Carol Schmidt
Feb 5, 2004, 11:19 AM
Post #3 of 10
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Re: [gpk] Heard there are less than 50 gringos living in Guanajuato
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Thanks for the information. I appreciate the distinction between SMA's largely separate gringo population, which can be almost totally self-contained if you want it to be, and that of the communities you mention where gringos are intimately interlinked with the Mexican population.
That was what I had in mind when I chose to move to Mexico but find that is much harder to achieve than to live mostly within our gringo population. It could be a matter of numbers--if you have a very large choice of places to go, people to meet, it is much easier to stick with what and who is comfortable instead of having to make a deliberate effort to integrate more.
If we'd somehow picked a place where few spoke English and everything was in Spanish and geared to Mexicans, we'd have had to adjust quickly. Here I can take my time getting to that third Spanish class, I can give a restaurant order in my fumbling Spanish and have the waiter answer me in English that I don't have to struggle to understand, and if it's a choice between going out to see a play in English starring my friends and going to an activity less accessible to my understanding, no choice--unless I deliberately put myself into the less comfortable situation, and maybe, maybe eventually such situations will become more comfortable.
There's also the matter you mentioned of gringos who are intermarried and otherwise closely connected to Mexicans so that the barriers are dropped, or easier to cross. At least the older retired gringos here rarely have children here who are more likely to marry a Mexican. The younger gringo families with children here may very well assimilate much faster as the second generation finds it easy to adopt Mexican culture and values as well as the language.
We didn't integrate much into the Phoenix community as such when we lived there, being in an RV park with others just like us. I like San Miguel life much better being at least surrounded by Mexican culture, where we can go down to the Jardin every afternoon for The Herald and just enjoy watching the kids at play, the teenagers flirting, the families expanding into this community living room, the classes interact.
I feel a part of San Miguel much more than I felt a part of Phoenix, even if the reality is that I have few close personal dealings with Mexican people. I would like more. I have to really, really study and practice to get more comfortable with the language and then make far more efforts to put myself into situations where I am surrounded by Mexicans, and not be too disappointed when that acceptance doesn't happen immediately. I see some gringos here who think they are a real part of the Mexican community but from a distance I can see they are fooling themselves, when push comes to shove they will always be gringos. And some do seem to be integrated.
When we were RVing full-time for 3 1/2 years and checking out the continent for likely places to retire we could see immediately that we would never be accepted in many areas of the US--the charming but tight New England communities would never take to free-spirited Midwesterners who had transplanted themselves to LA for most of our adult lives.
We had almost as hard a time understanding and being understood among people in Maine and in Mississippi as we do in Mexico! I'd give a restaurant order in the South, outside again of the tourist areas, and the waiter would just watch my speeding mouth flap and then drawl something like, "I didn't understand a word you said."
There's also the fact that some people easily assimilate wherever they go, they're just likeable, affable people without something distinguishing to set them forever apart. As older, liberal lesbians with health problems, and I have been fat many years in my life, we were different, we could see we'd never be accepted in many places and by many people.
Here in SMA there is more of an accepting attitude overall. It may be a surface acceptance, but that's better than nothing!
Definitely these are thoughts to ponder. Thanks again,
Carol Schmidt
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