IS MEXICO IN YOUR FUTURE?
By Anne and James Olsen
(Published on February 22, 2010)
Rethinking retirement? Postponing your dreams of kicking back or having adventures? Think Mexico ! Over a million US citizens are currently living south of the border. Many are retirees, although increasingly families with children are making the move too.
THE GOOD NEWS
Living in Mexico offers many advantages. What are you worried about ? Health care ? Medications ? Help ? Temperate climate ? Communication with your family? When you enter Mexico you have the rights and obligations a Mexican citizen has. You're innocent until proven guilty, and everything that's against the law in the United States is illegal in Mexico with minor variations. (traffic laws are generally not enforced unless you have an accident where property damage or someone is injured; buy car insurance for Mexico if you are driving. With a fender bender, the drivers settle up right on the highway.) You must have a visa. They are available for three months and obtainable at the border. Or you can apply for an FM3 which gives you the right to reside in Mexico for a year, renewable for up to five years. You can apply at any Mexican consulate in the US or once in the country.
Foreigners are allowed to own land in Mexico. The only restrictions are waterfront property unless owned with a Mexican partner or in trust with a bank. Many of the coastal locations are too hot and humid for year round residence anyway. Most US citizens are based in Mexico City, Guadalajara and environs, or San Miguel de Allende. Others are scattered around the country.
Prices in the three most popular spots are cheaper than in the United States and cheaper still in other communities. You can build a nice house for between $100 to $150 US per square foot. You can buy an extant home for between $125,000 to a million US dollars. Year-round rentals tend to be reasonable. In San Miguel de Allende, we rent a three-bedroom apartment with three baths and a terrace in a nice neighborhood with a park nearby for $375 per month plus utilities.
Many populated areas offer well-trained medical doctors, many who have received training in their specialities in the US. Most pharmaceuticals are available, without prescription, for 20 to 50 percent of their US cost. Medical treatment runs about one-fifth of what it costs in the US and is excellent in urban areas. Our doctor for example charges $20 US per office visit and will make house calls anytime in the day or night for twice that. Insurance is available and can include medical flights to the United States
Food costs run about 40 percent of those in the US; and if you stick to fresh produce and chicken, you can live both healthier and cheaper. We drink bottled water and don't eat in the open-air markets, because there is no running water and produce is cleaned in pails. The food service workers don't wear gloves. The conseguence is that there can be sudden outbreaks of the flu, typhoid, or hepatitus. People are very clean, but the sanitary conditions are poor. So, like most middle-class Mexicans, stay away from the stalls, even though the smells of the food cooking are incredibly enticing.
Each town has a traditional market day, and we do our shopping at the open-air stalls. Fresh fruits and vegetables (and often many other commodities) are all available for about 25% of the price you would pay in the States. When we take our produce home in our canvas bag (a must for shopping in open- air markets), we soak everything in water with a chemical purifier for 20 minutes. Since produce is right from the farm, it usually lasts until the next market day.
We buy fresh chickens from the "chickenman" who receives them daily from local breeders. Beef is available, but it is not the quality of US aged beef. so we freeze it and then use it. We can't find veal, but occasionally we can get god quality lamb. Fresh fish is always available in the coastal areas, Mexico Cty, and in many towns during Lent. It is about half the stateside price. There are many local, inexexpensve cheeses and ice creams available.
Maids are paid between $1.50 and $2.00 dollars an hour, so help is affordable if wanted. The people are very glad to work and will try hard to meet your expectations. If the gardener or maid's family has a special event, such as a wedding or a baptism, or a time of crises, such as a funeral or hospitalization you are expected to help defray some of the costs. As an employer, you help out like other relatives and friends.
A lot of people appreciate Mexico's 2,500 year-old culture. There is still a rich, active indigenous culture. One can find a wide variey of handcrafts, including marvelous weavings and carved objects, for sale at reasonable prices. You will also want to visit archaeological sites throughout the country.
Mexicans expect greetings or pleasantries, such as "buenos dias" (good morning), "con permiso" (excuse me ), and "como esta" (how are you?) when you meet them. Short shorts, bathing suits, halters and going bare foot are frowned upon except at the beach, because this type of dress violates their sense of public formality. What one wears in the privacy of one's home is one thing, but what one wears out on the street is quite another. Behaving calmly in an agreeable way is expected of everyone. Even if one is in a great hurry, one remains calm, collected, and polite.
The more Spanish one learns, the better off one will be. For Mexicans, foreigners learning Spanish is a sign of respect for them, their culture, and their country. They know how much effort it takes to learn a language because some of them start learning English in elementary school; and many Mexicans are able to speak English. There are plenty of reasonably priced Spanish-language schools and qualified tutors throughout the country. Take advantage of them.
In addition to walking, there are many gyms, golf courses, tennis courts, and such in communities where foreigners tend to live. In these communities also are many opportunities to volunteer. Many community libraries, centers, or churches offer classes in English using US volunters as teachers. Our town of 100,000 people has almos 60 nonprofit voluntary organizations. Many were founded and are funded by US and Canadian citizens. Most expatriates and many part-time residents volunteer. There is something for everyone from help for elderly persons to assistance in bringing health services or hot meals to children who live in the rural areas to running house tours that raise money for scholarship programs.
THE NOT- SO -GOOD NEWS
Living in Mexico requires adaptation. There are sharp cultural differences, which can drive a foreigner crazy.
For example, the Mexican sense of time is very different from ours. If you ask a repairman at what time he will come to your house, he may tell you " in the morning" or " in the afternoon". When you press him for an exact time, he will hesitate, because he has already provided the information you requested. If you press him further for an exact time,he may give you one. The problem is he may then show up two hours "late" from your perspective but be "on time" from his. Or he may even appear the next day with absolutely no sense of guilt or even diffidence. He's there, isn't he ? Further, his daily schedule if fundamentally different from ours in the United States. Most business hours are 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. and 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. So if you are a morning person you're out of luck. Errands will just have to wait.
Since Mexicans work until 8 at night, their social lives also take place much later. Dinner may be served after 10 o'clock, the evening may end at 2 or 3 in the morning. Having dinner at 7 or 8 requires a change in habit for the Mexican. Many Mexicans know our customs and will adapt; but adaptation is a reciprocal process, so get reay for some late nights. Much of Mexico has the appearance of modernity with common amenities from water and electricity to computer technology, and it has the institutions to go with them, such as banks, hospitals, and libraries. But often these don't function to our expectations or may break down periodically. In the middle of a dinner party, all the lights may go out for some reason nobody can fathom. One simply lights the candles, gets out the flashlights, and no one even comments. After a while, one comes to understand the fragility of the modern infrastructure in what is still in many basic respects a developing county.
One can't drink the water, but there may be no water at all due to a broken water pipe or a problem at the pumping station. Many people keep reserve water in buckets to flush the toilet or wash their faces until the water flows again. When the water does return, temporary deprivation can lead to greater appreciation for what one now has. One stops taking things for granted.
Some parts of the country, such as Mexico City, are periodically so heavily polluted that there are radio announcements to the effect that people should not leave home because it is unheathy to breathe. What do you do if you need to do an urgent errand, see the doctor, tend to a job, or meet a friend a the airport? Naturally you leave your house (often wearing a mask) and suffer the consequences. This level of pollution is not common except in heavily populated urban areas with lots of cars or factories, in spite of laws on the books demanding procedures, tecnologies, and regulations that are routinely ignored.
How can this be ? The law is one thing but reality quite another in countries where bribery is a routine part of life. Traditionally one has been able to get away with practically anything in Mexico, including murder, if one can pay the bribe (called a mordida), which means "a little bite" either to the cop, the judge, the government official, or the "fixer" middleman. Bribery is a part of life, whether it is to smooth the way or solve a problem. Policemen routinely supplement their meager pay with bribes, as part of which they pass on to their sergeants and captains. A policeman receives a salalry of between $300 and $350 US per month-not enough to support him and his family. The pay scale, therefore, is so low that they need the bribe to financially survive. While this does not justify the reality, it does help explain the persistent continuity of the bribe.
With the new political administration headed by President Calderon, things are changing for the better; but progress is slow and difficult. Mexicans have "esperanza" (hope) that in the future salaries will improve and laws will be more strictly enforced. Only time will be tell whether that hope is justified.
CONCLUSION
We have lived in the historic town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for more than 20 years now, and we are very happy. We live in a neighborhood with both foreigners and Mexicans. We know one another and meet on the street to exchange greetings and proffer invitations. We walk everywhere and buy at the local markets. We enjoy speaking Spanish and learning something new every day--about the country, the culture, the politics, and the people.
The crime rate is very low, so we walk about safely and securely. We savor life. We visit the States about once a year to see family and friends. In about a day's air travel we can visit any part of our own country. We communicate with everyone regularly through e-mail.(Mexican telephoe rates are among the highest in the world). When friends and relatives visit us here, they love it. Many people who come here talk to us about moving to Mexico to enjoy the lfestyle, the economic advantages, and the joy of living in an environment with few pressures.
COME TO MEXICO AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!
James and Anne Olsen are teachers who have lived in SMA for 20 years, Ms Olsen started a school in San Miguel and was a principal of it as well. They are both licensed U.S. teachers with six degrees between them and write a bi-monthly column on education which appears in the local newspaper "Atencion".
Are you bringing your kids to SMA? If you are then you may want to know about what the educational opportunities and pitfalls are concerning language, the curriculum teacher qualifications, etc. You can contact the Olsens at their e-mail address anne.james.olsen@gmail.com
