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My wife and I live in Mexico. She works remotely, I did that for 10+ years, now I'm building my thing and taking some occasional freelance projects. I won't de
by pier25 6y ago
My wife and I live in Mexico. She works remotely, I did that for 10+ years, now I'm building my thing and taking some occasional freelance projects.
I won't deny there are some horror stories coming from Mexico, but I'm a European and have been living here since 2009. I've never seen or experienced anything even remotely violent. I paid for a mordida once, that's it. I've lived in Mexico City, Estado de México, Veracruz, Cancún, and now near Querétaro. I've travelled to most states either for tourism or work. Although I'm from Spain I totally look like a gringo so I never pass unnoticed.
We live in a little village about 3 hours from Mexico City with almost no crime at all. We only lock our door when leaving town. We have 200Mbps fiber. We rent a 3bdr house with garden for about $500 USD. Life is really good for us.
My wife is Mexican and her mother passed away a couple of months ago so we're now planning to go back to Europe in 2-3 years once my gig starts generating some income. There is not much here for her and I'm a bit bored of Mexico. We also don't like how the political situation is changing with Amlo.
- aaronbrethorst 6y agoI paid for a mordida once, that's it. For anyone else besides me who was unfamiliar with the term, it's a bribe: https://www.tripsavvy.com/definition-of-mordida-1588821 https://www.tripsavvy.com/definition-of-mordida-1588821
- codeisawesome 6y agoThe fact that the word starts with 'mordid' somehow made me associate with 'mort' and that was not good :"D thanks for clarifying.
- schwartzworld 6y agoa mistake like that would have me feeling muy embarazada
- pier25 6y agoI see what you did there! (for those that do not speak Spanish: embarazada = pregnant)
- jarvelov 6y ago> We also don't like how the political situation is changing with Amlo. Could you expand on this? I'm not keeping up with Mexican politics so I don't know much besides him being left leaning.
- timhigins 6y agoHe was hugely popular when he came into office and made some significant improvements the cash subsidy for farming program. Nevertheless, there sure are power-consolidation moves evident. https://www.as-coa.org/articles/approval-tracker-mexicos-president-amlo https://www.as-coa.org/articles/approval-tracker-mexicos-pre... https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/amlo-is-mexicos-strongest-president-in-decades-some-say-hes-too-strong/2019/11/28/9ee6e6d0-1071-11ea-924c-b34d09bbc948_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/amlo-is-me...
- raztogt21 6y agoNot op, but I'm a Mexican living in México. He is surrounded by incompetent and bootlicker advisors. This administration is one of the most corrupt and violent in the past 20 years. He has three pharaonic projects to build an outdated infrastructure that only "benefits" the president's home state. He is actively stopping the construction for renewable energy projects and foreign investment.
- foogazi 6y ago> He is surrounded by incompetent and bootlicker advisors. A more accurate description would be “he surrounds himself with incompetent and bootlicker advisors.” At the presidential level he appointed all of those people
- pier25 6y agoYes the president is betting everything into oil, burning huge piles of cash on useless projects, scaring foreign investment, and stopping all investment into renewables. Among other countless stupid decisions. With the combination of COVID and the current political situation, Mexico is going to plunge into the worst recession it has seen in modern history. I wouldn't be surprised if Mexico becomes the next Venezuela in a couple of years.
- ip26 6y agoAlthough I'm from Spain I totally look like a gringo I can't help but wonder if a Spanish accent buys you some cred in Latin America that other gringos don't get.
- pier25 6y agoIt's possible. Outside of touristic zones (Vallarta, Cancún, etc) Mexicans tend to like and be curious about people from abroad. There's actually a pejorative term called malinchismo for this preference for foreign stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malinchism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malinchism
- jordigh 6y agoI think the general negative stereotype about Spaniards in Mexico is that they're brash and stupid. Mexico's negative Polish jokes demeaning a culture's intelligence would be comparable to Galician jokes, dating from a time when there used to be more Galician immigration into Mexico. Iberian accents don't sound cultured and distinguished to most Mexicans; also, Spaniards more casually use words that sound rude to Mexicans or use words with different general meanings like "coger" ("take" in Spain but "fuck" with sexual meaning in Mexico). It's a funny situation not comparable to how most British accents sound cultured and distinguished to US nationals. On the other hand, Mexicans use more diminutives compared to Spaniards and have lost the informal plural "you", always using what would be the the formal form of address in Spain. Mexicans often also say "¿mande?" to acknowledge you or request that you repeat yourself, but this more literally means something very servile like "order me" or "what is your command?", a remnant of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. For this reason, Mexicans sometimes sound excessively polite to Spaniards. Of course, these are just broad stereotypes and it's entirely possible that pier25 has not experienced any of this. Possibly simply due to being foreign and the generally unacknowledged racism we have in Mexico (white is pretty), pier25's experience may have been entirely positive. Also, pier25 may look like a gringo but he's not a gringo. In Mexico, only people from the US are gringos, regardless of their appearance. Obama is a gringo; Trudeau is not a gringo (other countries use the term "gringo" differently). As soon as pier25 speaks, no Mexican would call him gringo. Gachupín is an older somewhat pejorative term for Spaniards in Mexico, but I think it's rarely used nowadays.
- maroonblazer 6y ago>My wife and I live in Mexico....There is not much here for her and I'm a bit bored of Mexico. >we're now planning to go back to Europe Where in Europe are you planning to relocate?
- pier25 6y agoMy wife would like the North of Spain or South of France. I'd prefer a colder climate.
- shifto 6y agoNL might be a good choice then.
- pier25 6y agoIndeed!
- netjiro 6y agoSwitzerland! Clean. Great nature. Stuff actually works. People do their jobs well and without argument. Transportation is reliable. Easy living. Also nod to NL, as other poster. Lived there for three years. Again, stuff works.
- pier25 6y ago> Switzerland! Yes! Both Switzerland and NL are at the top of my list.
- selimthegrim 6y agoThese guys won’t even move to New Orleans, what makes you think they’ll consider Mexico
- animalgonzales 6y agohow do taxes work?
- pier25 6y agoSince I'm married to a Mexican I have the permanent residence so it's just like any other Mexican. As for getting money from abroad you have to declare it and pay a percentage to the state.
- suyash 6y agoI've heard great things about Guadalajara, anyone in tech has experience to share?
- hthtegr 6y agoI lived an hour away (as a foreigner). Absolutely loved it, and would still be there if I didn't have to return home for sick family.
- moises_silva 6y agoI'm from Mexico. I lived in Guadalajara for ~8yrs while in University and the first years of my career before moving to Canada. I go back frequently, sometimes working remotely (a few times even in WeWork spaces, hah!). I love to go back, there's a lot of things I miss, but I'd not raise my kids there given the option (which I now have thankfully), both economy and violence are an issue. I can imagine living as a single or childless expat for a while can be a great experience though. I sometimes think of going back to retire to a town nearby one day. FWIW, I've been living in Budapest now for a year and is quite nice, I like Europe overall too, but we'll be returning to Canada :-)
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- hthtegr 6y agoI'm from New Zealand and lived there for 4 years. Same experience. Never saw anything crazy, didn't even know anyone who had. I used to fly up to LA and SF often, and saw crazy shit up there often. Mexico is safer than the US - some will find that unpaletable. Get over it.
- CPUstring 6y ago> Mexico is safer than the US - some will find that unpaletable. Get over it. This is quite verifiably false? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_homicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_homicid... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mexican_states_by_homicides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mexican_states_by_homi... edit: fixed link
- pier25 6y agoYour first URL is wrong, and btw you are comparing two different metrics. The Mexico link shows number of murders and the US one murder rate. Also, even comparing apples to apples those stats don't paint the day to day reality of living in Mexico. Very often murders are from fights between narco gangs, or between narcos and the police/military. Edit: It's also true that crime and narco presence is not equally distributed. See Queretaro vs Boston: https://www.numbeo.com/crime/in/Queretaro https://www.numbeo.com/crime/in/Queretaro https://www.numbeo.com/crime/in/Boston https://www.numbeo.com/crime/in/Boston
- badestrand 6y agoI think crime and especially violence in Mexico are much more unevenly distributed. That is, half the country is really safe and half is quite dangerous. I stayed in various of the "safe parts" of Mexico for three months and felt much safer than in any of various cities in the US, both experienced as a European traveller.
- Breza 6y agoThe United States is the same way. I grew up in the Midwest and I've lived in Washington DC for the past 14 years. There's a huge difference in crime levels between the two.