Jack Tumidajski came to Guadalajara in 1972. He spoke no Spanish and knew almost nothing about the area. He just knew Mexico represented independence, freedom and a great chance to meet some dark-eyed “señoritas.” Do you think you’ve heard this story before? Not from this perspective. In his book, “Quadalajara: the utopia that once was,” Tumidajski lovingly relates the story of one of the city’s earliest gringo communities: wheelchair-bound quadruplegic and paraplegic war veterans, accident victims and degenerative disease patients.
Readers will find Guadalajara as it will never be again. Rent is 40 dollars a month. The Paralyzed Veterans of America become the first group to purchase their own clubhouse (as The Reporter wrote back on July 29, 1967), and aides of PVA members are ignominiously arrested after an “illegal” poker game. El Informador newspaper is there to point a judgmental finger. Wheelchair bound gringos fire guns and bring their own muscled, equally wheelchair-bound bodyguards to intimidate political rivals.
But readers will recognize the heroes. Tumidajski writes of his own experiences as a gringo fumbling his way through the city’s social tangle, caretakers, girlfriends, housemates and apartments. He tells of those who married locally and made it work and those who never quite managed to blend in, car accidents, road trips, fishing trips to Manzanillo, organizing picnics to help local orphanages and disabled children and nights spent chugging tequila.
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