Gringo or Güero?

Spurred on by Mikkels brilliant description of Thailand, I will try and give you an idea about Mexico.

In general, Mexico is a really nice country, which in many places has this "paradise" feeling to it - eg. read the previous post. But it seems there is something under the surface, something someone like me will probably never understand.

I have the same "problem" of living in a world different from the world of ordinary Mexicans. I have a nice apartment (not THAT nice), a Dodge Stratus to drive around and when I am working around the country I fly there and live in nice hotels. On weekends I can go traveling and see some of the country or do whatever I like to.

Actually, living in Monterrey I am not that different from my neighbours. Monterrey is the rich part of Mexico, being very close to the USA, so most people here are actually well off. The nickname used in the rest of Mexico says it all - Monterranch...

Still, the majority of the population has completely different things to care about, like getting food and clean water etc. There are other things I don't come in close contact with, but that the people fight everyday. You have the obvious list of corruption, drugs, and the large inequality in the society with a very big part of the population being extremely poor. A small elite runs things from their daily lives in unbelievable luxury far away from the ordinary citizen, so we are on par with Thailand that far.

I am not sure which is the most dangerous, but the one getting media attention is the war on drugs. Here, the military is actually policing the streets, and putting up heavily armed road checks to try and combat the drug problem. Most policemen have a machine gun, and when you overtake a military truck with 8 guys with BIG machineguns on the road, you really start thinking about the problems in this country.

Being a foreigner is actually not that bad. I always try to stress (spurred on by my lack of love for the US) that I am a güero, but NOT a gringo. A güero is a white guy - a farang - while a gringo is also a güero, but more specifically from USA. It is definitely better being a güero than a gringo, but in general it is not a stigmata being a foreigner here. You have the odd story of kidnappings and other things directed towards foreigners, but on the other hand you have 110 million people in this country so statistically some people have to be kidnapped!!

I think the negative view you do get on US citizens is connected to their way of seeing Mexico as their private hunting/fishing/holiday resort backyard. They really do not keep themselves back from playing the good ol' white colonial upper class or whatever thing it is they have going for them. Their lack of respect toward mexicans does not exactly help them.

I guess what I wanted to say was that similarly to Thailand, my experience of the average Mexican is VERY positive, but the country itself has some fundamental problems that shows its ugly head sometimes. As a foreigner I don't feel completely seperated from the ordinary life here, and I spend my time with mexicans and not the few danes I have met here.