Browsing: Language and Culture

Traveling in Baja California, we have encountered a problem we foresaw before we got here. Although we came to Mexico to get to know the locals, we find ourselves primarily hanging out with other gringos like ourselves. Why does this bother us so much, and how will we solve the problem?

In 1996, the journalist Jon Krakauer published a book called Into the Wild. It follows the life of a young man, Chris McCandless, who came to considerable fame by dying in the Alaskan wilderness near the town of Healy. Since then, Krakauer’s tale has been turned into a successful movie and both the book and the film have made Chris McCandless into something like an pop-culture icon for travelers. A reputation that McCandless himself would probably have hated. It also doesn’t do the ideals that this man lived and died for any justice.