The Best of Mexico

Published

You asked about life here in Zamora. It is a fast growing small city surrounded by agriculture. Strawberries, papas, cebollas, and avocadoes for export. There are the usual conflicts between the need for more housing land and the need to conserve the valuable farmlands, as well as the strains on the existing infrastructures, i.e. water, power, roads, etc. New maquiladoras are being built, as well upgraded facilities for the processing of produce. All in all, Zamora is a prosperous little city with a very vibrant and well stocked market. The plaza central has been reclaimed from the ubiquitous car traffic and hosts a spectacular sunday night paseo with live music on the bandstand.

You're probably aware that the Zamoranos are working on a cathedral that was started at the turn of the century, but abandoned during the agrarian reform wars of the 'teens. Work was restarted recently, and when completed, the cathedral (Santuario de la Virgen de Guadalupe, no less) will be the largest in Latin America and 14th largest in the world. It is already magnificent.

My wife is working teaching English at a campus of Univa here in Zamora. She finds the college age kids a delight, and we have been made to feel very welcome by the people we meet. Zamora is not on the gringo trail and that's just fine with us. We've rented a small house and have made ourselves quite comfortable, although homesickness is a big problem for us. We've just turned fifty, our kids are grown and sucessfully on their own, we have a seven-year-old grandson, and we are finding that therein lies the problem: we seem to need them at least as much as they need us. Anyway, I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to stay away from them.

Excerpted from their letter