Tourist Etiquette in Mexican Churches

Though this seems an incredibly disrespectful and unthinking act, Gringo tourists have to be constantly reminded that just because they've secured a new mortgage on the house back home to afford vacationing in Mexico, this does not entitle them to commit all manner of cultural atrocities. Now, I don't know how this rates on the "Let's-Insult-a-Culture Scale," but walking into a church in Mexico when any sort of service is taking place, walking up and down the aisles, talking loudly, and snapping photos has got to be right up there at the top of the list. I mean, really!

We were sitting in a church in a very small colonial Mexican town scribbling notes and whispering about what we were observing. We were doing article and book research when a funeral party walked in. Someone wheeled a small, child-sized casket to the front of the church. Wouldn't you know it...that was exactly where we were sitting. We stood up as reverently as we knew how, said "con permiso" to everyone, and took our leave. As we left the church, several people walked in dressed for the funeral. Once outside the church, we saw a group of shabbily-dressed, smoking Gringos heading for the church's entry, all while talking at the top of their lungs.

We took seats on a bench and watched to see if the Gringos would realize what was happening and make a hasty retreat. They didn't. We could not only hear the clicking of the cameras, but could see the flashes going off like a lightening storm inside the church. The Gringos stayed a considerable time before leaving.

I have a list of emails of readers who have sent me similar stories. One story was about a young woman trying to pay homage to God and was on her knees crawling toward the altar of the church. All the while, a tour group was in the church talking loudly and snapping photos of this young Mexican woman trying to have a spiritual experience. The Gringos, I thought, regard the church like a zoo and the parishioners as caged exhibits to which the Gringo has a right to snap the photos and disrupt the parishioners' religious experiences.

I wonder if the thought ever pops into a Gringo's head that just because he is spending a great deal of money to vacation in Mexico, that this is not a zoo, not an exhibition for the tourist's benefit, and the Mexicans trying to act out the drama of their lives in their town are not here for the Gringo's entertainment. I suppose not. All the guidebooks I've ever read mention the issue of taking photos in churches. I am not the only voice crying in the wilderness, so to speak. There are even signs in some of the churches warning those who enter NOT to take pictures and to dress appropriately-another issue with Gringo tourists. However, they continue to take the photos. Do you think it is some sort of sense of Gringo entitlement? Arrogance?

Cell Phones in Churches

This really defies logic and is certainly beyond the pale. Tourists are coming to Mexico to vacation with their cell phones. I find this incomprehensible, but that's what they are doing. Most of those I see under the age of 40 seem to have a cell phone in their hands chatting in English with folks back home, I suppose. Are all these people doctors, Hollywood agents, Supreme Court judges, or whatever that requires them to regard their lives as so important they must take a cell phone with them on their vacations?
Truly there are no foreign countries anymore.

They use their phones in movie theaters, concerts, meetings, ball games, classrooms, and yes, church, in America so why not let their cell-phone-vacation-travel partner go off right in the middle of a Mexican church's service or perhaps a funeral? Some countries are fighting back.

In France, Japan, India, and some universities worldwide are approving cell-phone jammers for use in some public places. I think this is a grand idea! Cinemas, concert halls, and theaters are just a few that some nations are experimenting with the jammers. Unfortunately, how could a church afford such a device? They have to resort to posting signs that Gringos ignore.

We were in a church in a small Mexican town that had a sign in English requesting that cell phone users turn off the little monsters before entering the church.

You know in that Mexican town, where one would be hard pressed to find any English speakers, that the sign was slanted toward monolingual tourists.

What do you want to bet?