San Carlos is 50 years old: Congratulations, now what?

Ok San Carlos is 50 years old this year and there have been a few activities centered around the cincuentenario this weekend. I didn’t go to the San Carlos Plaza dinner last night, way to many suits and ties,  but I did go over to La Posada this afternoon for some good sea food from the local restaurants that participated in what was billed as the first sea food festival of San Carlos. A quick plug for Marcos from over at Charlies Rock. He had a rocking sea food pasta while Marina Terra had excellent brochettes de cameron.

San Carlos is many things to many people. For some San Carlos is the ex pat retirees paradise, for others it is simply a place where they work and live out their lives very far from paradise. As a 23 year resident who first came to visit in 1984 San Carlos is a place where I work and live, sometimes it is a paradise sometimes it is a living hell and most of the time it is everything in between. I postulate here that the only thing that has changed about San Carlos over the years is the population and convenience of life.

When I first moved here I did not pay much attention to the politics of the area nor how San Carlos was administrated. Being younger and single at the time meant that politics, trash pick up, road safety, white-collar crime, blue-collar crime, drug violence, drug dealing neighbors, corrupt police stealing from residents, corrupt and or incompetent government officials, corrupt police shaking down tourists, cattle walking on the road late at night, insanely fast cars speeding through town at any given time, to name just a few issues, really didn’t bother me all that much. As I have aged married and spawned I have seen the town go through good times and bad, bubbles and bursts. I now realize more and more that even though San Carlos has grown it has not really changed that much, except in terms of convenience.  From Dairy Queen to Dominos, Santa Fe to Ley and Walmart to Home Depot, you can now live very much like an American consumer in the U.S.   It is far easier to live here now than it was back in the late 80’s and early 90’s in terms of consumerism. The only inkling of anything gringo back in the day then was the out of business Kentucky Fried Chicken located just before where the Ley shopping center now stands. We used to call Guaymas, el puebo donde no hay, since invariably when you would go to Guaymas to look for something, no hay is the response you would get.

After serious reflection I now realize in terms of, politics, trash pick up, road safety, white-collar crime, blue-collar crime, drug violence, drug dealing neighbors,

corrupt police stealing from residents, corrupt and or incompetent government officials, corrupt police shaking down tourists, cattle walking on the road late at night, insanely fast cars speeding through town at any given time, San Carlos is almost exactly the fucking same as it was when I moved here.  Yes Mexico in general has changed. PRI lost its stranglehold over the presidency, Club Med took a shit and went bust after 9/11, Felipe Calderon declared a moronic war on drugs that was a complete failure that helped kill tourism in San Carlos, but in general San Carlos the town itself stayed very much the same. More houses were built and sold and more people have come and gone but the one thing that has remained the same and is undeniable is that San Carlos is still owned by Guaymas and what the means is that all the bull shit I previously mentioned will never ever change. As long as San Carlos is owned by Guaymas we will be forever stuck in time. The same issues that have plagued San Carlos from the beginning are not going to change. I forgot to mention the fiasco that is Semana Santa every April here. If there is one issue that defines how screwed San Carlos has been over the years by Guaymas it would have to be with out doubt Semana Santa.

If San Carlos continues to be owned by Guaymas then I truly believe that we will never be able to be all that we can be. For real change to come to San Carlos, change we can believe in, (and no I didn’t vote for Obama) then San Carlos needs to incorporate itself. San Carlos could actually break away from Guaymas. I have published articles by others who have spelled it out clearly. San Carlos full fills all the requirements necessary to govern itself, have its own police force, its own district attorney and collect its own taxes. All that this would take is real leadership. A real captain at the helm with a crew who had no fear to sail against the wind and fear not stormy weather because they had a well founded ship.  What macho Mexican, male or female alike, would not kill for the chance to be called el primero presidente de San Carlos?

So I have a dream. A dream that some day there will be a lot less ass kissing done to politicians and real estate developers. A dream that some day a well founded ship with a seasoned captain and crew will steer San Carlos out of the fog on a new course towards independence and freedom from the chains that bind it.

Dream on this for a moment, less corrupt bilingual police, public bath rooms, a malecon that celebrates the Sea of Cortes and all that entails, property taxes that stay in San Carlos to improve the town, I could go on and on and on.

Mind you that although I have a dream I am not naive. I do not for a minute believe that by San Carlos becoming its own municipio that it will revolutionize the town and change the corruption and mismanagement inherent in the antiquated caudillo system of government that has a death grip on the throat of Mexico. But we in San Carlos would be guaranteed at least this.  The caudillo (Mexican Strongman), the corrupt politicians the corrupt cops and district attorney would be our corrupt officials. I think anyway you cut that, it would still be better to have our own corrupt officials than that of Guaymas’s.

And since I absolutely love the shit out of this new poll plug-in so I just can not  help myself with yet another poll, what do you think?

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