05/03/2026
I could not have said this better myself...and thus felt compelled to share!
Evidently written by an elderly American living in mexico...
I woke up today thinking about the story that will be told north of the border after what happened yesterday in Jalisco.
And I felt a familiar ache.
Because once again, Mexico will be reduced to fear.
To headlines.
To a single wound in a body of 130 million people.
This country is not a headline.
It is people.
It is farmers who rise before dawn and feed their communities.
Artists who paint walls with color and memory.
Teachers who shape futures in crowded classrooms.
Families who tend to elders with tenderness.
Professionals, laborers, shopkeepers, healers, parents, children.
People who love fiercely and live loudly.
Yes, the cartel exists.
Yes, this country is imperfect.
So is every nation.
So is the one I came from.
But violence is not the soul of Mexico.
Community is.
In my daily life I see inclusion.
I see neighbors looking out for one another.
I see values rooted in family, respect, and shared responsibility.
I see joy in the simplest moments..... food passed around a table, music in the street, laughter echoing through plazas.
Mexico is not one story.
It is thousands of cultures, languages, traditions, and identities.
It is indigenous roots and modern dreams living side by side.
It is complexity and contradiction and beauty all at once.
The narrative pushed in the United States often misses this entirely.
It replaces curiosity with fear.
It feeds racism and privilege.
It flattens a living, breathing country into something small and frightening.
But those of us who chose to build a life here know better.
We chose love over fear.
We chose community over isolation.
We chose a place where people still greet each other, still gather, still care.
Mexico is not a place to be warned about.
It is a place to be understood.
To be respected.
To be celebrated.
And I will keep telling this story .....
not the one of danger,
but the one of dignity, connection, and humanity.
Because this country deserves to be seen for what it truly is:
beautiful, diverse, resilient, and deeply alive.
