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Coronavirus in Oaxaca – COVID-19 pandemic in southern Mexico – A plea on behalf of the people

Apart from agriculture, the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, depends on tourism for its existence. Starting in mid-March 2020, COVID-19 devastated the state’s economy as visitors began to leave in droves and those with reservations for April, May and onward canceled. Restaurants, bars, mezcalerías, hotels, and practically every other business in the retail and service industry closed their doors out of fear and caution, and as a result of government dictates. We should not necessarily cry for the owners of the previous establishments, but for their employees; Mexico simply does not have the social networks typically found in first world countries that provide economic relief to workers. Instead of crying, we must help.

In southern Mexico, Oaxaca in particular, residents often live from day to day, with no savings for a rainy day or for retirement. This is true even for some members of the middle class. It is a matter of culture rather than western common sense. Business owners generally recognize, at some level, that their financial fortunes depend on matters beyond their control. Recall the civil unrest of 2006, the Mexican swine flu (H1N1), the economic crisis in the United States, the drug cartels at war, and how the United States Department of State and journalists have addressed every issue that arises in Mexico, respectively out of paternalism and to shock the media. followers. Now it’s COVID-19, the coronavirus. This is not to downplay the severity of the pandemic; otherwise. But given the vast difference between the Oaxacan and Western worldviews, the lack of advance planning for such eventualities is understandable.

Of course, using my Canadian upbringing, I should at first glance suggest that those Oaxacans in the retail and service industries with a modicum of common sense should recognize that we never know when the next crisis will hit, and therefore each and every of possible deals. The person should consider this when contemplating a business venture from the beginning, and planning for adverse eventualities while serving tourists during good times. They should waste part of their earnings. But that’s an ethnocentric approach, rather than the preferred cultural relativistic perspective.

Unfortunately, it is understandable that many Oaxacan entrepreneurs do not have sufficient funds in the bank to overcome their personal problems; for food, shelter and payment of other required expenses. For your employees, the situation is much more pressing!

Tourism will return to its pre-COVID-19 levels, but not until well into 2021, if not later. Of this we are sure. Summer, Day of the Dead and Christmas will not be the same. Easter and Spring Break have already been lost. Some who would otherwise visit in the future will avoid Oaxaca out of fear, while others won’t have the savings for a vacation until the following year, or a year later.

Much of the assistance falls to expatriate residents, typical tourists, snowbirds, and part-time workers. I don’t think we can necessarily trust the goodwill of Oaxacan businessmen, without much of their fault. But we can do our part, even if it means embarrassing some of us, that is, non-Mexicans, into doing the right thing.

Ask the establishments you regularly visit what you can do to help, now! Telephone or email. It doesn’t matter that local business owners may know or should know that the coronavirus pandemic is nothing that should have been a huge surprise … to the extent that we all recognize that business fortunes in Oaxaca are like peaks and valleys. , or weather patterns whose destructive forces we know exist, but never exactly when the next one will befall us.

For your first or next visit to Oaxaca, if you must haggle in the markets, do so with much less vigor, but better yet, not quite. Be that much more generous to your waitress, grocery packer, waiter, and bartender; And maybe even think of that young salesman at the craft store You will help the Oaxacans and you will feel better about yourself.

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