U.S. citizens relocating to Mexico form unique expat community

straight ahead not that me there are many places in Mexico that many outsiders for whatever reason never get a chance to see villages locals called mail-order day-out the real Mexico for example here along Mexico's largest freshwater lake Lake Chapala 30 minutes south of Mexico's second-largest city guadalajara in Jalisco state here far removed from the often nasty news we hear about Mexico are images of peace and tranquility where there are a lot of foreigners US citizens Canadians and British citizens everywhere so many of them most Mexicans here don't even pay attention to them anymore perhaps thinking no what are you gonna do particularly here in the village of AA heap nowadays there are as many foreigners here as there are Mexicans around 15,000 we're in a place called Paradise this is a Mexico Minnesota native Tara Vidal is the executive director of the nonprofit Lake Chapala society the ground zero meeting place you might call it for foreigners here located in the center of a heap essentially the social hub of the foreign community lakeside essentially we're a multicultural center with a mission of having an integrated community where everybody is working together to maintain and improve our quality of life Lakeside Terry says the population of foreigners here fluctuates depending on the time of year some live here full-time others come down for the winter there's at least 7,000 by up to 17,000 foreigners here we're at 5,000 plus feet we're the same height as Denver and with the lake it kind of maintains a fairly constant nice climate the average year-round temperature here is around 68 degrees Fahrenheit 20 Celsius why did you come here I married a I married a Mexican guy I left my career behind and got the heck out what do you miss do you miss anything I don't miss US politics I think that's the best thing about living here there's there's a lot of push immigration going on right now if people leave in the United States because of the political situation and we're seeing it here we have a lot of new faces in the town ahee wheeler and dealer realtor Mario Garcia here at access Lake Chapala dot-com sells and rents homes here you can get a nice house from let's say $200,000 you can have a really nice house in the area rent okay we can start with a studios we can set three hundred and fifty dollars for a place to rent even all-inclusive that means electricity gas internet telephone cleaning gardener everything for $350 Mario's office pretty busy lately with new arrivals from the states and canada okay guys so are you right through the house okay sure showing up in Mario's office today US citizens Fred and sandy Garcia sandy where's the deposit [Music] yes right here who sold their home and all their belongings back in Arkansas and are presently putting down rent deposit for a place they found here for less than $1,000 a month the reason they're leaving the us they say is primarily because of the political change in Washington after the recent presidential election it was the direction that the country was going and with the election a lot of time and just solidified that negative decline that we are observing we view ourselves more as a part of humanity not a particular country yeah I feel you've got to take care of all of humanity not just picking shoes we have this beautiful home we have a great life here it was humanitarian work more than coming here to retire that brought Ruthie and Charles Baker to ah hee hee k-- selling their home and all they had in Dallas Texas a few years back and paying less than two hundred thousand dollars cash for this fully furnished turnkey home outside of AH Heath Ruth he started baking and making chocolate sweets here from home and now sells them in her local shop that she's opened up here in ah hee hee when she realized US citizens here were missing these kinds of sweets back home she and Charles who retired from a career in the shipping and delivery business back in Texas then decided to start giving back to Mexicans here the biggest thing you have to worry about is getting run over yeah but other than that for example all profits from their shop go toward buying fresh produce and other food supplies each week yeah this is the milk we buy that they deliver here to a nonprofit home for orphaned boys outside of town called Hope House Hope House was founded by fellow US expat Tina Dutra and her husband who moved here from Tennessee 15 years ago to help these boys the first thing we do is we just try to teach them love a lot of the boys have neglected abuse left on the streets they've been beaten they've they've experienced life that no one should have to experience and so the first thing is just to show them less Ruthie and Charles say it's these kind of interactions u.s. citizens here have with Mexicans that is not often heard about back in the states I can tell you what I think why that happens is because the US media puts out the worst of the worst to the American public they want to show Mexico and Mexicans as as bad as they can and in my opinion they want it to be so that Americans stay in the US spend their money there don't come to Mexico and spend their money on vacation don't come to Mexico to retire and spend their money here Charles says he and Ruthie are reminded why moving to Mexico they say was the right move every time they returned to the US to visit family every time every time we go home to Texas in the US there is a shooting whether it be at a church whether it be at a school whether it be at a business whether it be a mall a theater every time we go back people don't live like that we don't have guns I don't have a gun could I get a gun yes I can't get a gun off the street I don't want a gun and I grew up with guns and I don't want one and I don't need one guns are illegal here in private hands in Mexico of course many criminals have them around the country though most law-abiding citizens here agree no one needs a gun in fact they say not one foreigner here in a heat has been the victim of a violent crime dating back to the earliest arrivals here in the 1940s when it comes to health care seniors here enjoy reduced met costs for surgeries to medication that are said to be a third or less of the costs in the United States and here on La Paz street is what the average assisted living facility looks like in a converted lakeside mansion run by licensed Mexican geriatric specialists alone so Garcia the cost to stay at a high-end facility like this in the United States would be about five thousand dollars a month or more here they paid an average of I would say $1,500 a month with their home care 24/7 care three meals two snacks in between physical therapy and we do different kind of activities for all of them the difference between here and the state I think for Mexicans main things is family for us and is something that new it comes from our culture from the Aztecs Mayans the elders are the people who have the knowledge and all our respect so although we respect and is for them and we will take care of them no matter what every sunday hundreds of foreign residents you gather for what's called the open circle that begins with meditation followed by stimulating presentations about culture and the arts and life today they listen to a presentation called mark twain the anti bigot and woman equal in every way civilization cannot exist seen here videotaping these presentations each Sunday is 80 something Canadian filmmaker Roy Nolan the local hero for working with aspiring young Mexican filmmakers passing along his knowledge as an acclaimed film director in the u.s. dating back to the summer of love in the san francisco bay area in the 60s so yes ROI chronicling the lives of many noted musicians from back in the day Peter poem Harry the most kind of people royde lives alone in a rustic Hacienda he paid less than $200,000 for on lush grounds with citrus trees right off the lake with his collection of furry friends here in what he calls the shadow of Mount Garcia on the south side of Lake Chapala a way for most foreigners living across the lake anahi against being with people but I can already take them for so long sure he says there's no way he could work and live like he does here back in the United States here in Mexico is totally different I can live very very comfortably on less than a thousand dollars a month it's very very comfortable and I eat better than if I was back in the states it's all growing here anything you want Mexico it's all here when it comes to food foreign residents here and Mexican farmers have teamed up to grow and sell organic produce each week at the popular organic market here that's a major selling point to the area says realtor Mario Garcia we cannot survive without the Americans or Canadians we depend a lot about the Americas and the Canadians we are like a family an unrivaled melting pot and quality of life here among foreigners and Mexican says us transplant Lou Raskin will life welcome to my casa who at 80 runs the stairs to his thousand dollar-a-month condo rental as if he's in his 40s life here says Luke reminds him of the life he once enjoyed in the u.s. back in 1976 he says so you were working for the president as one of then President Gerald Ford's main organizers of the country's grand year-long Bicentennial birthday celebration we'll remember that time when literally millions and millions of people were together in friendship and love and appreciation for the United States of America and then I began to see a little bit of a downslide in that the feeling of pride for the country I decided I need to go somewhere else so here I ended up in a wonderful community of Mexico where Lu saw the vision of his next chapter in life doing comedy improv before his community here in aji heat at the Bravo theater [Music] among those in attendance here tonight as British citizen rosemary Grayson a living legend here in Akihiko the Playboy bunny charm around Rosemary's neck gives one a hint of her past life in Great Britain back in 1964 she was England's very first Playboy magazine centerfold at the time under the name rosemary Hillcrest she says to save her family any grief for what back then was a bit of a scandal yeah I was the first proud to say the first British Playboy Center today Rosemary's a local journalist who says as a Brit she shares some of the frustrations u.s. citizens here have about the political situation in their respective countries who was saying I'm really ashamed of the Stars and Stripes I'm moving and I'm not and that's a pity but equally I must say in the UK their governments is in tatters - so you know who's got the worst most who's going to be the most ashamed I asked myself [Music] she says today iñaki he Kenny way the trend for many foreigners is to share life stage with Mexicans most of whom she sums up in a word civilized as the word civilized and they are always very polite the sense of humor is to die for really really funny and they have caring's and politeness and love and that's all in the DNA and they and it's because they are family based [Music] [Applause] the mix of Mexicans and foreigners performing here at ah he heats Bravo Theatre tonight some say seems to be living proof that there's a whole new lease on life for foreigners here [Applause] [Music] and that at least here in Akihiko Mexico there is no place like home most of the foreigners the gringos are nice people but the native people are the best so I love it here this is my home [Music] [Music]

Channel: CGTN America

Views: 2,543,713

Rating: 4.5803728 out of 5

Keywords: @cgtnamerica, CGTN, Americas Now, border, border wall, Expats, foreigner, guadalajara, Immigration, insecurity, lake chapala, Latin America, Mexico, Mike Kirsch, retirement

Id: 6lYA7c1Pnuo

Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2017