"Lucky You, You Live In Queretaro!"

This is what several announcements around our city say to all the Queretanos (people from Queretaro) that pass by.  We're lucky because we live here.  A quick glimpse around our city will tell you that,  we ARE pretty lucky to live here!  People from other states are moving in at a rate of approximately 140 people PER DAY to live in Queretaro.  Why?  We're the second safest city in the country (behind Merida which is near Cancun), and safety is a huge issue in Mexico these days.  We're the second cleanest city (behind Aguascalientes, a few hours north of us).  We have 8 (if I'm not mistaken) large industrial areas to provide jobs, and foreign companies are moving into Queretaro, making even more jobs.  The cost of housing seems quite economical to people coming from Mexico City (think Californians thinking $300 grand is a bargain home in Oregon).  The climate is pretty much amazing.  So there's a lot going for our city of now over 2 million.

 

Highway sign on the road between San Luis Potosi and Queretaro in the state of Guanajuato.

 

But... there's always a but.  If you take more than a cursory look at our lovely city, you'll begin to see what's really here.  People are hurting.  People have no hope.  People want to do whatever they can to get ahead, especially at the expense of others. 
80 percent of people in Queretaro drink more than one alcoholic beverage daily.  If you think about it, that's not just social drinking anymore, that's at problem level.  We have the highest rate of alcoholic women in the country.  Surveys say that girls as young as 12 are getting drunk on a weekly basis.  We have the highest rate of single mothers in the country as well.

Something is happening in Queretaro, and it's most notable among women.  I've seen women stopped in the street "road-raging" (screaming, hitting each other, keying the other's car...) with other women.  The other day, I was crossing the street and a bus *may* have cut in front of a woman driver (this happens ALL the time with the busses).  Instead of dealing with it and moving on with life like the rest of us do, she gunned the engine, drove alongside the bus, and started screaming a string words that I honestly don't think I'd ever heard a women say at the bus driver.  The other pedestrians and I were in shock.  It was a woman who waved a gun at JP and I a couple years ago when he wasn't driving fast enough on the highway.  Women are having severe anger problems.  Girls are the ones bullying others at school. 

Lucky you, you live in Queretaro. 

Lucky you, if you're a 12-year-old girl in Queretaro, you may get drunk this weekend.  Lucky you, you're more likely to be a single mom than the 12-year-old girl in any other state.  Lucky you, you may come home to an alcoholic mom.  And no dad.  Lucky you, you probably either get bullied at school, or are a bully yourself.  Or both. 

Lucky you, you live in Queretaro.

Pray for our city.  Pray for us, that we can be a beam of hope here.  Because God loves Queretanos!