Central Mexico Expat Survey 2007

Let's pretend that you are going to move to Mexico. For whatever reason: retirement, school, work, or you are just plain tired of your country and want something new, you are going to move to Mexico and become an expatriate. Let's also pretend that you are going to move to Mexico's heartland, the central part of the country, where not a whole lot of literature is available about what you could expect once you arrived.

Tell me how you would rate the following as something you would want to know, FIRST, before moving to Mexico, into the center of the country. On a scale of 1-10, with one being the least important and ten being the most gravely important, tell me if you would rate the following items as something vitally important to know now, items that could affect your decision to move to the city of Guanajuato:

When some landlords see your gringo face coming, the price of property suddenly rises dramatically.

Some landlords will expect you to pay for things needing repair or upgraded on the place you rent.

Some landlords will walk into your apartment when you are not there to have a look around, regardless of what your rental contract says.

Some "landlords" will pretend to own the property, rent it to you for six months at a time, and then disappear with your money, leaving you to deal with the real owner who shows up looking for rent money.

There are the Mexican prices and there are the gringo prices for everything.

You are in the market where the produce guy doesn't think you can understand Spanish and you hear him charge the Mexican woman something different than he charges you.

In a store selling ice cream and water, the clerk refuses to talk to you.

In a restaurant, you are told you have to eat in the inferior Gringo area and aren't allowed to eat with the Mexicans. One honest waiter tells you this is because the owner hates American gringos.

In another restaurant, you are waited on very last and only after all the Mexicans have their meals.

Walking on the sidewalks during rush hour can get you shoved off and into the path of an oncoming bus.

An expat who has lived in Guanajuato since 1971 claims he moved into the country so he would no longer have to live with the rude store clerks in Guanajuato. He also claims that the store clerks act as though you are talking to the wall and refuse to answer your questions.

Hailing a cab can result in having a local jump ahead of you, duck under your arm, and steal your cab.

You can be yanked off a bus just as you have your foot on the bus entrance step so someone can get ahead of you.

You will be, as a gringo, expected to surrender your seat on a bus to Mexicans.

You could be told you should walk on the outside edge of the sidewalk and allow Mexicans to walk on the inside because you are a gringo.

In any place requiring people to line up, to queue, you can be shoved out of the way even though it is your turn, you have given your order to the store employee, and the one doing the shoving shouts their order over you and expects to be waited on before you.

It is considered culturally acceptable for Mexican men to not only act sexually aggressively toward gringo women walking alone, but will often attack them in something called "Grope and Go..." The attack is actually given a name-Grope and Go. Young Americans women in the language schools are often targeted.

That in a Mexican town in which the livelihood of the locals is not dependent on American tourism or expatriatism, as is the case with Guanajuato, just how do you think the locals are going to regard Americans? Unlike San Miguel de Allende where the locals do depend on Americans for their economic well-being, Guanajuato is going to regard the gringo with, 1) Politeness, 2) Indifference, 3) Would love for you to leave and never come back and make that clear to you in a variety of passive-aggressive ways.

How badly would you want to know this stuff before coming to Guanajuato?