Foreigners?

[colleen]

Well, that was very interesting. Thanks for the link. I think Pedro Vasquez Nieto is a great guy. I wouldn't criticize anything that was said in the article but I don't agree. Or at least I look at it differently. Yes, for some reason, the foreigners seem to want to live in Centro. I have lived outside the Centro area since we bought our home in 2002. Our area was privada till the people from Los Leones decided they'd rather drive over rocks and, loudly, take a short cut to Pastita. The govmt won't do anything. They could put in stairs so that it would be safe for people to walk their children to the kindergarten, but they don't care. They came out, looked around, agreed that the small bridge is not safe for the large Coke and gas trucks and then did nothing. Our area was not slummy. We're the only gringos.

Foreigners have revived many areas, all for the better. The Mexicans who sold to the foreigners made money. Yeah, street vendors have been put out of business. Look at Embajadoras. Sure, people can now sit all over the park on the crappy dyed red concrete that encircles it. What is historic or colonial now? I don't see much of that. And it was the Mexican govmt that did that horrible project. It put many people out of business. It redirected people away from anyone who sold in the area by the little bandstand. I'm pretty amazed that anyone inside the market survived. There are alot fewer people there now. That disaster had nothing to do with foreigners.

I'm going to guess that rentals of property to students, who do make life miserable for neighbors, is not property that has been remodeled by foreigners, but crappy property owned by Mexicans. There are, of course, people who rent and do business off the records and I don't approve of that. My bookstore followed the rules, I paid for all kinds of crazy things. If you follow the rules, it is not easy to get permission to start a business or continue it. But then, many rules have changed, as have the visas since I was doing that.

The change that I abhor is the presence of graffiti absolutely everywhere. We never had it in our area before last Xmas eve. It's a horrible plague and the police and govmt need to do something about it. They want tourism but if this city looks like it might be run by juvenile gangs, that's not going to help. If it was safe in the past to walk at nite but it's not safe now, is it foreigners who are causing it? NO. Only in the sense that Mexicans see a target that might have money or property of value. Yeah, blame the victim for appearing to have $.

There are decaying properties near the bus stop coming down from Pastita and leading to Embajadoras. Someone did amazing repairs, about a year ago, to one of the places. I have seen no evidence of anyone living or working there since. Now a second one is being repaired. Not as nice, but way better than before. I suspect in 10 years, even the ones with trees growing out of the roof will be remodeled. I also suspect that this is being done by persons from Mexico City. I have talked with a few people involved in remodeling several years ago and they were all from DF.

I have looked for my friend Maria de los Angeles who used to come into town every morning. First she cooked. Then she got her children off to school. Then she got on a bus to come into town to sell her gorditas. I always bought from her even if I wasn't hungry. I think it's unfortunate that many tourists will take pictures of the people selling on the street but not buy anything. True, I have gotten pretty sick a few times. Maybe Maria doesn't need to do all that work anymore. One daughter was working as a beautician and another was close to graduating and going to the university and even the young son would be grown by now. Her husband took off for the US years ago and she didn't know if he was dead or just not looking back. Life is tough.

Yes, there are traditions that are lost or in the process of changing. If only they'd lose the traditions of setting off cojetes at 4 AM and playing the drums and bugles at 5AM as they march off to the San Miguelito festival. What's the fun of setting off the loud bangs at all crazy hours? Hey, life changes. The US isn't living the 1950s anymore, not even the good parts of the 60s and 70s. Young, educated Mexicans want change. We foreigners who are members of Brillantes Caminantes are helping intelligent students from poor families to get an education and we are trying to get Mexicans more involved. Their life style is improving and some of that is due to foreigners.

OK, let me have it. Tell me where I'm wrong.