Reader 2
Hi, my name is M. G. and I am from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. I read your article about living in Monterrey and it quite had an impact on me, because it seems to me that you are only describing the poorest parts of this beautiful town, you didn't mention anything about its beautiful vegetation, beautiful mountains and souroundings, its seems that you focused on the worst that you could ever think about and wrote it down.
It is not difficult to hang pictures on the walls but maybe you where not used to have well constructed concrete houses, not all the windows have bars on it, the water is souitable for drinking but maybe along your stay you've heard that is not because of the hurricane Gilberto many years ago the water was not suitable because of obious reasons.
" There are few natural points of tourist interest, other than a beautiful waterfall and a large cave" I am going to list some for you: Matacanes, hidrofobia, a geat huge cenote, 2 artificial lakes, many colonial towns, la huasteca, climbing el cerro de la silla, la macroplaza, la casa santa lucia, planetario ALFA, paseo santa lucia, just to mention few on the top of my head.
Reaserch library, what can I tell you, well I in fact did a research paper about the foundation of Monterrey using the several very good in fact public libraries where they show me the first original blueprint of the city.
We have the best Medical State univesity of all Latin America having parallel cprograms and research projects with the best hospitals in the world, not to mention ITESM the best private university in Latin America wich by the way have a lot of students not only from USA but all over the world just as any other in USA. About the education I can tell you by good knowledge having as an uncle the man go did the reform to the educational programs in Mexico, it si not as you say it is, but hey, maybe the 10 schools you did attend it was like that I know it is imposible to visit the thousands of the good ones.
Trees are in fact very plentiful naturally.
I feel very sad that you publish a page with the information that I just read, you have the freedom to write your experience, that is why, I felt the freedom of writing about my feeling when I read it.
"Police cars. When we were living there, "Beetles" were indeed used by the police." this is when you hire a private security company and it is not an official police.
It is not because its my town, I have been living in Europe for quite a long time now,and believe me, I do something to change the view of my town in the eyes of others that is why I dared to wrote this. My wedding was here in Monterrey and I had over 60 guest that came all over europe including some others from the USA and they only have the most beautiful coments about Monterrey, maybe I am overreacting but I just wanted to let you now that there are more than those things that you wrote in your article maybe you didn't had the time to see.
It is sad to see that educated people as you claim to be, could not see also the bright side of the picture and all the beautiful things that Monterrey have to offer I invite you to return and try to see it with another eyes, of course we have bad things as in every country, but if my town could not gave you or show you the other side I apologyze for the inconvinience.
I have learned to love my town and if I can share that with you that is enough for me. thank you for letting me express myself, but as you said no one is right or wrong I just want to share my point of view.
M. I. G.
PS If you wish so, I would be more than happy to write an article about my beautiful town I have already done it several times so once more it would not be a problem.
Reply
Dear M.,
Unfortunately, letters like yours makes our point even more poignant. Either you did not read the introduction very well or you have chosen to ignore it. We wrote that from OUR perspective. Your letter assumes that no one else has that right and only your perspective is the right one!!
No, we did not live in the poorest part of the city and yes, we too, had visitors from the more affluent parts of North America, as well as Mexico come and see the same thing. The whole point of that essay was to point out that people experience things in a variety of ways. THAT DOES NOT MAKE THEM WRONG, it just makes them different.
Not only that, but some parts of your essay are completely wrong - we were there. We saw them. We experienced them. WE did as have thousands of others but you choose to ignore this and state that your version is the only correct one. How narrow minded!!
That said, you may write your version if you so wish. We have invited people to do that but to date, not one complainer has ever taken us up on it. We will also post your email on this page which we have set up for such people as yourself. http://www.innvista.com/culture/travel/mexico/letters.htm
Again, I urge you to accept the fact that other people have opinions and are entitled to them. Your rose-colored viewpoint is sad at best and just as misleading as your claim for ours. I know my letter is not going to change your mind and your tirade certainly is not going to change what we saw with our own eyes but at least WE respect your right to differ. We can only hope you would extend the same courtesy to others.
Sincerely,
The Duff Family
Reply
As I said I respect your freedom of expression please respect mine, I did not wrote you to offend you so I will please beg you not to do it calling me narrow mind, I just wrote you to express my feeling when I read your point of view and I guess we all have the right of one. I did say and expresed that I respectes YOUR perspective so please respect mine. You have your 2 years perspective I have my 25 years perspective, both equally valid isn't it? I was just trying to transmit a little of my love for my town with you probably as you said rose colored viewpoint but as I said before it's just love for my town. Sorry if you misread also as you said I did, and I did have the same courtesy as you did with me towards you.
Let me explain why I did this, just in a few words; we are trying to attract tourism to my town and as I look information about Monterrey on the net I found your opinion, which I say again, I respect and it is as valid as anyone else's, I would not want people disappointed in my beautiful town that is all.
My sincere apologies if you took it personally, I am starting to believe that you like to have this response and that your letter is a little provocative just to prove something, but then again that is just my feeling valid or not! Keep up the good work and have a very nice day, hope your life smiles on your rose pathway as mine does.
You will receive my essay as soon as possible. I promise I will work on it.
(emphasis ours)
M. G.
Reply
Dear M.,
Yes, we were a little upset mainly because of all the letters we get such as yours. People simply do not want to hear anything negative about their city. We understand that and honestly, what we wrote, we felt was not being negative. Instead, we viewed it as a taste of culture.
It is funny though that you think what you saw in your lifetime can negate what we saw simply because we did not live there as long as you did. Our daughter-in-law was born and raised in Monterrey and completed her Masters degree there and saw the same things as we did. In fact, we had her review our essay before we even posted it. Both she and our son and their sons still live outside the city.
We described what we saw in the area where we lived. Yes, we could have added all the nice places we visited but we only concentrated on one small area of everyday life rather than trying to paint a glowing picture of life everywhere else.
We accept your apology if you will accept mine. I think I got a little defensive because we, too, like the city and its people.
We look forward to your essay. In the meantime, we will be posting both your emails.
Sincerely,
The Duff Family
Update: 31-10-2005 - We have not heard back from M. G.
