Joe Blog #12: Mexico

So this was something I should have posted yesterday...but I didn’t have time to write it yesterday so here we are with Tuesday’s blog on Wednesday.  It is what it is...

Mexico was Joe’s pick this week and I have to admit I don’t have a lot to say on this topic at first blush.  I have been to Mexico several times, though oddly, never to the places most people go.  Of course Mexico City, but that was a million years ago...I was just a kid so I remember little.  All the other trips South have been to camp or backpack.  Mexico representing excitement, adventure and hard charging good fun.

The last time I was there was in 2002.  Me and a guy I was seeing hiked, backpacked and camped in Copper Canyon.  We drove in from New Mexico and away we went.  It was great fun and hot.

Having grown up in Panama, the culture and lifestyle was familiar to me.  And although my Spanish has suffered mightily over the years, I can still communicate well enough to keep the dude and me out of prison when we got stopped by the Federales.  (And no, I didn’t have to bribe them either).  You can imagine my dude was sweating bullets, not speaking Spanish and having his entire life and fate held by my broken and inefficient Spanish.  The look of relief when I got back in the car and we drove away was one I will never forget.

Mexico has become a lot of other things in the intervening years.  Landing itself smack dab in the middle of American politics.  Immigration being at the forefront of today’s political climate.  And all kinds of misinformation being spread around.

Mexico, like the US, has its share of problems.  Social, political, economic and geographic.  They too fight a war on drugs with cartels and gangs and trafficking.  It is kind of funny, I often think of escaping to Mexico, while many of its citizens dream of finding their way to America to live the American dream...which I do not think exists anymore by the way.  At this point in our evolution, I will call it evolution even though it feels like we are moving backwards, most Americans I talk to now, their biggest dream is to get the fuck out of this country before it implodes and moving to Mexico is bantered around a great deal.

Besides the beautiful landscapes I have viewed and witnessed, the best thing about Mexico is their people.  Fun, fun loving, happy, helpful, hard working people who still believe in things we seem to have lost in American culture:  la familia.  I have been blessed to be close to many people in my home town of Mexican descent and I can tell you they are the hardest working, honest, diligent, intelligent, loving and dedicated people I know.

They have always welcomed me, my children and parents in with open arms.  They have included us in every celebration, and they like to celebrate!  Being a distant and tangential part of their community has enriched the lives of my family exponentially. I have watched how much they care for each other, show up for each other and love each other.  In my experience, both in Mexico and stateside, the Mexican culture and community seems to still value all the things we Americans spout off on all the time but do not live.  They walk the walk, we talk the talk.

So now at least, this American’s dream is to move to Mexico and immerse myself in the culture, language and social fabric that is not Utopia for sure, but at least seems to live according to some core values that I share.  Perhaps that will be the biggest joke on us all, that the American Dream isn’t worth a shit...and the actual life being lived in Mexico simpler, perhaps smaller, but more rewarding and enriching than the life we have afforded ourselves here.

For me Mexico looms out there as a bastion of hope.  A country that is intelligent, welcoming and hospitable, traits I am finding harder and harder to find in my own culture.  I feel like an outcast, someone who no longer fits in her country.  Every day it feels like it moves away from things I value and toward some sort of lunatic fringe that scares me and makes worry daily.

The arrogance of Americans is dangerous.  It seems to me that we have got to believing our own shit a little too much and now we have become so grossly disassociated with what life and living is really all about:  family, love, dedication, trust, intimacy, accountability, honesty and friendship.

I know that no society presents as perfect.  And I have lived in this country for most of my life working to improve the quality of life here, not just for myself but for others who did not grow up with the blessings I did.  I am not sure now that is possible.  I no longer believe in the American dream...it has moved way past the home with the white picket fence...and I really want no part of what we are becoming.

So Mexico for me today hovers largely for me as an escape, a place to retreat to if they will have me.  Mexico is rapidly becoming my back up plan to life lived here in the US and in my social circles, and I am not the only one that feels this way.  It is ironic, that Mexico has fought hard to gain access to a country that now rejects and deports them.  Mexico learning what we already know...not all that glitters is gold.  Sometimes the bright and shiny thing to the North is just fool’s gold that is really valued at zero.  And when you set your sights on it, bankrupts you immediately.

I do not know what will become of America...but I know that, at least from where I sit today, life in Mexico appears preferable to where this country is headed.  I know there is no panacea...anywhere.  I just feel like my values and beliefs are aligned more with Mexico than here currently.  Which kind of breaks my heart because I have loved this country my whole life and now I don’t even recognize it anymore...so Mexico currently represents hope for a life that is not here, that is founded upon beliefs I can still believe in.