Access to Tenacatita beach reopened

I'd sure like to know more first-hand. Like if there is going to be parking available. Secondly if any businesses "spring up" I would ask a local if the new business had anything to do with Villalobos. I would not buy a Chiclet off his vendors. Don't get your hopes up too far, he still holds the concession for the beach.

After nearly three years behind double fence and perimeter guard, with guard houses in strategic vantage places, the Jalisco state governor signed the papers that, on the afternoon of June 2nd, finally allowed free access to return to an awesome beach area.

I have to admit I never thought this would happen. But then, who would have thought someone could strong arm this entire beach population off their properties, and bulldoze many of them. This fiasco has shaken resolve of many coming to Mexico to ever own land there, let alone even visit again, and let alone what it did to locals, when it was estimated to be 800 area residents who had built a life's work from the beach. Recalling these many fine local people we knew during our winters there, I hope they somehow weathered the years that came and went without any tourism.. Many will have moved on, struggling with economic pressures, but I do hope many will now find it within themselves to rebuild their lives again, around the beach. Their beach of Tenacatita.

Lots more to this story. It's not just about the vendors on the beach. What does Villalobos have planned for the area? Resorts? May not be a bad idea. I can see why the government might be supportive of him. He would bring revenue to the area, a tax base, jobs that include much more than what the vendors could ever provide for themselves.

This happens in many countries including the U.S. and Canada. Is it such a bad thing? Consider that the vendors are probably not registered, pay no taxes and in reality the informal economy in Mexico provides very little to the greater good.

It might be "far out" to stay on the beach and have locals sell you stuff on the cheap. But it doesn't do much for the economy. I know most if not all will not agree with me but when you live here, work here, pay taxes, the informal economy is like a giant thorn in the side.

As I said, much more to all of this and a lot that visitors may not know about and how the Mexican economy works. How many of us may have investments, mutual funds, own a condo in Mazatlan, PV, etc., that include said resorts in Mexico?

It's progress. People complain about how poor Mexicans are and then they want to come here and see people with serapes, donkeys, and a baby strapped to their backs (especially in places like SMA). Cool!

Not if you're the one carrying the baby or pushing the wheel barrel. Do I agree with Villalobos? Of course not, beaches should be free. Tell that to the folks that live in Santa Monica. JMHO

Yes, there was going to be more to the story, if you believed Villalobos' plan. He would build a grand resort hotel and have a golf course nearby. And yes, that sort of thing does happens in U.S.A. and Canada. With one exception: most folks don't squat on other people's property, they make deals for it to the satisfaction of the present owners. Simply because somebody has friends in high places, such as the former governor of Jalisco, runs a real estate company and a security company, purports to have a bill of sale from a widow, makes it okay to evict dozens of people off their properties at gunpoint, with the backing of 50 state police in full riot gear with automatic weaponry? There were shootings on that early morning, done in the heat of August no doubt to limit the amount of gringo involvement. Is that really how resorts are built in Mexico? Somebody has been making some serious mistakes.

The area saw about 150 RV's visit each winter. The beach was popular, I once counted over 50 private buses parked one day. Each Christmas one area of the beach would be populated by families in tents, from Mexico City; another area saw a 60 -member family from Guadalajara stay. Some of the vendors were the same folks we would see in Melaque, others we knew actually had shops in Barra de Navidad. Others, as Chris said, did sell goods and services to RV'ers, the purified water, beer, fresh baked goods, vegetables and fruit, Hugo, the all-important laundry man, and more. Our friend Ray brought snorklers visiting Melaque out to the coral beach, and to boogie board at Bocca, and sometimes to bird watch near the estero south of El Rebelsito. He still makes a living doing ATV tours, but to the south of Malaque. There were small hotels, eight or ten palapa restaurants, usually with their famous rollodemar dish headling the menus. Some private residences had been built, at least one with a swimming pool. The condition of these properties, if they were spared the bulldozer, must be grim after three years without the upkeep they would need in the environment there. I talked to a man two years ago in Parker, Arizona, whose son had just lost the 250,000 dollars he'd put into Tenacatita, and was at that time, broke.

There is a rather common "Virus" going around in that stretch of the Mexican coast, and that is the trend to only gated access to any and almost every beach. Things are becoming very exclusive, even if just wanting to spend a few hours at a beach. All this to the exclusion of most Mexicans. At least they will again have the sands of Tenacatita.

The informal economy exists due to the lack of a real social safety net. In order to feed their families people are forced to become street vendors. Many are uneducated and may have some type of disability. Often the husband is employed but the wages are under 100 pesos a day. So the wife has to be a secondary wage earner. I admire their entrepreneurship and salute them for being proactive and looking after their families.

Moisheh

When I went in there last season the road was almost blocked by encroaching vegetation.

Let's get real about Mexico. As much as I love this country, it has its downside just like the U.S. and Canada. Lyndon Johnson enacted his welfare plan in 1962 with one of his first visits to Appalachia. Appalachia is in worse condition today than it was 50 years ago, we are talking 3 million people in that area.

I'm glad we don't have such a refined social network in Mexico, it would turn out the same. There is no country with a social net that has productive people collecting benefits.

OTOH, there are more benefits today than ever before. Again, I don't think visitors realize what is available to Mexicans. This being a forum, my comments like everyone else's are generalization. I can guarantee you, from personal experience with family, friends, students, and our volunteering, many people prefer the informal market because it is work when they want and how they want it. Their contribution is nil but they are first for receiving benefits when possible, this is true with any capitalist country that offers benefits to the "poor". If I were to list all the benefits that are now being claimed by Mexicans most people wouldn't believe it or understand what they are.

As those who have visited us here in Santiago can attest to, we have a tourist area here by the lake. Vendors rent stalls starting at 500 dollars U.S. per month, yet they only work on weekends. Why, because the money is so good selling trinkets that they import from Guadalajara that they don't need to work during the week. I know first hand as these are my neighbors. Informal, not interesting in borrowing money to grow their business, don't want to pay taxes, and as they say, "no me gusta cuando la gente me manda". (I don't have a real job because I don't like people to tell me what to do).

How about this, those of you who live in Canada and the U.S. along pristine beaches, lets allow unlicensed vendors with rickety carts, wheel barrels, no sanitation, and leave all over come to your country and walk up and down your beaches? Sound like a deal! I didn't think so.

So now, even though we know this will take another 25 years, education and jobs are the goal. Jobs don't pay much in an economy where few people "want" to go to school. Mexico is still a relatively easy place to live outside the rules. Again, this is JMHO.

For now, information I have is that the Federal Zone will be marked out and this is where visitors can stay in bounds, and enjoy the beach. There are black-shirted police there. In the still disputed areas above the beach, the grey-shirted Rodenas security guards are still present. La Huerta officials have placed some portable facilities on site, but there are no other amenities nor, as I understand, will any be permitted. A far cry from three years ago, but locals are still hopeful.

I would have faith in the "Development Brings Prosperity" thesis except too many hotels in Mexico are of foreign ownership. Oh the name on the paper is Mexican but the money goes offshore in too many cases.

I could give a ratz burro about wealthy Mexicans but when they shut off access to the average Mexicano that gets my goat. The people who exist 360 days a year to have five days at the playa during semana santa should never have their rights purchased out from under them. Big inclusive resorts are designed from putting green to bedspread to keep 99.99% of their clientele's dinero in-house. By hook, by crook. Go to Los Cabos and see. Go to Can't-Cun or Puerto Vallarta or for god's sake to Barra de Navidad to the monstrosity Gran Bay out on the peninsula. The maids there make 125 pesos a day in a place with three hundred dollar a day rooms.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I would have faith in the "Development Brings Prosperity" thesis except too many hotels in Mexico are of foreign ownership. Oh the name on the paper is Mexican but the money goes offshore in too many cases.

I could give a ratz burro about wealthy Mexicans but when they shut off access to the average Mexicano that gets my goat. The people who exist 360 days a year to have five days at the playa during semana santa should never have their rights purchased out from under them. Big inclusive resorts are designed from putting green to bedspread to keep 99.99% of their clientele's dinero in-house. By hook, by crook. Go to Los Cabos and see. Go to Can't-Cun or Puerto Vallarta or for god's sake to Barra de Navidad to the monstrosity Gran Bay out on the peninsula. The maids there make 125 pesos a day in a place with three hundred dollar a day rooms.

I'm not for or against any of this. But show me a place where a maid makes good money in any country. Most of the maids I have met in my travels in the U.S. are illegal and make about 7 bucks an hour. Take into account the cost of living in the U.S. it is still a ****** wage.

But think of the benefits an employee gets for working for a Mexican company. The ability to get a federally backed home loan at a fixed 6.9%, medical insurance for everyone living under their roof, to see a pension at the end of the road, profit sharing, paid vacation. All of this is provided by the law.

OTOH, each one of these venders qualifies to have all of the above if they are willing to pay for it under the laws provided by Hacienda (SAT) if they register for a CURP (Clave Única de Registro de Población). They claim the amount they want as an average of their monthly income, pay a small tax, can make deductions and with this, enter Infonavit (first home loan purchase), IMSS (social medicine) AFORES (401K), small business loans through PyMeS ( Pequeña y Mediana Empresa (FONDO PYME), and more.

There is a solution for everything. But you have to want it, and you have to know about it.