The Mija Chronicles

Mexican food and culture, on both sides of the border

safety

Remember all my talk about hailing cabs off the street?

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I’m not doing it anymore. This article from El Universal scared the wits out of me. The reporters combed through a bunch of the city’s crime data to show that taxi crime victims are overwhelmingly (90 percent) women. They’re beaten, robbed, raped. Most of the perpetrators aren’t caught.

A particularly telling quote from the story, from a female official who works with crime victims: “To ride in a street taxi is to play Russian Roulette — you might be fine, but in one of those chances, it might change your life.”

Next time we go to our local sitio, I’ll try not to grumble when they charge us an extra 40 pesos.

Is it safe?

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Since we’ve gotten to San Diego, a lot of friends and family have asked us whether we feel safe in Mexico.

I’m guessing part of that stems from all the recent media coverage about the country being under siege, spring break vacations ruined (or second-guessed), etc. Although, to be fair, we got that question before we moved there and the drug war blew up.

One woman asked me: “You’re not afraid you’re going to get kidnapped?”

My answer: No. (Can I throw in a “con calmita”?) I feel perfectly safe in Mexico. (The fatalist side of me has to throw in a toque madera here.) Seriously though: It’s fine. No one I know is scared they’re going to get kidnapped. I’ve joked about it with a few people, actually. (Eeee, is that bad?) I just try to stay aware of my surroundings, not wear my diamond ring. If speaking English on the street, I try to do so discreetly. And I make sure any taxi I climb into has license plates.

Speaking of taxis: I’ve hailed them off the street with success, but I may stick to authorized stands now. A friend told me a horror story about a friend of hers who hailed a cab in La Condesa in the middle of the day, and ended up raped and dumped on the side of the Periferico.

Hearing something like that still doesn’t make me scared to live in Mexico. Just makes me think: Be wary of hailing a cab in La Condesa. Being scared and shut away in the house all day, what kind of life is that? Then I’d never try all the fabulous licuados, which I miss already.

Like other socially aware Americans in Mexico, I do wish American media coverage wouldn’t generalize so much about the fear and violence that’s supposedly sweeping the country. Maybe that’s the copy editors’ faults.

Enjoying the wealth of taxis, with a teensy bit of American guilt

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I’ve tried really hard to be the laid-back foreigner who takes the Metro all the time. Usually on my Metro ride back from wherever I am, though, my American princess side takes over. The Metro is freaking HOT. Like, clothes-sticking-to-your-back hot. Yesterday droplets of sweat literally fell off my face. And although the subway performers are interesting in a cultural kind of way, it’s annoying when the dude with the speaker strapped to his stomach can’t move amid the crush of people, and so you spend the entire ride with cumbia blasting in your ear.

So I’ve started taking taxis. Like, once a day. They’re cheap enough to where I can afford it, but since I’ve taken so many, I now find myself wincing if the ride is more than 60 pesos (about $4USD) and it’s not rush hour. So… I’ve started hailing them off the street. But only the safe taxis (gold and red colored sedans), and only when they have license plates, and a meter.

The issue is that I don’t know how much to tip. A Mexican friend swears that she never tips, unless the guy has gone above and beyond the call of duty. I used to tip 10 pesos all the time. Now, maybe two.

Today the driver who took me to the Centro got a two-peso tip, and we were chatting the whole time about me being a foreigner in a new city. He sent me off with a curt “Buen dia.”

My question: Am I going to get karmic payback for not tipping taxistas?

Interestingly, Crayton’s Spanish conversation partner, who is Mexican, says the Metro is mostly used by the lower-class and the mid-lower class. People with money have cars.