#1329 – The Expat Files: Navigating Cultural Dynamics, Class, and Solar Panels 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 out 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 I've been traveling a lot lately been to a couple of high-end resorts Medium and low-end resorts too. They can be fun and amusing for a while a couple of days Wouldn't want to make a habit of it though

[00:46] But you know in the act of going there and mingling with the people I have learned a few things that you would probably never learn if you didn't speak enough Spanish to have the locals Break into a normal conversation with you. I'm talking about Spanish speakers Now if you live in Latin America and don't speak Spanish, you don't know half for what's going on That's one of the cool things about learning Spanish enough so that you can have any kind of conversation with whomever Funny thing though when I'm at one of those high-end resorts in Latin American country oftentimes Latinos with dough that is those who could afford those resorts will come up to me and start conversing in English Of course now, it's not my doing but as crass as this sounds upscale Latinos are unapologetic Unrepentant extreme gringo wannabes and their kids are of course, too

[01:33] Man, it seems to happen every time. I'm at an upscale resort or a fancy restaurant. I Get approached by some obviously wealthy gringo wannabe They'll start speaking to me in English because they don't think I know any Spanish. They don't think any gringo is no Spanish Why would they most of us don't and of course at high-end resorts you get lots of high-end Latinos people with money? Who've sent their kids to private bilingual helicopter schools their kids live in a bubble generally? normally wealthy Latino parents speak some English because they go back and forth to the states because that's what well-heeled Latin Americans do They have to put on the dog for everyone else in the gated guarded community They live in so they program a couple of trips a year to go shopping in my jammy or visiting the relatives in

[02:19] New York or New Jersey or just plain hang out in Disney World. Yep. That's right, Disney World The true magic Becca if there ever was one of each and every Latin American and it's never a secret They always have to let their friends and neighbors know about it because that's the point of putting on the dog That's the real point of going to the States going shopping in my jammy or Disney World I know you longtime listeners have heard me talk about that stuff before. So what's the point? Well Because you know when wealthy latinas starts speaking to me in English often times I'll break into Spanish because it's a little easier for them and They'll be pleasantly surprised enough to let down their garden start talking about normal everyday things things They wouldn't say to a person in English, but they will in Spanish because that's their native language And well, let me just set up this example, you know

[03:05] Many more than a handful of times I've heard Latinos that is well-heeled Latinos who can afford those high-end resorts They'll tell me how lucky I am to be a gringo Actually, most high-end Latinos won't use the word gringo. They'll say you're so lucky to be at a Maricano a Maricano American It turns out the more educated Latino is the less he'll use that word gringo at least in mixed company Anyway, as mentioned I've been told many times by Latinos. I'm lucky to have been born a gringo And I suppose that's true. But hey, it's the luck of the draw when you're born, right? Now, of course to keep the conversation rolling. I'll often say why why am I so lucky to be a gringo? Tell me I know I know there's a hundred and one correct answers to that question Of course lately my answer to that kind of question isn't what it used to be in the old days

[03:55] I might have said something like yeah, I know I won the geographic lottery, but you sort of did too in your own way I mean look we're both here at this high-end resort We're maybe part of the 5% of the world that can afford such a thing. So why are you complaining? After all, what's that old saying? Comparison is the killer of joy or happiness something like that And that's when sometimes the upscale Latin American I'm talking to throws in a little dig Like I said, that's happened to me more than a handful of times the guy will say something like yeah, you're right We're part of that one or five percent of the world that can afford such things But if you've noticed it's always better to be a gringo then I'd say tell me more They'd tell me all right something like this Just notice the way the help caters to gringos versus the way they cater to us upscale Latino

[04:42] When you gringo sit down at a table the waiters go over and serve you first We could have sat down ten minutes ago and still they'll go serve the gringos first So in effect what many upscale Latinos are getting at is they're correct, but unfair Observation of the gringo advantage Now your regular lower class middle class or common Latinos will never bring that stuff up to you They don't think of that as a negative thing. It's not even on their radar Though I've noticed some upscale Latinos Like I said, especially at high-end resorts have a sort of a chip on their shoulder about how most all Latin Americans treat us Gringos, they don't like the fact that the gringo advantage exists yet They themselves are extreme gringo wannabes. How does that wash?

[05:29] Now I'm not saying that when I'm in discussions like that with Latinos. They're getting all fired up about it. They're not It's just the occasional offhand comment, but you can tell well I could tell anyway It does slightly irritate some of the more snobbish ones After all there are some very rich Latinos who could buy and sell the average gringo a hundred times over Yet the gringo will get consistently better service in restaurants, resorts, government offices, banks, you name it You longtime listeners have heard me tell many examples of that fact things like that happen all the time to myself gringo friends gringo acquaintances Most commonly for example at the immigration office you walk in you suddenly see there's a huge line You're probably gonna stand there for an hour and a half

[06:14] Then by some miracle within a couple of minutes someone walks over takes your arm and brings you right to the front of the line That's happened to me many times. Now if that was to happen in the US people would get really pissed off That's why it wouldn't happen And let me tell you when you first start noticing that happening to you down here You will sneak a peek over your shoulder to see if there aren't any mean faces staring you down and guess what? You won't see any they'll all be smiling like go ahead gringo go as if it were the natural order of things and You and I know it's not and believe me. It's ongoing There's no shortage of the gringo advantage, especially when you're well off the gringo tourist trail In fact, just a couple of weeks ago at the El Salvador International Airport When I walked into the big immigration room to go through the passport stamping process and all that there must have been 50

[07:03] Latinos standing in line in front of me. I was the only gringo tallest guy in the room, too Guess what one of the uniformed immigration guys? Lifted up the guard rope in that maze area, you know You have to walk through a maze to finally get to the counter He let me skip right to the very front of the line now I'm not saying that happens all the time it doesn't but you do see the gringo advantage gringo favoritism Everywhere you go and as mentioned it seems to rub upscale Latinos the wrong way When they have mentioned it to me like for example that gringos get better service than Latinos at the same restaurant I'm often able to shut that conversation down completely with one simple retort These days when a Latino says something like, you know, you're lucky to be a gringo Well, sometimes if I'm being testy, I'll say it's not because we're gringos or that we're white. It's cuz we tip better

[07:55] period Punto final as they say in espanol. I noticed that line of thought shuts the conversation down in a hurry It's funny too to realize that down here in Latin America to be white to be gringo In other words a white American male is to be king of the mountain again by pure luck Unlike up in the states where the media and the wokesters have turned against us basically were non entities if not personas non grata Yeah, that's right in our own country where Latinos always say we were damn lucky to be born Of course for me all that talk about persona non grata and your own country It's only hearsay because I live permanently down here in Latin America But man, let me tell you I was certainly getting an earful from my friends and relatives up there And of course the Internet's just loaded with anti white male hate

[08:41] Which brings us to this email from Xavier originally from New York City now living four years He says in Argentina and happily married to a beautiful Argentine lady attend. He says Well good for you have here By the way Xavier in English is Javier in Espanyol, by the way, Javi will have to take your word for it that your wife's a 10 you didn't send any proof I'm seeing no AI enhanced filtered photos here. Maybe next time, huh? I'm always curious as to what a 10 is in one guy's eyes versus another anyway He says dear Johnny It's funny how you don't notice how entrenched you are in your specific culture or Nationality until you travel to another country and live there a while. I Get it now when you say people who consider themselves for example middle class in the UK the United Kingdom

[09:32] Would be considered lower middle class by US standards. I know what you mean I lived in the UK for three years back in around 2001 through 2004 Same thing goes for to help people who call themselves middle class in Latin America would be considered trailer trash or poor in the US That's why you can never believe the statistics you read coming from the first world media about poor middle class poverty levels, etc, etc Since the so-called poverty level here in Argentina where I live means a person living on less than $10 a day Whereas if you look it up the poverty level in the US is a person who live in on less than 50 bucks a day The whole thing just doesn't make sense and I can see why people Worldwide are confused when it comes to stated poverty levels

[10:18] You see if an Argentine was living at US poverty levels of 50 bucks a day. He'd be considered pretty well off He'd be in the upper 20% of income earners Anyhow Johnny, like I said before you never notice your own social class until you enter another one Like when you move to a different country For example, no Latin American I've ever met nice speak Spanish pretty good Including college kids here in Argentina and college graduates None can tell me what hetero normative or cisgender means or any of the other new terms for sexual Proclivities that were sort of invented the last couple years. What a relief I think I need to repeat this Johnny No Latin American I've ever met including college kids and college graduates can tell me what hetero normative or cisgender means

[11:07] But on the other hand any first-world college-aged gringo or gringa tourist I meet down here Can precisely explain those terms to me? People won't believe this but when a college-aged US tourists talks to a local Latino here about how their Governments their Latino governments need to defund the police Support BLM and open borders and permit a certain amount of looting and use terms like social justice and white privilege what generally happens is that Latinos within earshot don't get at all what these people are talking about and In fact think that young American gringo tourists are from another planet or that They're just making some kind of crazy statement for effect The fact is Johnny I mingle mostly with 30 40 and 50 something Argentines

[11:55] None of whom know what the word woke means of course none of them have been to the US But they have a certain idea of what the US is all about They got their ideas from older US TV reruns on cable Programs like the Simpsons fresh Prince of Bel Air friends Seinfeld etc I'd say most 30 40 and 50 something Argentinos have an idea of the US that they got from TV programs When wokeness had not yet infected the brains of American writers in Hollywood anyway Johnny all that can say is thank God for lag time Signed Xavier live in a good life in Argentina All right. Thanks for that Javier You know he made a couple of very interesting points there one maybe not so obvious, but I get it you see as wokeness

[12:41] Slowly spreads to Latin America. Thank God not too quickly cuz of lag time It first tends to spread with the college kids and of course adolescents who are addicted to their smartphones The woke mind virus spreads slowly southward first across the Rio Grande Obviously to Mexico first and then slowly working its way down and finally Thankfully in a very watered down and diluted form to places like Chile and Argentina You know it's easy to see why woke ism is so diluted once it gets to South America It's because very few South Americans ever make it to the United States. It's way too far too expensive You did know it's an 8 to 10 hour flight from the states Think of it this way Mexicans are in and out of the states all the time as our Guatemalans

[13:29] Panamanians Salvador eños Cubans and now of course Venezuelans And as they travel back and forth and occasionally get deported back and forth They're exposed over and over again to US wokeness it rubs off like shit stains on your shoes in a dog park That's why it's logical to believe a country like Paraguay or Argentina or Chile will be some of the last to fall to toxic woke ism And as of now, thank God Latin Americans are just not buying it Meanwhile up in the states elite liberal white people and second-generation Latino college students certainly are this according to a young Puerto Rican intellectual living in the United States He went to Columbia College a guy named Coleman Hughes who just wrote a scathing book about it just listen to what he says about the word Latinx a

[14:18] Word that no one here in Latin America ever uses a term though that elites in American colleges and universities have fallen in love with He said that when he started going to Columbia University, he started hearing the word Latinx It was a first for him a Puerto Rican. He'd never heard it before people would use it in conversation And he'd say what what are you talking about? He was confused. He said not only do real Latino people, you know his family friends and such never use that word He says it doesn't even phonetically make sense by the rules of Spanish grammar He said it completely violates all the Spanish gender rules to for one thing He never even heard that word Latinx outside of the walls of Columbia University No one on the street or an everyday commerce ever uses it

[15:05] Meanwhile, he says you've got major politicians from the Democratic Party using it all the time in their rhetoric most all of them non Latinos like Elizabeth Warren and so forth Referring to Latinos and Latinas as the Latinx community a word that three years ago. You couldn't find in any dictionary He said in a brand new Gallup poll taken on the streets of Latin communities People were asked if they liked to use that term Latinx and 60% of them didn't even know what it meant They never heard it before 36% had heard the term and did not like it and would not use it and only 4% of the Latin American community said they liked it and would use it that 4% consisting almost entirely of second and third-generation Latino college students who had picked up that word on campus or

[15:51] from the Latinx insert in the Los Angeles Times newspaper a Weekly insert by the way that almost no regular middle-class Latin Americans ever read anyway That's a pretty good measure of the US Latin American cultural elite They're living in their own kind of culturally exclusive woke bubble They're the ones setting the new woke standards and making woke rules for the other 96% of the working-class Latinos in America the maids the gardeners the blue-collar workers They have nothing in common with and never will Do you think that for one minute second or third generation Latinos going to universities or colleges? Hang out with Latino maids and gardeners and non-english speakers Nope, no way. In fact second and third generation Latinos in the US who are college graduates

[16:39] Seem often to be embarrassed of their own poor and middle-class relatives The ones who made the initial sacrifice to come to the US and start anew the ones that work so hard as maids Gardeners and grunt workers many second and third generation Latin American college graduates are embarrassed of their own parents and grandparents I've seen it in action too when they come down to visit the motherland the home country The way they put on the dog for the poor relatives back home funny thing too after they've shown their relatives how successful and relatively wealthy They're playing king for a day or a week or a weekend I've noticed they'd rather have a conversation with me a gringle They've never been before then hang too long at the resort with their own blood relatives And if you think this is hyperbole a couple of weeks ago at my expat insider seminar

[17:29] I was talking to one of my bilingual seminar ladies. She said Johnny You're so right quite a lot of Latinos who slip into or immigrate to the States Some of them who've done pretty good let it go to their heads She said they've got this thing about coming back down to the home country To show off and brag about their success with the poor folks back home. She says, you know, that is a real problem I know quite a few people like that She said that phenomena is common enough that the locals have coined a term for it Now this lady seminar helper is a Guatemalan So she says Guatemalans who come back to the homeland to put on the dog are called get this gringo Malan's gringo Malan's not Guatemalans gringo Malan's Again, they're basically Latinos up in the states who've made a bit of a success and want to shove it in the faces of the relatively

[18:20] poor folks and family members back home Worse yet, she says they don't even want to speak Spanish to the folks back home Even though she says their English sort of sucks They prefer to use their shitty English as bad as it is to prove they've been living up in the first world All of that is done. Of course to impress the folks back home She said it's sort of pathetic and it does wear on you though the folks back home tolerated They do zip their lips after all their Americanized visitors are bearing gifts They always bring gifts to show how well they're doing all that does Of course is perpetuate the idea of the Swenio American or the American dream. No wonder the locals call him gringo Malan's By the way in Costa Rica, they're called gringo Ricans in El Salvador gringo

[19:07] Doreno's you get the picture in any event when the concrete hero comes back to the homeland on vacation To do some bragging and put on the dog the locals do zip their lips That is until he's left the room. That's when the eyes roll and the daggers come out After all, nobody likes a smarty pans Alright moving on now an email from my next pad insider seminar repeat offender Jen. She says dear Johnny. Oh ball as well I have a question though. How should a homeowner protect solar panels from things like hail? Below I've been closed a photo of a solar panel set up destroyed by a recent hailstorm She says if you noticed a single hailstorm in Damon, Texas destroyed thousands of acres of solar panels

[19:53] Which leads to the question is it really wise to make ourselves dependent on expensive energy infrastructure that can be rendered permanently useless by about a bad weather Well, thanks for that Jen. Very good question Glad you brought it up because I have some other information about solar panels that could be of great interest to anyone trying to get First of all, Jen, you have to remember only in northern climates. Are you gonna get those really big hail balls? In fact, I remember practically every spring and fall when I was living in Chicago There'd be a couple of hailstorms the hail balls ranging from very tiny smaller than a tic-tac To marble size which very infrequently damaged some cars I think only once I remember a neighbor actually filing an insurance claim because a hailstorm wrecked his paint job

[20:41] Now as far as solar panels, here's the story in my case down here in Central America I've had solar panels for at least 10 years now and only twice in the Ulti Plano Do I remember any hail small stuff though? Now don't think that solar panel companies aren't well aware of that eventuality By the way, the three states that get the most hailstorm damage claims based on insurance company stats are Texas Colorado And Nebraska with Illinois coming in fourth now, we're not talking about damage claims for wrecked solar panels Because that's sort of a new thing and I believe you have to get a separate rider on your homeowners insurance policy Because most of them don't specifically have that written out in the contract Another thing you have to know is high quality solar panels expensive ones are very resistant to hail damage

[21:29] It's the old you get what you pay for thing Just like this show turns out all well-made solar panels are protected by a thick layer of tempered glass and all Tempered glass has a safety rating by the way You're never supposed to walk on your solar panels, but I've seen videos of people doing it even half-ass installers And yet the panels don't break though It's a terrible idea because you could put micro cracks in the glass and then reduce the output power and functionality By the way, most people don't know this But if you do crack a panel with a rock or a foot or hail 99% of the time you'll still be able to use that panel will still put out power though It may compromise full power a bit. You could check that out with a volt meter at high noon So if you get a cracked or damaged panel, I certainly wouldn't run out and get it replaced right away

[22:17] By the way, my suggestion is to always to buy a couple extra solar panels So that it puts out five or ten percent more than the amount of rated wattage solar input that your inverter will maximally accept Let's say your inverter takes ten thousand watts maximum now with my last solar setup I bought a couple extra panels so that it put out twelve thousand watts at high noon Now you might think that's two thousand watts at wasted energy because the inverter would only take ten thousand maximum, right? That's true That also means I have some reserve there if my panels get dirty or cloudy or crack Chances are for much of the day, they'll put out way over ten thousand watts and that's all my inverter can handle Anyway, by the way, that's a lot of solar power about thirty individual four hundred watt panels

[23:04] Oh, and another thing not all external cracks on solar panels will result in reduced performance In some cases the damage is solely cosmetic and only on the surface So then looking down on those panels a crack or two may be ugly But then again, who would know that except maybe the birds and the alphabet agencies So bottom line, there's a way to tell if your solar panels could take a couple of big wax from hailstorms turns out the good folks at underwriters laboratories, you know UL provide hail impact tests and Insurance certification under the code UL six one seven three. Oh, that's the rating UL six one seven three. Oh Let me read some of the certifications for you. It says solar panels with the UL six one seven three Oh rating that's in the US or internationally with the IEC

[23:53] Six one seven three old markings are resilient to most hailstorms across the US and the world Turns out solar panels that do pass these ratings can withstand One to three inch hail stone storms with stones traveling at 16 to 88 miles an hour Now, I don't know about you I've seen a one inch hail stone but never have I seen a two or three inch one and I've seen a dozen or so hail storms a three inch stone is bigger than a golf ball By the way, studies show that the natural range of speed or velocity for hail is between 10 and 75 miles an hour So as long as they meet that UL rating, they're guaranteed not to crack or break Now, of course if there's some real black swan hail event for five inch balls of hail at a hundred miles an hour

[24:41] Let's say not a single window in your house is gonna survive and think about the driveway chickens man at that point Worrying about your solar panels will not be a priority By the way If you go on the internet you can look up with solar panels meet or exceed those UL ratings In other words, unless you're living in the hail belt up there in the States, I wouldn't worry Speaking of solar panels. You may have heard that flat solar panels require regular cleaning, you know getting up there and Actually watering them down and cleaning them off or having your maintenance guy do it anyway Well, the good news is if your solar panels are angled at 10 degrees or more from the horizontal You almost never have to physically get up there and clean them Maybe once or twice a year if maybe you've got some stubborn leaves jammed into the corners or some heavy bird crap spots That's always a possibility

[25:29] The good news is that if you live up in the States, you're always gonna have your panels tilted at more than 10 degrees So you won't have to worry much However down here in Latin America, I see lots of solar panel Installation mistakes because you don't have to angle them at all You can lay them flat because the sun's rays are almost perpendicular to the earth But man, I'll tell you if you have them flat or near flat to the horizontal You're asking for big dust leave and build up trouble In other words flat solar panels get flat out dirty And as the dirt builds up on them it gets caked down harder and harder Then of course more and more difficult to remove with flat or near flat solar panels There won't come a time when just hosing them down just won't do the trick anymore The problem is there a heavy solid layer of dirt will almost always build up concentrated on the lower edges of the panels

[26:15] Working its way into the corners and edges Think about this leaves and pine needles have sap in them when they're laying on a flat surface in pools of water created by you Know humidity and rain you can get some real sticky gummy areas on those solar panels Very hard to clean up by the way If you have solar panels on your roof, you should invest in a cheap drone That might set you back only 100 or 200 bucks or who knows maybe you like toying around with drones You get an expensive one then that way after every couple months or so or big storm You can inspect those panels without having to climb up there By the way, don't forget to leave a good amount of space under your solar panel So you can get in there and remove leaves and pigeon nests I've seen way too many panel installations that are too close to the rooftop Leaving no way to get a brush or a broom under there to clean things out because you know leaves and branches and

[27:06] Dust and certain critters will collect there. All right enough said about that Let me leave you with a message from clifton an australian who has a nice big solar setup. He says He's working on his plan b. He wants to retire and not do a single thing anymore. He says He says johnny every job I take on in life. I underestimated it and it took me way too long He says i've discovered there are only two things that are way too short life and penises So 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

[27:52] 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 No spammos