De mexicanos y gringos...

Hola amigos!!!
I just want to say a quick word about something I've been thinking about since I got here. One of the first nights I was here, Rashelle and I went out with our host brother and his friends. We got to talking about extranjeros like us and how Mexicans feel about them. One of his friends said something very interesting to me: that Mexicans are more fascinated with anything or anyone coming from outside their country and less fascinated with anything Mexican. At the time I just took it as him espousing his opinion, but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm seeing it more and more here. Why did Rashelle and I, the only Americans in line outside a dance club, get in before all the Mexicans in front of us? This has happened every time we go dancing. Last night I was talking to a guy from Monterrey and he said the same thing...that Mexican men les gustan las gringas mas que las mexicanas. I suppose perhaps it's true of any culture, that extranjeros seem more interesting and exotic...why do Americans think of Brazilian women as being so beautiful? When movie producers want to make a character sexier, they give her an accent.
That said, I think this is maybe a smaller part of a larger picture that I can't begin to comprehend yet. I'm thinking again of my friend Fernando from the U.S...he once told me that Americans think they're free, but we're not free. We have everything we could ever want in our country because the government gives us everything we need, "American people—you can never leave this country. It’s only like a few people can like go different countries. ‘Cause uh, like they give you everything, to make sure you gonna stay here. They want to keep you like right here." Is this true? It can't be a bad thing that we have "safety nets" in the U.S., but at the same time, perhaps we have less freedom. Isn't there some saying that poverty frees you and wealth traps you? Of course...I'm talking mostly in this instances about Mexicans like Fernando who come from the poorer parts of Mexico. I wonder if wealthier Mexicans share the same views about the U.S.
Why do estadounidenses focus inward while mexicanos focus outwards? It's odd...I feel like I'm learning more about my country by living here than I did by living in my own pais.