I see many difficulties on comparing huge countries (more than 1,000,000 sq km with more than 100,000,000 inhabitants) to small countries (less than 100,000 sq km with less than 10,000,000 inhabitants). The Netherlands is near this point, but has a high concentration of people. More than 20,000,000 residents in less than 50,000 sq km. So there are very rational possibilities to compare Mexico City area with the whole Netherlands. Other factor avoiding a comparison by country is that North Mexico is extremely different to Central or South Mexico, thinking of geographical, economical and cultural differences.

Nevertheless, I resided 17% of my life in The Netherlands, 24% in Mexico City and 56% in the Jalisco state (80,000 sq km, 10,000,000 inhabitants), so I could try a triple comparison, noticing that I shared my life among this three totally different places. The next list of “trivial” definitions gathers words, names or expressions that I instinctively connected with a selection of “cultural subjects”. There is no method but a whimstic association of feelings, so please don’t take it as an ultimate declaration.

	The Netherlands	Jalisco	Mexico City
animal	important as human beings, friendship, educated, controlled, manipulated, prisoner	inferior being, toy, possession, nice object	absolute freedom, coexistence, common life, street, outcry, frenetic, abuse, accident, tacos
architect	Mies van der Rohe (please don’t tell me that he wasn’t Dutch!)	Luis Barragán	Mario Pani
auto	compact, expensive, sometimes impractical	a big truck, everyone’s American dream	wildlife, highway, life-game
bar (a typical one)	Bedoel je een proeflokaal? ...De Drie Flesjes (A’dam) Drink: jenever	O sea una cantina? La Fuente (GDL) Drink: tequila	La Kloster or El Nivel (both in Zocalo area) Drink: Mexican rum
bike	pleasant, necessary, obvious, sexy (thinking about girls)	childhood, newspapers, vagrant	delicious, extreme, bizarre
cab	important people	disorder, abuse, no rules	ransom, hijack, murder
cactus	exotic object	the drink and the food	the civilization
cash dispenser	practical, common	mysterious	danger of death
cheese	national heritage, daily, many, rich, enjoy	country, fresh, white; usually with beans, chili and tortilla... delicious	oil, crust, plastic... also Dutch, excellent, or from Chihuahua or Oaxaca, as well very good
Chicanos (Mexican- Americans)	Tex-Mex, Doritos, guacamole, kitch, the Mexican wave	(1) our family living “there” (2) the other Chilangos (Chilango means Mexico City people)	our sisters and brothers
China	danger	curious	our ancestors
composer	Ludwig van Beethoven (he wasn’t Dutch, but I don’t like Alphons Diepenbrok)... ok, Tristan Keuris	Aguirre, Rolón, Moncayo, Galindo, Enríquez...	Carlos Chávez Chava Flores Dámaso Pérez Prado Cri-Cri
crime, the worst	the World War II (1939-45)	Carlos Santana the Cristeros’ War (1924-31)	the Conquista (1521-nowadays)
dance	tango or salsa	it depends on TV	cumbia or techno
death	the end of consciousness	mystery, eternity, the kingdom of God	the house of our lord Xólotl, the botom of Ometeotl’s cave, the mud from where we came
Devil, the	ancient folklore	a real person, Old Nick	(1) the Spaniards’ heritage (2) some mixed forces from the underworld (3) Carlos Salinas de Gortari, “El Chupacabras”
diminutive suffix	-tje very frequently used in colloquial speech (I call it “the salt of Dutch language”)	-ita, -ito if you use it too much, probably you are homosexual or indio	-ita, -ito the Spanish version of the ancient Nahuatl, very common diminutive
drugs	experiment, habit, “softs are cool”, the state must help	success, money, power, murder, fame, U.S.A., lies, padrinos, blood	youth, tragedy, politics, speech, U.S.A., power
family	the necessary enterprise	the mine	the sacred plot
father (see also: man)	instrument, implement	the son of a mother	el chingón
fear	to the big flood	to be Indians again	to the big earthquake
food	strictly necessary	celebration	sacred gift, varied, colorful
foreigner	mandatory friendship, tourism, bussines, workers, dancers, potential enemies, invaders, islam, strange habits, the end of tolerance	strange people	the Gringos, the Whities, the Conquistadores, the invaders, destroyers of Mexico, the partners, the new culture
freedom	quietly at home	by church’s permission	by work’s permission
friendship	convenience	familiarity	complicity
God	the nature	the Church	our mother Coatlicue (Guadalupe-Tonantzin)
government	the necessary order	the power	the enemy
hike	where is my bike?	sun, threes, blossoms, birds, desert, volcano, beach	run, stop, gun, amazing, car, surprise
Holland	a region in The Netherlands	an ice cream’s brand, a cow, a cheese brand	(1) an old fabric or clothing, (2) some place in Europe to have sex and drugs
insect	rare	la pinche cucaracha	mmmhhh... delicious
law	identity, system, mechanism, order, intractability, rigor	adaptability, elasticity, waxy, ignorance, gossip, money	humiliation, scam, torture, labyrinth, darkness, eternity
leisure	bar gossip	TV, alcohol, foot-ball & mariachi	there is no time for leisure
life	a natural phenomenon	the divine will	the flower and the rhythm, the number five, the music
literature, popular	from the Hispanic world? García Márquez and Isabel Allende, no doubt!	You mean TV?	El Libro Vaquero, Memín Pingüín, Kalimán, and other Mexican comics
Los Angeles	an important city of the U.S.A.	the other capital city of Jalisco	the second city of the Mexican Republic
love	unnecessary	marriage	survival
man (see also: father)	female-man	female super-macho	post-modernistic macho
market	Ap’Hijn, specialists, small	Costco, Sam’s, WalMart vs. San Juan de Dios	tianguis, identity, color, variety, abundance,
medical care	aleatory, semi-professional, many pills, speech, afspraak	immediate, professional, excellent, for rich people	superb, state-of-war medicine
mentally handicapped	respect, tolerance, rigor	I’m not, so let’s have fun	indifference
metro	technology for transport, nothing more special	Did you know that Guadalajara has metro? Did you know it?	the other city, the underworld (please read La Fiesta Brava, by José Emilio Pacheco)
Mexico	“Central America” homeland of the Maya, the Inca and the Indios	Mexico City	the world (“beyond the border everywhere is Cuautitlán”)
money	“I have it because I earn it”	a consequence of a scam	a monopoly
mother (see also: woman)	natural, independent, rigourous, friend, control, matriarchy, gynocracy, power, punitive	María, the most important, dramatic, tears, victim, fragance, delicacy, wood, Virgin of Talpa, Virgin of Zapopan	clay, Earth, warm, fluid, magic, blood, corn, tortilla, pumpkin’s flower, Virgin of Guadalupe, Tonantzin, worker, alone
motion picture	Antonia’s Line Character	¡Ay Jalisco no te rajes! La vida conyugal	Mecánica popular Amores Perros
music	engineering (quietly)	spontaneity (noisy)	life (perplexity)
nationalism	devoted and fanatic, but very restrictive to other’s nationalism	fervently, few days a year	defensive, desperate, every day
old persons	the worst	the family	the wisdom
painter	Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Cuyp, Van der Meer, Van Gogh, Mondrian, Appel	Dr. Atl, Orozco, Montenegro, González Camarena, Anguiano, Soriano	Posada, Covarrubias, Kahlo, O’Gorman, Belkin, Vlady
politics	welfare	church	fake
religion	discotheque, serious, methodical, limited, sober	rigid, serious, systematic, painful, ceremony, power	old, mixed, crowd, colorful, dream, flash, flesh, sacrifice, blood, sun, stone
respect	if you look like European and obey the official rules	if you have a new truck	if you kick me (I will kill you, however)
school	friendship, racism, fashion, violence	friendship, racism, religion, violence	competence, crowd, fight, scam, politics, strike
sex	public, tourists, lie, achter het raam, afwerkplaats, restriction, silent, geheim	catholically	open, noise, multitude, rhythm, melancholy, solitude
singer, popular	André Hazes	Vicente Fernández	José José
snack	Een haringbroodje (a bread with fish [harring], onion and cucumber)	Una torta ahogada (a bread with pork meat, onion and very hot sauce)	Un tlacoyo de caracoles (blue corn tortilla with snails and chili)
sport	need, good, water, field, ice, outdoors, indoors, hi-tech	You mean TV?	run, metro, cough
street walking	you never see everybody when you walk, especially don’t see the girls, their eyes and their legs	you look at everybody, especially the girls, their eyes and their legs	you look at everybody, trying to avoid a hold up
team	the “orange clockwork”, reciprocity, cooperation, the system to perform a common objective	the people surrounding me, which I can use to get power	myself
tequila	a South American jenever (Dutch say “tequilla”) ...a worm inside the bottle, no?	craftsmanship, original, pleasant, identity, blue fields, pure, fragance, red soil	unknown, corrupted, toxic
TV	maybe not	reality	controlled mass
un- comfortable	the Germs	the Others	the Gringos
U.S.A.	heroes	future	aliens
value	character, discipline, hardnekkigheid	sincerity, friendship, charity	solidarity
water	canal, river, system, dam, effort, bridge, control, challenge, engineering, tenacious, admirable, power, the soul of the country, the waterparks, Het _-Meer, the North Sea	hot-dry soil, rain, fragance, mother, female, flowers, happiness, desire, melancholy, huge rocks, Chapala, Sayula, the Rio Santiago Grand Canyon, the Pacific ocean	the origin, the history, the old city, Tenochtitlan, the blood of Mexico, tragedy, Conquista, stupidity, dry, lack, despair, engineering, projects, efforts, hope, pulque, Xochimilco
weird person, a	probably creative	probably stupid	probable and common
woman (see also: mother)	male-woman, practical, strong character	sacred object, tears, victim	Earth, corn, stone, tragedy, force, sustain
work	tuesday, wednesday... and thursday, if I want it	mandatory every day, except churchday	blessing, thankful, hard, poor, abused, lack of
writer	Joost van den Vondel Simon Vestdijk	Juan Rulfo Juan José Arreola	Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Octavio Paz
X	XXX Amsterdam	the christian cross	X Mexico, the crossroad between the worlds