Hola como estas as a Mexican American. And yes, I want to say it that way. And if you don’t like it, the honorary American part doesn’t give a damn as a Mexican American. Every time I go to Mexico, it’s a whole big thing, an emotional, psychological, Soul nurturing, haunted by ghost thing. Like most Mexican Americans, I usually feel like a Mexican in the United States and an American in Mexico, besides, just between you and me, I hold a grudge against the motherland. A little more than a century ago, Mexico spit out my grandfather and hundreds of 1000s of other refugees from the Mexican Revolution, which lasted from 1910 to 1920 it had no use for the poor, the dark skinned, the uneducated, and now Mexico wants a hug, an umbraso from me and other Mexican Americans. No gracias for my part, I’ll pass still. Mexico is in me, and the Mexican part of me was bored with life in suburbia. It was jonesing for delicious tacos, smooth tequila and the soulful rhythms of mariachis. Meanwhile, my Mexican born wife who came to the United States legally with her mother and sisters as a child more than 40 years ago, while she was aching to see friends and family, so we traveled with our three English speaking teenagers to Guadalajara, my wife’s hometown, a lovely and charming place, long known as the most Mexican city in all of Mexico. We were there for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I’d been to Guadalajara twice before, but that was more than 20 years ago. So much had changed, and not all of it for the better. The city is now a sprawling metropolis in the state of Jalisco. It draws people from all over Mexico, nearly 80,000 in 2024 they come looking for jobs and other opportunities. Guadalajara has always been a gem. Today, foodies from all over the world are finding their way there to savor some of the most unique and scrumptious cuisine in the hemisphere and the tequila business while it’s humming along, with help from investors in the US in Canada, some of guadalajaras famous alumni include the Mexican rock group mana and the professional boxing champion Canelo Alvarez. Yet this big city that’s home to 1.3 million people, with another 5 million in the surrounding area is also plagued by Big City problems, including graffiti, traffic sprawl, Urban Decay and street violence. And as if the place didn’t have enough problems, I showed up. I welcomed 2025, from Mexico, which seemed appropriate enough. Commencing a new year should be about prosperity and new beginnings and year long resolutions that won’t survive until February. That’s Mexico now, as it begins a new chapter with its first female president, Claudia sheinbaum, my timing for the trip was spot on. The US Mexico relationship is also starting a new chapter, albeit one with a familiar face glaring back at our neighbor from our side of the table with President Elect Donald Trump, threatening to send back millions of Mexican workers who could capsize the Mexican economy and imposing a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico. Some wonder how Mexico intends to quote fight back, drawing on a week’s worth of conversations with family, friends and assorted Uber drivers. I’m not sure that many Americans want to fight back. A lot of them aren’t happy with the status quo that existed when Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and US President Joe Biden were running their respective countries. They’re looking for change on a lot of areas, and they think that’s Trump, careful gente, whatever the neighborhood bully has to offer. You don’t want it or need it. Don’t be fooled. Trump is all about Trump. He doesn’t even care about people in his own country, much less yours.