Nochistlan in Mexico Essay

Essay #2

When I was nine I spent my whole summer with my grandparents, in a growing town in Mexico called Nochistlan located in the state of Zacatecas. Nochistlan is a small city with a population just under seventy thousand, everything within walking distance. Nothing like a big urban city like San Jose with a growing population just peeking over one million.

That summer in Nochis was magical. Like nothing I had ever experienced. The people of Nochistlan where friendly waved hello and smiled at you when you walked by. Your neighbors always had something to talk to you about, or a family event to invite you over for. Here in San Jose it’s a remarkable difference. People seem to be moving at a much quicker pace than what seems normal. For example when I walk my dog around the neighborhood, I like say hello or good evening to anyone else walking by. But some people just don’t say hello or anything back. I don’t take offense to it, but I do wonder why. I think it’s just weird of me to say hi to people, no one really greets me if I don’t greet them, so I think it’s just something that’s not done here.

My short summer in Nochistlan really did show me how lucky I was to be born here in the states though. My biggest take away from my visit was the poverty that some people lived in. Whole families living in the street begging for money, stories of people that live in huts made of trash and mud. Poverty is alive and well here in the states but in Mexico if you’re born into poverty it’s almost fact that you’ll stay in poverty. The odds truly stacked against you. At least here we have programs that help us, food programs for people that need them, and best of all a free education up until the end of high school. Something I myself took for granted until I found out you had to pay for elementary school in Mexico.