FORUMS & LETTERS

Readers’ Forum
Walk this way
By Marcela Andre Lopez
November 7, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Walking this way. Mama Guela (Sra. Temita Basurto de Lopez) and Uncle Herbert Baker arrive at a soirée in San Miguel in the fifties (photo copyright Marcela Andre López).

When walking on the sidewalks of San Miguel, any woman who considered herself a lady would not dream of allowing the gentleman beside her to stroll on the inside. To accept such treatment was to imply one felt herself to be of lower virtue or esteem.

If one’s gentleman companion walked along without due attention to his outside position on the sidewalk, he was clearly a cad, disrespectful, ill-bred, and not worthy of marrying into the family. How things have changed.

To negotiate the passage of oncoming pedestrians, a well-bred gentleman took a gentle step back and slightly behind the lady, holding her elbow the entire time, allowed the oncoming pedestrians to pass, and then gracefully slipped back alongside the esteemed lady, resuming their stroll abreast without forcing others into the automobile traffic.

When traversing a San Miguel sidewalk, one should allow for oncoming pedestrians as well as others behind who may need to pass. Take one side of the sidewalk, rather than the middle. If you think you hit a stretch of sidewalk alone, invariably someone with an inaudible soft shoe will appear just behind you, chomping at the bit to get by you as you enjoy an apparent single lane made just for your promenade. 

When a lady with heavy bags, buckets of tortillas, a baby and a child come along in front of you, it may indeed be appropriate to hop off the sidewalk and let them have the widest berth possible. Give them a break because probably no one else has bothered to do so during busy periods in Centro.

Please try not to block the sidewalk while engaging in jovial camaraderie, deciding where to have lunch and laughing. You may not hear the meek “Con permiso?” of some old ladies trying to walk the route they have strolled for a lifetime in San Miguel.

Children and the elderly are to be held in the same consideration as the well-bred lady. 

One can still see traditional couples handsomely crossing the street and expertly taking up their spots on the sidewalks, without bumping into one other as the fellow steers himself to the right side and lightly holds his beloved’s elbow so that she, in her high heels, can hop up on the sidewalk.

Civics was one of the courses dropped in Mexican schools some time ago, and many of us swear this is the reason for the tricky footwork now needed to swerve to avoid crashing into young people walking in San Miguel, too busy with their iPods and cell phones. Perhaps if sidewalk etiquette were more stringently followed we would see fewer pedestrians in casts!

Marcela Andre Lopez is a native of San Miguel de Allende and an international expert on the region. Contact her at marcelaandrelopez@gmail.com. 

Letters

Editor,

By now, everybody has probably jumped on Marcia Loy for attributing Psycho to Lawrence Block. If not, I would like to advise you that Robert Bloch (1917–1994) was the author who helped keep you awake. But regardless, I am looking forward to reading The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling. If you put it the same company as MacDonald’s The Goodbye Look, it has to be good.

James Harper