San Miguel de Allende, Charities, Questionable Motives?

Doesn't anyone realize that unless limitations areand socialize within an isolated cultural enclave.
established on what Americans can do after theyThese immigrants practice their own cultural
move to Mexico, they will change the cities totraditions and celebrate their national holidays.
which they flock until Mexico is no longer Mexico,Grocery stores are stocked with locally-unfamiliar
but is merely another USA?products that hail from their homeland.
Many Americans in Mexico do not Expatriate, theyAmerican professionals largely work illegally in San
Fakepatriate. (Notice I said many...not allMiguel and pay no taxes.
Americans). They think they expatriate. TheyThey typically do not pay their servants the
become hostile and aggressive if you suggestSocial Security taxes required by law.
they don't. They will threaten you. But, when pushThe illegal businesses run by the American gringo
comes to shove, they are nothing more thancommunity rips off the local San Miguel de Allende
Fakepatriates.government in excess of more than four million
They've created little Americas. They like verypesos a year in unpaid taxes.
much what they've carved into the preciousSome Americans are actually illegal aliens and do
heritage of the unique culture of Mexico...a countrynot bother with proper documentation.
in which they are guests. They love the fact thatSome are even involved in the Illegal Drug Trade
they've been able to push aside the local andand take drugs across the different Mexican state
national Mexican culture in order to make a placelines.
for themselves and the things that pertain to their(You won't read this stuff in the tour and
American tastes. They deny they've done this.expatriation guides. I guarantee it!)
They will protest most vehemently and theirWhat I want to know is just what do all those
umbrage will even take on the nature of threats.people who have been sending me seething hate
I've been writing in various venues for the pastmail say to this? Just why won't they offer a
four years about this very issue. At the time Iwell-reasoned, carefully constructed counter
began, I could find no one else speaking out onargument to the things that I've listed in this
the effects the Americans Fakepats are havingessay? Instead, 99% of the mail I receive
on the local communities. I dared to addressconsists of threats, profanity, wishes that I would
fakepat issues in San Miguel de Allende and evendie, and doubts that I even live in Mexico. Isn't this
where I live, Guanajuato. The predictable resultssort of vitriolic response indicative of the
have been denial, anger, threats, wishes that Icharacter of the Fakepats in that town?
would die, and even threats to beat me up. AllAm I wrong? If I am, where are the rationally
prove my contention that there is somethingcreated counter arguments?
dead and rotting in what these folks erroneouslySo, am I engaging in hyperbole here? Am I
call "The Expat Community."stretching the truth? Am I not at all in tune with
I mean, really. Why do they need an expatwhat's happening in SMA? Am I clueless? Listen to
community to begin with? If they reallywhat one of their own recently wrote regarding
expatriated to Mexico, then would not thetheir Fakepat English/Spanish Library:
following be so?"The Biblioteca Pública officials apologize to the
"Expatriation is the process by which an intensecommunity for having to increase protecting the
integration occurs whereby the individual ofbooks. As of March 30, no tote bags, schoolbags,
another culture is eventually absorbed into thesuitcases or packages can enter the Library.
new culture. This includes absorption into the newWomen may enter with handbags no larger than
culture's language, celebration of holidays,12x12 inches. The cause for these new rules is, of
observation of local events, politics, if allowed bycourse, book theft. Ali Zerriffi, President of the
law, in the new country. Also, it would include theLibrary urges those who object to the changes to
development of intense interpersonal relationshipsnot use aggressive behavior and foul language
with neighbors in the new country."directed toward the staff."[2]
If, for the sake of argument, this definition is true,Aggressive behavior and foul language? Thievery?
then why in God's name does anyone have to goI've not been making this stuff up. In more than
around identifying themselves as a member of212 articles and two books, I've been
the expat community? Shouldn't they be sodocumenting this stuff.
absorbed into the community into which they'veWhat really is appalling is that many of the
claimed to expatriate that they offer theirFakepats write me and tell me that I am wrong in
identification as a member of the localnot mentioning all the "good things" they do for
community? Do you get this? My wife and I dothe people of San Miguel de Allende.
not tell anyone that we are members of theHere's why I don't. I cannot bring myself to do so
American expat community of Guanajuato. Wesince I do not trust the motives of the so-called
identify ourselves as members of the communitycharitable do-gooders in that Fakepat enclave.
of Guanajuato­, PERIOD!Yes, now here goes the admission. The Fakepats
When someone asks us, as touring gringos herein San Miguel do offer charity to the locals who
often do, "Where are you from?" we tell them:are poor and downtrodden.
GUANAJUATO. After the look of horror andBut, does that give the Fakepats the license to:
confusion leaves their faces and they close their"...not paying income tax or lodging tax. They are
gaping mouths, they ask us, correctly I mighttypically not paying Mexican Social Security to
say, "Where are you from originally?"their domestic help. Franyuti estimates that
Do not miss the point here. We do not identifyunlicensed business in the city costs the local
ourselves as American expats living in Mexico butgovernment more than four million pesos a
as Americans absorbed into the new culture. Thisyear--an excess of $360,000 in lost taxes and
culture is now our culture. We have no umbilicalfees."[3]
cord that attaches us to America.Aren't you taking from the city in services and
Is this not what expatriation truly is?not paying for them with your taxes?..."But, oh,
The creation of an "expat community" is theit's ok because look how charitable we are to the
attempt to not only create a "Little America" butpoor and downtrodden?"
is also a definitive act to strengthen that umbilicalYou are straining the infrastructure of that town.
cord leading all the way back to the United States.You are taking from San Miguel in city services
I recently engaged in a verbal donnybrook withand playing the charity card as your excuse for
someone from San Miguel de Allende who claimednot paying your taxes.
there was no American Expat (fakepat)How is your charity that sends young people to
community there. "There was no Americancollege going to pay for your Mexican neighbors'
enclave," she said. They, the gringos, are all nicelytax bill that is sky-high because you take, take,
absorbed into the local Mexican community and alland take but do not return?
was nice and sweet in that colonial Mexican town.The locals have to carry the higher tax burden
Every American has been neatly and profoundlybecause you, who can and should, won't.
integrated into the Mexican community. She even,Are the American Fakepats the saviors of the
now get this, disputed the long-known fact thatpoor little brown people?
few of the fakepats can speak enough Spanish(This, the poor little brown people, was actually
to survive.said to me once here in Guanajuato regarding the
They who protest what I've been writing all thesesituation in SMA.)
years resort to the argument that, since I don'tA Real Expat about sums it up:
live in San Miguel de Allende, how could I possibly"I am an American living in the central area of
make such observations? In other words, theyMéxico, and we seem to have an uncontrolled
resort to a Beg The Question Argument inimmigration problem here as well... every day I
implying that I would have to live in San Miguel dewalk by the central plaza of the little and charming
Allende in order to make a legitimate commenttown I have chosen to live in, and it sickens me
about life there. And, if I lived there, I could notto observe a multitude of decrepit old men and
possibly come to the conclusions that I have. Iwomen - gringos, mind you... sitting there,
wonder if I did move there (hell would have topoisoning the atmosphere with their pathetic
freeze over so I could skate on the ice) and stillattitudes towards the locals, pretending to appear
came to the same conclusions what they wouldas the redeemers of the people with their
say then?disgusting little dogs which they treat better than
The point is that I am not the only one makingthey would treat their own sons and daughters
these observations now.(which by the way, wouldn't be seen dead in the
In an article in the L.A. Times, a lady visiting Sanproximity), talking big about their homeland and
Miguel de Allende made this comment about thethe big money they made, all the while bargaining
Sunday House and Garden tour she took:to pay 25 cents less to the old lady who sells
"It was at this point that I realized that if I reallytortillas as her only income. We abhor these
wanted a taste of Mexico, I might as well gogringos as much as you abhor the illegal aliens in
home to Echo Park. The tour wasn't so much ayour country. Why don't you take all your
backstage pass to aspirational cultural immersionrelatives back to your "beautiful" homeland? If it is
as it was an English-only how-to guide for gettingso great, what in the blazes are you doing
away from it all without giving anything up. Eachhere?"[4]
dwelling was mostly notable for just howAnd, I couldn't say it any better than this:
thoroughly the householders had managed to bring"As witnesses not of our intentions but of our
the comforts of the north into the wilds of theconduct, we can be true or false, and the
south."[1]hypocrite's crime is that he bears false witness
And let me assure you of this: The San Miguel deagainst himself. What makes it so plausible to
Allende Fakepats regard their little Americanassume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that
enclave as such a sacred cow that they willintegrity can indeed exist under the cover of all
resort to all manner of attacks and threats inother vices except this one. Only crime and the
retribution for your freedom ofcriminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity
expression­--they're not a Jeffersonianof radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really
Democracy in their new American colonies here inrotten to the core."[5]
Mexico.[1] Monday, February 26, 2007; Flack over "Echo
Sheila Croucher, a professor of political science atPark in Mexico"; Meghan Daum
Miami University in Ohio and author of[2] Info SMA newsletter (April 9, 2007 issue)
"Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity[3] "They Love Us Here": American Migrants in
in a Changing World," made these observationsMexico; By Sheila Croucher--Winter 2007
about San Miguel de Allende:[4] I got this quote from a San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende attracts one of the largestchat room. I have no idea who said it. This shows
foreign populations in Mexico.just how bad it has become in San Miguel de
Most do not learn the local language and resideAllende.