San Miguel de Allende - July 3 - 5

I find myself resisting SMdA for some reason. The city is small and clam, and the church is beautiful. But this place is retirement heaven for the ex-pat well-to-do. In demonstration of its popularity, this small town even has its own US embassy. Most of the expats, and their visiting families, are easy to spot: almost all are wearing panama hats and carry their designer dogs around town. It is also a bit disgusting to see when one does not even try to speak Spanish, assuming, and perhaps rightly so, that they can get by with English alone. I assume that the ex-pats come here to retire to seek an ‘authentic’ Mexican life, but they are completely clueless to the painful truth that even their plastic-surgery-laden and conspicuously consumption-driven American life is anything but “authentic.” Deception, doubly and deeply so. Retiring in a small town in Mexico will not change anything.

Perhaps I am being too critical. But perhaps not. I asked a cab driver about a general Mexican sentiment regarding the foreign “invasion” in their city. He expressed a tension: the foreigners bring jobs for the locals... along with high prices. Prices were notably higher here than in GDL, ZAC, and GTO, but (I’m guessing) so too are the wages. Nonetheless, perception, whether true or false, plays no insignificant role in reality. It must not be dismissed so easily.