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LEARNING SPANISH AND LIVING IN GUANAJUATO

           
When I moved to Guanajuato thirteen years ago there were a lot of services and conveniences that did not exist and a lot of things I didn’t know – to grossly understate the fact.  Like most Americans, my ignorance about Mexico was encyclopedic.  These articles are little shovelfuls in the ongoing process of filling that abyss and hopefully are useful to those whose ignorance is even greater than mine.

The articles  range from reflections on architecture to interviews with local curanderos, profiles of modern alternative Mexican healers, cults in popular Mexican culture, and my adventures and discoveries.  I got tired of rejection slips.

This article, in contrast to all of the others, contains actual links that offer solutions and some comments on the conditions all ex-pats encounter.  We are part of a global phenomenon that has universal characteristics with colloquial differences. 

There are internal and external forces that promote the isolation of ex-pat groups and impede their interaction with local culture - and most importantly, lock them outside the information loop.  My perception is that the great majority of American ex-pats is content to limit their social life to other ex-pats and is not as motivated to learn languages as Canadians or Europeans. 

Both Mexicans and ex-pats criticize the insular nature of the local gringo community.  But immigrants always form closed enclaves. Mexicans create barrios in the US.  The gringo ghettos in Mexico are just one little dot in the universal pattern of migrating populations.  It’s not hard to understand why people far from home re-create their original cultural environment insofar as possible - their food, music, holidays and above all speak their language.     

Immigrant communities are never welcome, although sometimes their money or their labor is.  Among immigrants we are highly privileged.  But there is always a need to live defensively.  Resenting the intrusion of strangers into one’s home territory is apparently instinctual.  In Mexico all ex-pats look alike, and in the US all Mexicans look alike. 

Mexicans are not particularly anxious to make friends either; they already have close-knit extended families, long-established and active political, religious and business networks.  Guanajuato in particular enjoys the reputation among Mexicans of being a closed, insular town.  Everybody knows everybody and strangers are conspicuous.  (For a commentary on the reciprocal relationship between architecture and collective personality, see article entitled: “Guanajuato and Her Architecture”.)

Furthermore, in the case of Americans in particular there is an added bite to the usual universal resentment toward immigrants.  And it’s this: whatever your opinion or interest in the matter you will never meet a Mexican who does not remember that the border used to be somewhere else. 

And the border is only the tip of an iceberg of grievances.  When ex-pats go for the annual renewal of their immigration papers they may be ignorant of or indifferent to the fact, but the bureaucrats at Migracion know that over 500 Mexicans die crossing the border every year, and once across live with daily terror of “La Migra”.  It’s safe to say that Mexicans never forget and Gringos never remember. 

Thirteen years ago, getting immigration papers renewed was a gauntlet of frustration, anxiety, humiliation, confusion, exhaustion, and it always took multiple trips.  When I was really green and determined to perpetuate my honeymoon with Mexico I resisted the suspicion that these complications were deliberate.  Until I was told to come back and pick up my papers on September 16 – and stupidly - did it.  (For those who may not know 9/16 is the national holiday celebrating Mexico’s independence from Spain, all offices are closed and all employees are guaranteed a day off.)

As Mexicans say, “En tierra estranjera nadie es sabio”  - “In a strange land no one is wise”.  Even though I, daughter of a Mexican father, came to Mexico with an estimated 90% fluency in Spanish I was a babe in the woods.  And critically, I was not yet literate – I could not yet read Spanish with pleasure and ease.  I suspect most ex-pats arrive with the same disadvantages or worse.

Only in the last three years has the ex-pat community in Guanajuato become large enough to generate professional services that specialize in dealing with Migracion and other bureaucracies.  Well-informed, bilingual professionals based in Guanajuato and who handle hundreds of cases have made a difference.1 The mere presence of professionals with correct information encourages a culture of transparency and the standardization of procedure.  The benefits trickle down even to those ex-pats who do not use the service themselves.   Whether ex-pats perceive ourselves as a community or act in our collective best interests or not, we are perceived and are treated as a community.

There are people who can translate any document into English: Getting that done used to eat up a lot of shoe leather.2

Another important change is the recent birth of a web site that connects the ex-pat community.3 For the last seven years the burden of disseminating announcements and information fell upon the mailing list for Amigos de los Animales.4  The gtolist permits people to post announcements, ask questions, share information, buy, sell, and exchange points of view.  A formerly somewhat fragmented and disconnected community is now more connected.

I’m hoping the gtolist will accumulate an archive of reliable professionals and tradesmen and keep it updated with customer ratings.  Imagine having an instant list of plumbers, architects, mechanics, notarios, electricians and other professionals who have a verifiable track record of honesty, punctuality and fair prices!  It would be in the best interests of people who want ex-pat business to perform well and get on the list, and it would discourage overcharging and bad work.

It’s useful to know that there is a law in Mexico to the effect that if you recommend someone you are legally responsible for their performance.  It isn’t necessarily enforced, and even serious crimes are hardly worth legal proceedings.  But in practice by recommending someone who has a bad track record you are hurting someone.  By the same token failing to warn someone you know is dishonest you are in effect passively collaborating with dishonesty.

Like the rings radiating from a stone thrown into a pool, the price one ex-pat pays for a service determines the price the next one will be charged.  Let’s face it - the language barrier and the ignorance of newcomers regarding prices, taxes, laws, procedure, and customs make them a flock of sitting ducks.   Believe me, horror stories abound.  The gtolist has the power to reduce the casualties and injuries.  And hopefully – provoke dialogue and enrich a collective data bank of pithy and interesting information. 

If I have any “advice” for people settling in Mexico, it’s about learning Spanish.  I am bemused by the controversy sparked by a local ex-pat writer because he criticized gringos for their refusal to learn Spanish and their overall ignorance about Mexico, especially the negative things. He calls them “fakepats”. 5Bower claims that this earned him the title of “Most Hated Gringo”. 

I think him presumptuous to think he can compete with Bush for that title.  But I found myself puzzled by the fact that it makes me as mad as it does Bower.  And why do ex-pats so often go ballistic if you say anything negative about Mexico?  There’s a lot of tension there.  Like they say in Mexico – “Cuando suena el rio es porque ay agua”.   (“If the river makes a noise it’s because there’s water”.)

Permit me to telescope this local spat onto a global scale, look at it through a more global lens.

An estimated 80 million Baby Boomers are supposed to retire in the next decade.  Do the math yourself – but sit down first.  What if only 2% move to Mexico and divide themselves equally among the ten most popular retirement communities including Gto?  In this climate of global economic chaos predicting the probable migration pattern of this geriatric population is risky, but even the most conservative math suggests that’s a lot of water coming down the rio.

Mexicans waiting to greet this non-Spanish speaking deluge are no doubt remembering what Prorfidio Diaz said, “Pobre Mexico, tan lejos de dios y tan cerca a los estados unidos.”  (“Poor Mexico!  So far from God and so close to the United States!”) 

And on the other side of the border – there is an inexorable tide, like a force of nature, like salmon, that is Hispanicizing the US.  Statistics vary, but Spanish speakers are becoming a significant political and economic force.  You can always get a smug smile from a Mexican when you refer to this phenomenon as “La Reconquista”.  (“The reconquest”.) From California to New York to Texas, I have crossed the country speaking Spanish.  It is spoken everywhere, the signs, even my US voter registration card is in Spanish.  How long before we have a Spanish-speaking president? 

The fact is, our countries are interpenetrating, the young are going north and the old are coming south.   The drugs are going north and the arms and money are coming south.  The violence from the Narco wars are seeping into the border states.

Bower’s tempest about not learning Spanish is the sound of a bigger river.  Is there, as he implies (and as Mexicans think), possibly a connection between being stubbornly mono-lingual and being the most powerful, richest and privileged people in the world?   In any case refusing to learn good Spanish is seen as disrespectful, arrogant, racist and ignorant.

When you write articles that point out problems or criticize people they get mad if you don’t offer solutions.  And you’re supposed to end on a positive note.  Look at the challenge of learning Spanish as a vaccination against Alzheimer's.  But the best is that it opens doors you didn't even know were there! It's more than worth it. There's a fascinating, beautiful world out there happening in Spanish.