Make Tacos Not War

Make Tacos Not War

“Make Tacos Not War”. Funny, isn’t it? This quote calls out for a more serious meaning that we as the audience have to find and interpret for ourselves. When I think of tacos, I think of the one Mexican food that is known around the whole world. Everyone enjoys them, and have nice conversations over them. It’s a sign of unity between nations, and those who believe themselves to be enemies of others come together and just sit down and devour tacos in one bite.

This September, I had the opportunity to experience the Museum of Mexican Art with some of my closest friends at Glenbrook North High School. What made this trip so fulfilling wasn’t just the time I spent at the facility, but the experience as a whole where I got to meet a Mexican Uber driver immigrant that talked about Mexican History, explored an area where I was disturbed and in the dark, and I had a chance to hang out and chill in a big city like Chicago.

When I was looking around the exhibit, I saw this picture that read, “No puedo pasar indiferente ante el dolor de tanta gente”. This means “I can’t pass indifferent to the pain of so many people”. On the left side of the picture, there is a woman with a vacuum cleaner just cleaning up the dust that accumulates by the train car. In my perspective, the woman and the vacuum cleaner show that so many people block out other people’s problems by doing something else. When one vacuums, it is really loud and completely blocks out all other noises.

As we got off of the train at Union Station, we decided to Uber to the museum. It just so happened that we met a driver named Sergio, and he was a Mexican immigrant that wanted a better life here in the United States. We talked in the car about his story and how he came to the United States about 15 years ago. He came here with his mother and studied English at a university. He praised our country and told us the horrors in Mexico, and how everyone struggles to survive there because of its bad living conditions, lack of sanitation, and lack of money to have a better life. It made me think about Mrs. Galson, my English teacher that went on a trip to help out people in an African country during her time in the Peace Corp. She had to live in an environment that wasn’t comfortable at first, and had similar living conditions, but she told our class that she had an enjoyable experience and she would love to do it again. During our talk with Sergio,what really shook me on the inside 

was that he was satisfied with being an Uber drive. Someone on the north shore would be like, “Dude that’s a low life job. We gotta go to college and make a lot of money to provide for our families. Thisis man was happy to be alive and he now has a better life than what he did before. I believe that we as humans undermine the successes of those that are less fortunate than us and we make them feel as though they aren’t as great as us in the middle and the upper class.

As we were driving to the National Museum of Mexican Art, we came across some apartments that had some meaningful paintings scattered across each brick wall. These paintings gave me a sense of who the people in the area were, as well as how they showed their identity to the world. I remember vividly when we whizzed past by the complex, and I exclaimed out of nowhere, “GET THE CAMERA, GET THE CAMERA!” I was amazed how the paintings almost seemed alive, and they were calling out to me. They were telling me to remember them.

Overall, this experience was an eye-opener, where I learned that there is a whole other world of people, perspectives, and places that I haven’t taken the time to really dive into yet. I’m glad that I have started this journey of understanding something more than just myself and my environment one step at a time.

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