by Pat Hall

My cousin in Canada emails me often and lately has been worried about me and wondering how I can possibly stand to live in Mexico with all the danger here. All my friends and relatives in Canada are wondering the same thing. After all, Mexico is so dangerous and I could be killed by the cartels at any moment. I don't know why the media paints Mexico so badly. So I wrote a description of why I love living in Mexico.

The people are so kind and helpful. I fell once and knocked myself out. When I woke up, there were about 25 people --- all Mexicans, standing around me, trying to help. One woman was on her phone, calling the city to come and fix the drain I had fallen on and another guy was on his phone, calling an ambulance. I told the guy on the phone that I didn't need an ambulance. I just had to get my foot out of the hole in the drain. A bunch of people lifted me up and turned me in all different directions and I finally got my foot out. Then I found that I couldn't walk. The guy who had been calling the ambulance told me he was "very strong" and flexed his muscles. Then he actually picked me up and carried me home. I only lived a half block away, but it was still impressive.

Another thing to love about Mexico - all fresh-picked
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My husband tripped and fell once coming out of a store. Six people came roaring over immediately and three guys helped him up. One woman was calling an ambulance, but he had fallen backwards and had landed on his big backpack and hadn't really hurt himself. He just had the wind knocked out of him. I told the woman that we didn't need an ambulance and so she cancelled it. The owner of the store brought out a chair and insisted he sit down and recover for a while.

People help you up over a curb and if the sidewalk is narrow, they move over onto the street. I've been helped into a taxi quite a few times by a cop. I can't believe how thoughtful and helpful everybody is. Everybody speaks to you on the street and says "Good afternoon" (in Spanish), even if they've never seen you before. As you walk down a street, everybody speaks to everybody. The first time my husband and I came here, a woman stopped in her tracks, looked at us, and said, "Hello! Good afternoon. How are you?" (in Spanish). We asked each other how we knew her or had I met her before or had he met her before and were totally puzzled. We found out later about the custom of speaking to everybody. All you hear while you're walking down a street is people laughing. You sit in the main square on a bench and everybody near you speaks to you. People walking by smile and nod. If somebody you know sees you, they come over to say hello and hug you. Because I'm Canadian, I still have trouble getting used to hugging everybody. The whole time you sit in the main square, the mariachis are playing songs and singing. Music everywhere! And the mojigangas are always walking around entertaining us.

I think that gracias (thank you) is the most popular word in Mexico. And everybody is laughing all the time. That's all you hear. I read that Mexico was voted last year as the happiest country in the world.

I go out every day for dinner. I have a different restaurant for each day of the week. One time I did something else and didn't go to my Tuesday restaurant. The next day I got a message from the manager of the restaurant, asking if I was OK. He said that he and all the waiters were worried about me when I didn't appear.

Another time I got caught in the rain and arrived at the restaurant soaking wet. I had forgotten to bring a raincoat or an umbrella, and so one of the cleaning ladies of the main square had given me (for free) a green garbage bag to put on. She ripped holes for my head and my arms and put it on me. The receptionist in the restaurant took off the soaked bag and hung it up. She produced a big towel from somewhere and dried my hair briskly. I haven't had my hair dried like that since my mother did it when I was a young child. Then I went and sat down and the waiter brought me a wool blanket to wrap around myself. When I got the bill, the waiter told me my dessert was free because the manager had seen me arrive soaking wet. Can you believe it?

You know how everybody thinks that all Mexicans are lazy and are always sitting under a cactus sleeping? I have never seen such hard workers anywhere in the world. They literally run while they work, up step ladders and all over. One woman told me that if you have a big, very heavy box to get up to the top floor, you need to get three or four American or Canadian guys to carry it up. But you only need one Mexican. And they are always laughing and telling jokes while they are working. And they never stop working to rest. Construction workers in Canada always seem to be resting, but not Mexicans.

There are also a million things to do here -- world-class theatre performances, art exhibits, group meetings, dance classes every night of the week, music performances, and on and on. Every Sunday I go to dinner in a restaurant where a group of four guys play guitars and flutes and sing songs from Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, etc. They are wonderful! I go to a restaurant on Wednesdays where a guy plays a guitar and sings. I've never heard anyone sing with such expression. His music is infectious. My husband and I have known him for years and so when I arrive, he always asks me what song I want him to play. Then a woman comes on the stage after him and plays the violin like I have never heard a violin played before. She's wonderful! I go to a group called The Brain Exchange. They meet once a month. We sit in a circle and if someone has a problem or an issue, they present the issue and then we all brainstorm to solve it. It's all timed -- so many minutes to present the problem; so many minutes for questions; so many minutes to brainstorm, etc. Such fun! Even if you don't have a problem, you go and have fun brainstorming and get to meet all kinds of interesting people. When I wrote my book, I could not come up with a title for it that I liked. I took my "issue" to the Brain Exchange and I walked out with about 25 great ideas. On Tuesday evening a friend and I are going to a play about Picasso. I have tickets for the performance of the opera, La Traviata by Verdi, coming up. Who knows what next?

The author with her buddies, Liz and Antonio, father and daughter
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My niece who lives in Canada came to visit me for the first time six months ago. She was kind of scared after reading how dangerous and terrible Mexico is, but she loved it. She said it was fabulous and absolutely magical and she felt very safe walking all over San Miguel.

Our paradise!

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Pat Hall is a retired Canadian who has been visiting and living in San Miguel for the past 28 years. Many years ago Pat worked in the library at the Universidad de las Américas in Cholula, Puebla for three years where she also studied Spanish. In Canada she worked as a librarian, library science instructor, and language teacher (French, Spanish, German, Latin, and English as a Second Language). The last five years of her working life were spent as a translator, translating official documents from Spanish to English and from English to Spanish. She has recently published a book, Speak To Me: Travels and Exploits of a Language Lover, available on Amazon, about her adventures traveling and pursuing her passion for languages.

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