. In fact, there are 10,000 expats in San Miguel (even more elsewhere) who do not get it. That's why I chose to repeat that theme throughout the book.

If the need did not exist, I would not have written the book. It is that simple. The fact that I repeated, "Remember Mexico is not America..." in the book is crucial. When Americans move here, the vast majority try to turn the cities in which they've expatriated into little Americas.

This same "reviewer" made this comment too:

"Halfway through the book I started to feel like I was sitting through someone's slide presentation of their family vacation- their escape from American Malls, fast food and the rat race. This book is 80% opi

I have come, in recent days, to suspect that perhaps a better explanation of what THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO covers and why we wrote it is in order. When we moved to Mexico and began meeting expats who live here, we discovered many were refugees from areas of Mexico that are extremely popular with American and Canadian (and some European) expats. One such area, which we really target in the book, is San Miguel de Allende.

These Guanajuato expats told us stories of why they left, and in a hurry, these areas after they had settled in and discovered, for the most part, their fellow expats had gone about changing that city into a place that conformed to their American Tastes. This is what Americans do here. They change what they don't like, even if it's someone else's country, into some more suitable to their American Tastes.

The manner in which they do it is horrific. All you have to do is come here and see for yourself. The locals have essentially been forced back into the old Hacienda System, one in which the Spanish overlords controlled their ancestors hundreds of years ago.

This observation, I would like to note, is from the mouths of the locals we interviewed in San Miguel de Allende. Young and old alike told us what they thought of the American presence in their city.

Another area, Lake Chapala and its surrounding pueblos, is much the same according to the Americans here in Guanajuato who fled that area for the same reasons.

My contention is that expatriating can be done, and done correctly, if people do not allow whatever is at the root of "We do not like this place, so let's use our considerable amount of American dollars to change it into something more suitable to our American Tastes" to take over their lives when they get to Mexico.

This is what has happened in San Miguel de Allende. The Americans own the town. The Americans own the politicians. The Americans all know this, they boast about it, and it is frightfully evident in how they treat the locals.

It is also frightfully evident in the testimonies of the tourists who come to Guanajuato after they visit San Miguel. They ask us questions like, "What's with those people in San Miguel de Allende?" and "What's wrong in that city?" and "What's with the attitude those Americans exhibit?"

These are actual questions asked us by the tourists we stop to interview.

So, if, as the reader reviewer said,

"...I got the ugly American issue the first time around. I didn't need to be hit over the head with it every other page..."

actually understood that I was "hitting her over the head with it every other page..." then she got the point of the book.

The reality is, apparently Americans DO NOT GET IT when they move here. In fact, there are 10,000 expats in San Miguel (even more elsewhere) who do not get it. That's why I chose to repeat that theme throughout the book.

If the need did not exist, I would not have written the book. It is that simple. The fact that I repeated, "Remember Mexico is not America..." in the book is crucial. When Americans move here, the vast majority try to turn the cities in which they've expatriated into little Americas.

This same "reviewer" made this comment too:

"Halfway through the book I started to feel like I was sitting through someone's slide presentation of their family vacation- their escape from American Malls, fast food and the rat race. This book is 80% opi

s. This is what Americans do here. They change what they don't like, even if it's someone else's country, into some more suitable to their American Tastes.

The manner in which they do it is horrific. All you have to do is come here and see for yourself. The locals have essentially been forced back into the old Hacienda System, one in which the Spanish overlords controlled their ancestors hundreds of years ago.

This observation, I would like to note, is from the mouths of the locals we interviewed in San Miguel de Allende. Young and old alike told us what they thought of the American presence in their city.

Another area, Lake Chapala and its surrounding pueblos, is much the same according to the Americans here in Guanajuato who fled that area for the same reasons.

My contention is that expatriating can be done, and done correctly, if people do not allow whatever is at the root of "We do not like this place, so let's use our considerable amount of American dollars to change it into something more suitable to our American Tastes" to take over their lives when they get to Mexico.

This is what has happened in San Miguel de Allende. The Americans own the town. The Americans own the politicians. The Americans all know this, they boast about it, and it is frightfully evident in how they treat the locals.

It is also frightfully evident in the testimonies of the tourists who come to Guanajuato after they visit San Miguel. They ask us questions like, "What's with those people in San Miguel de Allende?" and "What's wrong in that city?" and "What's with the attitude those Americans exhibit?"

These are actual questions asked us by the tourists we stop to interview.

So, if, as the reader reviewer said,

"...I got the ugly American issue the first time around. I didn't need to be hit over the head with it every other page..."

actually understood that I was "hitting her over the head with it every other page..." then she got the point of the book.

The reality is, apparently Americans DO NOT GET IT when they move here. In fact, there are 10,000 expats in San Miguel (even more elsewhere) who do not get it. That's why I chose to repeat that theme throughout the book.

If the need did not exist, I would not have written the book. It is that simple. The fact that I repeated, "Remember Mexico is not America..." in the book is crucial. When Americans move here, the vast majority try to turn the cities in which they've expatriated into little Americas.

This same "reviewer" made this comment too:

"Halfway through the book I started to feel like I was sitting through someone's slide presentation of their family vacation- their escape from American Malls, fast food and the rat race. This book is 80% opi

me according to the Americans here in Guanajuato who fled that area for the same reasons.

My contention is that expatriating can be done, and done correctly, if people do not allow whatever is at the root of "We do not like this place, so let's use our considerable amount of American dollars to change it into something more suitable to our American Tastes" to take over their lives when they get to Mexico.

This is what has happened in San Miguel de Allende. The Americans own the town. The Americans own the politicians. The Americans all know this, they boast about it, and it is frightfully evident in how they treat the locals.

It is also frightfully evident in the testimonies of the tourists who come to Guanajuato after they visit San Miguel. They ask us questions like, "What's with those people in San Miguel de Allende?" and "What's wrong in that city?" and "What's with the attitude those Americans exhibit?"

These are actual questions asked us by the tourists we stop to interview.

So, if, as the reader reviewer said,

"...I got the ugly American issue the first time around. I didn't need to be hit over the head with it every other page..."

actually understood that I was "hitting her over the head with it every other page..." then she got the point of the book.

The reality is, apparently Americans DO NOT GET IT when they move here. In fact, there are 10,000 expats in San Miguel (even more elsewhere) who do not get it. That's why I chose to repeat that theme throughout the book.

If the need did not exist, I would not have written the book. It is that simple. The fact that I repeated, "Remember Mexico is not America..." in the book is crucial. When Americans move here, the vast majority try to turn the cities in which they've expatriated into little Americas.

This same "reviewer" made this comment too:

"Halfway through the book I started to feel like I was sitting through someone's slide presentation of their family vacation- their escape from American Malls, fast food and the rat race. This book is 80% opi

he tourists who come to Guanajuato after they visit San Miguel. They ask us questions like, "What's with those people in San Miguel de Allende?" and "What's wrong in that city?" and "What's with the attitude those Americans exhibit?"

These are actual questions asked us by the tourists we stop to interview.

So, if, as the reader reviewer said,

"...I got the ugly American issue the first time around. I didn't need to be hit over the head with it every other page..."

actually understood that I was "hitting her over the head with it every other page..." then she got the point of the book.

The reality is, apparently Americans DO NOT GET IT when they move here. In fact, there are 10,000 expats in San Miguel (even more elsewhere) who do not get it. That's why I chose to repeat that theme throughout the book.

If the need did not exist, I would not have written the book. It is that simple. The fact that I repeated, "Remember Mexico is not America..." in the book is crucial. When Americans move here, the vast majority try to turn the cities in which they've expatriated into little Americas.

This same "reviewer" made this comment too:

"Halfway through the book I started to feel like I was sitting through someone's slide presentation of their family vacation- their escape from American Malls, fast food and the rat race. This book is 80% opi

. In fact, there are 10,000 expats in San Miguel (even more elsewhere) who do not get it. That's why I chose to repeat that theme throughout the book.

If the need did not exist, I would not have written the book. It is that simple. The fact that I repeated, "Remember Mexico is not America..." in the book is crucial. When Americans move here, the vast majority try to turn the cities in which they've expatriated into little Americas.

This same "reviewer" made this comment too:

"Halfway through the book I started to feel like I was sitting through someone's slide presentation of their family vacation- their escape from American Malls, fast food and the rat race. This book is 80% opinion and that 80% is made up of a few themes restated over and over again."

This is what a TRAVELOGUE/MEMOIR is all about--opinion. Our opinion is stated throughout the book. The book also contains very helpful information that other readers understood. Apparently, this reader did not.

Oh, well, you can't win them all.

The point of it all is this: Do you, when invited to stay in someone else's home, go about changing what doesn't suit you in that home? Do you, as a guest, have the right to do that? And do you do it by saying, "We have the money to change what we do not like and will therefore do it, even if it means bribing those in charge?" And would you even care, that in the process of making the changes, you radically alter an entire people's way of life?

Let me state this clearly:

THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO is about "THE PLAIN TRUTH" that you will not read in the other relocation or expatriation guides for Mexico. It is our TRAVELOGUE/MEMOIR experience of living here in Mexico and observing the Little Americas that American Expats have built in this country because they do not like what they see after they arrive. They set about changing it because they have the money to do so.