[.ca] On Mexican Time: A New Life in San Miguel (ISBN 0767903196)

From Amazon.com:
In the mid-1980s, Tony Cohan and his artist wife, Masako, decided they had had enough of the hectic pace and inherent insecurities of life in Los Angeles and made tracks for the historic town of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. At first they rented rooms in a hotel. Then, when the hotel became less appealing, they graduated to renting an apartment. Almost inevitably, they eventually found themselves buying a 250-year-old hacienda on the verge of collapse, with wonderfully elegant Spanish colonial architecture and a garden brimming with papayas, avocados, and custard apples. What followed was a love affair with a country and its people that has endured. On Mexican Time is a lyrical attempt to capture the Mexican magic that bewitched the two of them. Cohan introduces us to a quirky cast of Mexicans and expats, including murderers, idealists, philanderers, and writers. Spanning 15 years, the book conveys something of the curiously intangible passage of time, as we watch girls become mothers, marriages drift apart, and friends come and go. The text is rich with sensuous details, and Cohan is excellent at conveying the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of a country that he clearly adores. On Mexican Time is much less of a glib chronicle than other books of the "charming new life in paradise" genre. Although he is not averse to the odd moment of portentousness, Cohan makes a gentle and elegant guide through the experiences of expat life in San Miguel. --Toby Green

Ex-(clusive) Patriotism:
I picked up a copy of "On Mexican Time" recently in Sayulita, Mexico. Being in Mexico for the first time and utterly charmed by the difference in the way of life there as opposed to the rest of North America, I wanted to read something that would give me insight into the cultural sights, sounds and colours that I was newly being exposed to. Overall, I found the book an enjoyable read and an entirely sympathetic view of Mexican life as a contrast to the urban chaos and fear that has marked major U.S. and Canadian cities in recent years. Poets and writers worldwide have a historical tendency to seek romance in agrarian and pre-industrial societies and Tony Cohan succumbs to this not new longing in his charming account of life in Mexico. However, the author himself notes that in American literary circles, the tendency is to place a pre-eminant position to Americans and their interpretation of the world through the lens of an American worldview. Sadly, I noted several alarming indications that this is also true of the author's biases regardless of his efforts to put U.S. prejudices behind him. The most jarring examples of this are a number of references to "North Americans" in a way that is obviously refering to Americans only . To quote from page 281: "Mexicans, unlike North Americans, consider technology a convenience, not a faith or a metaphysic." I can only presume that he also excludes Canadians too, as the majority of Americans have an appalling lack of knowledge about their northern neighbours. Furthermore, the statement itself is a sweeping generalization that the book could have done without. This is not the only time the author slips into this type of language. Perhaps unintentional, it still clearly displays an attitude that Americans of all persuasions take on when dealing with the "lesser" nations of North America. Need I explain that Canada and Mexico are also part of North America? I can't help but get the sense that as a literary type married to an artist, Tony believes he is somehow a superior class of expat. Sorry, that doesn't wash here and I imagine it doesn't in Mexico either or frankly with other Americans doing business with Mexicans that is actually leading to a growing middle class in Mexico with expanded educational and work opportunities for the previously disenfranchised. That being said, I think he is right to be concerned about Americans and other foreigners importing their attitudes into the charm of Mexico. He'd best look at his own first as they may be subtle but are definitely present in his account. Let the Mexicans decide what the future of their country holds - good, bad and/or indifferent. Change is inevitable and it is not for the rest of us North Americans to dictate what that change looks like, however well-intentioned our ideas and attitudes may be.

Self centered and not fulfilling:
I am going to San Miguel next week and got excited about reading this book, as I live in LA and the author lived here too and moved to San Miguel. I got hooked into reading it and must admit I finished it, but soon realized that it was a silly little book. There was virtually nothing about San Miguel and the characters about whom the author wrote were distant and seemingly figments of one's imagination. The dialogue was ridiculous. I'm not sure what the point of the book is, but it isn't enough to be a diary and certainly not even close to giving one a feeling of life in San Miguel de Allende. It pretends to be erudite literature and the author never lets you forget that he knows this person, and that person, etc. It is a boring, drolling piece of work that drags on, but at least the type was fairly large and it didn't take long to finish it.

A vicarious journey to the central highlands of Mexico:
More than other parts of Mexico I have visited, San Miguel de Allende and its environs are where I have especially imagined spending time beyond just the brief week or two of a touristic sojourn. This book helped me more than just relive memories of my short trip there. Tony Colhan avoids lapsing into the belabored genre of expatriate dispatches from a charmed existence in a bucolic, exotic setting. Spanning about fifteen years of his life in San Allende with his wife, Colhan?s book weaves a tapestry of sights, sounds, smells, history, characters, and autobiography into an immensely readable paperback. Selective extracts best convey how the author ably sprinkles the text with evocative imagery of la vida y sabor mainly of San Miguel de Allende, but also of its environs, the countryside, and also Mexico City, which is just a ride several hours away. Markets, restaurants, foods, and flavors pervade the text QUOTE a squash flower soup, flor de cabeza, which arrives in a deep brick red bowl, a color as pure and soft as the soup?s flavor?.fried sugar twists called churros?.fresh fruit drinks called licaudos in fat soda glasses?a necklace of garlic hangs from a nail?.a bowl full of dried red chiles sits on a tiled counter?among a pile of green calabaza squash topped by orange flowers, a flopping red fish?s glassy eye looks balefully up at me?happy eaters gather around a sizzling grill of carnitas, ender cooked pork parts?we discover ensalada chicharron, a mixed vegetable salad garnished with low-rent fried pork rinds and a squeeze of lime to become a delicacy?.drip-sweet strawberries in plastic cups with lethal dollops of whipped cream?UNQUOTE The book has a natural rhythm through its flow of seasonal changes QUOTE Since January the hillsides have mutated from ocher to moss green..the summer air holds new fragrances: jasmine, tuberoses, citrus?. UNQUOTE The unique historical position of San Miguel de Allende is injected in small doses in between culinary references and characters descriptions QUOTE The emperor Maximilian was slain in Querataro an hour away?It was here that the priest Hidalgo hoisted aloft a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe and cried Death to the Spaniards! Igniting the revolution against Spain?. UNQUOTE But what the author does most compellingly is to weave into what might otherwise be a travelogue his own personal motivations and evolution, from the time he and his wife sell their Los Angeles and move across the border into this quiet Mexican town in the central highlands which changes over fifteen years QUOTE \oDescribing their married existence in L.A.\c Tangled in adulthood?s web, pumping out the tasks: we?ve barely had time to look up?.\odescribing early days in San Miguel\c Each morning, exempt from whatever unconscious semiotics guided our choice of appearance in urban America, we choose a short or blouse out of pure whim, eat what and when we wish, speak whatever comes to mind?.UNQUOTE As the years pass, the author portray the changes from the few transient foreigners, old retirees, and aging bohemians in the scenery of their early years to the droves of baby boomers buying up old houses, starting businesses, to the two Internet servers that the authors finally acquire. In short, a very pleasant read that will bring you closer to the culture, history and people of this sensuous country.

interesting:
This book is about how the author and his wife leave behind the crazy life of L.A. and move to the small and quiet town of San Miguel, Mexico. Through adventures in house-buying and remodeling to experiencing the life and culture of small town Mexico, this book was a joy to read. We all know about the bad parts of Mexico and how people are constantly fleeing the country to escape their bad lives. But this is a good view of the opposite side of the Mexican coin, the good life in Mexico that is not about drugs, corruption, and muggings.

Makes you feel at home.:
I bought my copy of this book in San Miguel de Allende. I was on a two week trip, working with a mission group in a nearby village, but staying in a bed and breakfast in San Miguel and attending church services in a small neighborhood church. I loved the place, and the people and wondered what it would feel like to actually live in the region full time. With great humor, as well as love for the place and the those who inhabit it, Mr. Cohan let me know. This book is marvelously full of color, both in the descriptions of places, and in the feelings it gives. He captures much of what I felt as a urbanite suddenly finding himself in a much more peaceful much less hurried place. San Miguel de Allende is a magical place. Mr. Cohan's writings capture at least a portion of that and allowed me bring it home.