Writing POC 101

Mexican Characters - @mimibutera

Okay, so I know there are a few chapters with Mexican related stuff but I feel like most of them are missing something. I'm Mexican, born and raised in the South of the country (Oaxaca) but I have moved around from state to state so I can say I have experienced being Mexican at its fullest.

     1. NAMES

Mexican can be named after so many things you have no idea. Is wrong to say that Mexican are full of Juan and María. And it's kind of wrong to say that most of us have Spanish names, for example my name is Amy Naomi, my sister's name is Valery and my brother's name is Max. A Mexican child can have an American/indian/Japanese name too, I know a lot of guys named Bryan, Josh and William and they live in Mexico so feel free to call your character the name you want. I even know a guy named Anivdelarev which is short for Aniversario de la revolución (yes, the Mexican revolution, his parents are weird). And of course, if you wanna show that your character is Mexican you can use a cool last name, mine is Butera (yes like Ariana Grande) but some cool ones are: Rubalcava, Amozurrutia, Barraza, Avellaneda, etc. You don't have to name them Pérez, Valdez, Hernández, etc.

     2. FOOD

     2.1 TACOS

Yes, we eat tacos. Yes, I love tacos with all my heart. Yes, there's a taquería (where people eat/buy tacos) in almost every street but that doesn't mean we eat tacos all the time (even though I could). And please, don't insult me with that "TACOBELL" shït, those aren't real tacos. You want to know what a real taco is? Go google TACOS AL PASTOR, they're delicious. Most people love tacos al pastor, so you don't have to burn your brain thinking about how many kind of tacos we have because everything can be a taco if you're brave (or hungry) enough.

     2.2 ANTOJITOS

Empanadas, chilaquiles, tostadas, garnachas, picadas o sopes, guajolotas, pozole, platanitos, tacos dorados, enchiladas, tamales, quekas, enfrijoladas, etc. Okay, most of this are antojitos which are freaking delicious but we don't eat them on daily basis. I wish I could but probably my mom wouldn't let me, Mexican parents won't let you eat this on daily basis so don't write it like we would. Most parents have normal meals on lunch time, like beef, salad and rice, or chicken soup or things like that. You can only eat antojitos once or twice a week, maybe three if you're lucky enough. There's so much Mexican food I can't even tell you some examples, and the food is different from one state to another, in Mexico everything is different from one side of the country to the other.

     2.3 SPICY FOOD & TORTILLAS

Please, please, I beg you, don't assume everyone in Mexico loves spicy food. There's so many of us who don't like spicy food. It's common to think that everyone in Mexico likes sauce in everything or put chile in everything and it's true, most people do. But there are people (like me) who don't like it, and can't eat spicy food. Mexican parents probably raise their kids with spicy food, chile on everything, but my parents didn't, even though they eat sauce and can't eat without sauce, they didn't raise me to love spicy things. The same thing happens with the tortillas, most of us can't eat without tortillas but there's a huge amount of people who don't like them.

     3. ACCENTS

Most of the people who used to live in Mexico but moved to USA were from the north of the country so they have a certain way (or accent) to speak Spanish. Not everyone in the country speaks like that. We have 31 states and the city of Mexico, and in every single one of them (mostly) have a different accent, use different words to refer to certain things. While in the north of the country they refer to a kid like "morro", in the south we say "niño", in the center of the country they say "mocoso" and in Riviera maya they say "nene". There's so many accents and I haven't heard them all yet.

     4. MUSIC

Okay, most of the teenager don't even listen to Mexican music, and most of them think it's not good. But there's some people like me who listen to everyone. I'm gonna give you a few examples of genres so you can look them up and choose what your character would listen to.

Pop: Camila, Paty Cantú, Ha*ash, Alejandra Guzman, Natalia Lafourcade, Jesse & Joy, Aleks Sintek, Thalia, Paulina Rubio, Luis Fonsi, Playa Limbo, Chayanne, etc.

Rock: Moderatto, Molotov, Zoé, Caifanes, Café Tacvba, La gusana ciega, Plastilina Mosh, Maldita vecindad, El tri, Fobia, Genitallica.

Rap/Reggaeton: Cartel de santa, J Balvin, Nicky Jam, Wisin & Yandel, Charles Ans, C-Kan, Calle 13, Gera MXM, Don Omar, Daddy Yankee, Maluma, Farruko, Sofía Reyes, Prince Royce

Banda/Norteñas: Julión Alvarez, La arrolladora, Los recoditos, Banda MS, Banda La Trakalosa, Calibre 50, El recodo, El Bebeto, Gerardo Ortiz,etc.

Oh and another thing, most Mexicans swear a lot, it doesn't matter if it is the shyest person ever, when they comfortable enough or get mad... They will swear like a sailor.

That's all I need to say, if you want to know more or have questions you can always ask me. Have fun writing about Mexicans! :)

-Mimí Butera.