Mexico: Embracing the True Meaning of Happiness

There is an age old idea that money and happiness go hand in hand.  No one really knows why or how this idea came about, but the world we live in perpetuates this idea.  Through the media showing us the type of lives we could have with money, or advertisement showing us all the new things we could buy, it leaves us wanting more money and the idea that if we had money we could buy things that make us happy. A country that goes against this ideal is Mexico. A country plagued with economic difficulty, violence, crime and corruption, Mexico is surprisingly known to be the inhabitant of some of the happiest people in Central/Latin America and even in the world. How can this be? How is it that a country without the large scale wealth as say the United States with government corruption and crime can be considered to be one of the happier countries in the world?

A country’s well-being is commonly known by most to be determined by its level of development. The Western model for a country’s success is rooted in industry, as opposed to the level of happiness among people. As mentioned in a previous blog post, only Bhutan measures national well-being in terms of happiness using their calculation of gross national happiness, or GNH. Factors that are taken into account in the GNH measurement include economic wellness, environmental wellness, physical wellness, and political wellness, as well as mental, social and workplace wellness. All such factors give an accurate telling of a population’s total happiness levels. It would seem that, given these factors, the development of a country would similarly indicate higher levels of happiness, yet this is not the case. While higher development typically entails greater access to healthcare systems, greater governmental capacity, and steadier economic reliability, there still remains a discrepancy in basing a country’s happiness on its level of development. Stated by CBS news, “Qatar, the richest country by most measures,” is not topping the chart of happiest nations; neither is “Japan, the nation with the highest life expectancy (CBS News).” What could this be telling us about well-established nations and the culture that follows? Overall, there actually exists a dissociation between the development of a nation and the overall happiness experienced by its population.

Assessments of national well-being that focus on development prove inaccurate for primarily two reasons. First, demographic measurements of development tend to operate under the assumption that every culture holds the same values and beliefs about success. Life-expectancy, and access to higher education, are common criteria used by the United Nations in assessing a country’s development, but the attributes of negativity to death and positivity to higher education are largely Western subscriptions. These ideologies fail to recognize cultural understandings about death and the pursuit of higher education that differ from them, and as a result draw inaccurate conclusions about the happiness of countries different from the Western model. Second, measurements of development tend to be drastically materialistic in focus. GDP for example, measures a country's total market transactions, or roughly the amount of money a country makes. It was developed by the United States during the Great Depression and adopted by the United Nations for comparative use in international affairs shortly after. GDP is the most commonly used determinant of a country’s success because those entities which created it and use it today, view wealth as the epitome of happiness. Additionally the United States has the highest GDP, which allows them to claim the greatest well-being by the use of their own system. It was even once said by Robert F. Kennedy that a country's GDP measures “everything except that which makes life worthwhile” (Costanza).

This dissociation is exemplified in Mexico, a country with some of the highest levels of life satisfaction despite being categorized as less developed compared to most Western countries. Mexican citizens live a traditional way of life instead of a modern one, which in turn categorizes Mexico as a less developed nation. However this high level of life satisfaction amongst citizens, Mexico as a whole has endured much economic unrest and corruption in government. Corruption even plagues the police force, making it difficult to establish law and order throughout the country. Due to this corruption and lack of regulation, a massive drug war has erupted and spun out of control where, “Mexican drug cartels take in between $19 and $29 billion annually” (CNN Mexico Drug War Facts). The drug cartels generate a huge annual income, making their presence in the country hard to ignore. Homicide is a ramification of the sale of drugs. During the Calderon presidency from 2007 to 2012, the homicide rate in Mexico doubled. A high homicide rate and massive drug war are two negative factors occurring in Mexico.

Another issue with life in Mexico is the citizen’s massive distrust in their government. Unlike Bhutan and Denmark, who adore and support their respective leaders, the Mexican population is growing increasingly disappointed with their president, Enrique Pena Nieto. The country’s population does not trust their president, who is trying to improve the country’s economy, education, and health. According to Joshua Partlow’s article “Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s popularity slips despite legislative wins,” the Mexican population finds him to be “distant and unknowable, as if following some script crafted in the shrouded back halls of his Institutional Revolutionary Party.” However, this distrust in the government is not a recent development. Mexico has always had an issue with political corruption. Another huge problem with Mexico’s government is the lack of interest in huge issues plaguing the nation. For example, instead of focusing on the 43 college students who went missing, the government is focusing on opening up oil trade around the world, much to the disdain of their citizens.

Mexico also deals with much poverty. The country has never been an economic powerhouse, despite having many resources. Their economy mostly relies on the trade of unrefined fuels, natural gases, and metals. The poverty levels have also increased in recent years, and little has been done to alleviate it. However, the citizens of Mexico are used to their lives in poverty, and do not see it as a deterrent to their happiness. Refugio, an 82 year old Mexican citizen who lives in poverty told Luc Cohen, the writer of “Mexico’s Poverty Rate: Half Of Country's Population Lives In Poverty,” "We've grown accustomed to poverty [...] They say that since we were born poor, we are poor now, we remain poor, and we will die poor."

Despite such civil unrest, the country seems to be continuously happy. According to the OECD Better Life Index 82% of people reported having a larger number of positive experiences in a day which override negative ones. Feelings of joy, pride, or accomplishment greatly outnumbered negative feelings of pain, worry or sadness. 74% of people felt that they had someone to rely on in a time of need showing a sense of community and commitment. While of course, happiness levels will vary among socioeconomic standings in Mexico, overall, the levels of life satisfaction are higher than other countries.

Day of the Dead Festival Parade

One explanation to Mexico’s level of happiness, despite lower development, can be found ingrained within Mexican culture. As mentioned previously, death is traditionally experienced with grief in the developed West and when observing Mexico’s relative lower life expectancy from a Western perspective the assumed result would be of lower happiness. However, the reality is very much the contrary. A high prevalence of death in Mexico’s earlier history, and the lower life-expectancy today, have fostered a greater familiarity with death for Mexicans as a people. This integral aspect of Mexican identity has manifested in such celebrations as the Day of the Dead Holiday. Annually the dead are remembered by their loved ones with colorful decorations, music, art, costumes, and community. The prevalent participation of children in these festivities reinforces this positive cultural response to death from an early age and encourages its future perpetuation. In this way, death has been reclaimed as an occasion for social interaction, family unity, and celebration, all of which encourage an appreciation for life and contribute to the enriched happiness of the country.

Additionally, Mexico’s inspiring geography enables the region to continue to have a culture of unyielding happiness. Mexico is the world’s eighth largest region. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean and faces the Caribbean Sea. With coastal plains and mountain ranges, the country’s geography is vast and diverse. In an interview, a thirty-year-old woman quoted, “Despite all the problems that we’re facing, we’re surrounded by natural beauty that lets us get away from it all” (CBS News Latin America). One suggestion as to why this natural beauty contributes to happiness is sun. Being in a region where you spend a lot of  time in the sun increases vitamin D levels and triggers the release of serotonin in the body. When people are exposed to the outdoors, they automatically feel a sense of happiness.

A Posada Celebration

Another explanation to the high level of happiness in Mexico can be found in their religious demographics. In many Western, developed countries religious participation is diminishing. According to NPR, The United States is actually experiencing an all time low in its religious population. The case in Mexico however, is again quite different. In 2010, The Pew Research Center found that 85% of the Mexican population was Roman Catholic. Personal involvement in religion has been identified as promoting social interaction, creation of community, and elevated senses of belonging, self-worth, and optimism. Specifically the Catholic faith offers many opportunities for social engagement and familial involvement in weekly masses, and religious sacraments such as baptism, confirmation, and marriage. With such a substantial majority of Mexico’s population actually sharing a common belief system, the above mentioned benefits are nationalized, and influence much of Mexican culture as a whole. Holidays such as “La Posada,” a uniquely Hispanic Catholic celebration known for parties, often times had with unmet neighbors, includes participation even from non-Catholics. Dan Buettner, investigated religion’s relationship with happiness in his book Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zone Way, and explains religion’s role in happiness: “it’s religion’s broader lessons that lead to happiness – acting selfless and morally, having a sense of purpose, finding meaning in daily activities, and expanding positive emotions on a continual basis.” In Mexico’s case religion has served substantially to enrich the strength of its national identity and the happiness of its people.

Mexico is changing the way we view happiness. While happiness used to be based on GDP, like in the Legantum Prosperity Poll,  it is slowly shifting to include the citizen’s individual happiness and their perceptions of the concept, as is practiced in the Gallup Happiness Index. While Mexico does not have a high GDP, longevity, or a small crime rate, it does have happy citizens, good weather, a strong cultural and community based system, and citizens with a positive outlook on life. Maybe this is enough to create a happy nation. Like Bhutan, Mexico is a developing country and both of the nations seem to be happy with what they have. Perhaps in trying to increase our lifespans, improve our economy, and eradicate crime we have lost a crucial part of happiness: being happy with what we have, which is something Mexico clearly embraces.

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