The Guaymas Chronicles: La Mandadera

About this book

This memoir of a young gringos assimilation into the exotic street life of a bustling port on Mexicos Sea of Cortez is an eye-opening account of the areas working-class life. After months of anthropological field work in late 1960s Ecuador David Stuart returns to Guaymas with broken bones and a broken heart finding comfort in the cafs and nightspots along the waterfront. There he reveals his failings to people whose lingua franca is the simple wisdom of listening and understanding. The loyal barmen and taxi drivers adopt him into their tight-knit circle helping him ride out the devastation of betrayal by a woman who is carrying another mans child. Dubbed El Gero ("Whitey") on the street Stuart drifts into la movida the Mexican world of hustlers politicians police officials businessmen and street urchins. In a 1970 Mexico where a $500 bribe and a two-year wait might get you a telephone he needs help. A headstrong shoeshine girl Lupita becomes his mandadera (messenger) and then his confidante and junior business partner working her magic by bribing customs officials and making deals for tires fans blenders and other fayuca (contraband). A scrawny eleven-year-old she is not just street-brilliant but complicated and utterly fascinating. This vivid haunting portrait of a world many Americans have visited but few understand is a unique examination of what Mexico means to one American and what America means to the everyday Mexican people who surround and protect him.