"It has been documented that the older one gets the more difficult it becomes to learn a foreign language."

I have often speculated that the very existence of Gringolandias, Gringo Gulches, expat sectors, and the like is because of the linguistic barrier. I may be wrong but it seems a tremendous work of logic to conclude that if Gringos would learn Spanish, they would not have to migrate to cities in Mexico that harbor the most intensively organized Gringolandia infrastructure.

There are exceptions.

I have collected over the years quotes by Gringos who live in these Bubbled compounds and who have either told me to my face or I've read their statements online. There are those Gringos who move to places like San Miguel de Allende and who will say something like:

"Why should I learn Spanish? These Mexicans are not all that interesting."

"Anyone who works for me has to speak English so why should I bother to learn it?"

These are but two statements that seem to be the dominate thinking for these English only Gringolandia.

Others have told me they are much too old to acquire a second language. Other than the Gringo, Carpet bagging mostly American the "too old" factor is cited most often as their reason for not learning Spanish.

Actually, there is no credible evidence to show that the older one becomes the more difficult it is to learn a foreign language. This belief is almost an urban myth and is not linguistically sound.

It is an emotional issue that prevents adults from trying and succeeding to learn Spanish.

Researchers Krashen, Long, and Scarcella showed that,

"Studies comparing the rate of second language acquisition in children and adults have shown that although children may have an advantage in achieving native-like fluency in the long run, adults actually learn languages more quickly than children in the early stages. (Krashen, Long, and Scarcella, 1979)."

The conclusion this study draws is adults can develop a working ability in the target language much faster than a child can. So just where did this hideous stereotype about adults learning foreign language originate? It came from some very old science.

There used to be a theory on "brain development" from the 1960's that taught that there was a "crucial period" an individual had before the brain lost its "plasticity," making learning a second language too difficult. (Lenneberg, 1967)

It was a belief that if you didn't get your second language learning done before puberty, your goose was pretty well cooked. Modern studies have shown though some differences between how a child and an adult learns a second language do exist, the older learner has the distinct advantage. The adult learner of Spanish can learn the language faster because of the following:

1. The adult's maturely-developed brain has the superior ability to understand the relationship between semantics and grammar.

2. The adult's brain is more mature in its ability to absorb vocabulary, grammatical structures, and to make more "higher order" generalizations and associations.

3. The adult learner's better-developed brain is better at "putting together all the pieces" with a more developed long-term memory.

The biggest obstacle for the adult is the emotional factor. Adults have bought into the myth that they just cannot do it. They are also afraid of making fools of themselves. I have often thought this is the reason children seem to learn Spanish faster than adults do-they are not afraid of the embarrassment factor.

Children also seem to learn Spanish faster because of the natural method to which they resort. They approach learning a foreign language in the identical manner they did when they learned their native language. If you have children, you witnessed this event. Was there not a time when you just knew that your "yet-to-speak anything other than goo-goo and ga-ga" child understood far more than he was letting on?

A chief problem is in the phrase, "language learning." What most people do not realize is there is a difference between language acquisition and language learning. Language acquisition, the ability to engage in spoken fluency, involves a different area of the brain than does language learning.

Unless you've sustained a horrid brain injury like a lobotomy, you can learn Spanish or any foreign language you desire. The research proves this is not only possible but that if you resort to the "Natural Method" of any second language acquisition you will succeed.

The Steps to Fluency in Any Language

1. Listening First

Why You Have to Listen First and Speak Later in Second Language Learning

Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 1
Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 2
Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 3
Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 4
Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 5
Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 6

2. Production in the Language

The Learnables - This course will offer you a "listening only" introduction to Spanish, and other languages, that will build a speech center in your brain for your targeted language. You need this "period of silence" of training your ear to the sounds or music of the language.

Rocket Spanish– This begins the second stage of acquiring spoken fluency. First, you engaged in INPUT with The Learnables. Second, you begin your OUTPUT stage with Rocket Spanish. This is your first attempt at speaking the language. You will develop much vocabulary and learn how to speak the language.

Lately, I have been recommending the Rocket Languages after The Learnables for your introduction into the Production Stage of second Language Acquisition.

Click On This Link Reach The Main ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??... AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES:

ROCKET GERMAN

ROCKET FRENCH

ROCKET JAPANESE

ROCKET ITALIAN

ROCKET CHINESE

3. Mastering the Rapid Fire Spanish

Immersion Plus Spanish – One of the most misunderstood parts of becoming fluent in any language is the need of training your ear in the target language. What I mean is, if you cannot hear the euphony or music of the language, you will rarely, if ever, be able to understand what someone is saying to you in the target language. I live in Mexico. I can tell you though I went through massive preparation before coming to Mexico, I did not count on the speed at which the locals speak. It is remarkably fast! This course, by design, will help you with this problem. It addresses this common issue.

SMART SPANISH – This will help further train your ear in the music of the language. It is a great program because it records live interviews with Spanish speakers from Colombians to Spaniards. It dissects the interviews for grammar and vocabulary. Then, the speakers speak at different speeds so you can follow with or without a transcript.

###

Though the Worldwide Economic Crisis seems to have the world in a tizzy of worry and despair, Gringos are still coming to Mexico. I remember last year at this time unprecedented numbers of Gringos were walking the streets of my adopted Mexican home of Guanajuato. The city of Guanajuato, that bears the same name as the state, Guanajuato, had swarms of Gringos that extended from late Spring into early Fall even while gloom and doom spread all over the planet.

Statistics for 2008 will be forthcoming in the Spring. But, if subjective observation is to count for anything, it appeared to all the Mexicans and American Expats with whom we spoke that 2008 seemed the year for the most visible tourists in years.

In previous years (2006-2007), the average age of tourists to Guanajuato was under 36 years old. These tourists came to Guanajuato in 2006 in groups of three family members and, in 2007, in pairs. In 2006, 35% of the tourism was Mexican regional tourists, 54% was Mexican national tourists, with a low 11% being foreign.

In 2007, there was only a one or two point increase in national and regional tourists and the foreign tourist percentage stayed the same. About 50% of the international tourism comes from the United States.

I've made this point often in my articles that the city of Guanajuato is not a resort town. It is not like the West and East coast Mexican cities. Nor is it like San Miguel de Allende. These towns have become dependent upon the tourist money and regard the foreigner as a source of income.

How you will be treated in one of these resort towns that has been traditionally dependent upon the foreign tourist's dollars or euros will be radically different from how you will be treated in a town whose tourist income is predominately from Mexican regional and national tourists. To put it in the words of one American woman who actually moved to San Miguel de Allende, "This is like living on a cruise ship. There is something planned to do every moment."

The city of Guanajuato, or the rest of the state for that matter, is not like that at all. In Guanajuato, you will see how real Mexicans live and work in their ordinary everyday lives in a city that has history and culture oozing out of every cobblestone. If you expect to be entertained like in the resort towns, look elsewhere.

However, having said that, Guanajuato is a traveler's dreamland to visit. That, I suppose, largely depends on your motive.

Of those surveyed, 7% to 10% came to Guanajuato in 2007 to visit family; 4% to 7% came for business; 6% to 8% for historical significance; 2% to 6% ventured here for ecotourism; 65% to 78% came just for a little R & R—Rest and Relaxation.

And, let me just say that Rest and Relaxation is what the average Joe and Jane American needs in times like these. If your American life has become something unrecognizable and transformed into something you would rather not even think about, then Guanajuato is the cure for what ails your hectic existence.

Five Steps To Maximize A Guanajuato Vacation

Think creatively: You can't possibly find a much-needed cure for your stress in Guanajuato if you try to have a whirlwind rush through the city and state.

1. Guanajuato is absorbed and not so much seen. Take time to sit and smell the foods cooking in El Jardin; listen to the music, the children playing, the donkeys braying, or the vendors hawking their wares; feel the textures of the serapes, scarves, and whatever else catches your attention.

2. Don't fret over your lodging. Be willing to stay anywhere. Staying in the historical center is not what it is cracked up to be. If you are planning a Restful and Relaxing vacation, staying in the noise-filled El Jardin is not necessarily what you will want. Try to book a hotel outside the historical center and nowhere near churches where you will be serenaded with bell ringing virtually around the clock. An apartment vacation rental is often the better choice.

3. Be willing to limit eating out from one to three meals for your entire vacation. If you find lodging in an apartment or hostel with cooking facilities, it would broaden your cultural horizons immensely to shop in the local markets for fresh foods you can cook on your own. It is a lifesaver on your pocketbook. My wife and I employ this tactic almost always when we travel through the country. Eating out can be a budget killer.

4. To minimize the financial impact on your savings, watch the airfares like your life depends on it. If you become a little pre-vacation obsessed, you can catch a deal on the flight to Mexico. My wife is liable to check three to four times a day when we are planning trips to catch the best prices. Or, consider driving to Mexico if you live within a one or two state's distance from the border. It isn't as hard as you think it might be. We are getting feedback from articles and forums that more and more Americans (and even some Canadians) choose the driving options. (Check the search engines for current restrictions and documents needed to drive into Mexico.)

5.Mexico is still a relative safe place to vacation. You have to put on your best "Big City Safety" thinking caps and play it safe the entire time. For reasons totally unknown, even to God, a lot of Gringos will come to Mexico, and especially Guanajuato, acting as though they've crossed over into the Promised Land of Safety and Virtue. I have not only personally witnessed this behavior in both tourists and American expatriates, but have a friend who is a long-time resident of the city who was robbed. She was not only relieved of her cash but was also beaten up in the process. She thought it was safe and secure to walk home at about three in the morning.

This is a serious issue. I cannot explain why Gringos come to Mexico and commit careless and dangerous behaviors that they would not do back home in Anywhere, America. They would not try walking home in the wee hours of the morning in almost any city in America and yet when they come here, they suddenly think they can do this and get by with it.

Don't walk back to your hotel at hours of the night where you are most likely to be robbed; don't visit ATM machines in the late hours; don't do anything here that you wouldn't do back home. If it feels dangerous it probably is, even in Guanajuato.

And, if you worry about all the news reports of Narco-Traffickers in Mexico, Guanajuato is still relatively safe from that source of organized crime. The point is to play it safe and smart and you will most likely come out smelling like a rose and have good experiences to tell your friends when you get back home.

The Authentic Mexico

Some people bristle at the phrase "authentic Mexico." They often scream at me something akin to, "What is that supposed to mean?"

What it means is a Mexico that has largely resisted the Americanization attempts of the Resort Moguls and has done things and continues doing things its own way.

Recently, Guanajuato has "acquired" a Starbucks. Now, why anyone would want to come to Mexico and drink a four-dollar, or more, specialty coffee from America is beyond me and I am wont for an explanation. But, Americanization is coming to Guanajuato as it has infiltrated the resort areas of Mexico.

Still, Guanajuato is not a resort (yet) and is full of regular Mexicans going about their regular lives trying to eek out a regular living. History, culture, and Mexican life are worth more to me to see and experience than being entertained with a Cruise Ship agenda. Guanajuato can indeed be a dreamland vacation.

Let Guanajuato be the place you spend your next vacation!

###

Bower's new book, A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue. Unlimited Publishing, is available now at: http://www.mexican-living-guanajuato.com/travelogue.html

I've come to believe in recent years that living in Mexico, and for a variety of reasons, is as close as you can get to living in The Twilight Zone. The reasons for this are not all Mexican, I have to say from the beginning. Some are, maybe even most, but it is most certainly like living in another dimension in which time itself functions along a different quantum phase making living here, well, interesting in a maddening sort of way.

In case you've forgotten or are too young to recall,

"The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode (156 in the original series) is a mixture of self-contained fantasy, science fiction, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist." – Wikipedia

Let me just venture to say that this describes Life in Mexico depending on where you live, or course, and to what degree genuine education has infiltrated and usurped Mexican provincialism.

For a little bit of "self-contained fantasy, science fiction, or horror…" go to YouTube and type in "Flying Humanoid" and be prepared for a belly-busting laugh. In Monterrey, according to one report, a policeman, mind you, a Cop fainted when we saw the flying and cackling thingee zoom at him, so he says, from a tree.

Whatever "The Flying Humanoid" is, and frankly I don't care, this sort of thing happens in this country and is accepted as real as the air through which the thing flies with nothing to prove otherwise. "Let's test this hypothesis" does not apply in a lot of Provincial Mexico.

Another reason this is like The Twilight Zone is, in a word, Gringos! Apart from being rabid liberals, most of them anyway, they move here with the nuttiest ideas and beliefs.

"Are they all Mexican here?"

"Look at what that Spanish man is doing."

"I wanted change, not pesos."

"You call this a taco?"

My wife and I were in a church in the Mexican highlands when a funeral procession began. As we were trying to politely and reverently excuse ourselves from the family's mournful gathering, we saw a handful of Gringos parade past us, dressed in "Gidget-goes-to-the-beach" wear (I was frankly surprised no one had folding patio chairs), with cameras at the ready. As the family opened the casket these California-Dreamers rushed the front for a photo shoot. We could hear the whine of the snapping shutters and see the subsequent flashing.

Here's a tip: Believe it or not, just because you had to re-mortgage your home to afford a trip to Mexico does not entitle you to take pictures in a church of dead babies, walking into the church like you were going for a romp on a beach, nor disrupt any services. The Church is not a museum.

Here's another tip: In Mexico they are called Mexican and not Spanish.

What prompted today's Blog was my wife and I witnessing yet another funeral procession being regarded by Gringo tourists as a photo-op. There they stood as the hearse pulled up to the church clicking away trying to get as many photos of some poor family's loved one's funeral.

Do you suppose that these Americans who stood there gawking like they were at the circus snapping photos of a parade as fast as they could would react kindly to foreigners imposing themselves on their mother's funeral?

Why Americans come to Mexico and engage in behaviors they would not possibly try in the States is beyond my ability to comprehend. In America do they jump in the car when they hear the neighbor's infant died with camera in hand just frothing at the mouth to get photos? Can you image the ensuing fist fight, or worse, that would erupt? The lawsuits? And, yet, I have seen this now more than once happen in Mexico. Is it that Americans think because they've forked over money to come here that they are ENTITLED to commit such a barbaric act of filming some poor, mourning Mexican family's funeral?

I mean, really!

###

My New Book: Check it out!

The onset of the "Oh-no-it's-a-recession" panic caused a lot of would-be travelers and potential expatriates to Mexico to put a screeching halt to not only their plans to take a trip down to my neck of the Mexican woods but they've also stopped their research. This is what most of us who have made this magnificent transition have done - research. We read, no we devour, everything we can on hotels, hostels, restaurants, rentals, real estate, and some of us delve into culture and language before making a reconnaissance trip down South of the Border to check out the lay of the land, which is something we highly recommend. It's what my wife and I did and what many potential expatriates do.

While I get the point about traveling costs as a reason to put plans on hold, I would suggest that you don't have to stop your research into visiting or moving to Mexico. If that was your pre-Recession strategy, to visit or retire to Mexico, you can continue to do the necessary research. I can't stress this enough. You've got to know what you are getting into before coming. Some make the mistake of not doing their homework. Don't let something like a Recession stop you from finding out, in the comfort of your American or Canadian home, what it is you need to prepare for a life of retirement or even just a vacation in Mexico.

Most of the expat info available is contained in just a few books. The travel aspect of Mexico is pretty much of a cinch. The ole faithful, Lonely Planet, is standing by and ready. It can sometimes be a bit off on prices of hotel and transportation costs, but this is the inherent problem with guidebooks.

Information on retiring, working, or just hanging out-expatriation-is a little harder to dig up. A lot of information is online, but often it is not very accurate. Cost-of-living is something everyone seems to want to know and this is the hardest information to give out to seekers. You simply have to realize that your cost-of-living will be the amount you need to make yourself comfortable in your new home. It will be something you can live with. How my wife and I live in Guanajuato, Mexico, is not the norm for most of the expats we know. We live like Mexicans do and thus live very cheaply. Friends of ours here in Guanajuato live like Americans in Mexico and it costs them dearly. The recession has sent some to the real estate agents to put their houses on the Mexican market. They cannot afford to keep living like King Solomon and The Queen of Sheba. What it is going to cost you in a particular place to live in Mexico is entirely dependent upon your tastes.

How, when book prices are so high, not to mention the shipping and handling costs, can the potential expatriate to Mexico find out what he or she needs to know?

I am the author of several books that are NOT selling. My competitors, at least online, don't seem to be doing any better. Though Amazon.com has free shipping offers for books, it doesn't appear to be moving the "Live in Mexico" genre. Times for print books are tough.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be in the ebook.

You can buy a print book that retails for a small fortune (or so it seems) for a few dollars in digital form. There is no shipping and handling and you can read these books in a variety of ways.

I know some in the "older" baby boomer age bracket who just cannot bring themselves to read ebooks. They complain that it is "too hard" to sit at the computer and read them. I personally find I can read the ebooks much faster on my larger computer screen. I get a cup of coffee, a snack, and read fast and furiously. If I want, I go slower.

The point is that there are so many ways today to read ebooks and you can get all manner of fiction or non-fiction selections. Best Sellers are often in ebook format.

PDF ebooks and Mobipocket formats are what I use most often. You can download a PDF ebook instantly and begin reading as soon as the download is complete. You can download the Mobipocket reader free and then download a book in that format and read away. I like the Mobipocket for its appearance of looking like the pages of a small paperback book.

Also, you can read these ebooks on your laptop. Sit back on the couch with a few pillows and some tea and read all night long. There are handheld devices available also into which you can download the books. It is like holding a small paperback book in your hands. It so reminds me of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine because this is how they read their literature...on handheld devices. Amazon.com now has their Kindle Reader, which is their handheld device. This device allows their customers to download books within seconds and begin reading almost immediately.

The costs can be substantial. One "move-to-Mexico" paperback retails for $17.95 but the ebook sells for $12.00. Stephen King's, Just After Sunset Stories (hardback) retails for $28.00 but the ebook Kindle Version is just $9.99.

The Kindle Reader is pricey. It sells for $359.00. Other readers, to host the Mobipocket versions for example, can be as low as $95.00 and as high as $700.00. However, you have to look at it from the perspective of making the cost of the reader back in the savings from paperback and hardback book prices and their shipping.

For me, dwindling planetary resources (the planet is running out of trees) is a strong consideration for going ebook and phasing out my purchase of paper books.

So, don't let the recession stop you from doing your expatriation (or traveling) research. Buy ebooks by the dozens and read to your heart's content so you can be fully prepared for your living-in-another-country adventure!

###

Ebooks on Guanajuato Travel and Expatriation Issues! CHECK IT OUT!

In the middle of the night when the bombing (Day of the Dead fireworks) began and I was startled awake by my three-foot, straight-up jump out of bed, I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to write my annual article about this year's Guanajuato Tourist Season! In case you don't know, I have been writing a special-interest article each year about the Gringo Invasion of Guanajuato. These invaders are called tourists. More specifically, these conquering travelers are commonly known in Guanajuato as Gringo Tourists. And to be even more scientific about it, Gringo is the Genus and not the breed of Tourists.
 
The word Genus, according to Webster means, "a class, kind, or group marked by common characteristics or by one common characteristic."

What I am talking about is the specific Species or Breed of Tourists taught in Tourism School or the science of Touristology called The American Gringo Tourist. To understand this better, think of the dog breed, The Great Dane. It is a domestic dog. Think also of the Chihuahua that also is a domestic dog. However, it doesn't take a genius to see the vast and magnificent difference between the two. The same goes with your ordinary Canadian, European, Australian, and Oriental Tourists. All are tourists but when you compare them with The American Gringo Tourist, the differences are, well, vast to say the least.

To simplify, think of Americans as a specific breed of tourist.

What I have done in years past is try to apply very carefully and with much forethought the scientific principles of ethnology – a science that deals with the division of human beings into races and their origins, distribution, relations, and characteristics (Thank-you Mr. Webster).

In doing so I would venture out daily into the wild and wooly wilderness of tourist traps like sidewalk cafes, boutiques, churches, park benches, and observe and record how The American Tourist acts. My results? Startling!

In past articles I would observe and record things like shrieking harpies (always females followed subserviently by obedient males) screaming in front of sidewalk cafes, "I know you speak English and are pretending you don't." This was by far the most common thing observed and recorded.

Next, I would see entire groups of this most common Breed of Gringo eating at small, out-of-the-way eateries getting so bombed on booze that entire groups of American Gringos would become falling-down drunk. There would always be someone in those groups, usually a male, who would find the brains God gave him to try and flag a cab. However, this blasted soul would soon have an American Gringo lapse and begin cursing wilding and giving the finger to each cab that passed him, already occupied with a fare, for not stopping for his "Here I am…American Tourist…HEAR ME ROAR!"

Finally, I would sit in the plazas and listen to loud bellowings come out of restaurants, "I ordered a taco!" or "You call this a taco?" or "Don't you have Taco Bell here?" It always was loud protestations about tacos.

I would make many minor observations too. Mostly these were carefully scribbled notes of how American Tourists would pitch public fits over where or what to eat, where to go next, or wailings to the point of almost swooning when they exited their hotels to discover that they could not find anyone who spoke English. Sometimes I could hear them ask one another, "Is everyone here really Mexican?"

These folks would do one of two things but never both. They would either run back to their hotels and in under three minutes come back out with packed bags to head to the airport for Puerto Vallarta, or they would join the shrieking harpies' battle cry (see above).

Well, I am happy as a peach that what I have to report for Guanajuato, Mexico's 2008 Tourist Season is none of the above.

That's right! Though it appears there were more tourists than ever, even of the American Gringo Breed, that showed up in town this year, we saw none of the behavior that spurred the naming of American Gringos as The Ugly American! Isn't that swell?

This year, the difference seems overwhelmingly to be that they hired English-Speaking Mexicans to take them by the hand all over the city. It also appears that the tour guides made a better effort than before to advertise their services and unbelievably, the American Gringos took them up on their offers to show them a good time.

Everywhere I looked I saw happy-faced American Gringos frolicking up and down the streets of Guanajuato holding hands with their bilingual tour guides and all merrily singing Canta no Llores. 

Is this a good omen of many more Tourist Seasons to come? I don't know. But, as always, I will be here to watch and record from park benches, small cafes, small darkened corners in bars and grills, surreptitiously making notes for the Guanajuato Tourist Season 2009.

###

A Walk Though Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue, by Doug Bower, is available pre-release through Unlimited Publishing at their Website. Bookstore release is scheduled in 2009. Mr. Bower can be reached at Mexican-Living-Guanajuato.com
 




 

Of all the Cervantino Festival events that roll into the city of Guanajuato each October I believe my least favorite has to be that which sends many locals fleeing the city for three weeks each year. The ghoulish punks, the vampirish Goth, or the "hippies"—as the Guanajuatenses are wont to call them—are not what the founders, I am quite sure, had in mind for the Cervantino Festival of the Arts.

Our first Cervantino was in the fall of 2003. I can recall in a discussion I had with my Spanish conversation teacher that my unbridled excitement over participating in the festival was listened to with all the enthusiasm of one of the permanent residents of Guanajuato's Mummy Museum. Her deadpan expression was due, she told me, to the invasion by Mexico's youthful sub-culture, turning what was surely meant as a celebration of the Fine Arts into a celebration of drinking, drugging, and all the free sex one could muster. Apparently, a lot of mustering had become the main attraction.

My Spanish teacher went on to report how her rather large and extended family actually packed their bags and went to stay with relatives elsewhere for the three week duration of the festival as if fleeing a military invasion by Guatemala. Well, goodness, I had to find out what this was all about and would soon discover long-term expats as well as locals with lots and lots of stories.

The huge Cervantino Festival was originally meant to be a celebration of performing arts, fine arts, culture, and general artistic expression honoring the contribution of Miguel de Cervantes to Spanish and Mexican culture.

Cervantes was born in 1547. His work, Don Quixote, is considered to be the world's first modern novel and certainly a classic of Western Literature. The influence Cervantes had on the Spanish language is considered by some experts as a lengua de Cervantes (The language of Cervantes).

Some of the University of Guanajuato's students, enthralled with Cervantes' Entremeses—a kind of satire—began performing them in Plaza San Roque when it grew into a grand idea: increase tourism. That's how the idea for Cervantino was born. These small, almost informal, performances grew in importance and popularity to the point where the Mexican government saw an idea to increase the city's popularity and tourism income. The original idea was to attract world-class performers from all over the world, not just those from Mexico.

However the founders meant the festival to be, interference from the Mexico government is where things went afoul. That is, at least, the story I have been able to piece together from sources varying from Mexican residents to long-term Gringo expats.

To save money—of course—the Mexican government got it into their heads that they could recruit "free talent" from a pool of young and upstart groups looking for exposure. This translated into officially recruited groups and unofficially recruited groups, some of which had little to no talent and who brought with them their groupies and lots of them. And, they showed up in droves. Our first Cervantino, 2003, we had a startling revelation in our discovery that hippies had not died out as a species. They were alive and well and all in Guanajuato for three weeks each October.

What followed this migration of the Not-So-Fine-Art-inclined was a tremendous population of Flashback-From-The-Past Sub-culture individuals who thought nothing of displaying loose behavior and in a very public way, sending the very provincial Guanajuatenses into a vociferous complaining frenzy to the government. An elderly Guanajuato woman of no small financial or influential means told me the Cervantino Festival had become a celebration of the Barrachos or drunkards.

Cervantino 2008 began this year on the 8th of October and will last until the 26th. It began, however, under a cloud of fear. Morelia, Michoacan's Independence Day celebration on the 15th of September, in which shrapnel hand grenades were hurled into the civilian crowd of celebrants, cast a foreboding shadow over Cervantino. With 8 dead and scores wounded, many wondered if Guanajuato's Cervantino would or could be the Narco-Terrorist's next message.

I was delighted to discover that Guanajuato's government saw the light that an ounce of prevention was most certainly worth a pound of cure, as they say. Proactive action looked a lot better than waiting for another body count. Guanajuato acted!

Several days before Guanajuato's Cervantino Opening Ceremonies, the scary but welcome sight of Mexican soldiers with attack dogs appeared in the central plaza, El Jardin. I think it was this unnerving and never-before-seen sight that woke many Guanajuatenses to at least ask the question whether the events of Morelia could happen in Guanajuato.

Extrema Seguridad, or Extreme Security was the headline of Iván Rodriguez's story in the Guanajuato daily, El Correo.

"On each corner," writes Rodriguez, "Mexican army and agents from the Federal Police to guarantee peace and public order."

When Cervantino's opening night finally rolled around, a security presence never before seen and somewhat disturbing to provincial locals, was in place.

Rodriguez writes of barricades for better crowd control, metal detectors, and the manual checking of purses and backpacks by bomb-sniffing dogs assured a Narco-Terrorist incident-free evening.

I only hope that there will many more Terrorism-free Cervantinos to come and with a radical return to the founder's original intent of a high quality presentation of the Fine Arts.

###

A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel – A Guanajuato Travelogue

by Doug Bower,

is now available through Unlimited Publishing. CLICK HERE

Notes From South of the Border

My Thoughts, My Opinions, My Editorializing on My Life in Central Mexico

Gringo Profanity in Mexico

Perhaps it was because I grew up in a household of cursers that I so despise the use of profanity. Or, maybe it is because it is so indicative of someone's inability to articulate themselves intelligently. I've also thought that it could be because it is so closely related to the Rage Issue in America that Americans are some of the most profane uttering people.

I can recall never being able to go out in America without having the air turned blue by the limited vocabulary of profane people. And, I am not talking about a minority here, either. Does not your own experience show that Americans just cannot seem to express themselves, all most always in anger, using the vilest profanities? It is everywhere, is it not?

I totally get using profanity in high stress situations in which to utter a few vulgarities can relieve stress a bit. I must admit, I have fallen into this a time or two. What I am talking about is lacing one's conversation with words best left in the locker room or a construction site. If you will notice, Americans no longer seem to be able to talk without using words that frankly are tiresomely vulgar.

We live in a small colonial Mexican town called, Guanajuato. It is the capital of the state of Guanajuato. Not too far from us is an other colonial town called San Miguel de Allende infected with almost 12,000 American expatriates. To put it in the words of an expat friend who fled that town to live where we do, "They come to San Miguel with all their little pathologies," and indeed they do.

We went over there to eat in a Chinese restaurant. After giving our order a group of Americans came in. They gave their order in English (this is because the vast majority cannot string together two words of Spanish to save their lives), and then proceeded to have a little chat that went something like this:

First Vile American:"I told that son-of-a-bitch that I didn't give a shit what he thought."

Second Vile American:"Well, what the fuck did you tell him then?"

First Vile American: "I told him that I didn't give a shit what he did next."

Second Vile American: "Did he shit all over himself when you said that?"

First Vile American: "Hell, I don't know and who gives a shit what he did next."

Second Vile American: "Shit, is that all you said to the fucker?"

First Vile American: "No, I told him shit on you, you shit-head."

This gem of a conversation was uttered in the loudest possible of voices so that they could have been heard, I am assuming, outside the restaurant. I asked the waiter, in Spanish, if this was a rare occurrence. He had quite a good time laughing his head off. I am sure the vulgar Americans didn't care one whit that they were loud and vulgar because, to put it in the only thing profane Americans seem to understand these days,

"They didn't give a shit what a bunch of Mexicans thought of their shitty behavior."

Mexicans can curse. Do not get me wrong, here. But, it is so utterly comical and so appropriate that you hardly notice it. And, just let me say this: I walked the last 7 months past road construction full of Mexicans and not once did I witness vile language much less profane behavior. When they do use profanity it is nothing like Americans and certainly does not create the same sort of hostility that you feel when Americans cut loose. Mexicans curse with purpose (though you rarely hear it) unlike Americans who will scream obscenities for lack of a better vocabulary and temper control.

That is the main issue. You just don't see, ever, Mexicans pitching fits of rage in public and cursing like drunken sailors. The Mexican public realm seems off limits to that sort of vulgarity for which I am thankful. There is not a whole lot of public expression of such uncontrolled hostility here as in the States. In fact, I have yet to witness it. Just think of a moment of the appeal of being to go out in public and not having to witness public hostility.

In a recent YouGov poll, Britons surveyed revealed that,

"…A majority of the Britons described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business."

But I fear, just as another part of the survey reveal, that Americans do not give a rat's rear-end of how their vulgarity affects the rest of the world:

"A massive 83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks."

Click Here to Read More

GUANAJUATO TRAVELOGUE

A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel

A Guanajuato Travelogue

By

Doug Bower

NOW AVAILABLE Click Here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (SEPT 2008)

Guanajuato, México (SEPT 2008) New Book offers visitors travelogue description of city.

Guanajuato, México – A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue and Memoir is for American, English-only Europeans, and Canadian travelers who have grown weary of the typical Mexican vacation. Traditionally, these groups have spent their vacation funds in the resort areas of Mexico—Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, and Acapulco are but three. Vacationing at these resorts can grow tiresome after a visit or two. Though they are beautiful, they will easily suck up every dime of your vacation budget in only a few days. Also, the issue becomes one of wondering just how many times you can sit on the beach, swim with the dolphins, and drink margarita after margarita while watching humpback whales have sex. Many American and Canadian tourists are beginning to ask, “Is there more to Mexico than this?” A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue and Memoir answers that question with a resounding, “Yes!”

A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue and Memoir will be a travelogue-memoir with strong guidebook features about the city of Guanajuato (the capital of the state of Guanajuato). It will also cover the surrounding areas, like San Miguel de Allende, that will appeal to American and Canadian tourists. It will be a travelogue featuring me walking through the city of Guanajuato and describing the areas of interest to tourists. I’ve spent more than a year interviewing tourists who come to my adopted Mexican hometown. I asked them, “What would you want to see in a guidebook about Guanajuato?” Most have told me they want “A book that tells what Guanajuato's sights are and how to get to them. Also, we want a book directed at the tourist who only has a limited amount of vacation time.”

Market / Audience

All those interested in learning more about Central Mexico.

Both the tourist who is fluent in Spanish as well as the tourist who does not speak Spanish.

Potential expatriates, study abroad students, and retirees to Central Mexico.

Businesspeople who have to travel in this area of Mexico

Someone who wants a different experience from what one experiences in the traditional resort areas of Mexico.

Number of Pages: 314
ISBN: Pending
Publisher: ULIMITED PUBLISHING LLC
Year: 2008

Contact Information:
Unlimited Publishing LLC
Post Office Box 3007
Bloomington, IN 47402
CONTACT PUBLISHER

NOW AVAILABLE Click Here

Labels: Guanajuato, Mexico, San Miguel de Allende

Am I terrorist? No, I am not. I wouldn't know the first thing about being one nor have I ever read a job description. I've not run across any how-to ebooks either. However, the U.S. Federal Government apparently thinks I might be one.

A few days ago I was looking at a feature on my web site's control panel to check my stats. This is where you can find out who is visiting your site and from which country. This is a handy little device that can help you in marketing your site to a country or state that seems to be clicking a lot on your site in the search engines or directory listings.

While looking at this info I found that the United States Federal Government has been snooping on my site since its creation. The breakdown looks like this:

1. U.S. Military

2. U.S. Government

3. U.S. Defense Department

Anywhere from 4 - 24 times per month I've had visitors from the computers in this three U.S. government entities.

This floored me.

Why, I pondered, would information on how to live in Mexico and learn Spanish be of any possible interest to this government agencies? Is what I've written that subversive?


Anyway, in today's news I found this story:

Social Networking Sites Not Just for Friends — It’s Also for the Feds

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

By Jana Winter; Foxnews

Guess who may be checking you out on Facebook, Wikipedia and MySpace?

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are poring over non-verifiable profiles on the Web to help decide who should be allowed into the country and who may pose a threat to national security.

Information is even being collected through Google searches, DHS and FBI sources confirmed to FOXNews.com...Read Whole Story Here

Labels: Guanajuato, Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, Spanish