the theater has never been finished. The tendency of the government recently has been to regard schools and lecturers on agriculture as more important than places where the rich may enjoy themselves in the evening. Yet nearly every important Mexican city has a magnificent municipal theater, supported by taxes on the people.

The same play is not given week after week, as in the largest United States cities. Stock companies present a different play every few days, or even every day. One reason they can do this is that in Mexico, as in continental Europe, a prompter is used. He sits in a little box at the front of and half under the stage, and reads the lines to be repeated by the actors. Sometimes he can be heard all over the house, but this does not seem to bother a Mexican audience at all. Actors who are used to having a prompter can seldom remember their lines without one. I remember a very funny performance of _Hamlet_ given in New York City by a foreign company which had just come up from Mexico. As there are no prompters’ boxes in New York, except in the opera houses, this company’s prompter had to stand in the wings at one side of the stage. The prompter had bought a huge Mexican hat, which he wore through the entire play, and as there was a light behind him, the shadow of a man in modern clothing topped by a huge cowboy hat was thrown on the stage among the actors, who were garbed in medieval doublet and hose. You can imagine how odd was the effect.

Most plays in Mexican theaters do not last a whole evening. _Zarzuelas_, Spanish one-act farces, are more common. You may buy a ticket for one _tanda_, a single play, or for the whole evening. But if you pay for only a _tanda_ and then decide you would like to see the whole show, you may find that you have to go out or take another seat because your seat has been bought for the next _tanda_.

Popular Sports

Among other Mexican recreations are bullfights and cockfights, always with much gambling. In fact, gambling itself is one of the chief recreations. Lottery tickets are sold everywhere, even by peddlers who call the numbers as they wander along the streets. During a ball game the noise of betting often drowns out the umpire’s voice.

There are bull rings in most Mexican cities. The one in the capital, probably the largest in the world, is a huge steel structure. Great crowds gather there for the most important bullfights, which are usually offered on Sunday. Sometimes as many as 30,000 spectators—men, women and children of all classes—see a fight. Yet even such a crowd is small by comparison with that at one of our championship prizefights—and the admission fee to a bullfight is a great deal less.

Keystone View Co., Inc.

Mexico’s chief sport is the bullfight.
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Of the cruelties of bullfights, where horses are gored to death and bulls worn out with painful teasing before they are butchered—or of cockfights, where the roosters gouge out each other’s eyes with their sharp spurs, and perhaps both die of their wounds—I will say little. After all, we cannot fairly criticize such sports so long as brutality and gambling are allowed at our crowded prizefights.

Horseback riding used to be quite general in Mexico, and many Mexicans ride well. There is almost no tennis or golf, except among foreigners. In mining districts, and in other places where Americans live, there is some baseball. One of the most amusing things in Mexico is to hear our baseball terms translated into Spanish, or mispronounced in English. Sometimes, on a Sunday, a “gringo” and a Mexican team play a game—and the Mexicans do not always lose.

A Mexican boy who likes to play baseball.
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However, baseball is rather strenuous for the Mexican climate and temperament. Because of the plateau altitude, it is hard work even for Americans to run bases. There is gymnasium work in most city schools, and the young men of the cities are fond of fencing. One of the most interesting games played in Mexico City and a few other places is _pelota_ or _jaí alaí_. This game was invented by the Basques, who live in the Pyrenees Mountains on the border between France and Spain. There are two players on each side. On the right hand they wear a long _cesta_, a kind of trough woven like a basket. With this they play a game that reminds one of handball. At the end of the long, high room is a slate wall against which the ball is struck. A constant uproar of gambling goes on among the spectators at a _jaí alaí_ game. Since this is a very violent game, for which the players must be in the pink of condition, it has become almost entirely professional, like bullfighting, which also was once engaged in by amateurs.

The Plaza Promenade

The mildest and pleasantest, as well as most general, recreation in Mexico and in almost all the countries south of the United States is the promenade. The central _plaza_ is the center of social activity. During band concerts the people walk slowly round and round the _plaza_. The single men go in one direction, and the girls and young women in the other. They smile or stare at one another each time they meet. In some places there are four lines, two lines of the upper class inside and two of the poorer people outside.

The _plaza_ is where most courtships begin. In Mexico boys and girls do not mingle freely. A young lady may not appear in public with any man to whom she is not related. After she is married, her husband, father, or brother must always go with her. An elderly Mexican woman is expected to have at least one servant along when she shops. The “women of the people,” as the wives and daughters of the peons are called, are more free in their movements. The girls and women of the middle class have not long worked in stores and offices, but now thousands of girls are employed in such places in Mexico City. An unmarried woman, if she does not enter a convent, lives with her father or brother.

Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City

An old house in Mexico City, showing a paved _patio_. The rooms all
open on this court.
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An Odd Kind of Courting

Mexicans of marriageable age have rather a poor chance of becoming acquainted. A young man perhaps catches a glimpse of a girl in church, or at her window, and wishes he knew her. He probably finds her in the evening _plaza_ promenade. Even there he does not speak to her, but they may gradually begin to smile when they meet.

After this has gone on for several evenings, the young man follows the girl home. She, of course, is with an older relative, and the suitor stays well behind, pretending he is not following. The girl looks out through the iron bars of a high window and sees the young man leaning against the wall of the house across the street. But at first she pretends not to see him. Later, if he comes every night, she begins to let him see that she is watching him. But he must be sure to come, even in bad weather. If he is afraid of a wetting he will be considered a poor prospect, a “fine-day lover” only. By and by the two begin to talk through the bars of the parlor window. This coming to a girl’s window every evening is called “playing the bear,” though it is really the girl rather than the young man who is inside the “cage”! If the window is high above the street, sometimes the man may bring a small hand telephone, such as can be bought in the best Mexican stores. But you may be sure that some older member of the young lady’s family listens and keeps an eye on her, so that she will not overstep the bounds prescribed by Mexican custom.

Finally—provided the young man has not decided to “play bear” somewhere else, or the young lady has not stopped coming to the window—the father, or uncle, or a school friend of the young man calls on the father of the girl. After many preliminaries this go-between explains the suitor’s prospects, tells how much money he has, and asks that he be allowed to court the girl formally. If the family is willing, the same relative or friend brings the young man and presents him, first to the father, then to the mother, the brothers, sisters, aunts, and cousins who may live in the house—and finally to the girl herself. Everyone pretends that until then the young man has never seen her! After that he may call upon her every evening, though always with some member of the family in the room or at least within hearing. Marriage usually follows quickly after the “introduction.” The groom has to pay all the expenses of the ceremony and must even provide the bride’s trousseau! Usually he tells his future mother-in-law how much of his money she may spend on the bride; or perhaps his own mother, sister, or aunt buys the bride’s outfit. However, the girl often brings a dowry, money or other property, and so does her share to establish the new household.

Other Mexican Customs

Mexicans are noted for their formal politeness. Almost everyone I met along the road in the country said “Adiós,” which really means “May God be with you,” just as our “Good-by” originally did. Even the peon lifts his hat and says “Con permiso” (“With your permission”) when he wishes to get past you. A whining beggar can be driven off with a “Pardon me,” more easily than with rough words.

When people move into a new town the strangers are expected to call on the old residents, which is the reverse of the custom in most parts of the United States. Anyone you call on will be very, very polite, even though he may not like you. A Mexican seldom invites a friend to his home, and not often to his club. To be sure he may offer you his house, saying it is yours, or he may seem ready to give you anything of his that takes your fancy, but you had better accept nothing—though I know of cases where the owner saw something precious carried off rather than be discourteous. Saying “My house is yours” is really only a formality, like our “Dear Sir” in a letter.

Because many of the sidewalks of Mexico are very narrow, it is not customary always to keep to the right, as we do. A woman, or the older of two men or women, or the social superior, expects to be given the side nearest the wall. The person on the outside may have to step off into the mud.

In introducing one person to another a Mexican begs permission of the more important person to present the less important one, or of the older to present the younger. If a man is introduced he responds by giving his full name, very clearly—“Juan Miguel Calles, servidor de usted” (“your servant”)—and then the older or more important person does the same. This is surely better than our way of letting the introducer pronounce (or mispronounce!) the names. Persons introduced usually bow low without shaking hands. Men friends when they meet fairly hug each other, shaking hands when the _abrozo_ or embrace is broken. If two Mexican friends, or even old acquaintances, meet a dozen times a day, they shake hands, talk a little, and then shake hands again as they part. Women do not repeat their names when they are introduced, and instead of embracing each other, they kiss.

Rochester Photo, Mexico City

A Mexican barber who attends to his customers wherever he can find
them. He charges very little, but then, he has no rent to pay!
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Christmas is celebrated for a week or more in Mexico. On Christmas Eve, and sometimes for several evenings before Christmas, there are celebrations in the homes. Instead of the Christmas tree, and “stockings hung by the chimney with care” there are _piñatas_. These are small earthenware jars stuffed with candy, games, toys and even money and valuable presents. They are hung from the ceiling of a room or from a tree in the _patio_, and each child is blindfolded and given three chances to break the jar with a stick. When at last it is broken, the children tear the bandages off their eyes and shout and laugh as the entire company scrambles for the sweetmeats and presents.