Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.09.2014, Blaðsíða 34

34 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 14 — 2014HUMANS
Part 2:
The Naked Truth
What does “exotic” mean? For many,
Mexico—with its countless ecosystems,
dialects, blue shores, sandy beaches,
archaeological sites and colonial cities—
fits the bill perfectly. To Mexicans, “exotic”
is perhaps the type of place where
you’ll experience midnight sun and the
Northern Lights, where folks aren’t coy
about the human body, where the famous
“þetta reddast” mentality can make every
worry vanish into thin air. To Mexicans,
Iceland might be that exotic place.
“I began searching for volunteer
programs around the world, and learned
that I had to be younger than 30 to
participate in most
of them,” Rodrigo
tells me. He says he
considered Turkey
for a while, but after
a bit of research con-
cluded Iceland was
the safer alternative
—plus, Iceland had
it all. It was remote,
safe and, above all,
different.
And, it was co-
mpletely alien, as the
stereotypically must-
achio’d Mexican
would go on to discover. “I could only
think, ‘Wow, this is nothing like Mexico at
all!’ In fact, it’s the total opposite.’”
Rodrigo’s first trip to Iceland was
a birthday gift from his mother. He
then returned on the occasion of his
29th birthday. “My mom is my sponsor,
she’s the person that I have to thank
for getting to live this dream,” Rodrigo
says with a grin. “One of my first jobs in
Iceland was working at a tomato farm
outside of Reykjavík, in Hveragerði,” he
reminisces. But even though it was an
incredible learning experience, Rodrigo
has no plans of moving back to the
countryside. “Everyone knew there was
a Mexican in town. It was very bizarre. I
don’t think Hveragerði had ever seen one.
I loved living there, but to be honest, I’m
a city person,” he relates from his cosy
Reykjavík apartment.
How bare you?
Rodrigo’s hometown, Querétaro, is right
by Mexico’s largest congregation of
Catholic-conservatives. It thus stands to
reason that one of his biggest challenges
was getting used to
Iceland’s liberal spirit.
“When my mom and
my sister first came
to visit, we went to
the supermarket and
saw a man running
in a Borat mankini,
leaving little to the
imagination. They
were in a state of
disbelief, no matter
how many times I
told them this was a
rather normal sight,”
Rodrigo recalls.
While mostly unfazed by the mankini
incident, Rodrigo has experienced a fair
bit of culture shock. “One of the hardest
things for me was witnessing all the
nudity on display. You don’t see that in
Mexico,” he explains. “Querétaro is very
conservative, we’re very religious. When I
go to a swimming pool here, people feel
strange about me not being comfortable
with nakedness.”
As he ponders the local shower
culture, Rodrigo goes on to share some
observations regarding Icelanders’
grooming habits. “Apparently, they don’t
like having anything down there. I really
don’t know how or where they do it. Men,
Oh God! They remove everything! But
what I’ve seen is that because this is a
very egalitarian society, if women remove
it, men have to reciprocate. They say it’s
a healthy choice, but I just think they do
it so it looks bigger,” he confides. “If you
stumble across someone who is hairy,”
he continues, “you’ll identify them as
foreigners right away. I think in general,
men here have a very high respect for
their bodies.”
Another thing that surprised
Rodrigo was seeing women breastfeeding
their children in public. “Many of them
do it in restaurants, while engaged in
conversation, surrounded by friends and
strangers,” he shares. Rodrigo might be
used to these sights by now, but they
did make him uncomfortable at first.
Indeed, according to a recent UNICEF
study, Mexico is among the twenty
countries with the highest incidence of
non-breastfed children. Only four out of
ten Mexican women will breastfeed their
children, which, given that breast milk is
basically free food, seems counterintuitive
for a country heavily affected by poverty.
Bursting with pride
While discussing Mexico, Rodrigo’s face
lights up, pride oozes from every pore and
it is readily apparent that he didn’t leave
the country in search of greener pastures.
“I’m as Mexican as can be. I love Mexico.
In fact, I always tell the same joke about
how I can see Mexico from my window,”
he explains while showing off the huge
Mexican flag that adorns his bedroom’s
skylight—an improvised curtain of sorts.
“The other day, a friend came by to tell me
When I began my search for Mexicans in Iceland, I was prepared to hear fantastic
stories about cultural polarity. And that’s exactly what I got. From tiny Vopnafjörður we
travel to the centre of it all, Reykjavík. This is the story of Rodrigo Aparicio, who found
a second home in Iceland.
Photo
Hörður Sveinsson
Words
Jessica Solt
“For Mexicans living in
Iceland, one of the most
painful challenges is
being left out of Ice-
landic conversations.
“Everybody here speaks
English,” Rodrigo says,
“but that doesn’t mean
they like speaking in
English.””
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