| | |  Editorials | Opinions | May 2009 
"Women Walk the Streets at Night Without Fear..."
 A Letter to the Editor from David Yett
Many thanks for this article. (Mexico: One Journalist’s View) I have also retired to Mexico, but unlike the other people who responded to this article, I do not live in a gringo enclave like San Miguel or Lake Chapala (or even Puerto Vallarta.) I live in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, in a completely Mexican neighborhood (the only gated community here is the jail!)
I can second Ellerbee's comments entirely, with one small exception: I have found that the honesty and personal integrity of many Mexicans is not up to US standards, so one has to be careful when contracting for services and some goods.
For example, a gringo friend of ours was offered an almost certainly stolen car at a used car lot in Morelia yesterday. The papers? "Well there are at my house - wait a while and I'll have my wife bring them." "There are problems with the papers, buy the car and we'll make everything OK for you." Perhaps this is because with the very high rural indigenous population around here, people are not as cautious and business-savvy as more highly educated mestizos might be.
But in our neighborhood, women and girls walk the streets at night without fear, and petty crime, except for the aforementioned frauds, is practically nonexistent. Most of the people are friendly and open. Medical care is excellent and inexpensive (my doctor usually spends over an hour for me in an office visit - the cost, about $15 US!)
Yes, there are occasional shootings in the area, but the only innocent bystander injured here in the last few years was a Mexican tourist accidentally shot by the Federal Judicial Police during a shootout with some alleged "narcos" - and that was over two years ago.
- David Yett
dyett(at)aol.com |
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