Cultural Issues: Why Do Gringos Move to Mexico?

"Actually, I don't see many examples on this list of people looking to move to Mexico to live extravagant lives, but rather of people who like Mexico (or other Latin American nations) and also want to have a pleasant and comfortable life. Quite a few are trying to find a way to survive on minimal pensions - is it so terrible we would like to make themselves as comfortable as we can? The fact is many, probably most, Mexicans also would like air conditioning, cable TV, access to the Internet, etc. Why does it become a crime for US retirees to want the same?"

REPLY:

I would love to be able to tell you that the vast majority of Americans moving to Mexico do so because, to phrase as the quote above, " but rather of people who like Mexico (or other Latin American nations) and also want to have a pleasant and comfortable life. Quite a few are trying to find a way to survive on minimal pensions..." While I think it a reasonable assumption to think some fit into this category (like my wife and I), what I've seen with my own eyes in the research I've done for my writing has shown me otherwise.

Sometimes I think this argument borders on some highly charged, emotional roller coaster of untested assumptions. I mean, really, how can you know the intentions of anyone's heart and what his motives are? You can't. There is, however, a good idea of what's on someone's mind when you look at how he lives once he moves to Mexico. If the intent is that the retiree likes Mexico and merely wants to have a pleasant and comfortable life and is trying to find a way to survive on minimal pensions then what picture do you think one should see when these retirees get here and starting living in Mexico? What should that picture look like? And, really, my questions apply to anyone who expatriates to Mexico for any reason.

I've heard online and in person the reasons why Americans create their gated communities in Mexico when they get here: "so we can mix with our kind"-a remarkable comment, if you ask me. Probably the single most poignant remark I've gotten from Mexicans I've interviewed for my books and articles is: Why won't the Gringos associate with us?

The picture you see, in the flesh, in the stark reality of it all, is that when the vast majority of gringos of the American flavor move to Mexico, they move to what author Ken Luboff calls The Prime Living Locations of Mexico. These are basically, but not restricted to, the following areas: Lake Chapala, Ajijic, Guadalajara, San Miguel de Allende, and Puerto Vallarta. It is in these areas where they are typically attracted and in these areas they move into the Gringo Gulches. They want their Gringolandia and it is there they will live.

If the premise in the above quote is true, that they like Mexico and want to find a way to survive on a limited pension, just why would they typically and massively be attracted to the Gringolandias of Mexico? I can assure you, with all my writing might, they will not be able to live on a limited pension in any of the Gringolandias in Mexico. And I would also love to ask, "If you like Mexico so much then why do you want to isolate yourself from Mexico by living in a Gringolandia gated community?"

The only answer to the Mexican who wants to know why the gringos won't associate with him is that the gringo cannot very well associate with someone whom they want to lock out of their lives by living in isolated gated communities. Really, what or who are the gringos locking out?

Now, for the sake of all the readers who are at this point having a fit over what I've just said, let me offer a disclaimer: Not all American expats do this. There are some, not many, who live in Mexican neighborhoods because they can. They've put in, and are continuing to put in, the hard but certainly not impossible work to learn Spanish. The language is the portal to the culture of the community. Without the linguistic skills, the gringo is doomed to living in Gringolandias and living a very limited lifestyle.

After being in Mexico for about a year and being in too many Mexican's home as guests to count, I was told by a gringo living here that he and his wife had never been invited into a Mexican home. They had lived here for 10 years at that point and had never been in a Mexican's home. I find that too tragic to imagine.

A reader recently replied to a piece I wrote telling me that "studies have proven as one ages it is harder to learn a second language." Again, those typically untested American assumptions. This is not true. If this reader meant learning a language as they are presently taught in America, then she was right. It would be hard for anyone to try and memorize grammar rules and vocabulary while trying to learn how to speak the language. However, where Americans mess up is that what they are seeking is Language Acquisition so that they can speak the language and not necessarily the ability to interpret and translate a piece of written text.

Acquiring speech, and this is what we are taking about, is as natural as was acquiring your first language. First comes language acquisition then comes the learning.

So, the fear of language learning because of your age is not an excuse to close the portal to the culture, the door that would enable you to live among the locals.

A funny thing is that I constantly meet Asians here in Guanajuato who are older adults and are here to learn Spanish. They do not have this fear of language learning within their culture. They did not grow up in a xenoglossophobic culture and thus are here to learn Spanish.

A book I would require for each and every person thinking of moving to Mexico, or any country for that matter, is: The Ugly American, by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick. If you go to Amazon and type in the book title you can get the re-released copy out with W.W. Norton and Company.

This book is a fictional account of how Americans act overseas. The copy I've got, one of the originals, has an epilogue in the back of the book in which the authors describe how and why they wrote this book as fiction. They take you back through the characters and events and show how these are based on actual people and historical events that took place within the framework of the Foreign Service. While the book is slanted toward how Americans' typical and all-too-frequent cultural ineptitude and total lack of linguistic ability is a dangerous thing with in the Foreign Service, it is most certainly applicable to anyone and everyone who is thinking of doing anything overseas-especially living in another country!

In chapter 13 of my copy of The Ugly American, a character of an Asian country in the story is being interviewed:

"What in general has caused American's loss of prestige?"

"The Americans I knew in the United States were wonderfully friendly, unassuming and interested in the world. No one who has every visited America and come to know the country, could fail to trust and respect her people.

For some reason, however, the Americans I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. The live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious."[1]

The story, taking place during the cold war, goes on to point out how the Russians, the communist bad guys in the story, do not make the mistakes the Americans make. The communists come with linguistic and cultural fluency under their belts before arriving in the country and are observant of the local population's sensitivities.

What has been historically true is that most Americans come to other countries seemingly without a care in our collective heads for the language and culture of the rest of the world. If those Mexicans I've interviewed are any indication of what's still going on, then, well Americans are still doing the same thing.

So, you will excuse me if I respond to the statement within the quote of the beginning of this essay,

" Actually, I don't see many examples on this list of people looking to move to Mexico to live extravagant lives, but rather of people who like Mexico..."

You don't treat someone whom you like by isolating yourself from them (gated communities), living pretentiously, and being loud and ostentatious. Nor do you not learn the language of the people of the country you profess to like.

I don't know where this person was looking but I see examples of this all the time in the region of Mexico in which I live.

All the time!

[1] The Ugly American; William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick; W.W. Norton; 1958; pages 122-123