The grass is greener than ever at the American School of Guadalajara since there are no students or teachers to disturb the pristine terraces. All classes have been virtual since mid-March and will continue that way through summer school. According to director David McGrath, most teachers were already using Google Classroom, Zoom, and other formats and merely refined their use to improve so that the learning curve was not too great. What will happen in the fall is still up in the air. In the meantime, expat teachers and administrators have adjusted, not only at the American School in Guadalajara but at several private schools from Puerto Vallarta to Lake Chapala, where classes continue until late June. 

For these expats and thousands of retirees and businessmen and women located in Mexico, the quarantine order, which has been in effect since mid-March, has not been too odious. All have highspeed internet access; none are far from a grocery store or pharmacy. Nearly everyone has access to affordable medical care. The hospitals in Guadalajara, a metro area of 4.5 million are at only 35% capacity. The governor has ordered strict guidelines, which include masks in public and in all stores and businesses (both for employees and clients), with only vital services allowed to operate, and traffic checks on highways enteringcoming into the state from Mexico City where the outbreak is far more serious. 

Many expats have taken this opportunity to find ways to serve the community. Paul Kenney, General Manager of Pertek-Erler, a firm that provides plastic products for core automotive businesses, reduced his firm’s output by 90% and furloughed most of his workers when the shutdown of non-essential businesses was ordered. However, when he became aware of the shortage of PPE products for first responders, he and an engineer launched a project to design and produce high quality face shields for emergency services. In less than two weeks they created the mold and outsourced other critical components locally, thus providing employment not only to his own laid-off workers but to many others.

The Lake Chapala Society in Ajijic is providing on-line yoga classes and cooking classes for their homebound members. The American Society of Jalisco has a lending library where members can check out books and CDs once a weekonce week to keep themselves entertained. In Puerto Vallarta, expats have volunteered their time to help rescue and care for abandoned dogs, while the Alamo Club in that city has been conducting daily AA meetings through Zoom.

Also, in the Lake Chapala area, Ruthie and Charles Baker, from Dallas, have been creating confectionary delights for their sweet shop and selling the baked goods out the back door. The profits go to purchase milk and produce for orphans living in Hope House, a group home founded by a couple of expats from Tennessee. Unlike the “Ugly Americans” of past generations, exposed by the British novelist Graham Greene, the present generation of expats living in Mexico (now numbering close to a million) are very much a part of the communities in which they reside and are contributing not only to their own welfare but to that of the local inhabitants.

One of my favorite people, Diane Pearl, who owns a wonderful shop in Ajijic, purchases works of local artisans and authors, not only of expats but also those of Mexican and indigenous artists and writers, and sells them to tourists, residents and visitors tofrom the region. In addition, she provides home delivery to those housebound, and keeps the community aware of who might need special help. 

All of us living and working in Mexico are tied together through social media and a shared love, both for both Mexico and its people. Yes, we are wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing. But we also know that in Mexico the fragility of the informal economy demands that we work collectively to keep as many people employed as we can so that all are able to feed their families. We also know how important it is that we reach out to the most vulnerable: the elderly, those with problems of addiction, children in orphanages, and finally to those once-loved pets who became abandoned on the death of their owners. Expats in Mexico not only believe that “we are all in this together” but are trying to put those words into concrete and meaningful action.