cab driver

Some time ago I was in a local Mexican cab and I got into a talk with the friendly Mexican cabdriver. He noticed my Spanish was pretty good and asked me where I was from. I told him Holland and of course like most people he thought about soccer (futbol) instead of other things. "Aaah... Rijkaard, Gullit, van Basten", seemed to be the logical up to date knowledge about Dutch soccer. Hesitated for a minute to give him a wit answer but nah...

Then he wanted to know about my personal life… what was my profession, my family, how long I was here etc. I told him I was here in Mexico for almost 5 years (at that time) and that I was married to a “latina” from Chile and that we had two little daughters both born in Mexico.

“And how many girlfriends do you have?” was his response. I said, “girlfriends? I am happily married and not in need of an extra girlfriend”. But sir, here in latin America it is common men have more than one girlfriend outside the marriage. It’s normal and every man has. It’s something cultural and it proves your manhood, he laughed proudly.

I was getting a bit annoyed by this macho language, so I asked him if he had more than one girlfriend outside his marriage. Yes, he told me very proud. I have 3 girlfriends and see them often. Then I asked him if these girlfriends were single women or married. Oh, that doesn’t matter, he explained, if she is married or not is the same.

Then I asked him. So you are married with someone. And you and other men think it’s normal to have a relationship with someone who is married. So if your wife is married, maybe she could also be the girlfriend of another man at this moment and you won’t know it and if I were you sir, I would worry about with whom my wife is at this moment.

I never saw a Mexican man that pale!