Guanajuato, Mexico - The Most Hated Gringo in the World #36

If you want to know the quintessential member of Gringolandia read this forum quote:

I must confess how surprised I am to learn that the absence of expats in a town can be seen as a positive feature. my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn t all that different from their homecountry (Wallmarts and anglospeakers to be found). Surely it´s positive to integrate into one s local community and have Mexican friends.But also having people who share one s first culture and language is important for one´s long term integration in sociocultural terms. If the presence of expats was of no importance I´d be living on a sailboat, in Nha Trang, St Pierre de Miquelon. Of course I am as fluent in Spanish as in English, but I know from personal experience that I could not resettle in a place without expats. Voila! - Quote as is from Yahoo Forum

1. This person is "surprised" to learn that the fewer the amount of Gringos in a Mexican town the better. Well, Voila, it is not a positive trait to have any sort of organized Gringo community, enclave, or Gringolandia. The fact that you postulate such a thing tells me that you are not an expatriate, are not expatriate material, and never will be an expat apart from a complete stripping away of your Gringolandian presuppositions.

a. If what you want is to live in an American or Gringo enclave with an exotic flare, why did you bother to leave American in the first place? Why not move to Scottsdale or Miami?

b. You obviously do not understand the cultural impact Gringolandians have on Mexican communities. It is cultural destruction. Americans move into a Mexican community with their vast riches and take on the attitude, "This does not appeal to my American tastes..., then go about changing everything into a little America. They conform the rich, centuries old cultural into something more suitable to their Imperialistic tastes. The local color is gone, the tie that bound the locals, cultural, is destroyed, and what you have left is a hybrid: Not America, Not Mexican, but something entirely different.

c. "...my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn't all that different from their homecountry (sic) (Wallmarts (sic) and anglospeakers (sic) to be found)..."

This, to be perfectly honest with the reader, is one of the most disgusting, if not the most, aspects of the Gringo infection in Mexico. This only confirms my 7-year long developed hypothesis that Americans are so incredibly culturally and internationally STUPID.

Rather than come to a foreign country and assimilate into the cultural, with all its good points and bad, they come here (mostly Americans) and proceed changing it into something entirely different.

Note how Voila defines her own culture: It has Walmarts and anglo-speakers. She is out of touch with her own culture much less what Mexico is. She thinks it is "not all that different from American's home country."

I find the abject ignorance almost beyond my ability to comprehend and disgusting beyond the pale.

2. "...But also having people who share one s first culture and language is important for one´s long term integration in sociocultural terms...." Once again, Voila, you betray your ignorance. No study, credible or not, I have read has mentioned this as important for developing a bi-cultural fluency.

3. "...Of course I am as fluent in Spanish as in English,..." -- I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard this claim and when the Gringo opens their mouth they can barely pronounce Spanish much less communicate fluently. Native speakers are fluent. Children who come from a bi-cultural household and grow up in bilingual homes develop fluency. We Gringos work at developing the highest possible degree of proficiency. There is a huge difference.

Voila, we don't need another Gringo like you in Mexico. Try living in the sailboat.


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