The last wave by…

Gary Denness, the Mexile — living la vida loca in the big enchilada — hears from a denizen of one of the gringo-ghettos out in provincia —

…Of course it’s lovely, but it seems mostly populated by old (bitter) Gringos, who argue mostly about where they can get the cheapest services, or who’s going to the Walmart in Queretaro, or how dangerous is it really, to drive down from Texas this month.

… I see that most of the general unhappiness here comes from Old people Who Are Not Working Anymore. There is nothing to do for them but take a morning walk, and hit the bottle in the afternoon, and angry-blog in the evenings. I too am beginning to angry-blog back, which is a bad sign. Mostly they are concerned with their real-estate values, and they have ‘head-in-the-sand attitudes about what a mess Mexico is becoming, in terms of personal safety (as they drive their shiny new cars and wear their expensive clothes).

Perhaps the Mexile’s anonymous correspondent needs to remember that the over-posted life is usually not worth reading.

Not that there aren’t are personal sites I read profitably– mostly those having some broader interest than the mere individual experiences  (I especially like From Xico,  Mexile ,  Rolly Brook and Mexico Bob) or are observations on parts unknown to me (like Maggie’s Madness and Tim’s El Salvador Blog).  Not caring to read someone else’s home news, I don’t expect people to read mine.  Sure, life in Mexico may be different, or even “colorful” compared to back wherever, but it’s just the way I live — normal to me, if rather dull: as a misplaced urbanite, the anomie expressed by the anonymous correspondent resonates here in Gringotitlan-by-the-sea.

Otherwise, except for business reasons, I’m not particularly interested in the “expat/tourist” sites, and have stopped reading them.  I don’t really care about who is going to WalMart or what some winter resident thinks about some local crime, and it’s not worth wasting bandwidth berating silly people with questions about something like buying “American coffee” or special dog food.  But, I glance at them, if only because I understand perfectly well that my neighbors and I live by catering to the desires of the gringos… for sunny climates, cheap property, sand, surf and narcotics. And books.

After all I originally moved here to work on a book, and actually finished it (after a detour to Texas). The Mex Files — at least in it’s matured state — was intended to be a sideline to other writing.  I saw it half as a cheap way to flog my book, put out some advance publicity, and dig into some issues I wouldn’t research otherwise. And, it was half a response to what I saw as a dearth of accessible English-language writing on contemporary Mexico.  One thing now, is that there are several decent “Mexico news blogs” — most still too U.S.-centric, and based in U.S. assumptions about Mexico and Latin America, but they are at least quoting Mexican sources and providing better translations than I can.

As a NOT quite old person who is definitely NOT “Not Working Anymore”,  I am working on another book (a passel of source material showed up at the Post Office on Thursday), have work that needs to be done with the publishing biz, editing to do, etc., as well as living a “normal” off-line life.  And sometimes, I just need to sleep and eat or read or — in my pursuit of cultural understanding — set aside the time to watch a telenovela.

Nezua, the Unapologetic Mexican, who has more balls in the air at one time than I can contemplate, sees the problem of over-writing in terms of sine waves.  It’s just not natural to always be in a peak.

Originally this site held itself out to be about history, culture, politics and economics.  Politics seems to have taken over, creating huge waves of writing, when there need to be some troughs… too many “drug war” highs and not enough on Nueva España under the Hapsburg, or farming or the Revolution or luche libre or… the troughs for some, but the things I want to write about.    There  isn’t the rhythm I want, and I get to set the beat.

Writing here every day misses the point… I can’t write well (and never have found the time to edit properly, or even acceptably) … and when I’m looking at culture and history, not every event — no matter how headline grabbing it is — needs my reaction.  I’m going to ride the waves, so to speak … I’ll still be posting, but not every day, and not at all on weekends.  And probably not on Mexican holidays either.  Unless I want to.