Guanajuato Survival Tips

What do you do when you have as your heart’s desire an area of Mexico that is still mostly unheard of by American tourists, where English is not widely spoken, and guess what? You don’t spWhat do you do when you have as your heart’s desire an area of Mexico that is still mostly unheard of by American tourists, where English is not widely spoken, and guess what? You don’t speak Spanish? Guanajuato is still largely an undiscovered gem with gringo tourists. I once submitted an article to an international expatriation magazine about Guanajuato.

The editor sent the article back for me to rework since she claimed most of her readers had never heard of Guanajuato. Hordes of American tourists each year flood into regions along the west coast areas of Mexico. There they find beaches for water fun in the sun. There are the eco-tours. You can watch or swim with the dolphins. You can go on a little boat expedition to see the migrating (breeding) whales. And, when you tire of all the activity, you can go to any number of very expensive restaurants to eat some of the most delicious seafood I have ever had the pleasure of putting into my mouth. After a meal fit for royalty, you can take advantage of the nightlife which is second to none. The easiest thing about visiting a place such as Puerto Vallarta is that you do not have to know Spanish.

Almost everyone we encountered in Vallarta, at least in the tourism service industry, was bilingual. My wife and I found that a little unsettling. We are American expats living in Guanajuato where we speak nothing but Spanish on the streets. Going to Vallarta where the locals greeted us in our native tongue was a little different. Our adopted home, Guanajuato, is popular with the nationals of this fine country. If I had to make a generalization, I would have to say, without fear of contradiction, that the majority of the tourism we have here is with Mexican nationals followed by Europeans, Orientals, and lastly Americans. The reason for this, I have observed, is because those in the tourism service industry do not have a high degree of bilingualism here as they do in the costal areas of Mexico.

The reason for that is simple: they’ve not had the same need. When we were in Puerto Vallarta we interviewed a lot of locals for potential articles. The question we most commonly asked was, “How did you learn English?” The most common reply was, “We just had to in order to feed our families.” Need, desperate need, drove these tourism industry service workers to learn English by any means possible. You might want to know that they did it not by studying in America or taking classes. That is for another story. Americans that do hear of Guanajuato ask, “Do they speak English there?” When they are told no, the most common response I have encountered is something along the lines of, “Well, what’s wrong with those people?” I have a friend whose uncle asked that identical question and uttered that reply.

It is not uncommon for those Americans who do manage to make their way to Guanajuato not to even consider the issue of language and just how they will manage without any facility in the language. Once, my wife was stopped by a couple who were in a panic. They somehow got here and then found themselves ill-equipped to navigate without some Spanish at their disposal. I’ve often written in my columns that I am convinced the majority of Americans believe that all of Mexico is like the coastal resort areas that do have a high degree of bilingualism. The truth is, not all of Mexico is like the resort areas. Though you can run into some who speak English here, the degree to which it is spoken is a drop in the bucket compared to the resorts.

Again, an urgent need simply is not present in Guanajuato for the masses to be bilingual. The pity is that Guanajuato is a fun place to vacation. There are no beaches, no marine wildlife, no boating or water sports in this totally landlocked region of Mexico (though we do have a lighthouse!). But this region is the cradle of Mexican independence and modern Mexican civilization. Here is where they began their fight for independence from the Spanish. Guanajuato is Mexican history personified and with plenty to show for it! Guanajuato exudes Mexican history, culture, art, architecture, music, and plenty of festivals to aid you in learning and celebrating it all! An example of this is Guanajuato’s Cervantino Festival. This “mother of all festivals” is celebrated for three weeks! Have you ever heard of a three-week-long party?

Now you have and you shouldn’t miss it. The festival takes place each October and is quite popular, so make your reservations early! “Every year in the month of October the famous Festival Cervantino is held in honor of the illustrious author Miguel de Cervantes, with a variety of national and international cultural and artistic events. There are exhibitions, plays, concerts, cinema and all sorts of events, turning the city into a hotbed of culture. The International Cervantes Festival (FIC) is the most important artistic and cultural event in Mexico and in all Latin America. It has been held without interruption since 1972, the year it was created and has as its venue the city of Guanajuato. Guanajuato is also the capital of the state of the same name, birthplace of Mexico’s independence. In its beginnings, the festival was devoted mainly to artistic creation in the Spanish language, in homage to Miguel de Cervantes. In the course of time, the universal scope of the influence of Cervantes gradually took the form of the vast variety of artistic and cultural expressions included in the festival today.

During the celebration of the International Cervantes Festival a torrent of the most outstanding works in music, opera, theatre, dance, plastic arts, cinema and literature take over all of Guanajuato, making it a privileged destination for thousands and thousands of people coming from all over Mexico and the entire world. Today there are very few countries that have not participated at some time in this feast for the senses and for the mind, through the participation of their foremost artists.”[1] Do you see what you’ve been missing all this time you’ve been out on a boat looking for whales having sex? So, if the Spanish issue keeps most Americans from making a change from the usual Mexican vacation (and by the fortieth visit to Puerto Vallarta let’s face it-it’s stale!), then what is one to do?

How can the incurably monolingual American take advantage of Guanajuato? Here are a few suggestions. Some will seem painfully obvious and some you may have never thought of. Perhaps these will help you work up the nerve to come and see us in Guanajuato. When you go back to the U.S. and Auntie Lula asks you about the whales, you can tell her that you didn’t see any whales but had a three-week-long party in Guanajuato! Suggestions: 1). Learn some Spanish. Check out this course on the Amazon.com website: Pimsleur Spanish. Using the Pimsleur Spanish method, you can develop a high degree of spoken fluency in about 45 days. 2). If you have to, copy the following to a series of 3×5 cards. These will not only get you from the airport to Guanajuato but will get you to the Tourism Office where you will be able to secure one of the few English-speaking tour guides. The folks at the Tourism Office will have a list with phone numbers and will call them for you.

Copy the following in the order given onto 3×5 cards: At the airport: Me gustarÃ?­a ir a Guanajuato. (I would like to go to Guanajuato.) At the hotel: (Have the concierge call you a cab. Show this next card to him or the cab driver): Me gustarÃ?­a ir a la oficina de Turismo en La Plaza de la Paz en Guanajuato. At the tourism office: (YouÃ?´ll probably not need this but in the event you are so terrified that you might vomit, use it!): No hablo ninguna palabra de su lengua hermosa y Ã?©sa es porquÃ?© estoy usando estas tarjetas que me estÃ?¡n haciendo parecer un americano sicopÃ?¡tico. Yo sÃ?© que usted estÃ?¡ pensando que usted debe llamar el policÃ?­a pero la verdad es, Ã?¿podrÃ?­a ayudarme por favor y llÃ?¡mame un guÃ?­a turÃ?­stico que puede hablar ingles? 3). Another thing you could do, if you know someone who is fluent in Spanish, is to have them call or email ahead to arrange to have your English-speaking tour guide meet you at the airport.

The following websites and other sources have phone numbers and email addresses. Resources for your trip: www.avantel.net/~guanajuatorentals/ www.frugalfun.com/guanajuato.html Office of Tourism, Plaza De La Paz No. 14 Col. Centro, 36000 Guanajuato, Gto.Tel: (473) 732 76 22 Fax (473) 732 42 51 www.sectur.gob.mx/ www.ruelsa.com/gto/gto/gtoess.htm ### [1] http://www.donquijote.org/guanajuato/info.festivals.asp