The Mexican Adaptation of Spanish Snoozing: Siestas!
- Frederick L Shelton
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Like Bullfighting, it was Brought from Europe
One of the more amusing aspects of living in Mexico is watching Americans attempt to process the fact that a civilization can function, prosper, operate multinational businesses, and still collectively decide that somewhere between two and four in the afternoon it might be wise to stop pretending to be industrial machinery and instead behave like biological beings!
The siesta, much like the Spanish language, the charro tradition that gave us oversized sombreros, and the thick walled hacienda architecture designed to repel both heat and hysteria, is an Iberian inheritance that Mexico wisely brought into its culture.
Spain understood centuries ago what modern neuroscience has now rediscovered and TED Talk tout: human beings benefit from a nap in the early afternoon. Duh! Agricultural societies aligned themselves with the sun - and avoiding it for a while in midday, not because they were lazy but because they were smart. Mexico, blessed with serious sunlight and unburdened by Midwestern martyrdom about “grinding out a living,” simply retained that wisdom.
And it is glorious.
They Sleep During the Day! Sometimes in Public! I first noticed it at our country club. We play tennis almost daily and the landscapers were
often dozing dreamily on the grass when we arrived. Sometimes they were still in that blissful state when we left, an hour and a half later!
To live in a country where taking thirty minutes to meditate, recline, or close one’s eyes is not regarded as a moral failing but instead is viewed as a quiet luxury that the over-worked middle-class cult in the United States cannot fathom. In certain regions here, shops close for 2 - 3 hours at a time. Offices thin out. Traffic thins. It is not chaos. It is not collapse. It is a calmness the USA refuses to enjoy.
American "Experts" Are Of Course, Offended!
When I DARED to reference the siesta in a previous post, certain people completely lost their shit. They would have seizures, they would rend clothes, clutch pearls and even call me a racist because the white gringo ConservaRepubs and poseur wannabes living in outback USA, read something on a Turning Point USA website, that said siestas ONLY occurred in Spain. Not Mexico dammit!
The disdain of the drama queens was almost operatic. Even when photos of stores and businesses displaying signs that read "Closed from 2 - 5pm" were provided, they came up with wildly fabricated conjectures to validate their vitriol.
Apparently acknowledging that a cultural practice from Spain, traveled to Mexico (like you know, EVERYTHING ELSE!) is now considered cultural misappropriation in backwoods Arizona.
Cultural Superiority
Personally, I believe that there is something better about a culture that does not equate perpetual work with moral superiority. In the United States, exhaustion is practically a credential. Attorneys brag about how many hours they bill to clients. That annoying office worker boasts about being in the office on weekends. Here, mental health and restoration is considered rational. This reflects divergent philosophical premises about what a life is for.
Since relocating, I have incorporated the siesta into my own routine at least two or three times a week! Sometimes it is a brief meditation. Sometimes a genuine nap. Occasionally it is simply twenty five unstructured minutes in which I allow thought to wander without agenda. The result is not diminished productivity but enhanced clarity. The afternoons are sharper. The evenings are lighter. Even tennis feels more fluid when one has not attempted to out duel the sun on pure caffeine and MidWestern Work Ethic.
The Mexicans Say They Enjoy Siestas - But What do THEY Know? I noticed after 2+ hours of tennis, my friends all have a few beers and socialize.
I asked them whether they take siestas when they go home. They looked at me as if I asked them whether they prefer soccer or kicking newborn puppies.
"Por supuesto!" (Of course!) they replied in unison. Let's see. Two hours of strenuous exercise. Three or four beers of conversation. A nap.
That math checks.
For those still convinced that acknowledging the Spanish roots of a Mexican practice constitutes some kind of cultural transgression, relax.
Spain also contributed the language you are using to complain, the tailoring lineage that evolved into the charro’s silver adorned silhouette, and the villas and haciendas you're sitting in while you throw your tantrum. Civilizations borrow.
Mexico kept the siesta because it works.
And I intend to adopt this new cultural phenomenon!