a different part of MX culture?

[colleen]

I lived in Privada de los Arquitectos since 2002. I never would have thought there was a part of the Panoramica that was quiet but where I live now is tranquilo on the weekends except for when horses pass the house and my dogs go crazy. I live just up from Pastita and the kinder, turn right and my house is Casa #1 (tho it is the 2nd house, and next to #14) with an entrance from the Panoramica tho it is part of Gto's gated community. Anyway...

Yesterday at 6PM my dogs were going crazy and I saw that a group of mostly young women, girls, small children and 2 small dogs were settling down in front of my gate. Usually if something is happening the people and their vehicles just park there and/or lean against the gate. There were a few young men with this group. The women started to spread blankets and looked like they were setting up a picnic. I don't really care and wasn't planning on having to open the gates so it didn't matter. And there wasn't a single thing I could do to stop them anyway. The dogs were running around the Panoramica in front of my house and coming close to the small entrance were there is no netting to keep dogs from coming in if they are small enuf. The large gates have netting since many dogs want to come in and live here.

Over concern for the dogs I went out to talk with someone from the group about the dogs. I greeted them in a friendly manner. I have never had a problem speaking with MX women. They are usually friendly. If it had been a group of men, I wouldn't have bothered. Nobody wound respond and I told them to please guard the dogs so that they don't enter my property. Then I asked what was happening. In that short amount of time the Panoramica was filled with cars in both directions with no movement. Nobody turned a head toward me or said a word. I went back in the house and let the dogs out. Thought maybe the little ones would stay away then.

It wasn't helping things to have the dogs outside so I called them in as I walked out again. I asked, again, what they were waiting for. No response. I asked if there was anyone who was able to speak with me. One of the 'older' women, maybe 20-something, started to call me all kinds of awful names. She knew more bad words than I do and I started laughing. It was pretty funny. Then she started saying something very, very fast and angrily. I responded only with sign language and headed into the house. Let those dogs come in. They could stay here and i wouldn't do a thing.

At that point, the young men rounded everybody up and made them go somewhere else. I'm not able to see further down the street so don't know where they went. When they were gone, 5 men in a pick-up truck pulled up in front of the gate. Even the dogs didn't care. They parked there till at least 8:30 which was the last time I looked. Sure am glad that I had locked the gates for the night, before they came. Might not have gone well if the locks were open and I'd have to deal with that.

There are small things about MX culture that have surprised me. If you give a present, you will receive a thank you and then they present isn't opened and it is never mentioned again. Did the person like it? I'll never find out. Also, not acknowledging change. I just got a haircut that is very different. When the maid came, she said not a single word. I was waiting to find out if she'd say anything. Nothing. I don't know how to catagorize this. A group of MXs won't speak to a ginga? Or maybe it is about them coming so close to my property. But being greeted in a friendly manner and then not saying a thing, is pretty strange.

[DonJuane]

That's a tough one. I resigned when I came here not to maintain anything of great value, to rent and not to buy because in a country that has few laws or enforcers of them, it seems the overall mood of the people can cause anything to sway from tears of joy to the level of fear and further down the scale that you may have encountered. It was also an objective of mine to try to break down my own ideals on what value means to me to the point where having nicer things than normal here would not mean so much to me any longer. And I have to admit that getting away from the culture we are born into makes this a very difficult thing to change.

Still this does you no good. Sounds like you are invested deeply and if the lawless pendulum goes the wrong way, you like anyone being in the wrong place at the wrong time can become a victim and therefore suffer. An important thing I have learned here, however, in protecting my assets is to lay low and your antagonist will eventually tire and move on to the next target (unless you provide them a reason to continuously return). Then once you are certain they have moved on, you can try to repair the damages they've left you. Never confront because most people will have more friends than you do. And this goes for everything, including children who ring your doorbell each day to see you come to the door (stop coming to the door), a neighbor below you who plays his stereo 12 hrs a day (stop complaining to him) or someone who paints your wall every month (either leave it or resign yourself to pressure wash and re-paint monthly).

There's really no getting around it. You can do small things that aren't obvious like wetting down the area before they arrive and if they don't see you doing it (perhaps covering part of the yard to make it look like over-spray rather than antagonistic), collecting rover's digested passings and strategically placing them around the area or any number of natural deterrents that aren't absolutely showing that you have done them in order to provoke. Still, thinking there is safety behind a gate or anywhere really, is a false sense of security. We can't be antagonists in this country to protect our rights because in reality we don't really have many.

[colleen]

Huh? Last nite's adventure was about trying to protect 2 small dogs and nothing more. I couldn't care less if those people lean against my gate and certainly wouldn't go thru the trouble of trying to do anything outside to mess up the area to make them uncomfortable. I fully understand that anyone who wants to come in can easily get over the wall. On Arquitectos I was constantly bothered by people coming to the door with all kinds of crazy requests. Would I let them go in and over to the jardin and pick some peaches? No. Not likely. Then Oligario, the cute con man, with his donkeys and bags of dried leaves. He finally left me alone when I magically cured him. He had a story about how sick he was and had to go to the hospital so he needed $. Sure. I told him it was sad that he was sick but that I was not going to buy any more of his dried leaves. He perked up. Smiled. He was cured. Que milagro. It's always interesting. Lots more stories. So many people trying to take advantage of the gringos. Who rents the babies to the old ladies during Cervantino? Maybe the funniest was watching a young woman put on all kinds of shawls to cover herself so you wouldn't know she wasn't an old lady holding a baby on the street, begging.

[DonJuane]

The world is a harsh, conniving, terrible, horrible, greedy, blood-thirsty, stealing, murdering, robbing, unfair, depressing place and then you die. Luckily each of us has complete control over at least one person who we can force not to be that way. The trick is how much of an effect we can have on that one person and later how much enjoyment we can derive from watching that person grow and change.

P.S. Home Depot has small gap fencing.