"Aren't You Scared To Be In Mexico?"

The answer is no. I wept crossing the border — from relief. A dispatch from Mexico City, a city twice as safe as Albuquerque, and a short history of the lie that has brainwashed you otherwise.

Last year, before I left the United States, back when I was hoping I could get residency in Mexico, I wrote a piece answering the question every American seemed compelled to ask me: “Aren’t you scared to move to Mexico?” The answer was no.

The question has since changed tense. Now that I am here, living (temporarily, unfortunately) in Mexico City, the emails and comments ask: Aren’t you scared to BE in Mexico?

The answer is still no. No, I am NOT scared to be in Mexico.

Let me tell you what actually happened at the border, because it is the opposite of everything you have been trained to imagine.