In our first book, "The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico," I wrote a chapter about crime. In that chapter, I tried to drive home the point that by "comparison," Mexico is safer than the United States. I quoted FBI statistics and stories to make the point that Americans, when regarding crime in Mexico, needed to have a little perspective. I no longer hold that view. Statistics and proclamations to get a little perspective become nothing but empty words when someone you love, like your wife, gets attacked by a Mexican male. My wife was assaulted. My wife was walking home from the store in the early evening when she became aware someone was following her. She was being stalked. She didn't know exactly when the guy began following her. At some point, he was walking parallel to her on the opposite side of the street. She had her hands full of plastic shopping bags and momentarily struggled with them. That's when the freak-a-zoid asked her, "Puedo auydarle?" ?Can I help you? She replied politely, "No, gracias." A polite reply, from a woman walking alone, was probably not a good idea according to the experts. That's how a predator gauges vulnerability. But, my Beloved, the epitome of politeness, raised in a "Heidi of the Himalayans" family could give nothing less than a "Sound of Music" polite reply. She turned off the main street onto our cul-de-sac. That's when he struck. The assailant ran up behind her and grabbed her breasts. That's all he did. Thank God! It could have been much worse. He then took off. I don't know which is more upsetting: the fact that it happened or that this changes our entire worldview of Mexico. Statistically, it is safer here. These sorts of attacks are rare. Our neighbors were shocked when we told them. Everyone tried to comfort us with, "It rarely happens here " But, "it rarely happens" is absolutely meaningless when it happens to you. The small central Mexican town, Guanajuato, where we live has fallen from grace. Where we once felt safe, we no longer do. We can no longer boast that a woman, alone, can walk the streets safely ?day or night! I will have to adjust what I wrote in our book in its next edition. I suppose I expected more out of Mexico. Call me whatever you wish regarding my naivet. I reasoned that a country in which the Judeo-Christian Ethic has not been extinguished by the secularization that killed America's ethic probably would not have the same events one hears in the American news reports every day. Statistically, it is true. But, to my wife's attacker, the Judeo-Christian Ethic ?or any ethic ?meant nothing. Wait, apparently he had an ethic that gave him permission to violate my wife. He violated both of us. Statistics? Stories? Comparisons? I was wrong. I will never again underestimate this culture. Never. |
