Mexican Culture And Death

In the text Is there a Mexican View of Death, by Brandes the author talks about his experience in Mexico. A neighbor in the community had died, and he was present for the funeral and the mourning. It was known that he was the only person with a camera, and the loved ones of the deceased asked him to take pictures of the body for them before it was buried. They wanted pictures that were straight on and that really captured the full picture of their loved one. From this experience, you could tell that those around the author, in their culture, were very direct when speaking about death. They were not afraid of it and seemed to take it on as something that happens naturally and cannot be helped. The author felt as though he was doing something that was taboo, but soon realized that this was a taboo brought from his own culture. …show more content…
Such a straight on angle made him feel as though he was invading the space of the dead and doing it in front of the mourners also felt wrong to him. The loved ones of the deceased were specific about what they wanted and didn’t seem bothered by the idea. “It is said that Mexicans live side by side with death and are therefore able to confront death honestly and directly (Brandes, pg 128, 2003).” This text really shows how different the Mexican culture is from the American culture. In America, we seem to fear death, and tend to keep it at a distance. It is not something that is talked about freely let alone celebrated. For most in the United States, the realization of self-mortality is something that terrifies them and is something that they want to forget (Brandes,