Mañana in Mexico
Just some rambling, random thoughts on our new home.
One thing that you hear often about Mexico is "mañana," the concept that everything takes longer in Mexico. While there is some truth to this, much of it is probably due to a Mexican resistance to gringo impatience and arrogance. Back in the 1980's there was a big migration of people from the steel and auto industry in Michigan and Ohio who moved to Texas for jobs. Popular bumper stickers at the time said "Love NY? Take I-35 N" and "We don't care how you did it up north." Yankee immigrants were perceived as rude and bossy, opinionated. I suspect that Mexicans may have similar thoughts about Norteamericanos.
Animal control. That's handled a bit differently here. On the road to Ajijic, called the Libramiento, there is a dead horse. It has been there for three weeks at least. It was evidently hit by a passing vehicle and has been lying in the roadside culvert ever since. Once it began to stink, someone put a thick layer of quicklime on it. They added more when it started to stink again. I don't know if there is a governmental department anywhere assigned to collecting animal carcasses or not.
When we visited Guanajuato in 2008 a man would come down the alley way once or twice a week yelling "GAAaaaaaaaaaAAAASSSSSS!" at 5:30AM. It might have been later, but it seemed very early. But Guanajuato is an old town with many areas accessible only by very small cars or on foot. Now that we are in a slightly newer area (something built since the early 1600's) there are trucks for gas delivery, and there are two or three different companies. But the delivery notification is much the same. The trucks drive down the street and if you need some gas you stop them and get some. You can tell which company truck is coming by the musical ad playing on their loudspeaker, like an ice cream truck.
Speaking of loudspeakers, it's quite popular to place them on top of your car here. Then you can rent yourself out as a rolling advertisement. It seems to be used mostly for events. You get a tape or CD of the ad, then you drive around playing it through the speaker you have strapped to the roof of your car. We even had one drive through our suburban neighborhood advertising a circus in town. Unlike most ads, it played in both Spanish and English.
In many ways the pace here is, indeed, a bit more relaxed. And since I am trying to fit in, that's my excuse for not writing more. Mañana.