Fred Reed On Getting Out of the USA

When did you leave the US permanently, and what made you decide to do so?

-Twenty-one years ago, bored with Washington, had always had an interest in Mexico. Came to check it out, and never left.

Before Joe Bageant got cancer and had to return to the US, he moved from Belize to Ajijic, Mexico, where you are. How did you persuade him to do so?

-I made no active attempt to recruit him. I think, but may misremember, that he read my columns, emailed me, we talked by email but I do not remember just what about, he came, decided Mexico was better than Belize, and stayed.

How near death is the US? Will it break apart? Is there any hope for a reversal of decay and degeneracy?

-My take, for what little it is probably worth: The downward rush seems irreversible and rapid. Without a dominant culture the many groups are in conflict, crime high and can’t be fought without a racial explosion, education rapidly decaying, economy failing, and an autoimmune response against the culture that once held the whole shebang together. Today I would far rather raise children in Mexico and its schools than in America. I can’t see it breaking up—how do you get Philadelphia blacks to move to Mississippi and the whites to move to Idaho?—but I can imagine nationwide mayhem as with Floyd.

I’ve said all along that Mexico will need a border wall more than the US, to keep desperate Americans out. Do you agree with this?

-A literal wall, no, for reasons of organization, finance, and so on. But lots of gringos will doubtless head south if chaos descends.

What was best about the US? What do you miss most being away?

-In my high school days, almost no crime, no racial conflict because blacks were under control, no serious political divisiveness, no crazy shootings, no police in the schools, no shootings at all though in my rural regions guns were common for hunting, civility, boys didn’t say “shit” or “fuck” in front of girls, illegitimacy almost unheard of, anorexia and bulimia completely unheard of—we didn’t know the words—one cop for a huge county and he didn’t have anything to do, schools apolitical, all the advantages of a local monoculture. Hitchhiking without fear. Almost universal regional prosperity.

What is best about Mexico? How is your Spanish? How do Mexicans treat you?

-I married my Spanish teacher and that is the house language. Mexicans unvaryingly friendly, whether in Guad or the many pueblos we visit. While the narcos are out of control and there is corruption, Mexico approximates a monoculture except for Indian regions in the south. The towns are peaceful, all with a plaza, plazas all different and usually lovely as they are not designed at corporate, restaurants and bars locally owned, no goddamned American chains, a sense of oldness in the pueblos, always a church on the plaza, all different, Mexico is not a mass culture, none of the plastic sterility of America. Streets clean and plazas spotless, strong families, lack of stress. I don’t know how many are strong Christian believers but the church and the many celebrations of saints’ days are a social glue and, though Mexico has by constitution separation of church and state, there is no venom in it as in America, no lunatics trying to abolish crosses in public squares.

Finally, what advices do you have for Americans who are contemplating a leap from the burning ship?

-Get out. Get out. Get out. If you can find a way to work by internet, do it. Most countries, certainly Mexico, have good internet and cell phone service, medical care often good. Go for dual citizenship when you become eligible. Consider Southeast Asia or Latin America. Put your kids in local schools. Fluency in another language won’t hurt them and schools do not teach critical race theory. Once you decide you like the country, buy, don’t rent and to the extent possible get out of the dollar. Understand that countries in the “Third World” are rising out of it while the US falls into it and levels of morality, taste, and behavior are higher.

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[Mexico City, 5/24/17]

[Mexico City, 5/27/17]

[Mexico City, 5/29/17]

[Toluca, 5/30/17]

[Tepotzotlan, 5/28/17]

[Juarez looking towards El Paso, 4/4/12]

[Mexico City, 5/25/17]