About Secret History

Commentary on Latin America.
Mostly about Mexico - but not always.
Designed to encourage readers to learn about
the apparently "secret history" of 500 million people
spread across two continents
- but not always.
You can always count on a little snark.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Mexico - Happier Than You

This from the National Geographic study of the happiest places on earth:
We also looked at Nuevo León, the happiest region of Mexico, which was the happiest country in Latin America when we did this work--actually the happiest country in the American hemisphere. Something interesting's going on there.
Wait, I thought Mexico was a failed state - a pit of terror and a nightmare from which the continent could awaken.

Something interesting's going on there. Religion is very important: For more than 80 percent of the people in this part of Mexico, religious faith tops their list of values. We know worldwide that religious people are happier than non-religious people.

Their definition of family is about an order of magnitude bigger than a typical definition of family. Theirs includes no only kids and moms and dads, but also cousins and second cousins, aunts and uncles, godparents. And that does some helpful things.

Religious people with a focus on the family? Those crazy anarchist Mexicans.

1 comment:

El Aguila said...

Your post reminded me about the news concerning the "Latino Paradox." Latinos by most forms of measurement are one of the healthiest segments of US society: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/14/opinion/la-ed-longevity-20101114

So much for degrading American culture.