My first trip outside of the United States was in 1980. I went to Guadalajara, Jalsico, Mexico. Prior to that, my only foreign adventure had been walking a few hundred feet across the border into Ciudad Juárez from Texas when I was a little kid.
That first real trip to Mexico in 1980 profoundly changed my life to this very day. I was so impressed with Guadalajara that I was practically peeing on myself the whole time I was there. From 1980 to the present, I have now been to Mexico over twenty times, I think, maybe more, I don't know. I feel like I got my footing on life there.
Anyway, below are some old scanned prints of some of the first people I met in Guadalajara. Some I have seen again over the years, some I haven't. I wanted to preserve the memories in this way.
Image #1: The Romero-Arias family and me. I stayed with this family while doing a summer Spanish-immersion course. They spoke no English, only a few words. They gave me a reasonable amount of time to start using Spanish, but I was rebelling against it, so one day they announced that I could no longer eat with them unless I asked for things in Spanish. That pissed me off, so I started taking a few meals at a nearby pizzeria where English was spoken. Then I realized I was being stupid, so I met their demand and started using the language for the first time. You can see me second from the right. I'm not that much taller than they are. There was a cement lip around the fountain that I was standing on. The girl on the far right, Gema, I saw again some 19 years later. She turned into a real fox. Seriously! You can tell from my smile that Guadalajara was working out for me by the time the picture was taken. I was pleased with life.
Image #2: Juan Carlos and the gringa. Juan Carlos was the youngest child of the family previously seen in the picture above. The gringa (the American girl), I don't remember her name. She hated me anyway, I think. I always wondered if she and Juan Carlos shacked up even though he was severely under age. 😆
Image #3: My first real friend in Mexico: Cesar. Looks cool driving the pickup. I like that big-ass tall gear shifter.
Image #4: Cesar in downtown Guadalajara.
Image #5: Me in downtown Guadalajara.
Image #6: Cesar's sisters in Manzanillo. So cute posing for the camera. I like the Gremlin car in the background.
Fuenteovejuna did it 
Looky there at Mr. Sexy. 🙂 -points at Dave- 🙂
:heart: @ Josh
Nice blog Dave! Some day I would love to go to Mexico :cheers:
Originally posted by operainchicago:
Thanks Carol.I told such good stories of my trips there that I ended up going back with my whole family (one at a time). I never thought on my first trip there that it would turn into such a life-long thing.
Originally posted by operainchicago:
You're good! Yep, it's coming down really well for here. Perfect timing and everything so pretty.
Hey, you guys getting snowed in right now?
Weather Channel 🙂
you are good friend.
Originally posted by guru11dg:
Thanks Guru11dg. :up:
RE Image #5: Now that is a young man. 😉
The only time I've ever been to Mexico was when I was 17 and went to Tijuana. I lived in L.A. at the time so it was close. It pretty much changed my life forever. From the cardboard shanty town, to the toothless old lady that was maybe as tall as my elbow selling, "chicle." It was a contrast in excess and necessity that I've still not forgotten.
I want to go back to Mexico and spend a year. I just don't know what I could do for work to support such an endeavor.
Originally posted by 0x29a:
I'd like to figure out something in that area myself. I hope I don't have to wait that long, but if I make it to my Social Security years, I'll get some little place in the suburbs of Cancun, Merida, or maybe Guadalajara.Teaching English comes to mind, but I think this is much harder then it seems, even for a native speaker. I feel that fairly heavy-duty training would be required to be very good at it.Oh well, there's still time to think it over.