On Mexican Time : A New Life in San Miguel

Rating:
Summary: tender, insightful
Review: It's a global world. People don't just live in the place they come from any more. But there are adjustments, misunderstandings. This book is a really good look at one writer's odyssey into really living in another land. Much is revealed as the years unfold. An object lesson, and in inspiration.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful vision of a new life
Review: Listening to this on tape in my car, I wanted to pack up immediately and begin to live my new life in Mexico. I love stories of people who choose to live differently, particularly when they make that choice later in life. I was fascinated by the mention of his wife weaving art from her hair, and occasionally wished while listening to this that there were more detail about how they made their livings in such a different locale. But I absolutely now must visit San Miguel de Allende and see this place for myself.. . . which is why if I ever escape to the perfect idyllic town, I don't think I would ever write a single word about it!

Rating:
Summary: A vicarious journey to the central highlands of Mexico
Review: More than other parts of Mexico I have visited, San Miguel de Allende and its environs are where I have especially imagined spending time beyond just the brief week or two of a touristic sojourn. This book helped me more than just relive memories of my short trip there. Tony Colhan avoids lapsing into the belabored genre of expatriate dispatches from a charmed existence in a bucolic, exotic setting. Spanning about fifteen years of his life in San Allende with his wife, Colhan?s book weaves a tapestry of sights, sounds, smells, history, characters, and autobiography into an immensely readable paperback.

Selective extracts best convey how the author ably sprinkles the text with evocative imagery of la vida y sabor mainly of San Miguel de Allende, but also of its environs, the countryside, and also Mexico City, which is just a ride several hours away. Markets, restaurants, foods, and flavors pervade the text QUOTE a squash flower soup, flor de cabeza, which arrives in a deep brick red bowl, a color as pure and soft as the soup?s flavor?.fried sugar twists called churros?.fresh fruit drinks called licaudos in fat soda glasses?a necklace of garlic hangs from a nail?.a bowl full of dried red chiles sits on a tiled counter?among a pile of green calabaza squash topped by orange flowers, a flopping red fish?s glassy eye looks balefully up at me?happy eaters gather around a sizzling grill of carnitas, ender cooked pork parts?we discover ensalada chicharron, a mixed vegetable salad garnished with low-rent fried pork rinds and a squeeze of lime to become a delicacy?.drip-sweet strawberries in plastic cups with lethal dollops of whipped cream?UNQUOTE

The book has a natural rhythm through its flow of seasonal changes QUOTE Since January the hillsides have mutated from ocher to moss green..the summer air holds new fragrances: jasmine, tuberoses, citrus?. UNQUOTE The unique historical position of San Miguel de Allende is injected in small doses in between culinary references and characters descriptions QUOTE The emperor Maximilian was slain in Querataro an hour away?It was here that the priest Hidalgo hoisted aloft a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe and cried Death to the Spaniards! Igniting the revolution against Spain?. UNQUOTE

But what the author does most compellingly is to weave into what might otherwise be a travelogue his own personal motivations and evolution, from the time he and his wife sell their Los Angeles and move across the border into this quiet Mexican town in the central highlands which changes over fifteen years QUOTE [Describing their married existence in L.A.] Tangled in adulthood?s web, pumping out the tasks: we?ve barely had time to look up?.[describing early days in San Miguel] Each morning, exempt from whatever unconscious semiotics guided our choice of appearance in urban America, we choose a short or blouse out of pure whim, eat what and when we wish, speak whatever comes to mind?.UNQUOTE As the years pass, the author portray the changes from the few transient foreigners, old retirees, and aging bohemians in the scenery of their early years to the droves of baby boomers buying up old houses, starting businesses, to the two Internet servers that the authors finally acquire.

In short, a very pleasant read that will bring you closer to the culture, history and people of this sensuous country.

Rating:
Summary: A vicarious journey to the central highlands of Mexico
Review: More than other parts of Mexico I have visited, San Miguel de Allende and its environs are where I have especially imagined spending time beyond just the brief week or two of a touristic sojourn. This book helped me more than just relive memories of my short trip there. Tony Colhan avoids lapsing into the belabored genre of expatriate dispatches from a charmed existence in a bucolic, exotic setting. Spanning about fifteen years of his life in San Allende with his wife, Colhan?s book weaves a tapestry of sights, sounds, smells, history, characters, and autobiography into an immensely readable paperback.

Selective extracts best convey how the author ably sprinkles the text with evocative imagery of la vida y sabor mainly of San Miguel de Allende, but also of its environs, the countryside, and also Mexico City, which is just a ride several hours away. Markets, restaurants, foods, and flavors pervade the text QUOTE a squash flower soup, flor de cabeza, which arrives in a deep brick red bowl, a color as pure and soft as the soup?s flavor?.fried sugar twists called churros?.fresh fruit drinks called licaudos in fat soda glasses?a necklace of garlic hangs from a nail?.a bowl full of dried red chiles sits on a tiled counter?among a pile of green calabaza squash topped by orange flowers, a flopping red fish?s glassy eye looks balefully up at me?happy eaters gather around a sizzling grill of carnitas, ender cooked pork parts?we discover ensalada chicharron, a mixed vegetable salad garnished with low-rent fried pork rinds and a squeeze of lime to become a delicacy?.drip-sweet strawberries in plastic cups with lethal dollops of whipped cream?UNQUOTE

The book has a natural rhythm through its flow of seasonal changes QUOTE Since January the hillsides have mutated from ocher to moss green..the summer air holds new fragrances: jasmine, tuberoses, citrus?. UNQUOTE The unique historical position of San Miguel de Allende is injected in small doses in between culinary references and characters descriptions QUOTE The emperor Maximilian was slain in Querataro an hour away?It was here that the priest Hidalgo hoisted aloft a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe and cried Death to the Spaniards! Igniting the revolution against Spain?. UNQUOTE

But what the author does most compellingly is to weave into what might otherwise be a travelogue his own personal motivations and evolution, from the time he and his wife sell their Los Angeles and move across the border into this quiet Mexican town in the central highlands which changes over fifteen years QUOTE [Describing their married existence in L.A.] Tangled in adulthood?s web, pumping out the tasks: we?ve barely had time to look up?.[describing early days in San Miguel] Each morning, exempt from whatever unconscious semiotics guided our choice of appearance in urban America, we choose a short or blouse out of pure whim, eat what and when we wish, speak whatever comes to mind?.UNQUOTE As the years pass, the author portray the changes from the few transient foreigners, old retirees, and aging bohemians in the scenery of their early years to the droves of baby boomers buying up old houses, starting businesses, to the two Internet servers that the authors finally acquire.

In short, a very pleasant read that will bring you closer to the culture, history and people of this sensuous country.

Rating:
Summary: Shallow, exploitive.
Review: Mr Cohan elitism and rip-off of Peter Mayle's fine love of France and his experiences there, is a palid and shallow look at a small Mexican town that deserves better. All the book is, is a thinly (and shallow)disguised look at Mr Cohan himself. And any deeper I would not wish to read. Mr Cohan displays no real knowledge of Mexico or her people, nor does he display much love for this country which he dares to try to show us. As a Mexican I am disgusted with the book. As one who visits San Miguel regularly, I am shocked with Mr Cohan's vacuous take on such a multi-layered town. To learn more about Mexico, skip this book.

Rating:
Summary: On Mexican Time
Review: Mr. Cohan and his wife's slow journey from up-tight Angeleans into more introspective, sensitive people, living a slower, much more people-involved type of life was a delight. Taking 14 years into account, the journey was more than worth it.

Rating:
Summary: "Why I am Better than Almost Anyone Else," A Summary
Review: The book's first chapters are written in an annoying poetic style, which does more to convey Cohan's belief that he is a poet than it does to convey information about the town.

The other annoyances of this book are well-described by other reviewers, but I have one to add, in question form: Why do these self-important tourists always believe that they are better than other tourists? Cohan disparagingly describes other Americans as "retirees" and ridicules their activities.

When benign grey-haired persons in white shoes who enjoy card games and amateur theatricals serve as objects of derision in a book, I know that the writer lacks imagination and real depth. Has he spoken to any of these people? Is he aware of their histories? Does he know whether they fought in any wars, lost their brothers in wars, came to the US as immigrants, perhaps, and built business out of nothing?

It's very nice to flee the USA when you have enough money to buy a house in a warm dusty town with good eats. I love Mexican food as much as the next person does, and would be happy to have this existence. But people like Cohan fail to recall that millions of people flee countries like Mexico, not finding the untrustworthy governments quite so quaint as he does. They come to the USA because it's better to be penniless here than penniless where they came from.

Rating:
Summary: Captures the "smell of the place"
Review: The goal of a travel book should be to convey to readers far away the physical and emotional feeling of a specific locale. For San Miguel de Allende, Tony Cohan does this perfectly. His portrayal of the challenges and experiences he faced when he uprooted from the US and moved to Mexico are colorful, lively, and filled with detail. His stories and accounts give real insight into the way myth and tradition blend with everyday life in modern Mexico. As someone who recently spent his first month in southern and central Mexico, I am struck by the degree to which he captured the feeling of San Miguel and other small towns like it. Cohan's sense of joy and wonder at what he's seeing and learning spill out of the pages, leaving the reader anxious as hell to experience Mexico.

A bunch of reviewers trashed this book for being too self-centered, too generalist, and too focused on shopping trips. Those people miss the point. Part of the joy of living in Mexico, for Tony Cohan and for other Americans and Europeans who move there, is precisely being able to buy your vegetables, tortillas and shoelaces from a person you know rather than a faceless corporation. If you don't understand this, visit Mexico (not Cancun or Acapulco, but Oaxaca, San Cristobal, Guanajuato and the like) and you will. It's a micro-book, and it makes no pretentions to be otherwise.

While the author at times gets a little carried away with his romanticization of San Miguel, he brings a perspective that really resonated. If you go in expecting one individual's personal account rather than a travel guide or an anthropological study, you'll be more than satisfied. Well-written and fun, it's a fantastic read, and a must if you don't know much about Mexico.

Rating:
Summary: interesting
Review: This book is about how the author and his wife leave behind the crazy life of L.A. and move to the small and quiet town of San Miguel, Mexico. Through adventures in house-buying and remodeling to experiencing the life and culture of small town Mexico, this book was a joy to read. We all know about the bad parts of Mexico and how people are constantly fleeing the country to escape their bad lives. But this is a good view of the opposite side of the Mexican coin, the good life in Mexico that is not about drugs, corruption, and muggings.

Rating:
Summary: falling in love with the mirror
Review: This book is quite a feat. In it, Mr. Cohan demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of almost every important aspect of Mexican culture: the language, the Mexican people, and Catholicism. One would at least expect his editor to correct his misuse of Spanish (for example, the type of traditional Mexican song is a "corrido," not "corrida," which is actually a different word). At times, his description (which is annoyingly self-congratulatory) of his "immersion" in Mexican culture is laughable. For example, during his first week, he proudly informs us that he has stopped shaving and now wears huaraches instead of shoes (even though his feet are bleeding). Wow! He's in sooo deep. The reader should be suspicious of how Mr. Cohan was able to fall in love with Mexico while speaking virtually no Spanish. As somebody who is fluent in Spanish, has travelled extensively in Mexico, and has a number of Mexican friends, I can assure you that it is impossible to have any authentic understanding of Mexico and Mexicans without a command of Spanish. One must be able to interact extensively with the people and their culture, and that means conversations at an adult level (not baby talk in beginning Spanish), reading local newspapers, watching local television, listening to local radio, overhearing converstions on the bus, etc. Mr. Cohan simply fell in love with his own projected, idealized notion of what he thinks Mexico is. It never dawns on Mr. Cohan that he has brought with him to Mexico the shallow, narcissistic consumerism from which he thinks he has escaped. It is not coincidental that much of Mr. Cohan's and his wife's early activity in Mexico consists of shopping. In an early passage of the book, he bursts with enthusiasm about his wife's having bought a blouse "literally of the back" of a humble local woman. It is also important to point out that San Miguel is a very touristy town with a large number of gringos who have helped turn it into more of a boutique than a typical Mexican town. This book is totally false, light-weight and dilettantish, and could be taken seriously only by someone who knows nothing about Mexico.