FREE OFFER!!!

To promote my newest book,

A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL: A Guanajuato Travelogue,

I want to make you an offer that, hopefully (oh please, oh please!!) you can't refuse.

All you have to do is CLICK HERE to go to the order page of the Special Release Edition of the book, buy it, email me at expatriate03 @ yahoo.com the credit card or the LuLu.com receipt and I will send you, absolutely FREE, the following ebooks:

1. Learn How To Learn Spanish - In this book I tell you how to overcome the traditional methods of language learning that don't work. I show you what works.

2. Guanajuato, Mexico:Your Expat, Study Abroad, and Vacation Survival Manual in the Land of Frogs - A very different expat guide in which I take to task the "Gringolandias" of Mexico and how the Gringos affect the culture. Read Here what Bruce Drake (Washington,DC) Former Editor with NPR News says about this title and our first book THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO.

3. Sustainable Expatriatism This title will show you how to have the least impact on culture when moving to Mexico.

So, all you do is buy my Travelogue, A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL: A Guanajuato Travelogue, send me the receipt, and I will email you these books in the PDF book editions.

Thanks,

Doug Bower

email: expatriate03 @ yahoo.com

(To prevent email spamming you will have to copy and paste the email address into your email client and then remove the spaces between the "@".)

Living in Mexico – The Pretense of It All

No matter your motive for moving to Mexico, you should equip yourself with as many tools as you can to help you work through the intricacies of a vastly foreign language and culture. There are two tools that I believe are "musts" for living in Mexico. One is a working knowledge of Spanish. The other tool is a book by Ned Crouch called, "Mexicans & Americans: Cracking the Cultural Code." No matter what else you intend to have or do to bridge the chasm between your Gringoness and life in Mexico, you have to be in possession of these two tools.

Ned Crouch, cultural analyst and lecturer, points out that the Mexican worldview can be summed up in three immutable concepts. The first is that Mexicans see themselves as all part of a procession. Second, Mexicans believe they are imperfect. Third, Mexicans believe there are many versions of reality. This third concept is the one with which Gringos tend to struggle the most.

There is nothing in our Gringo background with which to compare this one concept. That's what makes the Mexicans' view of life so baffling to Gringos. In our Gringo worldview, we tend to take one side or the other in a controversial issue. Mexicans, on the other hand, can take both sides of an issue, controversial or not, at once and experience no sense of contradiction.

We Gringos see issues as black or white, good or bad, yes or no. In the Mexicans' worldview, there can be all manner of shades and shadows within the issue. Gringos see that two worldviews can exist within the same culture; i.e. the liberals and the conservatives in American politics. With Mexicans, this dichotomy can exist in the individual's mind. In other words, a Mexican can hold both liberal and conservative political views at the same time and see no contradiction.

In the Mexican mind, there is always a place to hide because truth and reality are relative. The Mexican mind can embrace two widely different views of reality, often at the same time.

Though the Spanish conquered the Aztecs militarily, they did not obliterate the Aztecs culturally. Though Spanish names and the Spanish language soon became dominant in New Spain (now Mexico), the Aztec culture was (and still is to this day) alive and well. Modern Mexico contains elements of the egocentric Aztec fatalism mixed with Spanish optimism. Though fallen militarily, the Aztecs retained much of their own culture. They just added aspects of the Spanish culture to their Aztec base.

Thus you have the modern Mexican's two views of reality. The Aztec mystical worldview coexists with Spanish optimism.

Even in 2008, there is a Mexican culture in which the two views of reality can exist at the same time in the mind of the Mexican.

A Mexican bruja (a witch or healer) can have clients from every conceivable socio-economic and educational level. Priests routinely refer their parishioners to brujas to have curses removed. Medical doctors refer their patients to brujas as well. Folks with rational-based educations go to brujas for help and often refer their clients to a favorite bruja. Truth and magic mix to form the Mexican worldview.

"Mexicans," writes Crouch, "have a unique worldview of their own Catholic faith. Priests preach the truth but, 'We poor peasants have to grow the corn. So, we will practice our faith, but we will also put the ceramic corn gods in the field.' The Mexican seems to be saying, 'God made me, but I make the tortillas.' They live in two worlds." (Page 188)
Another version of reality that makes up the Mexican worldview is: Pretending.

Crouch tells a story about when he ran across a company's brochure that was pitching office panel systems that would attenuate sounds in an office and create a muffling affect. The brochures had elaborate graphs showing the effectiveness of the panels in their "sound attenuation studies." The only thing was that the company never commissioned these studies of their products. The graphs and claims were, in the worldview of the company's owners, not a deception since graphs are what companies selling sound attenuating panels for offices do…they have graphs. They were "looking the part." Putting sound attenuating studies and accompanying graphs shows the company is "real." It is what modern companies do.

They were pretending.

At a school where my wife taught English as a Second Language, the owner of the school had a huge and very professional-looking sign made and bolted to the side of the building for anyone passing by to see. The sign listed all the services the owner alleged to offer the public. However, of all the services the school's owner listed on the sign, only one of them was actually offered. My wife was the one performing that service.

The school's owner did not think it deceptive to list services on the sign that were not offered in reality. She said, "I might offer it someday." She was pretending. She also had a horde of "certificates" on the walls of her office claiming she was a certified English translator and yet the woman could not utter two words in English without prompting. (She listed translation as one of the services on the sign outside the building.) But, a modern office offering similar services has elaborate signs and certificates listing amazing abilities and services. She looked the part.

It was all a pretense.

A Mexican's tendency for a different version of reality lies in his ability to do what others, like Gringos, would think about doing but never articulate or try.

Is this all currently true of all Mexicans without exception? I doubt it. Then again, I've not met every Mexican without exception, so who knows? But, the culture, in all its surreal generality, speaks loudly.

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Doug Bower is a writer who lives in Guanajuato, Mexico and author of A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Your Age Does Not Matter!

Imagine a 60 year old who has had a "little Spanish" moves to Mexico for the first time in his life. Within four months after taking daily Spanish lessons is able to conduct his business in Spanish and order around his Mexican employees in Spanish.

Is this the accomplishment of a linguistic genius? Nope.

Sven-Göran Eriksson had managed soccer in four different countries and spoke five languages until earlier this month. He is now the Mexico City soccer coach but arrived in Mexico, for the first time in his life, with little to no Spanish under his language belt.

The fact that he already had fluency in other language is not an indication of a gifted linguist. He is not a linguist. He is a guy who played soccer for Sweden until an injury benched him permanently in 1975. He went on to successfully manage teams in Swedish clubs as well as internationally.

Eriksson is a fine example of someone in the later years of his life not letting the issue of age stand in the way of language acquisition. The science shows that it is not "giftedness" that allows someone to become multilingual. It is, rather, someone who does not let the "Affective Factor"stand in the way of becoming fluent.

Eriksson is also a perfect example of what the past 40 years of research in linguistics has shown:

"Incidentally, there is no evidence that the "biological wiring" for language acquisition changes as the infant develops into childhood and then adulthood. And, indeed, our experiments (Asher, 2000) together with classroom observations of children and adults (Garcia, 2001) suggest that a linear progression from comprehension to production is imperative for most students (perhaps 95%) if they are to achieve multi-skill fluency in a second language. (James J. Asher, Ph.D.)

Check out this article for some of the theory then this website for some ideas on how to get started.

You can learn whatever language you want and that is because you are hardwired to do so.

And, I just have to add this: This is an indictment of each monolingual Gringo who moves to Mexico and NEVER learn Spanish.

I've Been Saying This All Along.........

One of the many tools I use to constantly improve my Spanish is to listen to Mexico's national and local news. Our local news comes out of Leon, Guanajuato even though we do have a local station, sort of.

Today I was following a news story of a conference in Leon dealing with the current scary worldwide economic crisis. I wasn't paying close attention letting the news play in the background of my thinking of something different until English was heard on the screen.

The Mexican news reporter was interviewing a guy who "looked" Hispanic but for some reason was speaking English. I quickly gathered he was a conference invitee but for some reason was replying to the reporter's questions in English.

What he was talking about was the problem with Mexicans being stuck in tradition when dealing with economy and trying to solve problems. The man went on to say if Mexicans were to begin to think outside the box of tradition when dealing with problems, stop getting stuck in the cement of the traditional ways of doing things, that they could emerge as an Economic World Power.

First of all, I could barely believe they let the comment on the air and could just see telephone lines lighting up with thousands of complaints. I was shocked there was no, "Point, Counter Point" exchange over this interview. But, so far, and it's been an hour since it aired, no fallout.

Here's the thing: There are Mexicans all over the Republic who see that Mexico has got to change.

Change from what, you may be wondering?

Change from the Provincial: A person, city, or country of local or restricted interests or outlook.

Tradition seems to almost always win in this country whether you are trying to pin someone down on when they will carry a particular food item in the store or deal with the Narco-Taffico-Terroristas!!!

This is a true story: I know this man who went into a Wal-Mart and asked if they would have such and such back on the shelves soon? The store manager told him that it was too hard to keep it on the shelves. My friend asked if he meant it was too hard to order from the supplier? The manager said no, that it was too hard to keep it on the shelf because it sold out too quickly.

They would not refill their order with the supplier because it was too hard to keep it on the shelf for very long because of its popularity. They would rather put something on the shelf making the shelf look full of "something" rather than thinking of order MORE of the particular item that sold out quickly.

Tradition told the store manager that it was better to look "full" rather than allow empty shelf space to remain unfilled.

He could not think past this.

A prosperous store has shelves that are full to the brim and not empty. An empty shelf made the store look shabby and not prosperous. This is very, very common in Guanajuato.

I asked a Mexican friend from one of the Northern states what he thought of Guanajuato.

"Mired in history and tradition."

Guanajuato is one of the Uber-Provincial cities in the Republic.

Tradition, no matter what, and even it prevents them from keeping up with the rest of the world, rules everything.

One of my wife's ESL students is a chemist in a company in Guanajuato. Her company mandates that she has to try and place an order with Guanajuato suppliers first. If they can't meet a deadline, then she can look outside Guanajuato for her order fulfillment.

She says, that she no longer orders from any supplier in Mexico. They are so ruled with byzantine rules and lack of methods that she says it is quicker and most often cheaper to order from the States. She says her questions are answered before the day's end and orders are filled or discounted if there is a delay.

Truly the guy on the television interview was right......

...if Mexicans were to begin to think outside the box of tradition when dealing with problems, stop getting stuck in the cement of the traditional ways of doing things, that they could emerge as an Economic World Power.

Living in Mexico: People seem happy here

The pursuit of material things, according to the scientists at World Values Survey, is a "happiness suppressant." If that is true, then you've just got to wonder how this affects Americans who have devolved into a material-seeking society.

·At any given time, one fourth of Americans are mildly depressed

·Americans' personal income has increased more than two and a half times over the last fifty years, but their happiness level has remained the same.

·Americans earning more that $10 million annually are only slightly happier than average Americans.

What is so very interesting is that in a country that is touted as the richest in the world so few Americans are happy and, in fact, are depressed. In a country that has so little by comparison, even though it is right next door to America, México's people are happy and content with what they have. You see this immediately even just visiting this country. People here are happy.

In a University of Michigan survey called World Values Surveys, people worked to gather information on the happiest countries in the world. The study spanned some twenty years. What they found was startling.

"World Values Surveys measures the happiness of individuals by two different means. The first is to simply ask them how "happy" they are. The second is to ask them how "happy" they are, and also how "satisfied" they are. The results are then combined to arrive at a measure of their "subjective well-being," a term generally considered synonymous with happiness."

The results looked like this:

1. Nigeria
2. México
3. Venezuela
4. El Salvador
5. Puerto Rico

Do not miss the profundity here. In countries that have so little materially and whose future does not seem very bright in being able to obtain material leaps and bounds, the people are the happiest in the world. México rates #2 and I am not surprised at all.

If smiles on faces, full body greetings complete with kisses, and jovial laughter being heard everywhere instead of the uttering of vile obscenities is any indication of happiness, we didn't need scientific surveys to tell us that México is a happy country. In a society where the people have so little in terms of material wealth, Mexicans are billionaires in happiness. They are apparently a people who know what counts. They understand that "things" are not what makes one happy.

Being with Mexicans is like being with the insufferably happy aunt that though you find tiring, you leave her presence in a much happier frame of mind. Her smiling and laughter become contagious and before you know it your anal-retentive sour puss is transformed if but for a little while. And, when she's absent or passes away, you feel a true loss for the effect she had on you. That, my dear American, is how I feel being in México.

There is an energy here that I do not believe I can live any longer without. For, to go back to the States, ever, is too awful to contemplate. I could not do it. It would destroy my soul. I need the worldview here that just hangs on every street corner, from every balcony, from every store clerk—I could not live again without the effect Mexican happiness has on me.

The appeals are numerous and sometimes deceptive. But, Americans keep flooding into this land wondering and mostly wanting badly for México to be a Promised Land flowing not with milk and honey for the body but for the soul.

This can be a real possibility for the gringo expat. México is here as she's always been.

However, Americans do not leave their pursuit of unfulfilling materialism at the border. When they arrive in Mexico, these middle-class Americans try living way beyond their means. They've fallen into the delusion that you can come to Mexico and live like Kings and Queens with a stable of servants to wait on you hand and foot. And, consequently they fall prey to the identical thing that gave them no satisfaction in the States: Materialism.

On top of all the materialism, you have Americans who mostly WON'T learn Spanish and thus form Gringo Bubbles or Gringolandias to find social stimulation. This ALWAYS devolves into a kind of Social Incest—there is simple no one else with whom you can fellowship who speaks English.

The Gringo's claim to having "loads and loads of Mexican friends" are simply those Mexicans recycled within the Gringolandian group. I believe they are the same Mexicans who the Gringos find to do all their interfacing in a culture with which the Gringos can't communicate or have any social discourse. The Gringos CANNOT have a variety of Mexican friends because of their continual and almost generational refusal to learn the language so they can have more than the Gringolandian Mexican friends.

This, the materialism with the linguistic-caused lack of Mexican friends, adds to the dilemma. A lot of them seem to form binge-drinking events to cope. I've personally seen this in Puerto Vallarta and Guanajuato. Once when I was in Vallarta, this man in his mid-sixties said that he would get drunk tonight at a party we both would be attending. I asked him why and his response, now get this, coming from a man in his 60´s, was "how else can I have fun?"

San Miguel de Allende, Central Mexico's Gringolandia Golden Corridor, has twenty-two 12-Step Group meetings per week. Sixteen of those are Alcoholics Anonymous Groups (we are talking 16 separate AA "groups") and this is to meet the needs of 14,000 Gringos in the city.

I've heard this more than once that the average American retiree is almost guaranteed NOT to have ANY Spanish in his or her repertoire of expat skills. In America there is a whopping 96% failure rate in second language acquisition attempts. This means of all those who try to learn ANY foreign language there is a 4% success rate. Another sources puts the failure rate at 97%. So, it's a fair bet to make that the expat coming from America is NOT going to speak Spanish.

So, there you have an immediate bad mix of living in a foreign country where you cannot talk to the locals, you are forced into this social incestuous situation of only being able to talk with the English speaking expats, you can't go to a social event like the theater or movie unless it is in English, so what are you going to do for fun? Drink!

Moving to Mexico actually makes a lot of sense even in the present horrible economic times Americans are finding themselves.

If you do it right, and "go native", when you move here then you could conceivably do very well. However, you've got to learn Spanish, live like a native, and leave your materialism behind.

And, that all I'm saying.

LIVING IN MEXICO

MOVING TO MEXICO makes sense even in scary economic times! Check out the resources on this page that can help you make an intelligent decision in your expat adventure. The majority of the resources on this site deal with living in central Mexico. The reason is that the traditional places to which Gringos have flocked are beyond the retirement budgets of most retirees. Central Mexico is now THE PLACE for those potential expats living on a fixed income. With the exception of SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Central Mexico is where you will find affordable living for as little as $1,000 usd a month.

Affording The Move to Mexico...The untold secret to living in central Mexico, believe it or not, lies within learning the language. Learning Spanish will actually put you into a class of Gringos that can better afford housing, cost of living, medical, entertainment, etc... This is the most often neglected factor of expatriating to Central Mexico. If you learn Spanish, and you can no matter your age or lousy disposition, you can live much, much cheaper than those who move to Mexico's many Gringolandias or Gringo Gulches. San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta, or any of the traditional place Gringos have moved to and created Gringolandias, are now TOO expensive for your average Americans or Canadians.

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Click Here to Learn The Principles of SUSTAINABLE EXPATRIATISM.

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The Most Hated Gringo in the World Report – 23

I lost count years ago of the amount of hate mail comments I've gotten over whether there is a two price system in Mexico: One for Mexicans and one for Gringos. I've also lost count over the hate mail comments I've gotten as to whether or not Americans are perceived as being fabulously wealthy--ALL OF US--and therefore to over charge us or even to cheat us is an Ok thing to do.

Foreigners targeted in driver's license shift

This sort of thing has been going on for generations. According to my Mexican sources in GTO it is what their parents train them to do. I know a very well educated Mexican, and who is bilingual, who conducts tours for gringos. If they do not try to speak some Spanish to him and with him, he charges them more than someone who makes an attempt at the language.

And get this: I've received an inordinate amount of mail from Gringos and Mexicans living in Guadalajara who tell me I am lying about a dual price system.

There you go!

The Most Hated Gringo in the World Report – 22

In a top-ten list of why I deserve to have the title, The Most Hated Gringo in the World, certainly very close to the top would be: SOURCES.

The Gringolandians here in Central Mexico get their knickers all twisted into a knot over the fact that I have consistently refused to respond to their emails in which they demand that I name sources for stories and events I've blogged over the years. The stories Mexicans and Expats have related to me about the behavior of Gringolandians and about which I've written, these Gringolandians have demanded that I tell them who it is I have been quoting.

Imagine the gall!

I have employed two distinct styles of writing over the years since moving to Guanajuato. One has garnered paying gigs from at least two major U.S. newspapers, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and other is The Philadelphia Inquirer as well as Transitions Abroad Print Magazine. I've also written for and published with other sources in exchange for promotional credits that helped with my book sales.

The second style of writing, which I find very satisfyingly liberating, is blogging. The burden of proof is vastly different in this type of writing and one is pretty much free to say just about anything.

In my Blog writing, I have often prefaced quotes with, "someone told me…" without a need, really, to name my sources in the piece. And, often you are publishing the story on your own or with someone who does not ask for sources. In using this style of writing I've been able to get local Mexicans who I interview to open up to me more freely when I assume them total anonymity. The same goes with the Gringos I've talked to who live side-by-side with various Gringolandians and who do not want their names attributed to the quotes for fear of reprisal…that's right, Gringos afraid of reprisal if it got out they are the some of the sources within some of my stories.

Allow me, if you will, to stop the flow of this piece and make mention of something.

These Gringolandian detractors of mine have actually accused me of making up that I have published pieces with reputable major metropolitan newspapers. One of the detractors even alleges he is an ex-newspaper editor of a southern state's paper. And yet, none of them apparently had the clarity of mind to verifying my publishing credits with the papers for which I say I have written. Did not one of them consider checking the online archives? One of these Gringolandians went so far as to put online that he checked and all he found for proof were letters to the editors. When was the last time someone was paid hundreds of dollars for a letter to the editor? Amazing reasoning there.

With most of my blogging being done online, and with me NOT naming my sources, the "We-want-you-to-die-gang" has concluded that I have made up my sources. They don't exist.

Never in a zillion years would I tell these

we-need-a-bicycle-pump-sized-syringe of Thorazine psycho-ward escapees

who my sources are. If they want to kill me (not kidding here folks) for NOT quoting these sources imagine what they would do with knowing who they are!

If the "we-know-better-than-Mexicans-themselves" Gringolandians got their hands on the list of my sources would they threaten them too? Would they set fires outside their bedroom windows also as someone did to us on June 4, 2007?

Twelve hours after receiving an online threat that said:

I hope when I wake up tomorrow morning that I will have found that the Guanajuato Gringos will have taken care of you.

A fire was set and at least one car would have exploded and ended my writing career had I not been awake in the wee hours of the morning to discover it.

The fire is a verifiable event, folks.

During the summer of 2008, a friend told me that he had read some of my articles online and was wondering just what it is the Gringolandians of Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende wanted so badly to do me in for.

All I could say to him was, "Who knows?"

Expats from Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende, those not associated with the bubbled lives of the Gringolandians, actually warned me not to write about issues in the Gringolandian communities. I was told by Expats of longstanding residence in Mexico that "those people would try to hurt you if they can" should I persist in writing about Gringolandians and their negative impact on Mexican culture.

Dangerously dire consequences, I was told, would surely follow if I wrote of things like:

1. The effect of Gringolandizing upon local Mexican culture.

2. The willful and intentional inability in the language—monolingual by choice.

3. Gringolandizing is not accidental but intentional—cultural imperialism by design.

4. That the Mexicans in a city such as Guanajuato will regard the Gringo tourist and expat much, much differently than Mexicans in a city whose local economy has been dependent upon Americans' dollars. In other words, Guanajuato is not a Gringo friendly place.

5. That Guanajuato is a terminally provincial town—this was perceived massively by the Gringolandians as being a racist comment.

And the list could go on and on and on!

Perhaps now you can see why I do not mention the sources of quotes by Mexican or Gringo individuals. One Gringo in Guanajuato was concern that what has happened to me would most certainly happen to him if I revealed him as source who agreed with my propositions about Guanajuato.

A man in San Miguel de Allende actually trembled with a quivering voice over what could happen to him and his wife should I reveal them as a source.

Does not this beg the question why?

So, I don't reveal sources lest the Wolves devour them.

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For Article and Book Reviews CLICK HERE

A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel – A Guanajuato Travelogue, by Doug Bower, is now available through Unlimited Publishing. CLICK HERE

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The Most Hated Gringo in the World Report – 21

The question has been asked, and more than once I might add, why I seem to have more than a passing fancy about Gringo life in the most amazing Gringolandia in the world, San Miguel de Allende. In all fairness to that question, I confess I have indeed written a bit, a mere sprinkling of text about SMA (San Miguel de Allende) since moving to Guanajuato. And, I have many wonderful faithful and astute readers in SMA who, from time to time, send me such well meaning, wittily crafted, brilliantly constructed, and highly intelligent reader's comments (mostly death threats) such as:

"Why does this guy have such a hard-on for SMA?"

Well, my goodness, indeed!

This guy, yours truly, has decided after a considerable absence from any significant screed about SMA to get back into the saddle, hard on and all, and begin writing anew about my favorite subject.

And, just where do I begin?

I've already written about the most incredible parochially paternalistic belief expressed to me by a Gringo in SMA in which he informed me, after reading one of my articles, that the one goal in life predestined for Mexicans in SMA is to serve the Gringo population and that if the Mexicans didn't like their destiny they were welcome to leave and go elsewhere.

Some three years or so after posting this in an online article, not one member of SMA's illustrious Gringolandia has ever responded so such a horrid statement by one of their own.

I've also written extensively about the chief characteristic of Cultural Imperialism – the superimposition of the language and culture of the stronger invading culture over the more vulnerable, weaker culture the stronger one has infected.

"Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting, distinguishing, separating, or artificially injecting the culture or language of one nation into another. It is usually the case that the former is a large, economically or militarily powerful nation and the latter is a smaller, less important one. Cultural imperialism can take the form of an active, formal policy or a general attitude. The term is usually used in a pejorative sense, usually in conjunction with a call to reject foreign influence." (Cultural imperialism, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

You can live in SMA and never have to utter one word of Spanish.

Every travel article, online website, chat room forum, or guidebook paints the delusion that San Miguel de Allende remains a charming Colonial Mexican that will afford the traveler a genuine Mexican touring experience. An exotic, you-can-escape-America experience awaits you. That's the Concept of Mexico that is presented. The Reality of what you get is Anywhere America. On your way to downtown SMA, you will see views such as the gigantic American-style Superstore with a mega mall-sized parking lot loaded to the brim with cars. Just like in America. Once you get downtown you will see the very genuine and thrillingly Mexican Starbucks coffee shop that awaits to give you American-style coffee at American prices. The genuine Mexican vista will soon be filled with a Wal-Mart.

One has to ask, not only of SMA but of every Mexican city in the Republic (including Guanajuato), just when the balcony views will be full-frame with McDonalds, multiple car dealerships, KFC outlets, and anything else American Imperialism can flood the landscape with.

I just have to ask why spend all that time and money to come to Mexico, and in some cases traveling thousands of miles, to vacation in a city and in a country that is no longer Foreign? Some cities I've been to in Mexico are as about as foreign as Anywhere, America. What exactly is the point? You come to Mexico to tour or live and it isn't any different than home. You can run down to the Wal-Mart to pick up some Oil of Olay or some Martha Stewart hand towels.

What is the friggin' point—that's all I am asking!

But, what is happening in SMA is happening everywhere in Mexico. American colonization through economic might instead of military power.

America has created and is importing a philosophy of unfettered capitalism that is entirely without one iota of consideration for culture. How America's retailing concepts impact culture is not a second, third, fourth, or fifth thought. It doesn't even enter into the equation.

Yet, America keeps it up at a fevered pitched pace, bringing into cities in Mexico its retail outlets, cities older and RICHER than the United States itself.

If anyone doubts that the importation of culture-destroying American retail outlets is not targeting Americans, listen to this person's comment about living in SMA:

"I live in San Miguel de Allende. I moved here three years ago with no Spanish. It has been an easy transition. There are many friendly and helpful people that live here. There is so much to do. I feel like I am living on a cruise ship because there are activities offered here everyday."

Do you think for one moment if there had not been the premeditated crafting of SMA into a "Cruise Ship" existence that anyone would pay those prices to survive in that town? It has become a Central Mexican resort with American this and American that to complete the gig.

Gringolandian's desire for a Cruise Ship existence has changed forever San Miguel de Allende. The only thing that ties the town's separate but parallel dimensions, Mexican and Gringo, together is money. One group puts food on the table. The Mexicans know it, the Gringos know it, and the Gringos have the Mexicans "over the barrel," as the saying goes.

Mexicans as an ancient and precious people have withstood conquering armies, murderous floods, starvation, and thirst but that which has won the day, and in less than a decade, that which the Mexicans cannot resist, is the culture-destroying American greed and the Americans' money.

Do you think for one moment that the importation of American retail outlets is targeting Mexicans? Tourism studies have shown that Americans will tour a country that is different but not too different. They want some sameness as home. They are attracted to cities in countries with KFC's, Wal- Marts, Sam's Clubs, and, of course, McDonalds.

In December of 2004, we were in Puerto Vallarta watching the cruise ships come in. It was something we had never seen before and I was awestruck to see the size of these floating hotels. Where the passengers disembarked there were a line of taxis ready to ferry them into the Historic Center of town. Perhaps less than half a dozen taxis were hailed. The rest of the passengers made a beeline for the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club directly across the street from the boat dock. We followed them into the stores to spy. What they did was load up on every conceivable American name-brand product they could carry in bags back to the ships. Afterwards, we watched them cross the street and re-board the boats. In somewhat of a state of shock, we caught a cab and asked the cabbie in Spanish if this was an unusual thing to see. His response was:

"¿Me está bromeando?"

Are you joking?

Our hosts, friends with whom we were staying, confirmed the story again.

My wife recently read online of a man who went touring about the country and ate exclusively at the McDonald's that were generously scattered throughout the Republic.

Potential property buyers are also attracted to where there is a lot of "sameness" as home. They want as much American-style life that can be squeezed into a culture without having to change the name of the country to "Little America."

I am not convinced the Gringolandians wouldn't want that!

And, there you have why I have written so much about San Miguel de Allende, and really all of Mexico. It is a textbook example of how a city has been targeted to attract Gringos with money by offering to them the sameness from back home. You don't have to give up anything to live here, the pitch will go, look what we've got for you – Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and whatever else you desire.

I find it all so appalling.

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel – A Guanajuato Travelogue

by Doug Bower,

is now available through Unlimited Publishing.

Click Here

CERVANTINO 2008 - Narco Terrorism

Of all the Cervantino Festival events that roll into the city of Guanajuato each October I believe my least favorite has to be that which sends many locals fleeing the city for three weeks each year. The ghoulish punks, the vampirish Goth, or the "hippies"—as the Guanajuatenses are wont to call them—are not what the founders, I am quite sure, had in mind for the Cervantino Festival of the Arts.

Our first Cervantino was in the fall of 2003. I can recall in a discussion I had with my Spanish conversation teacher that my unbridled excitement over participating in the festival was listened to with all the enthusiasm of one of the permanent residents of Guanajuato's Mummy Museum. Her deadpan expression was due, she told me, to the invasion by Mexico's youthful sub-culture, turning what was surely meant as a celebration of the Fine Arts into a celebration of drinking, drugging, and all the free sex one could muster. Apparently, a lot of mustering had become the main attraction.

My Spanish teacher went on to report how her rather large and extended family actually packed their bags and went to stay with relatives elsewhere for the three week duration of the festival as if fleeing a military invasion by Guatemala. Well, goodness, I had to find out what this was all about and would soon discover long-term expats as well as locals with lots and lots of stories.

The huge Cervantino Festival was originally meant to be a celebration of performing arts, fine arts, culture, and general artistic expression honoring the contribution of Miguel de Cervantes to Spanish and Mexican culture.

Cervantes was born in 1547. His work, Don Quixote, is considered to be the world's first modern novel and certainly a classic of Western Literature. The influence Cervantes had on the Spanish language is considered by some experts as a lengua de Cervantes (The language of Cervantes).

Some of the University of Guanajuato's students, enthralled with Cervantes' Entremeses—a kind of satire—began performing them in Plaza San Roque when it grew into a grand idea: increase tourism. That's how the idea for Cervantino was born. These small, almost informal, performances grew in importance and popularity to the point where the Mexican government saw an idea to increase the city's popularity and tourism income. The original idea was to attract world-class performers from all over the world, not just those from Mexico.

However the founders meant the festival to be, interference from the Mexico government is where things went afoul. That is, at least, the story I have been able to piece together from sources varying from Mexican residents to long-term Gringo expats.

To save money—of course—the Mexican government got it into their heads that they could recruit "free talent" from a pool of young and upstart groups looking for exposure. This translated into officially recruited groups and unofficially recruited groups, some of which had little to no talent and who brought with them their groupies and lots of them. And, they showed up in droves. Our first Cervantino, 2003, we had a startling revelation in our discovery that hippies had not died out as a species. They were alive and well and all in Guanajuato for three weeks each October.

What followed this migration of the Not-So-Fine-Art-inclined was a tremendous population of Flashback-From-The-Past Sub-culture individuals who thought nothing of displaying loose behavior and in a very public way, sending the very provincial Guanajuatenses into a vociferous complaining frenzy to the government. An elderly Guanajuato woman of no small financial or influential means told me the Cervantino Festival had become a celebration of the Barrachos or drunkards.

Cervantino 2008 began this year on the 8th of October and will last until the 26th. It began, however, under a cloud of fear. Morelia, Michoacan's Independence Day celebration on the 15th of September, in which shrapnel hand grenades were hurled into the civilian crowd of celebrants, cast a foreboding shadow over Cervantino. With 8 dead and scores wounded, many wondered if Guanajuato's Cervantino would or could be the Narco-Terrorist's next message.

I was delighted to discover that Guanajuato's government saw the light that an ounce of prevention was most certainly worth a pound of cure, as they say. Proactive action looked a lot better than waiting for another body count. Guanajuato acted!

Several days before Guanajuato's Cervantino Opening Ceremonies, the scary but welcome sight of Mexican soldiers with attack dogs appeared in the central plaza, El Jardin. I think it was this unnerving and never-before-seen sight that woke many Guanajuatenses to at least ask the question whether the events of Morelia could happen in Guanajuato.

Extrema Seguridad, or Extreme Security was the headline of Iván Rodriguez's story in the Guanajuato daily, El Correo.

"On each corner," writes Rodriguez, "Mexican army and agents from the Federal Police to guarantee peace and public order."

When Cervantino's opening night finally rolled around, a security presence never before seen and somewhat disturbing to provincial locals, was in place.

Rodriguez writes of barricades for better crowd control, metal detectors, and the manual checking of purses and backpacks by bomb-sniffing dogs assured a Narco-Terrorist incident-free evening.

I only hope that there will many more Terrorism-free Cervantinos to come and with a radical return to the founder's original intent of a high quality presentation of the Fine Arts.

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel – A Guanajuato Travelogue

by Doug Bower,

is now available through Unlimited Publishing. CLICK HERE

Paradise Lost Part Two

Director of Security and Wife Murdered

In case you missed part one, that entry is archived here for your reading convenience.

I wanted to make a quick entry to tell you that Guanajuato is a city under siege. The military is here lining the streets, guns, scary looking attack dogs, and chalecos balas.

Cervatino began last night and we stayed home. We began to suspect that there was some sort of intelligence afoot regarding another Narco-Terrorist attack from the subtle increase in security days after the attack in Morelia on Independence Day celebrations and days before the beginning of Guanajuato, Mexico's 36th International Cervantes Festival.

The opening ceremony had a HUGE police and military presence and the local daily, El Correo, reported that backpacks were searched and metal detector were used. There were also bomb-sniffing dogs on hand.

The thing is that almost daily you can read in the Gringolandia online forums how living in Mexico is so safe, so peaceful, so tranquil, where there is no crime.

Now, that is not a hyperbolic statement as evidenced by this:

I agree, we have lived here in Mexico for six month s and love it , the people are so loving, weather is one of the best world wide, crime is nothing compared to the states.

Crime is nothing compared to the States? Somehow I do not think that would be much consolation to the survivors of Morelia, Michoacan's domestic Narco-Terrorism attack on Independence Day celebration:

In Morelia, Michoacan during Independence Day festivities last night, two hand grenades were thrown into the crowd gathered in the city's Melchor Ocampo Plaza. Eight people were killed and many more were injured. Throughout Mexico people are shocked and outraged at these events, which are particularly disturbing because they came during a national celebration and targeted innocent party goers. It is speculated that drug gangs are responsible for the violence.

Nor would it be any consolation to the survivors of the murdered couple in Jerécuaro, Guanajuato in which the director of public security and his wife were mowed down by Narco-Terrorists on the morning of October 8th, 2008 after taking their eight-year old to school. A six-month old baby was in the car but left unharmed as the result of her mother shielding the baby with her body as they riddled the car with gunfire.

I doubt too that the dentist and his receptionist in Guanajuato's San Javier barrio would find it comforting to learn that their attack, at one in the afternoon, in which the woman was severely injured and the dentist robbed

...is nothing compared to the states.

I spent the evening reading the local daily called "El Correo". In it was an editorial by Juan Ignacio Morales Castañeda.

In his piece titled, Corrupción Generalizada, he writes of the widespread corruption in the Guanajuato government in which they are in cahoots with the Narco-Terrorists.

Narco-Trafficante, Román Medel Pacheco, or "El Chicago" is on this video in which he reveals a long and steady relationship of paying protection money to the federal police, state and municipal authorities to "look the other" way for his nefarious business dealings.

If you can understand or read Spanish follow the hyper-links in this blog entry to hear some really chilling stuff about what is going on in Guanajuato.

We sat in the home of a lady from Argentina who has been living here for work reasons for as long as we have been in the city. We asked her how she thinks Guanajuato has changed in the past six years. Her first response is that it is more dangerous.

So, perhaps you can see why I am so persistent in pushing the point that Gringolandia Fairyland is not where you want to be. The only way to wake up and smell the reality of living in any city in this country is to learn Spanish.

FREE CHAPTER:

Notes From South of the Border

My Thoughts, My Opinions, My Editorializing on My Life in Central Mexico

Gringo Profanity in Mexico

Perhaps it was because I grew up in a household of cursers that I so despise the use of profanity. Or, maybe it is because it is so indicative of someone's inability to articulate themselves intelligently. I've also thought that it could be because it is so closely related to the Rage Issue in America that Americans are some of the most profane uttering people.

I can recall never being able to go out in America without having the air turned blue by the limited vocabulary of profane people. And, I am not talking about a minority here, either. Does not your own experience show that Americans just cannot seem to express themselves, all most always in anger, using the vilest profanities? It is everywhere, is it not?

I totally get using profanity in high stress situations in which to utter a few vulgarities can relieve stress a bit. I must admit, I have fallen into this a time or two. What I am talking about is lacing one's conversation with words best left in the locker room or a construction site. If you will notice, Americans no longer seem to be able to talk without using words that frankly are tiresomely vulgar.

We live in a small colonial Mexican town called, Guanajuato. It is the capital of the state of Guanajuato. Not too far from us is an other colonial town called San Miguel de Allende infected with almost 12,000 American expatriates. To put it in the words of an expat friend who fled that town to live where we do, "They come to San Miguel with all their little pathologies," and indeed they do.

We went over there to eat in a Chinese restaurant. After giving our order a group of Americans came in. They gave their order in English (this is because the vast majority cannot string together two words of Spanish to save their lives), and then proceeded to have a little chat that went something like this:

First Vile American:"I told that son-of-a-bitch that I didn't give a shit what he thought."

Second Vile American:"Well, what the fuck did you tell him then?"

First Vile American: "I told him that I didn't give a shit what he did next."

Second Vile American: "Did he shit all over himself when you said that?"

First Vile American: "Hell, I don't know and who gives a shit what he did next."

Second Vile American: "Shit, is that all you said to the fucker?"

First Vile American: "No, I told him shit on you, you shit-head."

This gem of a conversation was uttered in the loudest possible of voices so that they could have been heard, I am assuming, outside the restaurant. I asked the waiter, in Spanish, if this was a rare occurrence. He had quite a good time laughing his head off. I am sure the vulgar Americans didn't care one whit that they were loud and vulgar because, to put it in the only thing profane Americans seem to understand these days,

"They didn't give a shit what a bunch of Mexicans thought of their shitty behavior."

Mexicans can curse. Do not get me wrong, here. But, it is so utterly comical and so appropriate that you hardly notice it. And, just let me say this: I walked the last 7 months past road construction full of Mexicans and not once did I witness vile language much less profane behavior. When they do use profanity it is nothing like Americans and certainly does not create the same sort of hostility that you feel when Americans cut loose. Mexicans curse with purpose (though you rarely hear it) unlike Americans who will scream obscenities for lack of a better vocabulary and temper control.

That is the main issue. You just don't see, ever, Mexicans pitching fits of rage in public and cursing like drunken sailors. The Mexican public realm seems off limits to that sort of vulgarity for which I am thankful. There is not a whole lot of public expression of such uncontrolled hostility here as in the States. In fact, I have yet to witness it. Just think of a moment of the appeal of being to go out in public and not having to witness public hostility.

In a recent YouGov poll, Britons surveyed revealed that,

"…A majority of the Britons described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business."

But I fear, just as another part of the survey reveal, that Americans do not give a rat's rear-end of how their vulgarity affects the rest of the world:

"A massive 83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks."

Click Here to Read More

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