I was sitting around with some friends and said that my problem was that all of my friends wanted to speak English, thereby depriving me of learning more Spanish, when up spoke one of my friends, known for her matter of factness (Tanya Jones)who said "Allen, excuse me, but, all of your friends speak English because you do".

Tanya is exactly right. When I was relatively new here and still a fledgling Spanish speaker I found it rather simple to get past that minor problem by insisting on speaking Spanish.

No tengas miedo.

You've had an interesting life. More varied than most. How did you acquire dual citizenship? I thought when a person become a national of another country he had to give up his US citizenship.

Man, I had a nice little message for George Bush all ready to accompany my US passport if I had to surrender it, but apparently US law changed the same year I was granted Mexican citizenship. I was mildly disappointed, but now I'm glad I got to have dual citizenship so that I could participate in the historic vote to elect Barack Obama and make all those rednecks and stiff-assed honkies nervous even though Bush had already put a definitive end to the myth of "white supremacy".

Of all the places I've lived, the group of us that has remained the closest (besides family) have been those of us who at one time or another lived in St. Croix. Shortly after I moved to Anna Maria Island, Florida from Christiansted, St. Croix and after leaving school, a friend of mine from St. Croix who had also just happened to move to the same island in Florida (lots of Crucians all over Florida!) gave me a job making handcarved wooden signs. I had worked with him a little on St. Croix helping to paint his handcarved signs. Another friend from St. Croix who still lives in Florida joined us soon after. We form a rather large private group on Facebook where we swap stories and photos, and where we have for the most part left an important historical record of this fascinating Caribbean island.

Craig

After returning to Florida my grandmother easily convinced me that I should go to college, though it took a year or so for me to get ready by taking a high school equivalency test (which due to a temporary change in the law I was allowed to take before my graduating class had actually graduated) after which I applied to a local junior college and got enough grants to make it through the first semester. However, times were tough and I had to stop studying to work for a few more years. Then, several years later while I was working in restaurants on Sanibel Island I decided I had had enough restaurant work, never again, so I enrolled in a community college in Ft. Myers and finished my AA degree. Then I went off to FSU at Tallahassee for a year, back to Sarasota for a semester where I attended USF's New College, then off to UF in Gainesville where I finished my studies and got my BA and where I maxed out all their Spanish classes just to keep me on my toes. I had planned on going to law school, but the more I learned about the trade the more it turned me off. It's tough having principles in a world where most folks are all too willing to sell theirs.

The rest is history!

Craig

A new language isn't something foreign. It's mostly just new words for concepts you already know. I always looked at learning Spanish as learning to use a new "life tool", the same way I looked at the other skills I picked up over the years of my youth.

Craig

Once when I flew to Morelia I took a couple packages of Old El Paso taco kits and packets of fajita seasoning to show some friends what "Mexican" food was like in Canada and elsewhere in the world. I remember they tried it, with scepticism, and basically I'd say they thought it was edible, but there was universal agreement that it wasn't Mexican food.

In Toronto, they don't even have mobile food trucks. The only street food allowed in Toronto is hot dogs, and all the vendors pretty much have the same menu - hot dog, italian saugage, polish sausage, that's it, a wiener of some type on a bun. When I've searched out real tacos in Toronto, I was disappointed. Even in a neighbourhood where I heard the neighbours playing Grupo Exterminador narco corridos as I ate, I still got what could only be described as a weak imitation. I mean, they served them on those rather gross processed corn tortillas that you can find some places. Not having fresh tortillas, that ruins everything right there. The least they could have done is made them from Maseca, which is available here now.

So, you can get real Mexican food in the USA because they have a ton of Mexicans there, but not here in Canada.

Aw cmon you guys. You sound like those food Nazis who would have us believe you can't get decent Italian food anywhere outside Italy, (except, of course, at Piazza d'Angelo in Zihua......according to Angelo), or decent Greek food anywhere out of Greece.
There's a little mobile food truck south of us, in Tonasket, WA, manned by a guy from Guadalajara, whose tacos are as "authentic" as any in Guad...or probably Zihua as well. There's a restaurant in Oroville, WA owned and operated by real live Mexicans, etc., etc. And these are small towns. Are you suggesting you can't get decent "authentic" Mexican food in places with huge Latino, (mostly Mexican) communities like Chicago and Los Angeles?

Come to think of it we may have eaten at that place in Oroville. any years ago. Another memorable Mexifood experience for me was from a catering truck in beautiful Downtown, Santa Cruz, California. You got your chile releno in a purpose-made little paper wrapper. And the tacos de cabeza were succulent, to die for.

I think it WOULD be a good bet to eat at the restos that serve the field workers in small town USA. Truth be told I tend to like the simpler fare. Hearty food that isn't complicated. We're starting get some season agricultural workers up here on Vancouver Island, but they're flown here to work certain crops, like the daffodil harvest, and strawberries, which all ripen at once. There are new and expanded Mexican food sections in the larger grocery stores, so one can always hope.

[humble] Apparently I paid attention in class [/humble].

Like anything you learn, you must start simple but start somewhere, emphasis on "start". If it was easy for me to learn it's because I simply cared to learn it. Real effort is usually rewarded with real progress.

He took one look at me and replied: "Ah, vous etes Quebecois."

Yeah that's pretty funny...

I've never had real Mexican food in Canada, not like what you can get in the USA. But my aunt (from Morelia, now lives here) told me a couple of weeks ago that they apparently have authentic Mexican food down in a town called Leamington (ON), because of all the Mexican farm workers there.

I can relate to that. I almost never eat what passes for Mexicano grub up here, not just because it's a travesty of the taste, but it's an insult to my memory of the place.

I've never had real Mexican food in Canada, not like what you can get in the USA. But my aunt (from Morelia, now lives here) told me a couple of weeks ago that they apparently have authentic Mexican food down in a town called Leamington (ON), because of all the Mexican farm workers there. I've tried a couple places in Toronto, and here in London even, but it just isn't the same. It's all Tex-Mex around here. I'm kind of thinking about a trip to meet a friend from Mexico somewhere in the USA next month since she can't come here anymore without a lot of headache (Canada visa is harder than USA visa), and you can bet where I can get the best tacos is at the forefront of my considerations of where to go.

Then you'll appreciate my Polish story. Apologies if I've told it before:

In the late '70's I had a business trip to Poland, but decided to spend a few days in Paris on the way over. My Quebec-anglophone French served me well in Paris and I even tried picking up some of that beautiful local accent.

Upon arrival a week or so later in Warsaw, I was standing in the main square trying to locate a small theater which showed films on the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Just then, a tour bus pulled to the curb in front of me and disgorged its load of tourists from France. (I could tell by their accents)

I approached the French tour guide and, in my best Parisian accent, asked:
"Pardon monsieur. Ou est-ce qu'on peut voire le film sur l'histoire the Warsovie?" (Excuse any spelling mistakes)

He took one look at me and replied: "Ah, vous etes Quebecois."

It's not about how much Spanish or whatever language you do or do not know. What it's really about is making an effort to communicate with the people, and learning about them and their culture. Knowing the language greatly facilitates that. But you don't need a high level of ability to start doing that, you just need to get out there and start trying.

It's the difference between vacationing and travelling....

You're an interesting fellow Mr. Scott. I think I'd enjoy having a cerveza with you. You've worked on your head. And it shows....

Funny what you posted reminded me of my own domestic scenario. To date, though though I've been to Z. 6 times, most recently with our 19 year old daughter...my wife just isn't excited enough about the place to take the time off her job to come with me. It's just not her thing. As she says:

"But you've been to Mexico. you've done the beach thing. You're going because you want to eat tacos in the marketplace."

And she's exactly right. What interests her when she takes the effort to travel for pleasure is SEEING SOMETHING DIFFERENT EACH TIME. And I won't fault her for that.

But I'm just starting to understand Z., the culture, the language, the people, the food, the sea. And there's something about it, (amply assisted by my experiences on this board) that keeps me happy..even where I'm not there.