Since 2006, Carol Merchasin and her husband have made their home in the town of San Miguel de Allende, in the central part of Mexico. They moved from Philadelphia despite drug wars that plagued their new country and the concerns of their family and friends. As Merchasin writes, "We wanted a fresh perspective, to be engaged by life somewhere other than in a shopping mall or a traffic jam, to smell sunshine and grilling meat on the street. All of that--and Internet access."
In This Is Mexico: Tales of Culture and Other Complications, Merchasin explores what it means to live as an American, with American attitudes toward work, family, money and food, in another country, where such concepts are often vastly different than she expected. In these essays, she shows how she and her husband had to adapt gradually to their surroundings rather than force their will on it.
Writing with honesty and a bit of humor, Merchasin admits her limited grasp of Spanish hindered her at times from understanding the multiple levels of complexity that comprise a culture with "a long thread connecting the present to a colonial past." Despite this, she does learn nuances for greeting total strangers on the street; the devotion Mexicans have to their telenovelas; and the difficulties of being ill abroad. Sprinkled with Spanish terms and the sort of details one notices only by actually living in an unfamiliar country, Merchasin's narratives offer readers a delightful glimpse into a way of life that is readily accessible to those willing to venture south of the U.S. border. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer