I met Jim in the Canatlan hardware store on November 7, in the
afternoon. There are many small shops
that are ‘ferreteria’, or hardware stores.
However, the one nearest the church is large, well displayed, and has
lots of windows. I also discovered that
one clerk, Raul, speaks English. On this
day I was purchasing adhesive for tile and grout. I had to wait for a few minutes while Raul
went to the other store to bring the heavy bags over.
A thin faced blue-eyed older gentleman walked into the store
and greeted the cashier with ‘buenos dias’.
Then he held out his hand to me with a ‘buenos dias’, which I
returned. He then switched to English
and said I must be the new gringa in town.
The one that is building a house in Pozole.
It was early afternoon.
On my way out of El Pozole I stopped by the mechanic’s shop and arranged
to have my oil changed. I had bought oil
and filter in Durango. I said I’d drop
the car by in the afternoon, and pick it up the next morning. Juan and Eduardo were waiting on this tiling material to
start the tile work in the bathroom. Once Jim started talking, my work day ended. All my arrangements went out the window.
He has the gift of gab. He begins, he weaves a tale with flourish and
innuendo, he goes on to the next topic while barely taking a breath, and he is
unstoppable. And fascinating.
Knowing how it is, that in my life I have told some true
stories about myself only to be met with skepticism and outright scoffing, I
listened and withheld judgement.
These are the things I ‘learned’. Raul spoke English because he worked with Jim
in construction, and paid for English lessons.
He sent Raul to law school, so that Raul is now a lawyer.
He has $7M US dollars in antiques. He rented a house in El Pozole to store them,
but then felt they were not safe so he bought a house in Canatlan, where he has
them now.
He is building a two-family house for himself (upstairs) and
Raul and his wife and child.
In order to get citizenship and be done with rushing to the
border every six months for visa renewal, he arranged to marry Raul’s single
mother. The arrangement leaves her
living independently. But he has not yet
obtained the paperwork; he still makes border runs. Perhaps he said there is a two year waiting period.
Canatlan was established in 1623, November13, by migrants from
San Diego. Hence the name of the church,
Sandiego. [and what was the ethnic origin of these migrants, I wondered? ]
The current municipality of Canatlan was started in 1917
(coinciding with a new Federal government?), when it got its first governor.
He retired as a federal judge.
He got his undergrad degree in botany. He corresponded with a Japanese ‘student’ who
wanted mushroom samples in exchange for butterflies. Many years later he discovered that he had
been corresponding with the Emporer of Japan.
Every Christmas he received precious gifts; they are part of his antique
collection.
He ‘grew up’ with George Bush in Texas. He was good buddies with Lyndon B.
Johnson. He is good friends with Vicente
Fox, and gathered funding for his campaign for president of Mexico. And was disappointed when Vicente did not
achieve his pledged goals.
He had been a school teacher, and a councilman. He caused to be written the Mexican Federal
Law that allows foreigners to own property in Mexico.
And then there are all the stories of the colorful citizens
of Canatlan.
The guy who opened a sawmill in Durango. Then the drug gangs approached him to launder
money; they bought him an apple orchard.
Then they bought him a spread of many hectares at the border between
Canatlan and Pozole. That man hired a
Canatlan man, Jaime, to run the ranch for him.
Jaime had many children, around 14.
The sawmill man had a predeliction towards young girls; he took Jaime’s
12 year old daughter to be his housekeeper.
One day the drug cartel came to his door looking for
payment. The man quickly packed his
things that night, and with the young girl in tow, took off to Guanajuato. As time passed, his still-teenaged
housekeeper drew the attention of a young policeman in that town. She was easily stolen away by him. The old man died alone in his house, leaving
his original wife and children in Durango to wonder what happened to him.
He had taken out a loan, using the house as collateral; he
still owed 30,000 pesos on it. An
enterprising city clerk decided that the acreage was unencumbered, and started
selling it off and pocketing the proceeds.
Thirty years later, Jim wants to approach the old widow and
try to make a deal with her for the abandoned ranch land, the part that still
holds the liened house. The original
bank no longer exists, so he has to track down who holds the paper now. He presumes that if he offers to buy it, for
pennies on the dollar, they will be glad to dissolve the lien. [I had to wonder if, after all these years, that lien had been purged]
Then he wanted to show me the house he is renovating for
Raul and himself. He told me a long and
twisted tale about efforts to get title to the land. It is the second lot in from the corner. He desires the corner lot, as well. One story held that in the 1970s a man went
to the States to work. He sent back
money to his sister, telling her to buy the land. Gradually he sent back money and the house
was built, but never quite finished.
Jim tried to track this guy down, but could find no trace of
him in California. He heard a rumor that
the man had a gay lover. So he guessed
that perhaps once in the States, he took the name of his gay partner. That would explain why the name that was on
the title could not be traced to anyone in California.
The sister put the corner lot, presumably also paid for by
the mysterious brother, in her own name.
Jim has been negotiating with her for the title, but she has not been
cooperating. What stands there now is an
adobe wall and remnants. There is no
house standing. Jim wants to put a
30-car garage there. (?)
I am sure there was more, that I missed a detail or
two. Like, he pointed to the hill that
is the edge of Canatlan and said that the original settlement was on the other
side of that hill; some foundations were still visible.
Like his deceased wife, mother of his 3 sons, was native American.
He put into question the real ownership of our community land,
Luz de Compasion, and my rights. He
suggested that we look in the Record Clerk’s office to see who is the owner of
record. He thinks I should try to own
outright the land my house is on. He
also says that the cost of the Pozole land such as this was about 3,000. I have to assume he meant dollars. He switches back and forth between pesos and
dollars indiscriminately, one has to guess since there is no chance to break in
and ask.
If that is the truth, was Jhampa robbed, or is Jhampa making
a good profit on the land? Jhampa did dig a
well and have electricity brought to the property. But he is selling 20 lots at $12,000
each. When I bought my house the pesos
exchange was about 12 to the dollar. Now
it is 18 or 19. Ani Tsultrim just bought
a plot of land here. So, did she pay
216,000 pesos, or 144,000 pesos? She
arrives in a week, I will ask her then.
I arrived back to Pozole at dusk, around 6:30 p.m. I dropped the car off with the mechanics; one
of them drove me home. The ceramic
adhesive and grout were still in the parked car.
Juan had gone for the day, of course.
The next day I was too lazy to walk to the mechanics. I busied myself with clearing out Michael’s
house, in preparation for Ani Tsultrim’s arrival (also called JoanMarie by the
Vancouver guys, Jhampa and Doug)
The car was returned to me close to 4:30; by then Juan and
Eduardo had left. Their excuse, should I
ask, would be that they did not have the materials to work. They were waiting for the adhesive to begin the bathroom tiling. Those heavy sacks were still in my trunk.
I will be lucky if the house is habitable by Christmas.
Midday I called Jim to ask for help in getting a plumber out
to fix Michael’s toilet. I was able to
keep that conversation to under an hour.
During it I learned that he was in Washington DC, in the White House
storage building, having a conversation with Jaqueline Kennedy. Jim claims to be a descendent of assassinated
President McKinley. Jackie found a desk
she liked, that originally belonged to McKinley. She said that since he was heir to McKinley,
she was asking for permission to use the furniture in the White House
.
Since he is a year older than me, this would have put him in
his college years. When next I see him,
I will have to ask where he went to college, or did he spend a summer as an
intern in DC.
He says he is German, first generation American. But to hear it, the other side of the family
came across in the Mayflower.
He spoke more about his ranch in Guanajuato, which adjoined
that of his old friend Vicente Fox. He
told a tale about fights with the locals over water rights. One federal worker came out to survey the
land and wells, to try to get to the bottom of it. His bones were found later, and those of his
car which had been pushed over a cliff.
At that point, Jim felt his life was in danger and left for Durango.
So this is colorful Jim.
He could be a harmless ranting old coot.
He could be an invested informant and bridge to the community. He does not speak Spanish. I have let it be known that I am available to
translate, if he wishes to follow up with any old geezers who hold history that
he wants. Only time will tell. Just moments ago he revealed his last name, finally. He said that his father had started the Fisher nut brand, in Texas. So now, fact checking can begin.
