Uncontroversial - the food. We eat much more fresh products and much less canned, frozen, prepared. We eat lower on the food chain, more beans, rice and corn, less meat. We eat more things grown closer, fewer things shipped from far away. We mostly buy in the open air street market and eat seasonally.

Somewhat controversial perhaps - walking down the street. First we do a lot more walking here, partly because of the weather but mostly I think because things are set up for walking and more people do more of it. Second, virtually everyone speaks to you on the street, at least a simple “buenos dias” or “buenos tardes.” People seem much more courteous. It is hard to do anything without inquiries about one’s family, etc.

Perhaps more controversial - respect seems more important. One shows it and receives it. A young woman I work with (volunteer on my part) asked if I preferred to be addressed as “tu” or “usted.” Because I am 40 years older than she, she felt uncomfortable addressing me as “tu” without my permission. Even young “punks,” “emos” and “darkos” here tend to be more polite than adults in the north.

Quite controversial probably - Mexico has a constitutional provision forbidding the stationing of foreign troops on its soil and forbidding the stationing of Mexican troops on foreign soil. It constitutionally forbids the sickness of invasion and imperialism.

I know that is 4 and not 2 things, but it is hard to stop at even 4 - I agree with the 2 above as well.

I don’t think puling out the military in Mexico border towns would make them any safer. It might temporarily reduce the number of people getting murdered by shifting the balance of power toward the mafia, but just letting them run things isn’t really a sustainable solution.

I think a lot of the problem is that Mexico doesn’t seem to have the resources (or perhaps the will) to really do away with the mafia so neither side is going to really win. In the US, a lot of the mafia wasn’t brought down for their biggest crimes–it was tax evasion that did them in. The corruption in Mexico isn’t helping the problem either.

I’d be hesitant to draw conclusions about the country as a whole from the border towns. Even in the US, the border towns can be pretty dangerous, but that doesn’t really tell you anything about the US as a whole. It is like measuring the dangers of living in inner city LA to determine the danger of living in rural Nebraska.

Thanks for your thoughts. It sounds like the Tijuana area is a lot more dangerous than I realized.

This is especially frightening along the border where there has been a tremendous increase in military presence on both sides. Recently a young man (Mexican) was shot along the border with Arizona by a U.S. soldier who said he thought he was a goat. ???

Send the military back to their barracks on both sides!

Mexico definitely has its downsides, but these were some of the areas that I noticed and thought “I wish the US was more like that!”

Anyway, a very informative post, thanks!

If not, well, it looks like I could be a part of any future interviews. We take it one day at a time at the moment! lol