You can live in a huge city and still be a hermit, it was one of my favorite things about Chicago. It’s easy to be invisible if you wish.

But it’s not possible to go unnoticed or be anything but an attraction if you are red and white and everyone else is black and brown, in my neck of the woods I can go months without seeing a non-Latin person. The eye is simply drawn to what is different, and I had to get used to that.

It took me a long time to feel comfortable going places by myself when I moved to Mexico, in part, it was my new visible status, but much of it was my less than commanding command of the Spanish language. Three years ago, a wonderful occurrence in La Tigra changed the way I felt about negotiating Mexico on my own.

Doña Lydia and Don Saul’s Vegetable cart. Continue reading →