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grahamcito · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Guadalajara

Hi, I'm living and teaching in Guadalajara, but would really appreciate chatting to someone who knows the cities of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Not so much about teaching conditions, more just the general character of the cities up there.

If you can help, please PM me. Thanks!

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

Cities in three states may be of interest to other posters, too.

I spent a school year in the north--in Saltillo, Coahuila. I liked the people very much, and students were generally smart and motivated to learn. In fact, they were among the best groups of students I have had. The city has about 800,000 people and is fairly gringofied in terms of having WalMart and some other nasty places. It has an extreme climate--can get very cold in the winter and I saw snow falling twice outside my classroom. Most schools are unheated, so that can be challenging for teachers and students (I was teaching research methods and spent the coldest days in the one heated area--the library--while students investigated topics.) It is also challenging to spend the day peeling off layers of clothing (arriving at about 28 degrees in the morning with gloves and wool hat and heavy jacket and sweater and leaving with all of the above in the backpack, in bright sunshine and 70 degrees.) Like all the northern towns, Saltillo also has dust blowing around like crazy--a particles from the brick factories and the tires that are burned to fire them.

Torreon is much worse than Saltillo--in all aspects, but especially the dust. It's a tumbleweed town.

Monterrey is a little over an hour from Saltillo toward the border in Nuevo Leon. It's a big city, very gringofied and expensive. There is a modern art museum--its claim to civilization. There are also malls. Climate is hot and muggy in summer and cold and foggy in winter.

Tamaulipas should be avoided. There is a major narco war going on there--with daily executions--and foreigners have been caught in the crossfire as well as kidnapped. The entire state has been termed a narcogobierno, and entire cities and towns are controlled by different cartels. The US embassy in Nuevo Laredo was recently closed, then re-opened with the threat of closing again.

darkhorse · Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 78

For an interesting perspective on the situation in Nuevo Laredo:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/7/26/203741/897

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

If you read La Jornada and Proceso, which are both Mexican publications, you will see that it's not only the US that believe Tamaulipas to be a dangerous spot. This is one time when Narco News should have dug a little deeper....

darkhorse · Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 78

Unless La Journada had different statistics on dead foreigners, I don't see how narconews didn't dig deep enough. The impression that gringos will be killed/kidnapped/caught in the crossfire due to the narco-wars does not seem to be substantiated with any statistics.

I wouldn't want to live in any border town, but U.S. citizens appear to face equal danger in any of them. Kidnapping has always happened. My brother lived and worked in Tijuana for two years. He was kidnapped once by the local police and driven around town in a paddy wagon until he and his friends forked over the dinero. Another time he was shaken down by the cops after an ATM visit late at night. He wasn't going to pay until they made him do another version of the gringo dance.... with their rifles. Has nothing to do with the narco-wars.

grahamcito · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Guadalajara

Yep, the frontera cities pose a lot of security risks to Mexicans and gringos alike. But is it just the frontera cities? Does the narcoviolence affect the hinterland of states like Tamaulipas, or is it relatively localised?

darkhorse · Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 78

Security risks are everywhere. A (Mexican) neighbor of my brother in Playas (Tijuana) lived there her entire life without incident. She told me how she flew to Mexico City to attend to her ailing father and was kidnapped and robbed by the taxi driver(s). When my brother was kidnapped he was with small group of gringos whom he didn't know all that well--he's pretty sure one of them made a drug purchase in the bar.....a set-up.

The U.S. embassy in Nuevo Laredo closed with the claim that it was concerned about U.S. citizens. You have to smell a whiff of rat there. There are more U.S. deaths in Baja............

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

Gee whiz--give you guys books and you chew the covers.

Given your botched spelling of the daily newspaper I mentioned, apparently sources of news commentary in Spanish are not for you. The entire state of Tamaulipas is controlled by the narcogobierno--that's what the term means. Northern states in almost the same condition are Baja California North and Sinaloa. Northern Chihuahua is also in the grip of the same problem. And last week even the governor of Guererro said he couldn't cope with the narco prsence there.

If you want to fly in the face of common sense and live in one of those states, I guess I am not the one to stop you. But I wouldn't do it--and I know a whole heck of a lot more about Mexico than you do!

grahamcito · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Guadalajara

Moonraven, I appreciate the information in your posts, it's helpful.

But why assume I want to live in downtown Nuevo Laredo or somewhere similar, and have a crack at me for it? In fact, I have no desire to live in the north-east, I'm just curious about what's going on up there.

And I understand the term narcogobierno - my question wasn't about the spread of cartel presence/political influence; it was about the spread of narco-violence.

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

The narco presence is made visible precisely in the form of violence--but apart from that my last comments were directed to darkhorse. I should have made that more obvious--sorry.

darkhorse · Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 78

Oopsy-daisy, ruffled somebody's feathers.

In response, thanks for correcting my typo..... such a comfortable rhetorical victory for the agitated, isn't it?

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

My raven feathers are just fine.

Typo my tailfeathers. You have never learned Spanish nor read that newspaper.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I think accidentally typing 'Journada' instead of 'Jornada' is a pretty easy mistake for a native English speaker to make. I have a copy of "La Jornada" sitting on my desk at work, and I'm sure I could easily make the same typo. Confused

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

I am not buying it. There is a consistent pattern of posting about things he knows very little or nothing about on the part of the poster in question.

darkhorse · Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 78