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Mexico
Rocky Point Ensenada Rosorito
Cabo San Lucas San Carlos
Sometimes I’ve been called a maverick because I don’t always agree with
my colleagues, but then, only dead fish swim with the stream all the
time. The stream here is Mexico .
You would have to be living on another planet to avoid hearing how
dangerous Mexico has become, and, yes, it’s true drug wars have
escalated violence in Mexico , causing collateral damage, a phrase I
hate. Collateral damage
is a cheap way of saying that innocent people,some of them tourists,
have been robbed, hurt or killed.
But that’s not the whole story. Neither is this. This is my story.
I’m a journalist who lives in New
York City , but has spentconsiderable time in Mexico ,
specifically Puerto Vallarta , for the last four years. I’m in Vallarta
now. And despite what I’m getting from the U.S. media, the 24-hour news
networks in particular, I feel as safe here as I do at home in New
York , possibly safer. I walk the streets of my Vallarta neighborhood
alone day or night. And I don’t live in a gated community, or any other
All-Gringo neighborhood. I live in Mexico .. Among Mexicans. I go where
I want (which does not
happen to include bars where prostitution and drugs are the basic
products), and take no more precautions than I would at home in New
York; which is to say I don’t wave money around, I don’t act the Ugly
American, I do keep my eyes open, I’m aware of my surroundings, and Itry
not to behave like a fool.
I’ve not always been successful at that last one. One evening a
friendleft the house I was renting in Vallarta at that time, and,
unbeknownst to me, did not slam the automatically-locking door on her
way out. Sure enough, less than an hour later a stranger did come into
my house. A burglar? Robber? Kidnapper? Killer? Drug lord?
No, it was a local police officer, the “beat cop” for ourneighborhood,
who, on seeing my unlatched door, entered to make sure everything
(including me) was okay. He insisted on walking with me around the
house, opening closets, looking behind doors and, yes, even under beds,
to be certain no one else had wandered in, and that
nothing was missing. He was polite, smart and kind, but before he left,
he lectured me on having not checked to see that my friend had locked
the door behind her. In other words, he told me to use my common sense.
Do bad things happen here? Of course they do. Bad things happen
everywhere, but the murder rate here is much lower than, say, New
Orleans, and if there are bars on many of the ground floor windows of
houses here, well, the same is true where I live, in Greenwich Village,
which is considered a swell neighborhood — house prices start at about
$4 million (including the bars on the ground floor windows).
There are good reasons thousands of people from the United States are
moving to Mexico every month, and it’s not just the lower cost of
living, a hefty tax break and less snow to shovel.. Mexico is a
beautiful country, a special place. The climate varies, but is
plentifully mild, the culture is ancient and revered, the young are
loved unconditionally, the old are respected, and I have yet to hear
anyone mention Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or Madonna’s attempt to
adopt a second African child, even though, with such a late start, she
cannot possibly begin to keep up with Angelina Jolie.
And then there are the people. Generalization is risky, but— in general
— Mexicans are warm, friendly, generous and welcoming. If you smile at
them, they smile back. If you greet a passing stranger on the street,
they greet you back. If you try to speak even a little Spanish, they
tend to treat you as though you were fluent. Or at least not an idiot. I
have had taxi drivers track me down after leaving my wallet or cell
phone in their cab. I have had someone run out of a store to catch me
because I have overpaid by twenty cents. I have been introduced to and
come to love a people who celebrate a day dedicatedto the dead as a
recognition of the cycles of birth and death and birth — and the 15th
birthday of a girl, an important rite in becoming a woman — with the
same joy.
Too much of the noise you’re hearing about how dangerous it is to
cometo Mexico is just that — noise. But the media love noise, and too
many journalists currently making it don’t live here. Some have never
even been here. They just like to be photographed at night, standing
near a spotlighted border crossing, pointing across the line to some
imaginary country from hell. It looks good on TV.
Another thing. The U.S. media tend to lump all of Mexico into one big
bad bowl. Talking about drug violence in Mexico without naming a state
or city where this is taking place is rather like looking at the horror
of Katrina and saying, “Damn. Did you know the U.S. is under water?” or
reporting on the shootings at Columbine or the bombing of the Federal
building in Oklahoma City by saying that kids all over the U.S. are
shooting their classmates and all the grownups are blowing up
buildings. The recent rise in violence in Mexico has mostly occurred in
a few states, and especially along theborder. It is real, but it does
not describe an entire country.
It would be nice if we could put what’s going on in Mexico in
perspective, geographically and emotionally. It would be nice if we
could remember that, as has been noted more than once, these drug wars
wouldn’t be going on if people in the United States didn’t want the
drugs, or if other people in the United States weren’t selling Mexican
drug lords the guns. Most of all, it would be nice if more people in
the United States actually came to this part of America ( Mexico is
also America , you will recall) to see for themselves what a fine
place Mexico really is, and how good a vacation (or a life) here can be.
So come on down and get to know your southern neighbors. I think you’ll
like it here. Especially the people.
