I had an embroidered blouse that I wore nearly every other day during my college years in the early seventies. White cotton with blue embroidery around the wide neckline, it was loose fitting and comfortable and always made me feel a little exotic. It may or may not have come from Mexico, but I always thought of it as my Mexican blouse.

When I learned I was moving to Mexico, that embroidered blouse was one of the first things that came to mind. I knew I wanted another and was confident that finding one would be easy. That I’d see them on the street and prominently displayed in nearly every store. I’ve only seen a few.

It was naivete on my part. Or a prejudice that I’m reluctant to acknowledge because it shows how little I knew of modern Mexico before coming here. My knowledge was based on a single beach vacation, old history books, and one well worn blouse.

The same knowledge that too often has had me thinking of my trips to places like Tapalpa and Guanajuato as seeing the “real Mexico.” As if Guadalajara, with its spreading metropolis, high rise office buildings and fashion malls is somehow not as real. 

I’ve never been disappointed with what I’ve found on those weekend trips to colonial towns. With their mountain settings, alley-like streets, underground tunnels, and towering churches with actual bell ringers, they are well worth the drive. You can even find embroidered blouses in shops catering to visitors like me.  

But I’ve been bothered too. By my own characterization that those places somehow better fit my picture of what Mexico is when there is a very “real Mexico” right outside my door in Guadalajara too.  

I hear it in the music that plays from the radios of workers at nearby work sites and in the cadence of conversations of passers by. I see it in the architecture of the houses and in the people going about their ordinary days. I smell it in the mixture of aromas at the outdoor markets and in the enticing scents that drift out from the open air restaurants. I feel it in the pace of life and in the celebrations that play homage to this diverse country’s past.

I still have fond memories of that embroidered blouse I wore in college. I’ve yet to buy another one.