"Ser gringo en MEXICO"

This week we had a visit by Greg Berger, an American filmmaker living in Mexico, who has done a documentary called Gringo-thon. It is now on the internet, so I thought I would share it with you all. It is very well done! Touching and yet funny at times. If you would like to see if, scroll down when you get to the website

Since that film was made in 2003 GWB has gone to the court of public opinion and prevailed with a wide majority. If I were that man and being an American I would be cautious about making remarks about going to "take out the President" and other remarks that he commited to the film. He could find himself in a world of hurt. Also the Mexicans did not seem to feel any high degree of support as he was not raking in the cash that he had thought he would, 500 pesos is a little less than $5.00. :p :p

Wow. It IS done suprisingly well. Very professional and definitely interesting. Thanks for sharing that link, esperanza. I particularly appreciated how he repeated the-cause was non-violent and was only seeking justice. I guess the $44 US he made won't topple any governments. hehehe...

I wonder if he's still living in Mexico City, Ciudad de México, D.F.. Must be a difficult life there in many ways INCLUDING being a gringo.

Saludos, MadridMan

I enjoyed it, especially as I'll be living in Mexico (1,5h south of Mexico City) for six months starting late December, and I've been trying to watch everything filmed in Mexico City that I've gotten my hands on. Do you have any tips for similar downloadable stuff?

This is a side comment about currency exchange. The Mexican currency is very cheap compared to the American dollar, but 500 pesos is not exactly 5 dollars as said above. It is more like 50 dollars. The actual rate is more like 1 dollar for 11 pesos right now. However, this does not mean that Mexico is 11 times cheaper than the U.S., the rural areas are probably very cheap, but living in a large city can be very expensive, especially if you have a family to support. For example, I know of a person that is employed by a large corporation in Mexico City and makes around $7,000.00 USD per month. However, he says there is not much left when his employer holds almost 40% of his salary as taxes for the government; also he pays an expensive private health and life insurance every month, and pays a high price for decent education for his kids and for housing in a safer area of the city.

I forgot to mention that obviously that kind of salary is not common in big cities, as a developing country Mexico is a country of extremes, 50% of the population is poor, about 35% belongs to the middle class and the other 15% are really rich.

Pia: Some movies, especially American, show you an exaggerated version of what it is to live in Mexico. Movies like Mexican with Julia Robert and Brad Pitt depict life in Mexico appropriate of revolution times. Your average Mexican does not carry a gun, does not dress in traditional Mexican attire or rides a donkey or horse, which I suppose must be disappointing for some tourists. Most Mexicans work for very low wages, live in subsidized small houses, and spend a lot of time watching soccer games on TV while drinking a corona with friends and family. Social life is big there.

Pia: If you really want to get a feel of life in Mexico, come to Arizona, California, or Texas and talk to the Mexican people that have left. Better still let me take you to the desert when the temp is about 50C and watch them crossing with only the clothes on their back and 4 liters of water that they bought with them. There was an article in last Sunday's Arizona Republic that told of the thousands that have left the area that you mention, to get to the US. If you want to read it go to WWW.arizonarepublic.com and bring up the May 15 2005 edition and there are interviews with actual residents of the region you are going to.

Interesting to note one person posted that he knew of someone earning $7000 USD per month, then goes on to point out that his friend pays 40% in taxes, still has to pay for private health insurance, life insurance, and then still more for his children to go to a good school. This brings his tax base up to 50 or 60%. Where is that 40% going? Possibly in the pocket of some corrupt Mexican officals?

I personally investigated the possibility of opening a cabinet shop in Mexico as a branch of one of my businesses here in Arizona. The "taxes" and pay off to the "inspectors" was going to be prohibitive. Yet the public services for those people is such a low quality, where is the money going? Almost 30% of the cost of home construction is "fees" and "inspection charges."

Mexico, nice place to visit, might spend some time there when I retire, would not want to work there, or do business there.

Desert dweller, isn't it pretty unnecessary to come all the way from Northern Europe to Arizona to talk to Mexicans that have left the country when I am actually going there for 6 months to try to get to know the people that are left? I know that movies usually exaggerate and show stereotypes, and that's why I've been trying to watch Mexican movies such as Amores Perros (and with Gael García Bernal in them, it's not exactly unpleasant ). I was looking more for (preferrably downloadable) documentaries etc, like this one.

Pia: you are going to love Mexico. I suggest that in addition to the place you will live at in Mexico, you also consider visiting the following places (however, remember that Mexico is probably 2 1/2 times the size of a country like Spain):

North: Go by train from Chihuahua City to the town of Creel to visit the Copper Canyon

Gulf of Mexico: Visit the City of Veracruz and the town of Catemaco

Central Mexico: The Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon in the State of Mexico; Mexico City also has some really nice areas like Polanco, Chapultepec, Ave. Insurgentes, the old Basilica, etc; the City of Puebla (just 1 ½ from Mexico City, look for crafts and traditional candy there).

Central-North: the cities of Guanajuato (very bohemian and artistic), San Miguel de Allende and Queretaro (beautiful little plazas and tons of churches).

Southern-Mexico: Oaxaca (a great example of Colonial art mixed with native art), Chiapas (beautiful scenery), and Merida (very unique food).

Occident: The City of Guadalajara in the State of Jalisco (where Mariachi music and tequila are from).

As to tourist areas: Acapulco (close to Mexico City), Los Cabos (in north-Mexico), Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Cozumel, and Huatulco in the very south. Puerto Vallarta on the
Pacific (closer large city is Guadalajara).

And there's much more, but if you get to most of those places you will get a good understanding of the different foods, traditions, folklore, and lifestyles in the different states of Mexico. If you have to choose between one area and the other, I will definitely go central and south Mexico, I personally think it is more charming.

Buena suerte!

Gracias, and thank you so much for the tips although I already had a problem with wanting to go everywhere after making the huge mistake of buying the Lonely Planet guide to Mexico . I definitely want to travel a lot, especially as even the university home page said that almost everyone at the university are from the upper classes and "the setting is more like Beverly Hills 90210" ( ) and that's definitively not all I want to see of the country.

I'm flying over after christmas and spending New Year's with my Mexican friend's family, then moving on to Cuernavaca where the university is to find an apartment.

At the moment my biggest concern is how to blend in: I'm blonde with blue eyes and given how much attention it draws in a country as close as Spain, I'm considering dyeing my hair and buying brown contact lenses

Pia: why would you do that? Even with your hair dyed brown and darker-looking eyes you won't look average-Mexican. Your skin still will look very fair and as soon as you open your mouth people will notice you are a foreigner.

In addition, if you attend a college where the kids of the wealthy go to school, many of these kids are of Spaniard descent. So they have brown-dark hair and eyes, but they are basically white and not Indian looking.

A friend of mine (American) attended Tec de Monterrey- Campus Monterrey, and was surprised about the way people look at his school. He thought everyone in Mexico was short and dark skinned – BTW he loved the way women looked, but considered that men dressed up too much, more like in Europe. Probably he expected everyone to wear sports cloths during classes -.

I have to tell you that people in Mexico tend to stare more than people do in the U.S., and men (and a lot of women) will openly check you out as soon as you turn your back on them. So don’t feel scared or offended about this kind of thing.

I met a couple of foreign students while a student and they got a lot of attention mostly the first week of classes. Later on people will got used to see them and treated them almost like anybody else.

About the school, yes, if you attend an expensive private school (where tuition is about six thousand dollars per semester and most students have never worked in their lives), then the kids of the wealthy will be your classmates, and the environment in some of their groups can be very shallow and totally lets-have-fun oriented. However, you also find a lot of students attending this sort of school with a scholarship and working hard to graduate with good grades.

Just accept that Mexico is the way it is, with very good and bad things; be nice to everyone and open to experience and see new things. BTW, I just visited Mexico a few weeks ago and was really pleased with a new little bus station located at the International Airport (which is in the south of the city). The bus system is much better, efficient and cheaper in Mexico than in the U.S., so don’t be afraid to travel by bus to any place in Mexico. (However, some bus station are in an urgent need for renovation and most public bathrooms aren't clean at all, but the buses are really good).

If you need any help or have any questions let me know.

I know I'm never going to look like an average mexican and I wasn't being all that seroius about completely changing the way I look, but I guess it's going to be difficult the beginning. When I first went to Spain I felt really uncomfortable just walking down the street, and coming from a culture where privacy and personal territory are perhaps even more emphasized than in the US I thought there was something wrong with the way I looked. I stopped using makeup and put more clothes on but this didn't change anything apart from that I felt really uncomfortable in the burning heat, so I had to understand that people didn't mean anything bad. However, this doesn't mean that I'm used to it, I'd still skip all the comments if given the choice

Tec Monterrey is actually where I'm gonna study and I don't know about tuition as I don't have to pay any because of an agreement between my university and them (luckily, I could never afford paying any), but as I said their "student handbook" said that almost everyone is upper class and most have never had a job. The handbook also said: "Behaving here the way you would in some other countries may send out the wrong signals to Mexican men. You may be viewed as an easy sexual conquest", which made me even more scared about the looks issue. I find that statement weird though, either the Latin Americans I've met are all exceptions or it's a slight exaggeration.

And don't worry, I'm definitely open to see new things. It's not very often that you have the chance to live in a culture completely different from your own and I'll do my best to make the most of it.

Pia: If you are blond and blue eyed I think you will be surprised to see how many Mexicans are the same as you. Especially in Mexico City. The border states of the US are the place to go if you want to find out why people leave Mexico. You are going to a third world country, and the University may try and shield you from the intense poverty that the population of Mexico has come to accept. I don't know what it will take to get Mexico on track with the rest of the western world but, until it does poverty and corruption will remain a way of life.

Desert Dweller is right about the "shield". In Mexico you will find that the people you see on the streets and doing low-wage jobs (this is most of the people) are very native looking, while the people with beter jobs and resources are more European looking.

Here's a family story: I have a brother that every time he visits Spain people at hotels and restaurants think he is from the U.S.A., and they start talking to him in English. Then he goes "No, No, No, soy mexicano, hablo espanol". The funny thing is that in Mexico we think of him as a Spaniard-looking person! So go figure.

Well I am sure that if I go live to your country people will look at me diferent. I can't help it, but enjoy the experience and take the best out of it. Good luck!

Of course you can't help it and it happens everywhere. My Argentinian friend who lives in Helsinki for example says that she gets so much attention that it's sometimes completely exhausting, even though the attention isn't negative. That's the exact same thing. But thank you again for all the advice and I'll contact you with further questions, I'm sure I'll have many before I leave