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Back in Mexico

Hey, all.

Well, my time in the States went off without a hitch! Thank you for your patience while I took a few rare consecutive days of not doing any work so I could just hang out with my family (though I did lose two paid subscribers during that time…sigh. No rest for the wicked!)

I’ve decided in general, actually, to cut back a bit on writing. Specifically at Mexico News Daily, I’m going to be cutting back to one article a week instead of two. Much like Mexico’s subterranean water supply, my well of creativity just needs a rest from constant extraction for replenishing.

I plan to keep writing my Substack (Sunday free posts and Wednesday paid ones) as I am, though will be honest: I’m looking to cut back to perhaps once a week here, but am reluctant to “take away” a benefit from paid subscribers in the form of less to read — as if you were all waiting on the edges of your seat for my essays to pop out.

Anyway, I’ll be thinking on this over the next few weeks, so if you’ve got any ideas for this tired, tired lady, shoot them my way.

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When I first began traveling back and forth after that initial year in Mexico, I found the sudden change in country, culture, and language during the same day difficult. Especially the first few days in either place, I’ll still absent-mindedly speak to strangers (well, basic pleasantries like “excuse me” or “thanks”) in Spanish the first few days in the US, and English the first few days back in Mexico.

It’s disorienting, but the disorientation no longer bothers me like it used to.

I am still a little offended by the size of those Texas pickup trucks that no one even hauls stuff in, though. I mean, my god.

People often ask me which country I prefer. I think it should be fairly obvious that the country I prefer is the country that I live in, on purpose, by choice. That said, the US does have its perks.

The main perk is that my sister lives there, as do my dads. Another perk is clothes shopping and the variety available, though with the crazy tariffs hitting soon, that will be a thing of the past soon enough. I also like donuts and Blue Bell ice cream, both of which are easily gettable.

I also enjoy the irreverent bumper stickers I come across, like this one in the parking lot of the Renaissance Fair, the place where white people get dressed up and pretend they’re part of a unified ethnic group where everyone drinks mead and tells “cheeky” jokes:

Quality sticker.

Perks that are disappearing? Feeling that the US is fundamentally a pretty fair place where one can have a reasonable expectation of justice. As I watch DOGE’s true purpose of laying the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state flower before our eyes, I feel scared.

As I watch immigrants kidnapped by ICE and sent to an El Salvadoran prison with zero due process or even any proof of crimes committed, I feel sad.

And as I read op-eds of Trump-voters sputtering “But…but…why would he make MY life worse?!” when they were perfectly fine with the suffering of countless others and the planned dismantling of democracy as long as it meant they might have a little more money in their pockets, I feel stunned.

Like, what did they think would happen?

Honestly, I cannot think of a group of people who more represent one of those favorite MAGA phrases, “Didn’t Earn It” than Trump and his lackeys. And I keep hearing “Cruelty is the point,” as a response to the cruelty that results from their actions, but honestly, I don’t think it is; I think the government has just been taken over by a bunch of out-of-touch dumbasses who don’t know what they’re doing but stand in a protected circle jerking each other off and congratulating one another for the fantastic work they’re doing, having fired any and everyone that might be able to stop them all from coming simultaneously all over the rest of us.

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So yes. I prefer Mexico.

Mexico is not without problems. But at least Mexico’s leaders don’t grin and assure everyone that plans that sound like they were drawn up and written by psychopathic 13-year-olds who watch too many spy movies.

I mean, really.

I do wish they’d make doors and windows sealable, though. Check out what our thunderstorm today wrought:

But wet floors are a small price to pay for living away from a place where a full dossier now exists on me and everyone else that could be used to disappear me to El Salvador, too because they’re offended by my masturbating metaphor so dub it terrorism or something.

I hope those times aren’t coming, but I think those times are coming.