Anti-turista turistas
My column from today about American retirees (some of them illegal) changing the face of the central Mexico town of San Miguel de Allende talked a bit about the town's expat newspaper, Atencion San Miguel. Reading the "On My Mind" column therein by Joseph Dispenza reminded me anew that hell hath no sadness like an expatriate chagrined at how his "discovery" has been ruined by ... expatriates. The opening two grafs:
In this South of the Border Brigadoon, the recent appearance of monolithic supermarkets, multiplexes and fast-food franchises has many of us wakening to the sober realization that our idllic bubble may have burst. If one more superstore moves in, we may have to leave here and move to the next good place that still retains its enchantment -- its soul.
But what is happening here may not be merely a local issue. Towns a cities everywhere, it seems, are in the process of an inexorable debasement, a crumbling of culture under the weight of overdevelopment and overpopulation to the point of a bleak and depressing blandness. There may not be a next good place.
Well, there's always Cuba!
I was about to say the moon, but we are going there too.
There is no escape.
Nice article that is about the truth.
George Vreeland Hill
Posted by: George Vreeland Hill | February 20, 2007 at 06:34 PM
I do sort of wonder, though, why no comments about the seemingly endless and recurring stories about gringos who get chased off the land they thought they owned thanks to Mexican laws that make foreign ownership outright illegal.
Posted by: Rob McMillin | February 21, 2007 at 06:58 AM
"Mexican laws that make foreign ownership outright illegal." - that is incorrect. The only laws that prevent foreigners from owning property in Mexico relate to beach front property and sites of historical / archaeological significance.
As far as complaining about progress in San Miguel, that is the foreign residents' favorite sport.
Personally I think the addition of a new major chain store is great for the town's Mexican residents who've been gouged for years by the one major grocery chain store that is situated at the western entrance of San Miguel de Allende.
The dirty secret is that the same people who are complaining about the opening of these new shops habitually drive their cars to the neighboring city of Queretaro, about 45 minutes away to do their shopping at the Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart etc.
If the Mexican residents who cannot afford to take a 70 mile round trip drive to pay reasonable prices can now save 10% or whatever it is on their grocery bill thanks to some competition from the chain stores, well that 10% may very well make the difference in being able to by a child a new pair of shoes, or being able to afford to send their children to high school or college, or maybe just be able to add a bit more fresh fruit or vegetables to their diet.
At any rate, I certainly haven't seen a wide spread "gringo boycott" of these terrible monolithic supermarkets.
The truth is most of these rich gringos have no real clue as to how hard is it to make ends meet here - I'd like to see some of these complainers support a family of 5 on $65 dollars a week.
I could go on and on, but that certainly won't stop the "gringos" from continuing from thinking that their opinion is the best, most educated and most enlightened.
I always joke with my Mexican friends that I can't help being a "gringo", but I do my best to avoid being a "pinche gringo". This town is full of pinche gringos who can't speak enough Spanish to order off of a menu if they had a gun pointed at their head.
These people want San Miguel de Allende to be a sort of DisneyLandia - a two dimensional movie set where tourists can totter around in a never changing pueblito a la Colonial Williamsburg - however San Miguel de Allende is a living growing city.
Wanting anything else reeks of the worst sort of colonialism.
Posted by: San Miguel Guide | February 21, 2007 at 07:48 AM
With 22 years in San Miguel and decades before in Newport Beach, believe me I've seen change! Where ever you go (even Cuba) change is and will be with us forever. San Miguel is as good as it gets
come back anytime!!
Posted by: Dr. John J. Sullivan | February 21, 2007 at 09:01 AM
My favorite gringo moment there (actually, this was relayed to me by a pal) was when an AARP type was sputtering mad that a cafe didn't have any cinnamon buns, and in fact was unable to sort out just what this "cinnamon bun" concept really was....
Dr. John -- So do you commute for your health care? And you're right, that sure is a lovely town.
Posted by: Matt Welch | February 21, 2007 at 10:09 AM
We've lived in US cities which underwent exactly the same kinds of development as San Miguel is experiencing--Silver Lake and Venice in Los Angeles, Apache Junction in Phoenix.
Friends rented a two-bedroom house on one of the Venice canals for $200 a month in 1970, and now we hear that condos on that stretch cost over a million dollars. My $125 a month apartment in Santa Monica in 1970 is long gone.
We and other Michiganders and our midwest neighbors Californicated that state before we as Californians went on to overrun Phoenix, and from there to Mexican expat havens.
Asian explorers settled in Mexico and developed into numerous indigenous tribes which were "gentrified" and mostly exterminated by Spanish invaders hundreds and thousands of years before U.S. retirees landed. Look at the history of the five US states that once belonged to Mexico. This is nothing new.
Even in the five years we've lived in San Miguel we notice the changes. But gringos cannot be blamed for Mega, Wal-Mart, etc., coming to San Miguel.
Popular Mexican cities with almost no expat population also are getting the "big box" stores and other chains which may have started in the US but which now are franchised into completely Mexican businesses.
A Subway opened unobtrusively right downtown in SMA a few months ago, and two gringos kept harassing the Mexican owners, employees and customers for gringoizing San Miguel, even though there are 320 other Subway restaurants in Mexico, many in areas with very few gringos.
Any city which develops a critical mass of population and economics will draw corporations to service and profit from that population. Any city which is not developing is dying.
If the people don't want the corporations there, they can boycott them. The corporations do their marketing research in advance, they know the likelihood of success anyplace they invest.
Their decisions are based solely on expected profit, not on how many gringos want or don't want a particular store.
I see far more Mexicans in Mega, our huge new grocery store, than gringos, though it is gringos who presented the manager with a ridiculous wish list of items they want Mega to stock--white Worcestershire sauce, for example.
I appreciated the observation that gringos have used their privilege to drive to Celaya and Queretaro whenever they wanted in the past, to take advantage of the lower prices and greater selections of the big box stores, and are now upset that the stores are coming here. Now local Mexicans will have the same opportunity.
San Miguel now has 80,000 population within the city and another 60,000 residents in the 540 villages surrounding SMA that receive SMA services like police protection.
The city's 2005 census figures were 11-12,000 foreign residents in the city at any one time, 7,000 living in SMA on permanent residency visas. Of that foreign population, 70% are from the US, 20% are Canadians, and the rest are from 31 other countries.
So we're 15% of the urban population now. That leaves 85% Mexican in the city proper, and 90%+ wihin the total San Miguel de Allende city limits. This is still very much a Mexican city.
Far more tourists and weekend home owners are from Mexico City and other areas of Mexico than are gringos. Mexico City tourists come to SMA to experience authentic Mexican fiestas and the historic roots of their country! Gringos have by no means taken over San Miguel, though some of us may think so. Walk a few blocks outside of the historic centro and the new gated communities and you'll see few white faces.
And this is not now a city only for the rich. Thousands of gringos live here on Social Security, and of course 47% of Mexicans live below the Mexican poverty level of $4 USD a day, or $1,460 a year.
This is still a poor region that sends thousands of Mexican workers to the US for economic survival, and thousands more survive here because of the remittances their relatives send back home from their US jobs.
If you are interested in more information on daily life in San Miguel and the effects of development on this artsy town, our book, Falling...in Love with San Miguel: Retiring to Mexico on Social Security, and our blogs and forums at www.fallinginlovewithsanmiguel.com, continue the discussion.
We fell in love with this city as it is, knowing it would change. No marriage remains stagnant or else it dies, too.
Carol Schmidt and Norma Hair, former Angelenos
Posted by: Carol Schmidt | February 21, 2007 at 01:41 PM
Carol -- Thanks very much for that. As it happens, I live in Silver Lake myself. Also, regarding Subway, one of my favorite memories of early-'90s Prague is how the protest march against the opening of the first McDonald's (a lovely place, btw), consisted almost entirely of North Americans....
Posted by: Matt Welch | February 21, 2007 at 02:03 PM