Let's Think About Mexico, People!

All right, it's no secret that I have become Mexican over the last few years.
My continually evolving discontent with North American culture, coupled with my growing love and appreciation for the saner life south of the US border, has done nothing but solidify my resolve to expatriate myself.
I like good food.  I like people with a heart.  I like a culture that isn't utterly corrupted by the pursuit of cool where cool = junk sold by slick junk peddlers.
You gabachos will never understand.  My new countrymen understand it instinctively.
I like a place where you can look at the sky without also having to own a star.  I like a place where a family's plans for the evening will suddenly take back seat to helping a stranger stranded on the side of the road.  I like a place where a friend expects you to do them favors but without any score-keeping.
Gabachos think Mexico is a land of ignorance and crime, even though the average Mexican is better educated and far less likely to be a crime victim than the average person in the United States.  Gabachos think that they are at the epicenter of intellectual thought in the Western Hemisphere, when in fact most gabachos cannot articulate a coherent defense of any of their spiritual and political beliefs, and Mexican art is at least the equal of anything created north of the border.
I love Mexico, and I have little regard for those xenophobic types in the US who write off Mexicans and Mexico with nothing even close to an understanding of the people and the country.  The US is a country demonstrably in decline -- from erosion of civil rights, pathetic education, and general lack of passion or understanding of their political philosophy.  Mexico, on the other hand, is a country that is growing economically, intellectually, artistically, and technologically -- growth, aspiration, positive energy directed toward the future.
I love Mexico -- I'm sorry so many of you gringos hate her without knowing her.
Take a deep breath.  Go outside.  Look at the sky.