Americans Fleeing to Mexico Get Brutal Message From Locals Matthew Holloway - The Western Journal
go to original August 1, 2022

Californians Are Moving to Mexico (Nomad Capitalist)

A Los Angeles Times story  has revealed a rising undercurrent of hostility toward foreigners — in Mexico. And the foreigners? They’re mostly Americans.

Though American citizens have long been the largest segment represented in Mexico’s vital tourism industry, with resort destinations like Cancun, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas, and Puerto Vallarta coming instantly to mind as premier vacation destinations, the trouble seems to be with the Americans who aren’t leaving. And the locals in Mexico City particularly are getting fed up.

“We’re the only brown people,” Fernando Bustos Gorozpe, a 38-year-old writer and university professor, observed during a recent visit with friends to a cafe, the Los Angeles Times reported. “We’re the only people speaking Spanish except the waiters.”

He couched his criticism of Americans living in the Mexican capital in phrasing that hearkens to the immigration controversy that has shaped American politics for over a decade, noting an “indifference as to how their actions are affecting locals.”

He also told the Times he believes that “Americans, many of whom are white, are reinforcing the city’s pervasive — if infrequently discussed — caste system.”

“Mexico is classist and racist,” Bustos added. “People with white skin are given preference. Now, if a local wants to go to a restaurant or a club, they don’t just have to compete with rich, white Mexicans but with foreigners too.”

Speaking with Kate Linthicum of the Times, Bustos described a sensation oft-lamented in many southwestern cities by Americans of European descent: He had a realization that native Mexicans in many areas of the capital are becoming outnumbered.

The English language, while the lingua franca in much of the western world for over a century, has been slow to take hold south of the border — or at least it was. Linthicum wrote, “English — well, it’s everywhere: ringing out at supermarkets, natural wine bars and fitness classes in the park.”

Linthicum went on to describe large segments of the city which were largely depopulated or closed down following the cataclysmic 1985 Mexico City earthquake, now flourishing with an influx of Americans. Many of these people come from California and bring with them large sums of money, typically earned through the remote-work freelancing landscape of the ‘digital nomad’ culture.

Read the rest at The Western Journal

Related: Overtourism: As Digital Nomads Flock to Mexico City, Locals Face Rising Rents (yahoo!news)

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