Guanajauato, Mexico -- Vindicated

I am always am on the alert for smart Gringos. From time to time some get through on the forums and when I spot a post (actually my wife spots them) worthy of a mention I try to post them on my blog.

The theme of the post I am going to quote below is something for which I caught all manner of persecution when I began writing about living in the central highlands: a.k.a. San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo, etc...

If you want to see the absolute insanity of Gringolandians, try finding some of the SMA forums from 2004-present and do a search "Doug Bower" ... these people are murderous in their prose about me.

I was recently interviewed by an academic from Scotland. In the course of the conversation she asked me why I do not associate with the "Gringo Community" (translation: Gringolandians). When I told her why, that I do not generally get involved with folks who want to kill me, she was very understandably incredulous. In fact, one friend told me he had read a great deal of what I had written and asked me if I was making up the whole thing about receiving death threats for my writing.

Then I showed him the emails I had received.

He questioned me no longer.

So...that is so much water under the bridge. Gringolandians will engage in illegal activities in Gringolandia, like threatening you with death, and get by with it.

Here is a prime example of the themes that got me lots and lots of hate and even death threats and it is from someone else's pen:

SMA is a very beautiful small city , the Centro and small streets are charming. and photogenic. There are many art galleries and is certainly worth a visit for a day or two, at most. We found it very different from other Mexican cities in a way that it does not feel like its in Mexico, I was surprised that most people greeted us in English and quoted prices in US. We are originally from Canada and now live in Mexico so we only use pesos and it felt strange to have to convert from US to pesos and figure the exchange rate in Can$ as well. Hijole!

There are many many English speaking foreigners living in SMA , most
of them retired and I guess they have made it their own and I figured
that must the tourist attraction for us. My husband is just learning to
speak Spanish, he was offended when he asked to buy something, the clerk replied in Spanish and someone in the store right away translated in
English.

The food we ate was good but not the sopa de tortilla, it tasted like tomato soup.
In summary SMA is worth a visit as long as you are prepared that its
not authentic Mexican.

Try telling a SMA Gringolandia that "their town" ( and they do call SMA 'their town') is not authentically Mexican and see how many threats you get.

###

ROCKET SPANISH

FREE 6-Day Spanish Course!

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??
... AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

ROCKET GERMAN
ROCKET FRENCH
ROCKET JAPANESE
ROCKET ITALIAN
ROCKET CHINESE