The following are questions I get asked a lot. Along with some criticisms I get lobbed at me regularly. Time is money, so I answer them all here in one place.
If you’ve got one I haven’t covered, email me. If it comes up enough, it’ll end up here too.
Are you an “expat” or an “immigrant”?
Both. Neither. Who cares.
An expat is just someone living outside their home country. So is an immigrant. The words technically describe the same situation. The difference is cultural baggage, not definition. “Expat” became the term educated Western migrants use. “Immigrant” became the term politicians use to describe people they want to deport. Is that fair? No. Does it reflect reality? Also no. But language tracks usage, not fairness.
I use “expat” in the blog name because that’s the word gringo migrants type into Google when they’re trying to figure out how to live here. The goal of language is to be understood. Pick one and move on.
If it makes you feel better, call yourself an immigrant. Call yourself a digital nomad. Call yourself a permanent resident with strong opinions about CFE. None of those labels affect your residency status, your tax obligations, or whether your prescription gets filled. The label does not change your life.
Can you stop calling yourself “American”? The whole continent is America.
No.
Here’s how this argument goes. Someone says “I’m American.” Someone else, usually someone who has never left their home state, explains that “America is a continent, not a country.” Heads nod. Emojis pile on. Nobody learns anything.
The continent question is genuinely contested. Where you went to school determines how you answer it. In the U.S., Canada, and most of the English-speaking world, we learn two continents: North America and South America. In Mexico, much of Latin America, and parts of Europe, “America” is taught as a single continent. Neither system is objectively correct. They’re different geographic classification frameworks taught by different education systems. That’s it.
In English, the demonym for a person from the United States of America is American. Full stop. “United Statesian” is not a word. No equivalent exists. “North American” includes Canadians and Mexicans. So the language settled on American, because that’s what languages do when faced with an awkward gap. They pick something and move on.
Nobody from Argentina introduces themselves as American in English. Nobody from Brazil says “I’m American” at an international conference. The word naturally attached to the country with “America” in its name because the other options were worse. This is how demonyms work. The Japanese call themselves Japanese, not “people from Nippon,” because that’s what the word became in English. Language is descriptive, not political.
My passport says American. That’s what I am in English. In Spanish, I’ll say estadounidense all day long. But we’re speaking English right now, so let’s use English words.
“If you don’t like it, why don’t you just leave?”
My passport is American. I’ve also traveled to 70 countries and lived in several of them. I’ve watched systems function in places that figured some of this out. I’ve also watched systems fail badly, in ways that make certain problems here look minor by comparison. I’m not measuring Mexico against some American ideal of perfection. The U.S. has its own spectacular failures. Every country does.
What I have is a calibrated frame of reference. When I say something here isn’t working, I’m not complaining from ignorance. I’m comparing it to what I’ve actually seen work, and seen fail, elsewhere in the world.
The “love it or leave it” crowd has one move. Silence dissent by making criticism feel like betrayal. It doesn’t work on people who actually have skin in the game.
Wanting the place you live to function better is what residents do. Tourists say nothing because they’re leaving in a week. I’m not leaving. Criticism comes from investment, not contempt.
You’re a “guest” in this country. Act like one.
I own multiple properties here. I pay property taxes on all of them, plus the additional surcharge required for foreign nationals holding property in a restricted zone. My business pays taxes in Mexico. I pay into a healthcare system I statistically will never rely on. I pay school taxes without having children in the system.
That’s not a guest. That’s a taxpayer with a foreign passport.
The “guest” framing is designed to preemptively disqualify anything you say. Guests don’t get opinions. Guests sit quietly and say thank you. The moment you raise a concern about how the place operates, someone reminds you of your guest status, as if that settles it.
It doesn’t settle it. Legal residents have rights here. We have obligations too, taxes, compliance with local law, genuine community participation. Rights and obligations are what residency looks like. Not silent gratitude.
Is Mexico safe? Is Baja safe? What about the cartels?
Baja has one of the highest non-war murder rates on the planet. It’s also as safe as most major American cities for people who aren’t buying or selling drugs. Both of those things are true at the same time.
The cartels aren’t thinking about you. They’re running a business. Extortion, politicians, logistics. You’re not in their supply chain. Don’t pick fights, don’t go looking for trouble, and you’re boring to them. That’s exactly where you want to be.
Don’t be low-hanging fruit. That’s the whole strategy.
Why do you use AI-generated images?
Because I’m a writer, not a photographer. The image is a placeholder for a subject that deserves a post. The sources are the substance.
If your response to a carefully sourced piece is to complain about the pixels in the header image, you aren’t engaging with the argument. You’re avoiding it.
What about all the “undocumented gringos”?
Some of the loudest voices about immigration enforcement back in the States are living here without legal residency, paying nothing into the system, inflating rents, and facing zero consequences for it.
The regularization pathway that allowed people to fix that situation quietly was suspended in 2025. If you’re here without status, you are the exact category of person you spent years voting against. Get your residency, pay your dues, contribute something. Stop pretending the rules don’t apply to you because of where you were born.
Isn’t complaining about Mexico just privileged gringo behavior?
Only if holding institutions accountable is a privilege move.
The people most hurt by systemic failures here are Mexican citizens. Working class families who depend entirely on public services. Rural communities without hospital access. People who have no backup plan. I have options. Most people here don’t.
Writing honestly about those failures isn’t gringo condescension. It’s the bare minimum of giving a damn about the place you live.
Do you actually love Mexico, or do you just complain about it?
I’ve been to 70 countries. I chose to build my life here. That’s not an accident.
Loving a place means wanting it to be better, not pretending it already is. I’ve seen enough of the world to know that Mexico has genuine, specific, fixable problems sitting alongside genuine, specific things it does better than anywhere I’ve been. The goal isn’t to tear it down. The goal is to see it function the way it’s capable of functioning.
The people who demand unconditional praise are usually the ones with the least at stake and the most to prove.
Who is this blog actually for?
Legal residents and future residents who are treating this move like the serious life decision it is. People who want real information, sourced and direct, not the filtered version designed to sell a lifestyle.
If you want fire emojis and validation, there are several Facebook groups that will serve you well. If you want to understand how the immigration system actually works, what the public healthcare system does and doesn’t cover, why the water is off, and what any given government announcement actually means versus what the Instagram posts say, stick around.
Just don’t expect me to shut up.
Got a question I didn’t cover?
Email me at [email protected]. If it’s a good one, or a particularly spicy one, it’ll probably end up on this page.