Mexico: Our Amigo con Salsa

Another close neighbor of ours lies to the South. Without even leaving our hometown Mexico is noticed. Mexican Americans don't look like other European Americans probably because they have a little more Native American heredity.

The Spanish conquistadores met an already established, well organized and highly populated Native American culture (the Aztecs who were successors to Mayans) when they came to Mexico and the Roman Catholic Church spent great effort to convert them. Thus the language of Mexico is Spanish and the religion primarily Catholic. Spanish is probably the most popular foreign language taught in our schools, new immigrants come to the States to find work and we even have a Spanish language channel on our basic expanded cable TV.

Likewise, Americans are familiar with Mexico because we visit. Very popular tourist destinations include Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific Coast and Cancun on the Caribbean. Border towns are frequented, especially Tijuana which could be considered a suburb of San Diego, California. From the cold Midwest to the warm tropics a relatively short air journey or a leisurely drive away and a favorable exchange rate make Mexico a favorite foreign destination.

Unfortunately my Mexican experience was a long time ago, so I can't give a fair idea of what life is like today south of the border, but this is what I found. My first visit in the early 70's was by ship and we visited the ports of Vera Cruz and Tampico (pronounced tahm PEA koh unlike the nearby town of Reagan fame). It rained one night when we were in town and each drop was about the size of a full cup of water and it fell so fast that the water couldn't drain away and the streets were flooded in about 5 minutes. Fortunately it didn't last all night and my home was floating anyway. We didn't have to worry about finding a taxi (nothing was moving) and just waded back. Young boys would come around to the outdoor cafes with a small hand cranked generator and hand you both leads to see how much voltage you could handle. You had to pay for this privilege to test your manhood and everyone seemed to be entertained. Mariachi bands also strolled from café to café, so you can see this was a laid back yet festive atmosphere. It was fun.

Later in my career I had the misfortune to actually work in the offshore oil industry in Mexico. The oil and the oil company and the union are government owned. The workers were excellent and experienced, but the supervisors had a strange (to an Illinois boy) attitude that, once you had a position with any authority you didn't have to ever work again. I suppose the guys with the most education, and most qualified to be supervisors, already lived a life of privilege and this wasn't about to change. There was no dawn or dusk. When the sun rose it was instantly light and when it set it was instantly dark. Most non-essential equipment (like air conditioning) didn't work and food supplies were always late and insufficient. I've worked in other third world countries with supply challenges, but nothing like this. I was fortunate to be transferred to another country after about 6 months and about 6 months after I left this same rig had a blowout and sank. All of the crew evacuated safely but the accident led to the worst oil spill ever - about 10 times Exxon Valdez - and lasted a lot longer.

A friend of mine that I grew up with had gone to his parent's home town in Mexico to visit relatives and had a car accident. Fortunately it was not serious and everyone walked away unharmed, but unfortunately for my friend the other car involved was being driven by the mayor's daughter. So the penalty was jail and the only way to get out was a large fine. Not only that, but my friend's family had to bring food to him in jail because the government doesn't provide and the legal system works very slowly. He was visiting from the States and must have plenty of money. And I'm not surprised about the circumstances of the accident either. The typical way to drive was to speed up through blind intersections and blow your horn. Taxis and large vehicles and important people always have right of way.

I don't know if conditions have improved. I'm sure the tourism business is a mainstay and critical to the economy of Mexico and sure it is better run than the oil business used to be. Still, the economy can't be so good if so many people will risk life and limb to leave their wonderful country, family and friends to find work here in the USA, but I'm sure eating is a strong incentive. In any event, please do not take my word for it. Go and visit and spend that gringo dollar. You'll only be helping and will probably have a great time.

(by Marc Adami, Guest Columnist)