Guanajuato, Mexico: Spitting

"Mexicans know how to treat their fellow man better..."

I absolutely love that quote. I found it years ago on one of those gringo websites on which the owner is trying to sell the gringo something and to do so she goes the Mexico is Heaven On Earth route in trying to persuade potential buyers to buy her book.

Let's examine a fresh example of just how "Mexicans know how to treat their fellow man better..." that happened to me less than an hour from this writing .

The wife and I were walking home from downtown Guanajuato. We were heading to the Pastita Street via an elevated sidewalk. We walked past the bakery and the other stores and shops leading to the stairway. We reached the stairs, directly across from a small grocery store, that takes you to the street level. We attempted the descent when a man about 60 years of age charged me.

My wife, thank God, was already midway down the stairs. I was on the first step heading down. The man ran up to me growling like a wild animal. He held on to the railing with his left hand while swiping at my head with his right. I ducked and when I did he began spitting on my head. The madman then walked into the store, bought and coke, and then left going the way he had just come.

Now, could someone explain that to me? Could someone tell me how "Mexicans know how to treat their fellow man better..." in that instance?

I know this does not happen all the time. However, try living in this town for a few years and walk the streets daily and you will see just how "Mexicans know how to treat their fellow man better...".

But, that it "does not happen all the time" really is quite meaningless when it happens at all. It doesn't matter that it "does not happen all the time" when it happens to you.

I was in such shock that I took the better route and did not confront the ass. My wife and I stood at a distance and observed.

So, that's my Shangri-La, Nirvana, Heaven on Earth Guanajuato, Mexico report.

And, remember this: That this happened is not at all what is so upsetting. What galls me through and through are the gringos who not only deny this sort of thing ever happens, but they do so so as to get you to buy or rent something they have to offer. They don't want the truth to be known that Guanajuato is like anywhere else on the face of the earth--you have you be vigilant, on your toes always to what could happen to you day or night.

This event happened at approximately 3:30pm on July 29th, 2009.

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Guanajuato: Twilight Zone Strikes Again

Here I am. I haven't added a blog for almost an eternity and thought I would take the time this morning to get back into the blogging groove.

This month has been a total drag. I haven't had the energy to do anything at all, much less write, and feel ashamed of myself for that.

I did uncover some hard evidence that the Gabachos in Guanajuato have every intention to recreate another San Miguel de Allende here in Guanajuato. I suspected this years ago but never had anything substantial other than anecdotal evidence. I read a few days ago, on a Guanajuato forum, an outline of things these "Cultural Imperialists" want to get going here. They want another San Miguel and, I believe, are setting out to make Guanajuato into that imagine. A bilingual Mexican asked the question, and rightfully so, just what these people are going to do to get Mexicans involved in their re- engineering of Guanajuato's Mexican culture. I think she was being sarcastic.

Truly, Americans simply do not get it.

Another thing Americans simply do not get and I believe will never get, is that language is the key to the door of culture.

Why on earth would an American who really expatriated to any country and not learn the language I cannot begin to fathom. But it us what they do routinely.

My wife get scores of emails each month from Expat Wannabees who are selling hearth and home to move to Guanajuato and they don't speak a word of Spanish.

How do they do it?

They are coming in droves with not a thought in their willy-nilly heads that they will drive up the cost of living beyond imagination. To put it in the words of my pal, Roberto, "When they see the gabacho coming, they see American dollars, and the prices go up!"

Nor do they know that to get along in Guanajuato, that is, have a real life here, you have to know Spanish! Either they don't know it or they refuse to believe it.

San Miguel de Allende, according to one fakepat, is like living on a cruise ship with lots and lots of events--in English--scheduled. You never get bored.

In Guanajuato you have to live in the culture. That is, you have to be able to interact with the Mexicans in order to say you have a real life. Guanajuato is a thriving society only it is entirely in Spanish. The locals do not live to serve the gabacho.

A gringo in SMA wrote me once and said that for generations Mexican parents have taught their young in San Miguel that their existence is to serve the Americans. And, said this gringo, if they didn't like it they were welcome to live elsewhere.

The unmitigated arrogance!

The Twilight Zone moment I wanted to write about is that while there are some Americans who try to learn Spanish, most fail. They fail because they attempt to learn speech as though it was an academic pursuit.

It isn't!

Rather than engage in the process of second language acquisition and develop spoken fluency first, they take grammar courses. They learn something about the language but cannot speak enough to go to a Spanish only doctor when they are sick.

In becoming fluent in any language it is a "cart before the horse" issue. One leads to the other.

But, no matter how much I preach this in the highways and byways of Expat life, no one listens.

And, they remain monolingual.

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Guanajuato, Mexico - Darkside 2

In Mexico,there are little to no animal cruelty laws, however, it has been suggested that animal cruelty laws are slowly being implemented. The country's current policy usually condemns physical harm to animals as property damage to the owners of the abused animal. The Law of Animal Protection of the Federal District is wide-ranging, based on banning 'unnecessary suffering.' Similar laws now exist in most states. However, this is disregarded by much of the public and authorities. - (Wikipedia)

Animal cruelty is evident in Guanajuato on a daily basis. Whenever one sees Guanajuatenses walking dogs you are bound to see just what I mean.

First of all, Guanajuatenses, as a whole, will turn their dogs loose on the street. Packs of dogs can be seen running the streets anytime night or day. The consequence of this, breeding on a massive scale, results in more and more puppies that grow up only to repeat the process some six months later.

If that wasn't bad enough, you can see roof dogs that are staked out on their owner's roofs sometimes with no water or food nor shade.

Puppies are abandoned routinely at garbage dumpsters or thrown into them as though they were cardboard boxes.

Those who have pets can be seen kicking them on the streets as we saw today.

A male child (future serial killer in the making) was chasing down two very tiny Chihuahuas, running to keep up with their owner, and kicking them if the dogs lagged behind. One puppy tried stopping to make pee-pee and the 8 year old kicked it viciously. The boy, now get this, was associated with the dog's owners.

The parents or caretakers see this happening and rarely do anything to stop the child.

Just a few minutes afterward, we saw at the bus stop where we were waiting, a child with a small puppy throwing it in the air as though it as a rag doll.

I would love to tell you that small kids are the only ones doing this but I would be lying. Last fall, we saw a twenty something young woman carrying a chihuahua on her back like it was a parrot perched on her shoulder. This 5´7 tall adult dropped the puppy where it promptly fell on its back.

The thing is, is that dogs and cats, companion pets, are treated badly here. The locals seem to think that these are pieces of cardboard, or whatever, that can be thrown away more easily than trash.

My poor wife is getting to the point where she can barely stand to be out in public. She will plug her ears and close her eyes when she sees small children given charge over some helpless puppy for the child to toss it around, hold it upside down by one leg, or kick it around for not keeping up.

This is truly one of the most hideous dark sides of Guanajuato.

Not all Mexicans, mind you, do this.

Our upstairs neighbor has a small, purebred dog. He never lets this dog run loose to breed anything that crosses its path, he always walks this dog on leash, he feeds it a high quality premium dog food, and has it impeccably trained. And, in fact, just this week he took in a stray to clean it up and try to find it a home. We chatted and he too is angered at his fellow Mexicans for their irresponsibility.

Can you guess what I will say as to my neighbor's place of birth?

Mexico City and NOT Guanajuato.

This is just one reason why I say Guanajuato is TERMINALLY PROVINCIAL!

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

Guanajuato, Mexico - Again, NO AGUA!

The water is off again. The last time it was off, the end of June 2009, it was off for almost three days with the water company promising it would be on at the end of those three days.

This brings up an issue of Mexican culture. Mexicans tend to tell you anything they think you want to hear. Rarely, if ever, will they tell you they don't know something. Nor do you get the truth most of the time.

A good example is when tourists make hotel reservations. The American tourists routinely report in travel forums that they called the hotel, spoke with someone claiming to speak English, and was assured the room would be ready and the tourist would be welcomed with open arms upon arrival.

Well, upon arrival no one at said hotel has ever heard of them, from them, and there is "No Room at the Inn..."

The offended and Royally Pissed off American tourist will swear someone told them "uh-huh" at each and every junction of the hotel reservation process but there was no room or open arms waiting for them.

And, the American would be right -- They would have been told yes, yes, yes, yes we got it, and yet nothing!

It is absolutely comical to read through the travel and expat forums and see just how void Americans are regarding Mexico. To put it into the words of a Mexican pal who conducts tours for Americans, "They expect each and every thing to be just like the States."

Just the other day my wife, who is a destination expert for one of the online travel sites, received a private message from someone moving to Guanajuato and was asked how she could find housing. Now, get this, she is arriving in September and has not a clue how to find a house or apartment. She is actually closing down her life in America and moving to a place where finding a place to call her own is as foreign to her as can be.

Just what are people thinking?

Are they even thinking?

Just what will she tell the cab driver when she gets to Guanajuato from the airport in Silao? Drop me off at .......... ?

And the icing on the cake is that she doesn't speak enough words in Spanish to order a meal much less find an apartment.

I truly do not get this at all and furthermore never will.

My wife tells her, and the multitude like her, to check out San Miguel de Allende where she doesn't need to speak a word of Spanish.

Oh my, have I digressed?

So, the water is off, we are told we will have it on this afternoon, it is now afternoon! It is 4:50pm and counting.

Were we told the same ole Mexican Song and Dance by the lady at the water company?

¡Por Supesto Que Sí!

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

GUANAJUATO - Escamoles (ant eggs) and other Mexican delicacies

By

Cindi Bower

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The other day as I was flipping through the six channels we are able to receive in Guanajuato without cable, I saw an announcement for an upcoming cooking show on the educational channel. As I'm interested in Mexican cuisine and love watching cooking shows, I made a point to tune in. Was I in for a surprise! The subject of that day's program was "Insectos y salsas" (insects and sauces).

I knew that grasshoppers (chapulines), ants (hormigas) and ant eggs (escamoles) were just of few of the more exotic foods eaten by the Aztecs and Mayans from my research into Mexican cuisine. Before moving to Mexico six years ago, I happened to catch Anthony Bourdain's show, "A Cook's Tour," on the Food Channel. One of the episodes featured a trip to a restaurant in Tlaxcala where he tried escamoles and gusanos de maguey (worms that burrow into the maguey cactus).

Of the escamoles, he said, “They’re perfectly good, with a slightly aromatic, woody background, almost fungal.” (http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2001/08/kitchen_cowboy). His driver, Martin, said the worms give men lots of power with the women and taste “Very special. They fry the worms golden brown and when you first bite in it’s crispy, like pork skin. Then you chew and…” (http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2001/08/kitchen_cowboy).

A Mexican friend here in Guanajuato was telling me about a trip he and his family made to Mexico City. One of the foods they sampled were chapulines colorados, red grasshoppers. His five-year-old son described how they pinched the heads off, then chomped down the body, legs and all. He and his father claimed they were delicious, but his mother and sister could not bring themselves to try them. His sister said she wanted to vomit when she saw her brother and father eating grasshoppers with evident delight. They all drew the line at gusanos, though.

These descriptions did not make me want to sample any of these "delicacies," but I was interested in watching the show just to see how they were prepared. Also, I wanted to watch the cook sample the finished products so I could watch her face to see if she really enjoyed eating worms and bugs as appetizers. Alas, she merely presented the final results, but did not pop any into her mouth.

First, the chef demonstrated how to make various salsas…pico de gallo, verde, roja and guacamole. All looked simple to make and looked delicious. I'll be sharing recipes for these salsas in future Blog postings.

Then, she moved on to the protein part of the appetizers. She went to the local market to buy the gusanos and chapulines. However, the escamoles required a trip to a field of cactus plants with the farmer. He looked for ants, followed a line of them back to the nest at the base of a cactus plant, and dug up about two cups of ant eggs. After he stood up with his prize, he was covered with ants, which I've read viciously sting whoever or whatever disturbs the nest. He didn't act like the ants bothered him, though.

Back at the studio, the cook washed the dirt off the escamoles. She commented that sometimes one finds a few larvae mixed in with the eggs. Don't discard them, she said, as they are high in protein and quite delicious. Yeah, right I thought! Yuck!

She melted some butter in a skillet, added some chopped garlic, and cooked it until it was brown. She added the escamoles to the skillet and cooked for about a minute. She added a little epazote (a common herb used in Mexican cooking) and allowed the mixture to cool a bit. To serve, she spread some guacamole on a small, crisp corn tortilla about the size of Ritz cracker and topped it with a spoonful of the escamoles.

The gusanos de maguey and the chapulines colorados were fried in oil (in separate skillets) with a little chopped parsley until they were browned. The cook drained them on paper towels to remove the excess oil. She spread pico de gallo on one crispy tortilla round and topped it with a few of the fried gusanos. On another tortilla round, she spread a little salsa verde and topped it with a few fried chapulines.

To me, it was a waste of tortillas and salsa to top the appetizers with worms, ant eggs (and larvae!) and grasshoppers, but that's just me. Many people love these delicacies and rave about how wonderful they are.

I'll take their word for it, but no insect or worm or ant egg will ever enter my mouth by my hand. I'll eat grass or flowers or leaves first (of course, only after being carefully examined for creepy crawlies!).

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

In GTO and In My Right Mind?

Ok, so I was in a bit of a temper when I wrote my last blog entry. I didn't really mean (or did I?) that all of Mexico is a Third World Country. In some ways it is very much a developing country but I would be hard pressed to say just how so, so don't ask.

The water is back on, the Internet people, after four months and thousands of complaints, finally showed up and fixed my online connection, and here I am writing once again of my unfailing love of living in Mexico.

I was talking to my dentist's wife (they are right across the callejon from us) about our water and internet woes and her response was to shrug her shoulders and say, "This is Mexico. What do you expect?" -- From the mouth of a Mexicana, I hope you take note.

We were in the Mega Super Store the other day. The roof was leaking from the rain. I might add that this has been happening, the rain leaks, from the very first rainy season this relatively new store found itself encountering. I want to also make the observation that these roof leaks seem to the very same ones from two years ago. I know this because you can see the round outline of the plastic garbage cans they put under the leaks the first time. Mexican craftsmanship, what can I say?

And, if you are wondering why they haven't fixed the very same "old" roof leaks that began two years ago, all I can do is echo the words of our Mexican neighbor, "This is Mexico. What do you expect?"

We are in the process of trying to cut costs here in Guanajuato. The prices for Gringos are rising at an unstoppable rate. Though there exists a worldwide financial crisis, Guanajuato vendors of everything from donuts to renting or buying a place to live, don't seem to think this applies to the Gabacho.

I don't what it is, exactly. I don't know if it is the unsophistication of this area of Provincial Mexico in which the locals think "Untold Riches Abounding" when they see the Gringo walking down the street or what?

Whatever it is, prices for a rental are insane!

Just the other day I read two descriptions of relatively small houses in GTO that were renting for $750 - $1,250 a month -- and that was in dollars and NOT pesos.

Gringos will pay it so why not? The thing is that it makes it virtually impossible for the rest of us to live.

There are places in central Mexico where three to four bedroom houses, unfurnished, rent for $70.00 dollars a month. I have no intention of telling you where that is because I wouldn't want to wish a San Miguelian Invasion on these towns. And besides, you would have to be fairly fluent in Spanish to live in these towns and we all know that for the majority of Gringos that is never going to happen.

Anyway, I feel a soapbox session coming on me so I'd best go!

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