#1466 – The Expat Files: Cultural Shifts, Immigration, and Life in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you ex-pad wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started Wow, here's a university study or a poll that will really surprise you turns out about 5,000 US ladies Going to university up in the states were asked which media person or media star you would most like to look like

[00:47] If you had a chance to pick your race nationality or body style In other words, which famous person would you most prefer to look like if you could? Oh, and by the way with that poll they asked these ladies what nationality and race they were Remember, we're talking about University students ladies being asked this question Well, guess what the white bread Caucasian ladies in this survey by the way in Spanish survey is in questa in Cuesta anyway, the contingency of white bread gringas who were in this study selected Jennifer Lopez a Superstar Latina as their ideal preference. She came up number one in skin color body style General look etc with the female Caucasian crowd. Okay. Okay, maybe that's not so surprising

[01:32] but this part is of the thousands of black and dark-skinned ladies who Participated in that survey when they were asked which media personalities look they would most prefer. Nope It wasn't Taylor Swift or Beyonce or that plasticized monster with the 10-word vocabulary cardi B Nope, surprisingly enough black and dark-skinned college ladies most often chose guess who? JLo Jennifer Lopez Just like the white girls in the survey They chose Jennifer Lopez as the person whose looks they most admire. Hmm. Now, isn't that interesting might there be Subconscious and subliminal messages there. Oh and sort of on the same subject Have you been to Argentina? If you have you're probably wondering why the country's so damn white

[02:22] I mean, it's really white It says Lily white Caucasian style is my old neighborhood was where I was growing up in Chicago back then in my old neighborhood It was mostly Italians Germans Irish and Polish and I'll tell you when a black guy or a Mexican guy Walked through the neighborhood. It was an event and all eyeballs were out All the old neighborhood ladies peeked through the curtains thinking what's that guy doing here? He's certainly far from home In fact, the first time I actually met or talked to a Mexican or a black guy was when I was in high school Yep, I guess I was sheltered even my Catholic grade school and junior high school were so lily white There wasn't a single Latino or black person in the whole school High school. Yes, just a couple which brings us back to Argentina Which is absolutely the most light-skinned Latin country you'll ever come across

[03:10] Well, for one thing Argentina had no big indigenous empire like the Aztecs Mayans or Incas it was just wide open spaces with nobody in it and Argentina was too cold to grow coffee or sugar or the kind of crops that brought the black slave trade so most Argentines look white because they're white and That means most being descendants of Europeans mainly spandas Italians Germans Poles Russians European Jews In fact, if you look it up the textbooks and the articles on the net will tell you that Argentina's black population was reduced to almost zero between the 19th and 20th century due to wars disease poverty, etc, etc In fact, there's a long-running old joke in Argentina. They say Mexicans came from the Aztecs

[03:56] Peruvians came from the Incas and Argentines came from ships. Oh and here's the real clincher because Fifty one hundred years ago even at the turn of the 19th century Argentina was such a big wide-open country with such a small population They had a continuous open-door policy towards immigration from any country in Western Europe But it was a long way to travel and most Europeans preferred to immigrate to the US So Europeans arrived but before the 1920s they came just in a slow trickle Germans Italians French. I mean giant swarms until 1924 that's when a huge wave of mostly Italians came in legally, of course, they were allowed to come in

[04:43] So then what happened in 1924? We'll get this That's when the United States passed the immigration law of 1924 Effectively slamming the door on immigration for Asians Italians and other southern Europeans you get it southern Europeans That'd be people from Italy Greece the Baltics. Suddenly in 1924. They were so well That's when US cut immigration from Asia and southern Europe by 80% So then what happened to all those people who could not go to the States Well, you guessed it knowing they'd most likely be turned back made their way to Argentina Which maintained its open border policy with all European countries and you know when I first found out about that It made a lot of sense It answered a lot of questions that had been floating around my mind when I was a kid

[05:31] For example since I had so many childhood buddies of Italian descent in Chicago I remember now going over to their houses and their extended family's live with them there was always a grandma or great-grandma there speaking nothing but Italian and Now when I sit back and do the numbers I can see the original Italian immigrants to Chicago came back mostly before 1924 Fact is living in a mostly German and Italian and Polish neighborhood It was funny even at the time to note as a young kid or teenager None of my Italian friends or Italian kids. I knew at school spoke broken English They all were perfectly American eyes and almost none of them spoke Italian fluently. They only knew mostly the swear words Turns out and looking back it was their grandparents and great-grandparents still living at home with them born in the 1880s and 1890s

[06:20] They were the ones that spoke broken English if they spoke English at all So my Italian buddies and their parents spoke perfect English. They were perfectly American. I why because their families had first come over before that immigration clampdown in 1924 So they had at least two or three generations living in the States to become part of that so-called melting pot You know that melting pot our ninth grade civics and social studies teachers told us about Hmm funny how that melting pot thing just doesn't seem to exist anymore What the hell happened? All right moving on. How about a little boots on the ground story? Yep, I was sitting around with a bunch of gringos and x-pats the other day Well, not really a bunch maybe three and also three or four young late twenty something college educated Latino guys

[07:07] They were sitting at our table the gringo table at the outdoor cafe mingling in English the best they could because for one thing and they'll admit it's cool to hang out with gringos and Number two it helps them with their own English language skills to hear a bunch of gringos shooting the breeze in our particular vernacular You know straight proper English mixed in with a little street lingo Always informative warts and all by the way you ever wonder where that phrase warts and all comes from well Turns out in the 17th century British aristocrat Oliver Cromwell was getting his portrait painted and back Then painters would always retouch your defect. It was the thing to do unexpected The artist painted this subject to look better than he looked in real life. If you had snaggle teeth They'd straighten them twisted broken nose. They'd fix that and of course many people had the pox

[07:57] So they had pock marks everywhere so they'd fix those Well, it turns out when Oliver Cromwell had his portrait painted He would have none of that and he said just paint me warts and all Obviously a saying that caught on through the centuries just one of those little oddball facts you pick up along the way So anyway, the other day I was at an outdoor coffee shop With a couple of seasoned expat gringos and some young Latinos who had recently graduated University Oh, and those Latino college kids were listening intently every once in a while saying what's that word? Or what did you mean by that? Well for some odd reason one of the gringos mentioned the term mental health day He said something about how one of his kids up in the states was taking some mental health days

[08:44] Well, that was a saying those Latino college kids had never heard before so one of them blurted Mental health day. What's that? And of course the gringo explained as best he could how sometimes you feel mentally stress Your brain's just overloaded. You need some time off and you take a mental health day Well, I'll tell you it was if someone just let loose with a big wet fart Those slightly educated Latino boys thought it was a joke thought someone was pulling their leg It just wouldn't register mental health day. What the fuck is that? Then one of the other gringos jammed in it said yeah, you're right. What is that? He says I'll tell you when I was a kid you're a and this guy was not a boomer. He was gen X He said mental health days that term didn't even exist

[09:31] He said man, am I glad I'm living here in Latin America up in the states. The whole damn society has turned to mush So finally a bit deeper into the discussion one of the Latinos said you think that'll ever come here Companies will give people mental health days Well, the consensus amongst us gringo. This was probably yeah if you're working for an international or United States based company here in Latin America a Franchise coming down from the states. They've all got mental health days written somewhere in the employee manual Whether anyone here in Latin America has ever used one though is open for speculation because you know down here It's a macho society and his co-workers would definitely rag on him and call him a pansy ass and worse Then those three young Latino guys looked at each other shook their heads and said no way which got me thinking

[10:20] I too left the United States before I ever heard the term Mental health days on top of that when I lived back in the states There were no such thing as emotional support dogs or parrots or cats or snakes or kookarachas In fact, the first time I ever saw an emotional support dog was on an airplane My first thought was there's a weak-brained individual who is certainly in therapy in fact, it was a two-for-one on the same plane a plump old gringo lady hugging her animal and a 20-something Argentine gay guy and his dog a Double-header from Panama to Buenos Aires since then I've seen more and more emotional support dog But never in lower-class neighborhoods never with the hoi polloi most exclusively though and upscale Latino neighborhoods in malls Which sort of begs the question why do upscale Latinos with more money in class and education more access to well everything?

[11:13] Why is it the poor folks in lower classes have their shit together? And it's the upper-class Latinos who are emotionally unstable looks to me more like a status symbol Sort of like wearing an expensive watch you ask a person wearing a watch what time it is Nine out of ten times. So punch up the time on his smartphone. The is there something wrong with that picture, maybe Alright moving on. Let's take an email from Bruce He says Johnny in your last few shows you talked about plastics in Latin American food water soil, etc I heard you say that Latinos might be aware of it, but they don't seem to care Especially the poor and lower classes living on the edge. They've got a lot more to worry about So what do you think the future holds will they ever catch on and ditch their plastics? All right, Bruce. Let's get into it

[12:00] I've noticed some positive signs. For example, I've noticed in the last maybe six months since all this talk about nano and Microplastics in the food and water supply. I have noticed there are certain companies making really nice glass containers You know to store your food in your refrigerator, etc glass bowls with a plastic airtight lid Down here 30 plus years and never noticed a product like that before good for storing cooked food leftovers, etc As long as you don't overpack it with food and then when you squish the lid down it Touches the food you want to avoid that and never of course put that thing in the microwave oven with the plastic top attached So anyway, I'm seeing that stuff show up in upscale supermarkets and places like Price Mart, which is Costco Obviously somebody's buying that stuff and purging their refrigerators and kitchens of plastic junk Tupperware junk

[12:50] Hey now, there's a sure loser How about owning Tupperware stock as for me? I've probably cleaned out 90 plus percent of all the plastic I've had in the house and my house is completely purged of aluminum All my cookware is stainless steel No Teflon permitted. The only thing is I can't seem to find a nice glass or stainless steel food processor I'm talking about a big one because you know, I've always made my own peanut butter from raw peanuts You know put a couple of pounds and a queasy Nard or KitchenAid food processor The problem is those big food processors have lots of plastic parts No good though. I predict in the next six months or years Oh, we're gonna be hit with all kinds of marketing campaigns and blitzes saying our products have no plastic at all Because sooner or later probably sooner the whole modern world is gonna start switching over to glass and stainless steel

[13:40] That'll happen with everything that cooks processes touches or contains food Yep, some companies new and old who make the change quickly will make a fortune But as for Latin America and the lower and middle classes It's just not happening If you don't believe me just look in the grocery stores or check out the big bottle of water trucks all the bottles are plastic problem number one as Bruce mentions Since most people here in Latin America are living on the edge They've got more important things to think of even if they were super well-informed and worried about micro and nano plastic They're not just gonna one day dump their Tupperware go out and buy all the new stuff in glass or stainless steel There's just not an extra centavo in the budget now as far as that anti-plastic marketing blitz said I can see coming I think it's gonna first show up with restaurants because right now I don't know about you

[14:28] But I don't feel like going to any restaurant. I don't care if it's down here in Latin America or up in the first world I mean look up in the first world They're all cooking with fluoridated water The kitchens are stocked to the hilt with aluminum pots and pans and the skillets Teflon coated everything Plastic styrofoam cups and dinnerware down to the carryouts and doggy bags, but I'm not gonna be completely anal about this I mean you have to go to restaurants sometimes Especially when you're traveling invited out to dinner to an event or party. Whatever. What are you gonna do bring a sack lunch? anyway, the good news is that in a capitalistic society the market will adjust and prevail as The demand for pure water and inert food containers and utensils skyrockets market forces will be in play And we will have solved that problem. So then where's all that plastic and aluminum gonna go?

[15:18] Well the stuff from the first world will probably end up on barges going to China or India Though if we're really unlucky Latin America So as to Bruce's initial question are Latin Americans switching from plastic to glass and stainless steel in a word No, but the good news is you can so why not do it? But oh you're cleaning lady who does some of the cooking will complain They're just nuts about Teflon to which I say tough titties Alright moving on to another email. It looks like this one's in response to an email or a couple of weeks ago Talking about how he'd never want to live in Guatemala because the traffic is just way too bad He said he'd been there a couple of times and it was just horrific My response is that almost all traffic in any medium or large Latin American City is terrible

[16:03] The easy workaround to that is to pick a place to live that is close or nearby to all your conveniences So you don't have to fight the traffic every day But you only learn those tricks if you've been down here a while and get some boots on the ground Anyway, another email came in right after that discussion that seems to point out just the opposite. It's from mr. B He says Johnny We're finally done building our house about a year late though Lots of crazy things happen when you build a house in Latin America, you know, but I think Johnny I've found paradise At least for Guatemala. Mr. B says my house has double gated underground infrastructure Lots of nature good water with minor power outages Very clean subdivision and some wealthy neighbors

[16:51] I'm surrounded by two or three hundred year old trees and Get this Johnny zero gringos In fact except for kept mango in the gang I haven't seen a single gringo in all the three years since we've escaped the evil Empire however, we did spend the weekend in Antigua Guatemala last year with some friends, but that doesn't count and Best of all Johnny in both free honeys and San Jose penula Where we built our new house. There are no Mosquitoes I repeat no mosquitoes. In fact, he says we have no window screens and we keep our windows always open He says our cement construction high ceilings and our east facing front door orientation yields a perfect temperature modulation, too since the house cools down at night so that it absorbs the Sun's heat during the day and vice versa and

[17:41] Johnny equally and best of all it's very quiet in my subdivision Right now as I write this at 4 p.m. I don't hear any man-made sounds at all. No bus horns No exhaust fumes either. No motorcycles. No voices except for the occasional dynamite explosion serenade a kilometer or more away He says we are finally getting the traffic patterns figured out to the days the times the potholes the lane changes The correct lane changes at the right time can save lots of aggravation Of course, I know you already know this and then there's that famous huge Casa de Dios that nearby gigantic flying saucer shaped church on the Pan American Highway and when there's true believer traffic that can work for you

[18:30] Oregonia as always best regards mr. Bee Alright, thanks for that. Mr. Bee, you know, he doesn't live in Antigua, Guatemala He lives on the other side of Guatemala City They call it the road to El Salvador It's that stretch of Pan American Highway that leads from Guatemala City right to the border of El Salvador Lots of little towns and villages and upscale subdivisions on that strip Anyway, I think when mr. Bee mentions those sticks of dynamite going off in the morning Sounds like a temporary road construction project that probably hopefully won't last forever though He doesn't go into detail. He also mentions the lack of mosquitoes Well, of course, he's in the Altiplano, which is about 5,000 feet above sea level I know it well live there for years perfect weather no AC required

[19:16] And I'm not saying there aren't any mosquitoes, but only if you're near a swamp or have standing water So if you've got a plot of land in the Altiplano with good drainage, you'll have no mosquitoes By the way, mr. Bee's house And I know the area is within about a half an hour to 45 minutes from Guatemala City and Guatemala City has everything We've got about 3 million people. So if you want or need anything at all There's about a 95 to 98 percent chance you're gonna find it in Guatemala City And if you can't there's always Amazon So there you have an account or viewpoint to the email from the guy who said he'd never want to live in Guatemala Alright speaking of places in Latin America. You'd never want to live. Here's an email from Jeff wondering about that same thing He says hey Johnny. It's one of your fans from Clearwater, Florida

[20:03] Jeff got a question for you. It's about Costa Rica and what it's become in the last recent years as I mentioned in a previous email. My wife and I started going to Costa Rica at least yearly starting back in the 80s and early 90s We went for many years and enjoyed it greatly over the decades We started though to see changes in the overdeveloped and American ization of many aspects of that country He says I'd like to occasionally review local Costa Rican newspapers online and by translating I'm able to get a pretty good glimpse of the local and current news there from your own knowledgeable perspective Johnny I was hoping you could provide some commentary on what has led to its decline the decline in Costa Rica's public safety

[20:49] Crime, etc. It seems like things are way out of control there and crime is now rampant from what I read He says I used to subscribe to the Tico Times the English-language Gringo tourist newspaper having it mailed to me here in Florida He says I've noticed that as the years went by I saw more and more reports of crime on the increase So Johnny tell me what happened to Costa Rica? What went wrong? Did they go woke was that it? What were the causes of its demise and where is Costa Rica at right now? Anyway, as always looking forward to hearing your insights. Thanks for your great efforts signed Jeff Clearwater, Florida Alright Jeff, let's get into it. First off. Let's talk crime You know Costa Rica is a special case It's the very first Latin American country that most gringos and expats land in for vacation or otherwise

[21:39] Places in Mexico like Cancun don't count so what you have is all these gullible gringos piling into Costa Rica and some of the bad boy locals figured out really Early on in the 70s and 80s that clueless gringos were super easy to gouge So at first there was no violent or physical crime mostly just white-collar crime Mostly gringos getting gouged and scammed, you know when I first landed in Costa Rica, I think it was 1989 or 90 lived there for about two and a half years, you know, and even then which is what 35 years ago now I started to see signs that were quite disturbing like for example I bought a condo in San Jose in a nice high-rise gated guarded community Loaded with first-world gringo and European expats I asked some of the other tenants in the building if they could recommend a cleaning lady now, here's the thing

[22:25] I had a good friend a young British lady married to a Costa Rican lawyer. They were both in their late 20s early 30s They'd invite me over to their house all the time in a completely different part of San Jose And they had a young kid so they had a permanent live-in cleaning lady And one day I asked her the going rate for cleaning ladies. Remember now, this is 1990 She said it works out to around two bucks an hour. Meanwhile back at my condominium. I had cleaning lady options all right, I found out quickly if I got a cleaning lady by word-of-mouth in my little subdivision there a Subdivision with pretty much all gringos and expats Europeans Canadians and Americans Turns out there were lots of available candidates None of them spoke English, but they all were working for or had previously worked for a gringos and expat well-vetted

[23:12] Etc. Etc. Only problem is the going rate was six bucks an hour Hell, I thought those were nearly Chicago prices when I left Chicago I was paying my cleaning lady eight bucks an hour So Jeff to me that was the first red flag when stupid naive tender foot gringos like me would pay Three times that go on rate for a cleaning lady and not know the difference. So that was the definition of gringo price I mean look when a cleaning lady gets two bucks an hour working for a Costa Rican lawyer and Six bucks an hour working for a gringo. Something's really wrong with that picture Second big red flag ominous forewarning that the locals were definitely out to gouge the gringos Was when I bought some barren land across from the International Airport in San Jose for commercial purposes Had it surveyed all the paperwork done properly looked over by two different Lloyd

[24:01] I Finally gained possession and started building on it a few months went by the place wasn't even completely built yet And I was served a lawsuit by the next-door neighbor the guy who sold me the land Well, I was freaked out naturally when my lawyer called me into his office to tell me about it But he smiled and tried to calm me down. He said this is normal This is normal the guy that sold it to you just wants to squeeze another five G's out of you I said what this is normal. What are you talking about? What's he suing for? He claims I put part of my fence on his property You see my piece of land was subdivided off from much larger piece of land that the guy owned and now he's saying I fenced it in and violated his property line Then I said to the lawyer everything was legal you were there you signed all the documents with me We had a surveyor everything was done by the book and he said again trying to calm me down

[24:50] I know I know you didn't put your fence on his property I know you didn't do that, but this is Costa Rica and people will try to get away with that shit I said why and he said even if he knows it won't hold up in court your property title will be tied up in Court for a couple of years because that's how long it takes to adjudicate these things Why almost everyone settles out of court? He knows that and he knows I know that he wants to settle He says five grand will do it and he'll drop the case. I gave him a look that said you're kidding, right? He said no this happens all the time Especially the gringos because most of you guys don't live down here full-time you come down here a couple months a year You don't speak Spanish. You don't go to the law You can't read legal documents and for you a rich gringo five thousand bucks won't break the bank He knows that and as I was processing all this I was thinking man

[25:37] Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to do business here in Costa Rica Famous last words huh because it got worse a few months after that I got sued from the neighbors on the other side of the lot something about commercial construction being too close to Residential homes and the fact that I'd be renting out bodegas and they'd have cars and trucks in them You know those used storage units and that there may be tanks and gallons of gas and diesel stored there too in those used storage Units, you never know, right? Anyway, my lawyer said it was the same bullshit trying to lock your title up in court Extortion by the neighbors on the other side to get me to pay them to drop the case which I think in the end I did I think I paid out a thousand bucks sure I could have held on one in court But during that time years the title wouldn't have been clear So even back then in the 80s and 90s they had you by the cajones in the end

[26:25] I got sued twice before I even opened up for business But I stuck it out and in the end my own partner stole from me a Canadian guy No, that's what you've heard that story before but since Costa Rica is so popular with ex-passant tourists I'm not exaggerating when I say every gringo I've met down there who's owned some property or had a business has been ripped off multiple times not for Nicholson dimes But for thousands sometimes tens of thousands so Jeff when he asked me about the signs signals and red flags I saw in Costa Rica how I knew way back when the future for gringos and ex-pass was not good Well, I first got there in 89 or 90 and I only lasted two and a half year I just knew I had to get the hell out and luckily I did Yep, Costa Rica nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there now as far as the crime

[27:11] I think the problem is Costa Ricans believe their own publicity all those years are bragging about not having a standing army Let me ask you this what kind of message does that send the criminal element the no-goodniks and bad boys That guess what as far as law enforcement is concerned We're only half-staffed in other words come on in set up shop make yourself at home You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com