Brandon Aragon and I recently have done some episodes together for the podcast about living within Mexico, but it occurred to me today that I haven’t talked enough about doing business within Mexico. I am currently sitting in a meeting for Anarchapulco in Acapulco with the drivers that we have built a relationship over the past few years for the event.

Not often talked about is the importance of building relationships with local people to get things done here within Mexico.

And for me, this extends beyond my involvement with Anarchapulco. On a micro scale, for example, to do my business for the crochet stuff I sell, these relationships are still necessary. Survival Spanish is needed to find and procure my materials, yarn, sometimes stuffing, etc. Then there’s the process of shipping, finding international shipping for the right price that is easy to access. It took some time of popping in and out of craft stores to find one I like, and now I go to the same one generally. And when I do, they know about the type of thing I am looking for.

Then the shipping: I’ve found a company I like, and part of why they liked them is I went there (maybe twice) before they added me to their tiered discount service. So basically, I just present a card that shows where I am in the discount cycle and they apply those discounts to my shipping.  They provide super fast shipping for decent prices considering everything I make and ship internationally has to go through customs. I’ve never had something not make it.

Now back to Anarchapulco, which I’ve been involved in since 2020 on a working basis. So, what I’ve had the pleasure of seeing is the inner workings. When most people come to Anarchapulco, they just experience the event and sure, maybe they interact with the shuttle system or with the venue itself but they are for the most part unaware of the relationships built with these people, or the impact of their presence on the local economy and culture.

Anarchapulco is currently held in a very small suburb that’s actually outside of Acapulco. This suburb depends pretty much entirely on tourist money. Its made of little boutique hotels and restaurants. Most of the action this area sees is from local Mexican tourism during Christmas and Easter, and for the rest of the year is pretty slow and quiet.

Anarchapulco moved to Playa Bonfil in 2021 when the Princess put heinous mask restrictions on attendees. The Princess honestly intended for Anarchists to all wear masks and social distance, which is not at all something we were willing to tolerate. When we found the Jardin Secreto, where the event is now held, they embraced us as is. They gave us a limit of total people to avoid being shut down by local government which was like 200 that year but that was it. No masks. No distance. And they have been a pleasure to work with.

As the world reopened, we have been able to increase the attendees each year. We stayed with the Jardin Secreto because the venue and their staff was loved not only by us, the staff who had to work with them, but the attendees who came to the event.  They provide amazing food, incredible service in a beautiful environment.

And each year Anarchapulco pays them a lot of money generated by ticket sales for use of the venue, the service from their staff, and the food.  Each year as we grow, they are able to hire more and more locals from the area, providing work that might not otherwise exist.  The food is incredible, fresh, and locally sourced, further providing support to the area and the economy in general.

Then when we leave, they use a lot of the money that we paid them to hire construction people to expand and grow the property. With our growing presence, we incentivize them to change and adjust to meet our growing needs. This whole thing provides layers and layers of growth to an area that before this only saw two surges a year, those surges only being temporarily felt by restaurant employees and local hotels.

Finally, there’s the drivers previously mentioned. They noticed a need for rides when we provided shuttles to all attendees which we did for two years.  We told them what we needed as far as quality of vehicle and trustworthiness of drivers. 2 years ago, they brought all of their cars and drivers, lined them up, and let us meet and interact with them. They ran the shuttles without a hitch. And this continues to this year.

It’s lovely to see how the relationship has developed to the point where it’s a family coming together to get something done in the best way.

These same drivers are to be counted on for long distance journeys as well. Yesterday, I was driven from where I live to Acapulco with my 2 cats, dog, life partner, and gigantic circus rig. The price was fair and the drive was smooth and eventless as it can be for having taken up my entire day. In the past, I used a friend I met in the city I lived in, with similar experience. The only reason I didn’t take the friend I took last time was because he couldn’t help due to car issues.

Mentioning that friend, there have been times where I’ve only gone out of town for like 3-5 days and needed some help with my dog. This driver who has helped me many times in the past also really loves my dogs, so naturally, when needing someone to help with my dog I called him. I paid him a daily rate to stop by, walk my dog twice, and feed him once a day.

My point is, here in Mexico I have developed long lasting, trusting relationships with people to both do business and make my life what it is. Life in Mexico becomes better as you improve the quality of relationships you make.

It’s definitely possible to do business here, and as far as I’m concerned, if you can dive into making good trustworthy relationships with people, you are going to have a better time of it.