The Chapala “Lakeside” in the 1960s, of course, was a very different world than it is today.
The mountains shouldering the then very poorly-paved road from Jocotepec to the village of Chapala was the domain of wild animals, campesinos, a few pasturing cattle, petty criminals on the run and young lovers eloping against their families’ wishes.
This latter was the bane of all Mexican parents, whether of slim means or well-to-do merchants. It didn’t have to be added that such families were also Catholic – everyone then said they were Catholic – and a great many actually were.
Thus the nightmare for a modestly successful owner of a small store in, say Ajijic, was to have his l4-16-year old daughter “va a la montaña” with a 17-year-old son of one of Lake Chapala’s many fishermen. Or worse, the male teen-age product of a parent considered a ne’er-do-well, and/or well-known as an ambitious tequila aficionado. The familiar ambition to be solidly middle-class, Mexican pueblo style, ruled the dreams of many small business folks – now passed their own sexual surges of adolescent dreams.
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