We're cancelling our Mexican vacation

Swine flu in MexicoBy Arturo Mora, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009

My wife and I will make our final decision tonight, after we gather all the facts about the swine flu outbreak in Mexico, but I just don't see any likely scenario where we go through with our planned Mexican vacation.

We were slated to leave Thursday for 12 days visiting my mom in Aguascalientes (in central Mexico). There's also a huge national fair there every April and May, La Feria de San Marcos, and that has now wisely been cancelled.
Aguascalientes

Of course we're disappointed. Truth be told, besides seeing mom, I was looking forward to mariachis, dancing, tequila and the joy that Mexico and its people always bring to my life.

In my 20-odd visits to Mexico, I've rarely had a bad experience. While I've also done the usual resorts and Mexico City, mostly I've had the privilege of seeing "real" Mexico and its poor yet always undaunted and optimistic people.

Having seen this Mexico up close, it's easier for me to put things in perspective, in that our ruined vacation amounts to a hill of beans compared to the suffering and distress in all of Mexico these days.

Of course I'm worried for my own country, America, but right now the greater tragedy is really in Mexico City, and in danger of spreading throughout that whole nation.

I can't help but be afraid for mom and for my brother who lives with her, not to mention all my aunts and uncles and cousins.

Depending on which report you believe, there are either only two or as many as 16 reported cases in Aguascalientes so far. But the fact they cancelled such a huge event as La Feria is a clear indicator of how serious the threat is.

Mexico, a country of deep faith and deep poverty, has been through a lot lately. A war against the drug lords has exposed corruption at high levels and caused despair at the government's efficacy, never held in high regard anyway.

Beyond the death and illness from this potential pandemic, Mexico will now suffer some painful economic blows.

Its capital, despite its poverty, is usually a vibrant, bustling metropolis of millions working hard to put at least some food on their tables.

A lot of that bustle is shutting down, from fear and precaution.

I think about La Feria I was so looking forward to, and the thousands it was going to employ.

I also think about the hit to Mexico's national psyche. Like many of Americans of Mexican heritage*, I delight in the culture of my ethnic ancestors, while also lamenting the seemingly perpetual incompetence of its governments and suffering of its people.
(*Brief back story: I was born in Chicago from Mexican (legal) emigrants, and I personally don't identify as a "hyphenated"-American.)

The hardworking common men and women of Mexico have been beaten down for centuries by their own elites, and now Mother Nature doles out another measure.

Here at home, Americans of Mexican heritage fear and almost expect a backlash from the same folks who tried to turn a legitimate debate about immigration and our borders into racist diatribes.

Already, a relative in Chicago has heard radio talk show callers rant about "dirty Mexicans" causing the problem (interesting since health officials suspect an American-owned company operating in Mexico may be responsible for the origin).

I'm an optimist. Cooler heads will prevail as we put politics aside and focus on the job at hand, which is to prevent the spread of the virus, in Mexico, in America, in the world.