A little over a year ago when my friend Shoe died he wanted everything he had in Mexico to go to his long time Mexican girlfriend Silvia. One problem is he made no will leaving the disposal of his belongings up to whomever was "in charge". The person in charge happened to be his ex-wife who flew down from the US with the primary duty of determining what to do with his body. He wanted to be cremated and was but the bill between the hospital and the funeral parlor came to 25,000 pesos (or $2200 dollars).
Both ex-wife and friends just decided to sell his truck and woodworking tools for whatever they could get to pay the bill. I guess because wife only had a week to 10 days and had to get back north. People were lining up to buy the truck below value and a couple thousand dollars worth of tools were barely considered except by people wanting a 'deal'.
About this time a friend and Silvia's family came to me about what was happening. I said that I'll pay the bill and Silvia can pay me back however she and the family can manage. Turns out that the family came together, paid me in full within weeks and brought a truck down from the Chapala area for everything.
The "gringos don't get it" part was that the truck and equipment meant a lot to Silvia and family for both sentimental and financial reasons. The gringo attitude of just sell it all and get it over with irritated Silvia's family and they had a very disagreeable conversation over it. Gringos with lots of money or only a week in Mexico just could care less about the big picture. I don't blame the wife so much because she was not familiar with Mexico or the language. I do begrudge other "friends" that were involved for not seeing the importance of doing well by Silvia and her family.
Lot's of reasons to come to Mexico and be separated from the real Mexico .... and this is just another.
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