There are certain stereotypes about people of various races that tends to go across borders.
It's not just an American thing even though everyone says that we Americans are hyper obsessed with race (compared to most nationalities, we actually kinda are).
At any rate, you hear similar stereotypes about people in Latin America also.
Those who think all black people are dangerous.
Those who think Asians have small dicks.
And, when it comes to white people, you have usual stereotypes like that we can't dance or don't like anything too spicy.
And while I have addressed the topic of dancing in other articles, what about the spicy food?
Is there some smoke behind the fire regarding white Latinos not enjoying spicy foods?
Well, the first thing I want to say is that it does depend on nationality to some degree.
While most Americans tend to think of Latin food as being spicy because their exposure to Latin food more often involves Mexican food, actually most food in the rest of Latin America isn't spicy at all.
So let's narrow the subject down from "Latin American food" to just "Mexican food."
So, when it comes to Mexicans, is there smoke behind the fire regarding white Mexicans usually not preferring spicy foods?
Well, I'll say this: I have met non-white Mexicans who don't like spicy stuff and I have met white Mexicans who like spicy stuff.
Having said that as we know it's just a generalization that we are working with here, I'd generally agree with it for the most part.
I'm not opposed to generalizations of people of any race because you usually can find certain details that are true "in general" but not true for everyone and generalizations are OK as long as we understand that.
For white Mexicans, I find that they do tend to have less tolerance for spicy foods than Mexicans who are "more mestizo."
More brown basically.
Just over a week or so ago, I remember seeing a whiter looking Mexican chick named Barbara who didn't like spicy foods.
I casually joked with her about how "of course she doesn't, she's white."
And she laughed a tiny bit and saying "that's just a stereotype."
Well, for her anyway, the glove fits.
Going back a few years when I lived in Pachuca, I remember also going to a burger restaurant with a landlord named Maria, her husband and a few other foreigners in our group.
Long story short, the restaurant put some spicy salsa on top of some of her food and she didn't like it.
She wasn't a bitch about yelling about how they need to fix it and she did nicely ask them to fix it.
To my surprise, they did.
I wouldn't expect that level of customer service in Mexico over the years here but here we are.
Though, to be fair to her, she did say "sin salsa" when ordering her food and so they did legitimately fuck it up.
And she, as you can guess, was a white Mexican woman.
She did seem slightly irritated though at the salsa being on her food given she asked for it to not be included but it wasn't a big deal.
Life went on.
At any rate, there's nothing else to the story here.
I can go all day about "that moment there" or "this moment here" when ordering food and noticing how certain groups of people tend to be more likely to order their tacos or whatever type of food "sin salsa" or "sin chile" or "sin picante."
And, while they come in all races, it is more common for white Mexicans to say those words than non-white Mexicans in my experience.
That's all.
And, truth be told, I can't blame them.
I'm white myself!
A white non-Mexican to be precise actually.
Though I have grown to like salsa in my food over the years, I am also more picky about it and what type of salsa to use.
After all, I don't want a salsa that tastes like it came from Satan to kill the inside of my mouth.
I want that something that is just a little bit spicy, has good taste but not overkill.
And, in my opinion, I feel a lot of white Mexicans agree with me on this one in terms of their own preferences for how much spiciness is too much.
At least from what I've seen, they do tend to be more conservative with how much spiciness is too spicy.
Anyway, outside of throwing out there more casual stories that don't resemble anything more beyond "this random white Mexican said sin chile" and "this random non-white Mexican said con salsa verde," I'll leave it at that.
It's not that interesting of a topic but one that I have been reminded of over the last week or two.
If you got anything to add, drop a comment below.
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Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt