This blog is about different cultures clustered near the U.S. / Mexican border, specifically in Tucson, Ariz. For my first entry I spoke to James Cook, 29, who moved to Tucson to start over after Hurricane Katrina flooded his native New Orleans, La. I thought that Cook would have an interesting view on the culture in Tucson since he was coming from a part of the United States that was culturally and geographically different.
Cook said that Tucson is “adequate.” He said that there is a possibility that he could settle down here, as long as he gets to travel frequently. When Cook talks about New Orleans though, he mentions the word “home.”
“There is something exceedingly relaxing and wonderful about being able to go down to the river, like at sunrise and drinking a cup of coffee;” he said, “You’re not going to find that here in Arizona. The closest I’ve found to that is finding good hiking here.”
Cook’s journey to Tucson involved rafting down the main streets of his city, pushing bodies out of the way, laying down in a makeshift medical unit in the prison, sitting on a school bus for 24 hours, Dallas, Oklahoma, and then Tucson.
While all this was going on Cook said that he did not really process it, all that went through his head was “Good God I need to get to some dry land!”
Cook and a group of friends voted to move to Tucson. Coincidentally courses at the University of Arizona will allow him to continue his education. Today Cook is enrolled at the UA as a doctorate of philosophy student studying ancient history, specifically Egyptian history.
Cook said that there is “a strong South West American culture and a strong South West Mexican culture [in Tucson] and anything else is just a sprinkling of cultures.”
He sees each of the two main cultures as having different values and politics, but sees them living in harmony.
“Any of the clashing is due to superficial details that are drawn out of proportion. I think it’s understandable to have a certain amount of racial pride and there is a lot on both sides. But they have a lot more in common than they do apart,” Cook said.
He said that dress, mannerisms and responsibilities cross cultural boundaries when people grow up in the same region because these things are formed by geography.
Cook said the issues in New Orleans are vastly different than those in Tucson because in New Orleans they are about divisions of economic class rather than cultural or racial.
He said that people from different economic backgrounds can have identical interests, such as going to the rodeo, but that they will enjoy it from different perspectives, the difference between front-row box seats to the nose bleed section in the stands.
Cook used the example of the rodeo; all economic levels will be there, but not all
cultures.
“I don’t think you can compare accurately an economic clarification to a cultural one;” he said.
Speaking of the rodeo, the only thing about Tucson that still perturbs Cook is men who are not cowboys dressed in hat, boots and spurs.
“Unless your job is a cowboy, it’s not cute. New Orleans has a strong pirate culture; we don’t dress like pirates;” he said.
