Exploration of the Yucatan Peninsula
Reflection:
During the fall semester of 2014, I took a freshman seminar about the people and geography of the Yucatan Peninsula. In this class, we discussed the limestone topography of the Yucatan and how the ancient Mayans learned to survive with limited amounts of soil and water. We then learned about the Colonial Period of the peninsula, which was when the Spanish conquered the native peoples. After we talked about how this negatively affected the traditional lives of the Maya, we moved on to the topic of the effects of modern day development and tourism in places like Cancun on the Mexican economy and the lives of people living near those areas. Throughout the class, we were also required to research further and write essays over each topic, which allowed me to develop gather more in-depth information over the geography, history, and current world issues of the Yucatan Peninsula. I also took a basic Spanish course so I would be familiar with the language of the people in the peninsula.
When the class ended in December, we had the opportunity to travel into the Yucatan Peninsula. Once there, we got to experience and see first-hand everything we had discussed and researched in the classroom. We visited the ancient Mayan cities of Uxmal, Izamal, Chichen Itza, and Ek Balam. During these visits, the world-renowned Mayan archaeologist, Tomás Gallareta Negrón, explained the designs and stories of each site. We also got to explore some of the geographical aspects, such as cenotes and mangroves, of the peninsula. Other places we visited included a manufacturing plant, a hacienda, a henequen plant, a colonial monastery, and some of the important economic sites of Cancun. My favorite part of the trip was having multiple chances to interact with the people who lived in the Yucatan. We toured their Sunday market, ate at their traditional restaurants, shopped at their local stores, and did our best to speak with them in their own language. Everyone was incredibly kind and patient with us, despite our misunderstandings and mistakes. The interactions were difficult and awkward at first, but by the end of our ten days, we felt extremely comfortable in our surroundings and attempts to speak in Spanish. We were also better able to accept some of the cultural aspects of Mexican society, such as not being incredibly time-conscious and the using the concept of bargaining almost everywhere. At the beginning of the trip, we attempted to rush our waiters and purchased items at the first price we were offered. After a couple of days, however, we became more relaxed with our time schedules and we bargained for lower prices any chance we had. I personally was determined to only eat Yucatecan, Mayan, and non-Americanized Mexican food throughout the entire trip to better immerse myself in the culture of Mexico, and was, for the most part, successful in this endeavor.
One of the things I didn’t expect to experience nearly as much as we did was the extreme level of poverty of so many individuals. Most of the towns we drove through appeared rundown and dirty. Their inhabitants didn’t look much better: most people were dressed in dirty, torn clothing and wore a permanent expression of exhaustion and desperation on their faces. There were also many people who had some sort disability, such as missing a limb or being blind, who begged for money on the side of the street. I was told to not pay them any mind, but even until this day I still feel a tug of sympathy towards them and confusion towards what could have possibly led to such major poverty and the allowance for it to continue.
Travelling to the Yucatan Peninsula was the very first time I was able to venture outside of the United States. It was an absolutely incredible, eye-opening experience for me, both personally and academically. Before I left for Mexico, many people warned me about the dangerous situations that I would constantly be finding myself in. I was told that everyone would be trying to rob me, sell me drugs, or sexually harass me. All of those negative perceptions about Mexican people at first made me very uneasy, nervous, and afraid of interactions; however, I soon realized that those perceptions of Mexicans were, for the most part, misperceptions. Every single person I had the opportunity to encounter was respectful, helpful, patient, hardworking, and kind. I’m not so naïve to think that every single Mexican behaves in this manner, but I don’t believe that only a small minority of the population that I was lucky enough to meet are the only ones that do, despite what many people have told me. Although I wish I would have come to this realization sooner so I would have missed out on fewer interactions, I am still glad I came to it because now I am much more willing to venture into a new cultural setting without being afraid to ask questions or talk to people, though I do know I still have to be cautious. This trip helped me to overcome my social anxiety by throwing me into a society I thought I had to be afraid of, only to realize there really is no reason to be afraid.
This experience also helped me understand more about what I want to do academically and professionally. When I started the fall semester of 2014, I was both an archaeology and an anthropology major. I already had a fascination with other cultures, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. Throughout the class leading up to the trip to Mexico, I was required to read several nonfiction books regarding the archaeological theories about the ancient Mayans. While these books helped me gain a better understanding of what Mayan culture and life used to be like, it also made me realize there wasn’t much I could do for people just by examining the past and developing theories on what occurred, and I am determined to do something to better lives. Actually being in Mexico helped to further strengthen my realization as I was surrounded by both ancient ruins and the detrimentally poor, yet the former was unable to do anything to better the situations of the latter. This led me to change my double major in archaeology and anthropology to a single major in just anthropology.
I was an anthropology major before I went to Mexico, and my love for the study of cultures only grew when I got to visit one so vastly different from my own. Reading about culture in a textbook or article is fascinating enough for me, but it is nothing compared to actually getting to experience them first hand. Going to Mexico gave me the opportunity to discover what it might feel like to be an anthropologist by immersing myself in other cultures to learn from the people how to live based on their societal rules. As the days passed by, I became more observant, more open to trying new things, and more respectful of the culture I had the honor to participate in. This experience advanced my curiosity and adoration of cultures, my knowledge of what a career as an anthropologist might entail, my skills to adapt to a new lifestyle, and my belief in my abilities to interact and learn from those who are different than me.
I have already made some changes in my life after this experience, such as dropping my archaeology major and focusing on anthropology, but I still plan on making more. The first change I am attempting to make in my life is to get more involved in community service. After seeing so many people suffering so horrendously from poverty and disabilities, I want to help as many people as I can here in my own community. To do this, I am applying for several different volunteer positions. Some of the positions I have already applied for include driving the elderly and disabled to appointments and stores, working with families in the Ronald McDonald houses, and aiding in cleaning up the city. I am also planning to join the co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega in order to become even more involved in volunteer work.
As an anthropologist, I can research many things involving humans and their cultures. After my trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, I have been looking into researching the causes of poverty in various locations and applying my research to help better the situations of the poor. I’m particularly interested in slums that surround major economic cities. To further explore my new-found interest, I am planning to study abroad in either Ghana or India. Both of these locations offer me the chance to complete service projects in nearby communities while also learning about the history of poverty in the region. Going to either of these places would be an exceptional opportunity for me to better explore what I want to research and study as an anthropologist when I graduate.
When the class ended in December, we had the opportunity to travel into the Yucatan Peninsula. Once there, we got to experience and see first-hand everything we had discussed and researched in the classroom. We visited the ancient Mayan cities of Uxmal, Izamal, Chichen Itza, and Ek Balam. During these visits, the world-renowned Mayan archaeologist, Tomás Gallareta Negrón, explained the designs and stories of each site. We also got to explore some of the geographical aspects, such as cenotes and mangroves, of the peninsula. Other places we visited included a manufacturing plant, a hacienda, a henequen plant, a colonial monastery, and some of the important economic sites of Cancun. My favorite part of the trip was having multiple chances to interact with the people who lived in the Yucatan. We toured their Sunday market, ate at their traditional restaurants, shopped at their local stores, and did our best to speak with them in their own language. Everyone was incredibly kind and patient with us, despite our misunderstandings and mistakes. The interactions were difficult and awkward at first, but by the end of our ten days, we felt extremely comfortable in our surroundings and attempts to speak in Spanish. We were also better able to accept some of the cultural aspects of Mexican society, such as not being incredibly time-conscious and the using the concept of bargaining almost everywhere. At the beginning of the trip, we attempted to rush our waiters and purchased items at the first price we were offered. After a couple of days, however, we became more relaxed with our time schedules and we bargained for lower prices any chance we had. I personally was determined to only eat Yucatecan, Mayan, and non-Americanized Mexican food throughout the entire trip to better immerse myself in the culture of Mexico, and was, for the most part, successful in this endeavor.
One of the things I didn’t expect to experience nearly as much as we did was the extreme level of poverty of so many individuals. Most of the towns we drove through appeared rundown and dirty. Their inhabitants didn’t look much better: most people were dressed in dirty, torn clothing and wore a permanent expression of exhaustion and desperation on their faces. There were also many people who had some sort disability, such as missing a limb or being blind, who begged for money on the side of the street. I was told to not pay them any mind, but even until this day I still feel a tug of sympathy towards them and confusion towards what could have possibly led to such major poverty and the allowance for it to continue.
Travelling to the Yucatan Peninsula was the very first time I was able to venture outside of the United States. It was an absolutely incredible, eye-opening experience for me, both personally and academically. Before I left for Mexico, many people warned me about the dangerous situations that I would constantly be finding myself in. I was told that everyone would be trying to rob me, sell me drugs, or sexually harass me. All of those negative perceptions about Mexican people at first made me very uneasy, nervous, and afraid of interactions; however, I soon realized that those perceptions of Mexicans were, for the most part, misperceptions. Every single person I had the opportunity to encounter was respectful, helpful, patient, hardworking, and kind. I’m not so naïve to think that every single Mexican behaves in this manner, but I don’t believe that only a small minority of the population that I was lucky enough to meet are the only ones that do, despite what many people have told me. Although I wish I would have come to this realization sooner so I would have missed out on fewer interactions, I am still glad I came to it because now I am much more willing to venture into a new cultural setting without being afraid to ask questions or talk to people, though I do know I still have to be cautious. This trip helped me to overcome my social anxiety by throwing me into a society I thought I had to be afraid of, only to realize there really is no reason to be afraid.
This experience also helped me understand more about what I want to do academically and professionally. When I started the fall semester of 2014, I was both an archaeology and an anthropology major. I already had a fascination with other cultures, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. Throughout the class leading up to the trip to Mexico, I was required to read several nonfiction books regarding the archaeological theories about the ancient Mayans. While these books helped me gain a better understanding of what Mayan culture and life used to be like, it also made me realize there wasn’t much I could do for people just by examining the past and developing theories on what occurred, and I am determined to do something to better lives. Actually being in Mexico helped to further strengthen my realization as I was surrounded by both ancient ruins and the detrimentally poor, yet the former was unable to do anything to better the situations of the latter. This led me to change my double major in archaeology and anthropology to a single major in just anthropology.
I was an anthropology major before I went to Mexico, and my love for the study of cultures only grew when I got to visit one so vastly different from my own. Reading about culture in a textbook or article is fascinating enough for me, but it is nothing compared to actually getting to experience them first hand. Going to Mexico gave me the opportunity to discover what it might feel like to be an anthropologist by immersing myself in other cultures to learn from the people how to live based on their societal rules. As the days passed by, I became more observant, more open to trying new things, and more respectful of the culture I had the honor to participate in. This experience advanced my curiosity and adoration of cultures, my knowledge of what a career as an anthropologist might entail, my skills to adapt to a new lifestyle, and my belief in my abilities to interact and learn from those who are different than me.
I have already made some changes in my life after this experience, such as dropping my archaeology major and focusing on anthropology, but I still plan on making more. The first change I am attempting to make in my life is to get more involved in community service. After seeing so many people suffering so horrendously from poverty and disabilities, I want to help as many people as I can here in my own community. To do this, I am applying for several different volunteer positions. Some of the positions I have already applied for include driving the elderly and disabled to appointments and stores, working with families in the Ronald McDonald houses, and aiding in cleaning up the city. I am also planning to join the co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega in order to become even more involved in volunteer work.
As an anthropologist, I can research many things involving humans and their cultures. After my trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, I have been looking into researching the causes of poverty in various locations and applying my research to help better the situations of the poor. I’m particularly interested in slums that surround major economic cities. To further explore my new-found interest, I am planning to study abroad in either Ghana or India. Both of these locations offer me the chance to complete service projects in nearby communities while also learning about the history of poverty in the region. Going to either of these places would be an exceptional opportunity for me to better explore what I want to research and study as an anthropologist when I graduate.
Dissemination:
Although I have not yet disseminated my experience, I do have a plan to. Currently I am volunteering with Junior Achievement, which is an organization that teaches elementary and middle school children about business. I will be working with six graders to teach them about international enterprises. In order to get the students interested in the world outside of the United States, I plan to share with them my experiences in Mexico. I will bring in different artifacts that I brought home with me, and I will show them some of the pictures and videos I took while I was in Mexico. By presenting to the children how interesting and diverse other cultures can be, I hope to fuel their desire to learn about cultures in other countries, as well as interacting with them in business partnerships. Their excitement will directly affect me because the more enthusiastic they get, the more enthusiastic I will get about my own learning, future plans, and opportunity to teach them.
Artifact:
I chose some of the pictures I took in Mexico as my artifacts because they are the best representation of everything I learned and saw during my trip. I've always been a picky eater, but I absolutely loved everything I ate in Mexico! Remembering everything I was brave enough to try gives me courage now anytime I faced with odd looking foods. Although seeing the monuments in real life is much more extraordinary than looking at pictures of them, having pictures of my own just helps to remind me that I truly was face to face with these fantastic buildings. The people and landscape of Mexico will always be with me in the back of my mind, but having the chance to look at these pictures helps me to relive the experience all over again, and gives other people the chance to experience it through my eyes, which is why my photos are the most important artifact I brought back with me from the Yucatan.