Some Mexicans fear threat to way of life with rapid growth of American residents
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, March 1, 2009
Alfredo Corchado
Not everyone is rolling out the welcome mat to Americans. Many Mexicans complain about the rapid growth of the American population in their neighborhoods, the threat they see to Mexican culture and language, and the possible drain on Mexico's inexpensive health care.
In San Miguel de Allende, the group Basta Ya is protesting the erosion of the language and the rising cost of living generated by the infusion of dollars into the local economy.
"They think Mexico, especially San Miguel de Allende, is an extension of their country," group member Arturo Morales Tirado said of the Americans who call San Miguel home. "It's not and won't be, no way."
Others are fuming over what they consider to be the privatization of beach land. Under Mexican law, beaches are federal land and are open to the public.
A group of women in Nayarit state routinely demonstrates against posh hotels, some of which assign armed guards to keep all but guests away.
"We're not against Americans," said Marielza Izurieta Valery, president of United Women for the Banderas Bay. "We're against big corporations, many of them from the United States, taking our beaches away."
Some Americans, aware of the potential problems, are making an effort to participate more fully in their adopted country.
In San Pancho, Nicole Swedlow, a 34-year-old transplant from California and single mother of two, began a nonprofit organization aimed at building ties between Americans and Mexicans, with donations coming mostly from U.S. retirees.
"The last thing I want to see is an extension of California deep into Mexico, where Mexicans are priced out of their own communities," Ms. Swedlow said. "It's our obligation to ensure that we build bridges, learn their language and celebrate their culture. We need to learn to coexist."
Does this mean there will be less complaining about us putting up a border fence? Fair's fair, right?
I doubt it.
4 comments:
That is rich! America just doesn't have the prestige it once did, now that the Dow is racing down to 6,000.
And we're apparently hell-bent on making this country extremely unfriendly to business, so I expect to read more such stories in the coming years as people take what they have left and move out.
I do wonder if these expats are screwing up the benefits of relocating to such locales for themselves and everyone else though. If they use their still relatively greater buying power to load up on luxury, prices will go up and eventually there won't be much of a buyer's benefit in relocating to such places. The bigger problem may instead be getting one's capital out of U.S. Dollars and into the local currency before the Dollar goes crashing through the floor though. Time will tell. I just wish I could know how much time I've got.
Heh, when you weren't blogging for some weeks, I actually wondered if you were busy moving - out of country. If you recall that one LJ I linked you to, IKilled007, he is a libertarian who left some time ago because he believed that implosion was imminent. He moved to Sicily. And I've read stories that some people really are moving out.
Previously, when Bush was president, more liberals wanted to leave, favoring Canada, and now it's the libertarians. Maybe we'll just become a much more moderate country, if poorer. ;)
Nah, just caught a case of the blogging blah. Gotta take a break from this stuff from time to time.
Sicily? That's an interesting choice. I don't know much of the place so I can't think of a reason someone of the libertarian persuasion might choose it. CIA fact book time?
If there's a stark difference between folks who wanted to flee under Bush and those who now want to flee Obama, I think the difference will be short lived. When life gets a little more rough as these economic policies really begin to take hold, even the liberals will probably start wanting out. Then again, by then they may not be liberals any longer...
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