A few days ago the New York Times told the sad story of the closing of a Carrier air conditioner manufacturing plant in Indianapolis and the transfer of those 1,400 jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. The workers' fury over losing their jobs faithfully echoed the debate lines of both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders whose wildly …
Author: Alfredo Lanier
My husband and I live on an off-the-grid ranch outside San Miguel, along with the challenging but dear company of four off-the-street dogs and three cats. My interests lie in politics, writing, photography and sundry forms of spirituality.
Tale of a rare medical coincidence
About three weeks ago, our close friend Fred damaged the meniscus, an obscure but apparently essential cartilage-type thingie on his knee. A week after, our even closer friend Felisa suffered a similar accident on her left knee. Both of them had to undergo surgical interventions to relieve the pain and prevent permanent damage.What are the …
'tis the Season to Eat Crow
Not even a month after posting some snarky remarks about expats in San Miguel who complain about our “winters,” in addition to snickering about our friends marooned in subarctic hells like Chicago, New York or Boston, punishment has come down on my head from Lakshmi, Isis or whoever is the Goddess of Karmic Retribution. Following …
The "winter" of our discontent
San Miguel, and particularly our mini-ranch, enjoys a nearly perfect climate. Warm summers, but nothing like the steam heat of Houston or Miami, and "winters" so mild that around here the word should be used in quotation marks, followed by a knowing chuckle, as in a private joke.But still. Instead of lighting thanksgiving candles to …
Canines at the Gate
At the mere clang of the ranch's gate opening, they leap over the neighbor's stone wall, crawl out from under this or that bush or whoosh from down the road in a cloud of dust. On a banner day, there might nine or ten barking and yapping customers. On weekend mornings, though, only three or …
A medical dilemma or a horror story?
Not a week goes by without Félix, with his usual uninflected delivery, tells us a shocking life-in-Mexico story that strikes Stew and me with the force of a blow to the side of the head."How can that happen?" we ask, while Félix's response to such day-to-day tragedies and outrages—a reaction I find quite common among poor …
Escape from Tacoland
Most gringos in San Miguel, even those who profess to be so hip to the local Mexican milieu that they're ready to change their last names from Lynch to López, in fact live in a culinary rut of tacos, enchiladas, tortilla soup and arracheras, the latter a marinated flank steak about as ubiquitous as corned …
Who should be afraid now?
When Stew and I visit the United States we can count on one tedious question to come up: "Aren't you afraid to live in Mexico?" Over lunch, when we visited Chicago in October, a friend asked us that and it struck me as odd, considering I'd just read in the local newspaper there had been …
Refugees are knocking. Let 'em in.
Stew and I have just returned from a one-week drive through the immensity known as Texas, where we visited relatives of mine in Houston and in Austin—all of whom, like me, came from Cuba as refugees.Our visit coincided with the media and political furor against Syrian refugees, who've been battered and demonized mostly by Republican …
The tale of the Hens and the Ostriches
In a shocking demonstration of how reality can resemble folklore, a 78-year-old American woman was found murdered in her San Miguel home on October 26, a week before the big Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead. Road to heaven: Locals on the way to the cemetery pick upthe traditional Day of the Dead …
El Rancho Santa Clara 