Since we’ve gotten to San Diego, a lot of friends and family have asked us whether we feel safe in Mexico.
I’m guessing part of that stems from all the recent media coverage about the country being under siege, spring break vacations ruined (or second-guessed), etc. Although, to be fair, we got that question before we moved there and the drug war blew up.
One woman asked me: “You’re not afraid you’re going to get kidnapped?”
My answer: No. (Can I throw in a “con calmita”?) I feel perfectly safe in Mexico. (The fatalist side of me has to throw in a toque madera here.) Seriously though: It’s fine. No one I know is scared they’re going to get kidnapped. I’ve joked about it with a few people, actually. (Eeee, is that bad?) I just try to stay aware of my surroundings, not wear my diamond ring. If speaking English on the street, I try to do so discreetly. And I make sure any taxi I climb into has license plates.
Speaking of taxis: I’ve hailed them off the street with success, but I may stick to authorized stands now. A friend told me a horror story about a friend of hers who hailed a cab in La Condesa in the middle of the day, and ended up raped and dumped on the side of the Periferico.
Hearing something like that still doesn’t make me scared to live in Mexico. Just makes me think: Be wary of hailing a cab in La Condesa. Being scared and shut away in the house all day, what kind of life is that? Then I’d never try all the fabulous licuados, which I miss already.
Like other socially aware Americans in Mexico, I do wish American media coverage wouldn’t generalize so much about the fear and violence that’s supposedly sweeping the country. Maybe that’s the copy editors’ faults.
I felt compelled to do the same post, like you, after I had lived here for just a few weeks. Then I changed my mind because I didn’t want to jinx myself!
I feel safe here in hipster-ville La Condesa, but I don’t in other parts of Mexico City. And I’ve known two people mugged/robbed on the subway (one a tourist, one a lifetime local) and many, many, many people kidnapped in street taxis <– I think I know more people who have been kidnapped in street taxis than those who haven’t.
Hence, I *never* take street taxis and I never carry anything valuable on the Metro.
My reason is I don’t want to give myself a dumb reason to fear Mexico.
I want to leave here with as many happy memories as possible, and it’s been very easy to do — following precautions, of course.
Yeah, I thought about the jinxing thing. But I figure whatever’s going to happen to me is going to happen, blog post or no.
And you’ve just given me more reasons to stop hailing cabs off the street for good. I just get annoyed when the sitio cabs charge me 80 pesos to go from Reforma to Condesa at 7 p.m. (EIGHTY PESOS! WHEN YOU’RE IN THE CAB FOR TEN MINUTES!) But better to pay than get kidnapped.
At least, as far as I’ve read, you can pass as any other mexican. Good call on that softly english speaking too. Hope nothing bad happens to you after jinxing it like this.
Nice copy-editor slam. What did I ever do to you? All I ever did was love you, Lesley. GREAT blog, BTW.