Mexico City: The Swastika

I went to Mexico City from May 28th to June 11th, 2011. Only when I got back did I notice a few things...

I can usually spot racist/white supremacist symbols from a mile away, and being in Mexico City was no exception. My first shock, a visibly same-sexed male couple displaying their affections...and one of them wearing a black t-shirt with the German eagle and a swastika! It immediately threw me off and set me on alert.  Panicked, I passed by the couple with my friend and asked her urgently, "did you just see that?!" After retelling what I saw, we made the decision to circle back and take another look (first look for her).  Pretending to take a picture of the angel of liberty, she too saw the couple and the shirt.  They went to sit down and display their passionate embrace.

I really did see this. I was thrown by the fact that dude was gay, a shade of brown AND wearing this shirt! Did he know the history behind it? What's the reason? I was thoroughly confused, but the matter was not pursued due to my massive language barrier.

Mexico City has a 'Museum of Tolerance' (probably not the actual name) that my friend and I visited and the first in-your-face exhibits had to do with the holocaust. For less than ten U.S. dollars people could see this and other displays of genocide.  My friend's future mother-in-law made a joke saying something along the lines of 'if it's in a museum, it doesn't exist in Mexico City.' That is to say that tolerance and other things are not evident outside of museums.  It made me wonder.

Especially when my friend and I went to an alternative clothing shop in a different neighborhood. Aside from the t-shirts and skateboard decks, the first thing my eyes averted to was a leather wallet...with a swastika stitched onto it! What gives?! I could only hope that this is some reclamation of a symbol that initially had positive roots, but has, since the Third Reich, been associated with evil, racism, and white supremacy. 

It makes me wonder how deep the racism and light-skinned supremacy goes in Mexico City.  It may or may not be a connection to such.  More thoughts on that to come, I guess.