I have been going to Mexico on a regular basis now for about twenty-five years. I have a Mexican wife. We have two kids. We all speak Spanish fluently. Mexican Spanish with a Norteño accent. We have access to El Norte, the daily newspaper of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon which we read often. I lived in Guadalajara for awhile, lectured in a good number of Mexican Universities from the ITESM system to the Instituto Tecnologico regional engineering university system. I spent three years moving advanced manufacturing technology from the U.S. to maquiladora companies in Juarez and Chihuahua. I have visited Guanajuato, Queretero, Bustamante, Allende, Morelia, Patzcuaro, Zamorra, Puerto Vallarta, San Luis Potosi, Cancun, and many other parts of Mexico. I have visited Chapultapec Castle, Teotihuacan, and the Museum of Archeology in Mexico City. One of my brothers-in-law runs his own business in Monterrey. One of them runs the Latin American operations for a Fortune 500 company. One works as an engineering manager for a large Mexican owned textile company. One of them works as a project manager for an IT services company. My father-in-law and mother-in-law are minor political functionaries in their town. I have spent many, many hours talking with them about Mexican culture, politics, religion, and business.
After all that, I know that I am gringo. Even though I love Mexico and really want to understand everything about it, I am still gringo. There are some things I will never understand. I was in a conversation with a fellow who has been going down to one location in Mexico each year for a month or so at a time for the last ten years or so. He is an older man who has done an admirable job of learning the language. He has lots of very strong opinions about Mexico and what would make Mexico better. One of those ideas is that Mexico would be better off with a strong left-wing dictator. I thought he was kidding when he told me. He was not. He reminded me a lot of the main stream media and the academic community. He truly believed he knew things about which he had no clue. People would suffer greatly if any of his ideas were implemented. It is a condescending view toward the people of Mexico. There are many sixties era types (young and old) who, having struggled with living productive lives in their own country, still believe they know what is best for people in a fundamentally different culture, with a very different history, and language. It amazes me.