Opening of Carnival

So what better way to get into the culture of Mexico than to be here for Marti Gras (or in this case Carnival)?  Basically Carnival is a five day long celebration during which time there are concerts, and food, and rides all along the main street (Paseo de Montejo) and it is shut down during the five days and there are so many people out it is ridiculous.  It is not just in Merida that there is Carnival either, it is all throughout Mexico as well as in Spain all during the same week.  Well to start from the beginning Carnival actually started Wednesday night with a concert being performed by a well known group from Mexico named Nigga (pronounced Nee-Gah).  So the group decided that it would be fun to go down to the center and check out the concert and get a feel for what Carnival would be like, well when we got there boy were we surprised!  There was a fence which in the middle there is an opening where you can normally walk through but it was gated off with police standing there and not letting anyone through so some of us decided to squeeze through and make our way towards the gate, just in case they opened it up and let some people through we would get a chance to maybe get closer.  Well as we snaked out way up closer to the front the crowd that we were in started getting a little restless and began to sway and push towards the gate.  It wasn’t long before there was more and more pushing until all of a sudden the gate, along with the police, fell and everyone started running through to get closer.  Of course we weren’t just going to stand there so along with everyone else we made our way past the fallen gate and police trying to stop people to get into the second level of concert.  So now this second level was closer, but definitely not close enough for our liking, so as before we snaked through the crowd along with other people until before we knew it we were almost at the front of this crowd were we met another gate, with even more police.  Once we got here we figured that there was no way we would be getting any closer because any time people began pushing the police would cross the gate, or come from the crowd and take the menace out.  Just as we thought we wouldn’t be seeing any more action the band started to play its most famous song called “Te Queiro”.  Once this song came on everybody went nuts and began pushing and swaying and things were getting pretty intense, especially since we were in the middle of everyone.  Because the crowd started to get rowdy the band stopped playing the song, I assume under orders from the police, but this was probably the worst decision possible.  The mass of people were not happy that the song had stopped and were not going to have any of it, all at once the wall of people began moving towards the stage, and even with the gate and wall of cops there was no stopping the enormous crowd moving as one.  When I looked up I could see the look of defeat on the cops faces as they just stepped back at once and allowed the gate to fall, once the gate fell the weight of the crowd forced those people in front to fall with the gate, including some of us.  At this point adrenaline was rushing to try and make sure everyone was able to get up and not get trampled or legs caught in the gate and ankles broken, all while trying to avoid the cops who were not happy and had batons in hand being quite forceful with people.  Luckily, we were able to get everyone up and away from the crowd and make our way passed the cops until we got pretty close to the stage, we were happy!  The crowd was then contained and the band began the song again, which we could now actually see being played, and we were all filled with satisfaction that first we got through the mass of people to the front unharmed and also that we got to experience something that many people do not in their lives unless they live in the city.  As I look back on the experience, and even during it, I was trying to think about how something like this would be in the United States and from my personal experiences I can tell you that it would be very different.  Even though there were points that were scary or nerve racking I never actually felt scared for my life or safety while in the crowd.  There were points when people we so squished and there was no room to move but it seemed like even then people were very polite.  Not once did I have an elbow thrown into me which I can say has happened numerous times in the United States.  Also, if someone wanted to leave the crowd people made a conscious effort to clear a path so the person was able to leave easily instead of trying to push out just as they had gotten in.  I personally think that there is a big difference between cultures in general, but even this really made me think that it seems as though it is more “unified” here.  At concerts and things that I have been to in the United States people care for themselves and the people they are with and don’t give any thought, usually, to the people around them and would not normally be mindful of helping other people in situations like this.  I guess that there is always going to be differences between cultures and that is just something people have to live with, but it was nice to experience that even a mass of people and chaos there is still understood order and a common knowledge what is acceptable and what is not.