Want to be an Expat or a Fakepat?

Are you one who wants to move to Mexico ? Maybe you want to retire, work, or are just interested in hanging out for a while. If you are, you need to listen to this and do so with the utmost attention.

What you will find in Mexico is that foreigners, especially Americans, move to one of two areas. Traditionally, they’ve ended up in long-established Gringo Enclaves in cities where the locals have learned to adapt in order to serve the Americans and where the locals speak English. Cities that come to mind are Puerto Vallarta and San Miguel de Allende. There are many more but these seem to be the most popular.

In these cities, the locals speak English on a massive scale. Moving to these cities is not much different than moving to another state in America with a large Hispanic population. These cities, mind you, largely depend on the presence of the Americans for their bread and butter. The local economy rises or falls based on how the American expats and tourists spend money.

The second thing that gringos do is move to areas of Mexico that do not depend on the presence of Americans for their livelihood. Gringos are just now becoming attracted to these areas for one reason - the cheap cost of living. Housing, medicine, doctor’s office visits, food, entertainment, and other cost-of-living items are still very reasonable. These gringo wannebees are being priced out of the market in Puerto Vallarta and San Miguel de Allende because the established gringo presence there has driven prices to the level where middle-class retirees can no longer afford to live there. This is driving the potential expats to areas where everything is as it was in San Miguel, for example, twenty years ago.

The problem that most gringos are not considering is that these cities and towns have not depended on the American dollar for their existence, their livelihood, and are not as gringo friendly as towns such as San Miguel de Allende. Towns like Dolores Hidalgo, Zacatecas, Patzcuaro, and others are just now beginning to receive gringos into their midst. The locals do not know what to do with this new phenomenon.

The Gringos, the new phenomenon, are coming into these towns and sizing them up as potential places to live. Unfortunately, many of these new arrivals do not speak Spanish. Nor do they have a clue as to how to integrate into the local community and end up, in the long run, creating Gringo enclaves. This is so spooky. They essentially make an American town within a Mexican town. It is like two different realities or dimensions existing at the same time in one place. It is positively schizophrenic!

Just think about this for a moment. How is the gringo going to be perceived and received in a town whose economic livelihood is not, nor ever has been, dependent on the Americans? And what is going to happen when the monolingual gringos breeze into town expecting the locals to receive them in the same manner they would have been received in towns that have grown to depend on the expat community for their very existence?

A perfect example is a comparison between San Miguel de Allende and the city of Guanajuato. It is night and day, black and white, when you look at how the local Mexicans perceive the Americans. In one town, you have the locals who know on which side of their bread gets the most butter and in the other you have Mexicans who, 1) Are happy you are here 2) Couldn't care less whether you are here or not - indifference 3) Would really prefer you don’t come to town at all.

Gringos, in my view, generally do not get that at all!

I believe that’s because all of the expat guidebooks present a gushing, sugar and spice and everything nice picture about living in Mexico. Presenting negatives isn’t commercially viable. Presenting the lovely, the fluffy, the sweet, the nirvana is what sells. The poor potential expat is left to discover on his or her own the bugaboos of living in a place that might or might not be gringo friendly at all.

An example of this the city of Guanajuato, the capital city of the state of Guanajuato. In this city, if you were to walk up to a meat, vegetable, canned goods counter where there was an employee behind it ready to take your order, you will most likely get a big surprise. I am not talking about a supermarket but the little places where Mexicans traditionally go to get their groceries. There is the butcher for your meat, the frutería for your fruit and vegetables, a separate place to get your baked goods - this is traditional shopping in Guanajuato.

At these counters, women will shove you (actually lay hands on you) out of the way to shout their order over you. At the very least, they stand in the back and simply screech like banshees, expecting to be waited on first. I’ve had them grab me by my arm and move me out of the way.

This is how it is. It isn’t something we would do in the States for fear of a sound beating being doled out for our rudeness. But, in this country, at least in Guanajuato, they do it routinely!

Here the real kickers:

The gringos who live in the enclaves, the colonies, the American sectors, do not see this behavior at all. They shop at supermarkets. Rather than shop according to the Mexican tradition, they actually drive out of town to get to a Sam’s, Wal-Mart, or an HEB, where they get their meat from a refrigerated bin and pick their vegetables from a shelf. They do not frequent the traditional places to get these items.

And yet, they react with vitriol and umbrage if one suggests this behavior goes on in Guanajuato. These gringos are so sheltered they simply haven’t a clue of what goes on in the “other world” that surrounds their little American sectors. If you try discussing this in any sort of discourse, they will call you a liar, an exaggerator, xenophobe, hater of Mexicans. Those are the nice things I’ve been called in emails and to my face.

If expatriation is learning the language and assimilating into the culture you’ve chosen in which to live, then what does “cultural assimilation” actually mean?

If I may suggest this:

Expatriation is the process by which an intense integration occurs whereby the individual of another culture is eventually absorbed into the new culture. This includes absorption into the new culture’s language, celebration of holidays, observation of local events, politics, if allowed by law, in the new country. Also, it would include the development of intense interpersonal relationships with neighbors in the new country.

Going about creating little Americas, American enclaves, or American sectors is not expatriation. These people are not Expatriates but Fakepatriates.

Which do you want to be? Do you want to be an Expat or a Fakepat?

You decide!