Different Time Zones

Mexico

Journalism major Michael Todd (right) interviews Cozumel resident Aaron Barquet (left) during a study abroad class in Mexico. Photo by Phyllis Larsen

May 27, 2008
By Michael Todd

The Saturday before boarding a plane for Cozumel, Mexico, I scrambled up and down the stairs and from room to room to prepare myself for anything and everything. After all, I was going on a three-week study abroad trip by myself and wouldn't be able to rely on family and friends for an umbrella left behind or sunscreen forgotten. Three hours full of spatial suppositions and strenuous squeezing passed, and I was left with a suitcase busting at the zippers, full of both the essential and the frivolous. But even that amount of effort didn't prepare me to hear Jock Jams. Jock Jams? Is it really 2008 down here? I have to wonder. Was the plane was outfitted with a flux capacitor, and I didn't see it? Heck, it did have a suicide door.

At any rate, for those of you who may not know, Jock Jams was an album of songs meant to pump up the athletes and fans of 1995. Here at the Hotel Barracuda's pool and beach area, timeless classics songs I practiced free throws with my babysitter to like "Strike It Up" and "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" are on constant rotation. All walks of tourists belly up to the poolside bar and drink just enough to try their hand at singing along. Even while basking in the sunlight, looking out onto the sparkling blue water, and drinking some ice cold lemonade, I get a sour taste in my mouth when I hear "I'm Every Woman," another 1990's dance song, sung by Whitney Houston, for the third time in two days.

This feeling gets further exacerbated into stomach pain by the knowledge of the emergence of emo's in Mexico, something I learned from an island native and English teacher, Aaron Barquet. He says it's hard to miss them. You can find the weepy teenagers, clad in dark clothing sulking about under dim street lights around the town of San Miguel. I wince hearing the news, because I mistakenly thought that this was something uniquely American, something I would be able to gladly forget and leave behind with my camera's batteries.

My surprise proves that there is a definite link between the two countries: mass media. Though trends may catch on a year or two or 13 years later, there is no avoiding the power of television, newspapers, and radio. But don't ask me. Call up Naughty By Nature. You may just have to be on hold for a few minutes as he negotiates a contract with another resort hotel for the rights to "Hip Hop Hooray."