Mexico: A Cautionary Tale, By JC Sullivan

Written by Tropicasa Realty
March 12th, 2012

Backpacking Poet, JC Sullivan, recently attended the 2012 San Miguel Writers’ Conference.  She sent us an email that stated, “The Conference was amazing — everyone was raving about how fabulous and inspiring it was. What a beautiful gift to the world.”  Also included was the following poem.

Mexico: A Cautionary Tale

I was warned.
Repeatedly.
Warned.
So many times it lost its potency.
Warned.
By well-meaning friends
living in “safe” gated communities with armed guards
By acquaintances
who have never been here
By media reports
glamorizing and spreading alarm
Who have a different definition of danger. And of what
constitutes safety.

Stupid me!
I didn’t listen
to any of it.

Adventurous, perhaps with a death wish,
I didn’t look.

Worse.
I wasn’t careful.

And…
In “dangerous” Mexico,
I was robbed.

Stupid, stupid me!

Yes, Mexico…
stole from me…
A smile.
At first.

And then,
they got bolder
and took…
A laugh.

and bolder still, they ran off with…
my poor self-image.

Which turned into a larger felony: They took …
time
to fill me with compliments!
Telling me
repeatedly
how wonderful it is…
to be a woman
of experience.
Who smiles.
Who laughs.
Repeatedly.

Time after time. Again and again.
Until
finally, I believed them.

As I was smiling and laughing, and actually trusting myself,
They had the nerve to go and pick-pocket my lingering self-doubts,
my well-nurtured insecurities including
my belief that “real beauty” was limited to youth…

While I was still reeling in shock,
from having been robbed,
and pick-pocketed
Mexicans took
the opportunity to kill my previous ideas of what constituted
“hospitality”,
replacing it with a generosity
that
is frightening
to even try to emulate,
yet so, so fortunate to know.

See how really dangerous Mexico is?
And it got even worse!

I hadn’t recovered from such brutal behavior, when
they committed another truly horrible,
almost unspeakable
crime.

They gave me hope and optimism.
Repeatedly.
About who I was.
About who I could be.
About who we could be together.

Amongst wrapping me in love and force-feeding me laughter and
compliments and
smothering me in generosity
and unfathomably fabulous hospitality,
I was rendered helpless.
Utterly
helpless.

Stupid, stupid, stupid me.

I did not cry for help
or
run away.
Mexico took complete advantage of my situation and committed the
biggest atrocity of all. Once again, they stole …
my heart –
and my soul.

Now I’m so scared –
deeply, utterly terrified –
that I cannot return the favor.

Never happier,
I steal away…
to wish
this kind of “danger” on everyone.

JC Sullivan is a poet and writer and also a member of the Travelers
Century Club for people who have been to more than 100 countries.

 

http://sanmiguelwritersconference.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/mexico-a-cautionary-tale-by-jc-sullivan/