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Who is Jules Siegel?

Submitted February 24, 2004 - 9:58 am by Jules Siegel
I am a writer and graphic designer whose work has appeared over the years in Playboy, Best American Short Stories and many other publications, most recently in Library of America's "Writing Los Angeles." I contribute book reviews to the San Francisco Chronicle, and administer newsroom-l, an email discussion list for journalists.

I have lived and worked in Mexico with my family continuously since 1981, in Cancun since 1983. We also lived in Mexico off and on from 1971 to 1977, mostly in the village of Yelapa, Jalisco, about 18 kms. from Puerto Vallarta by boat only. In 1981, Anita Brown and I moved to Mexico for good with our son Eli, then seven weeks old, and my daughter Faera, then ten. We have not been back since. Jesse was born here in 1984. All three were educated here. Eli is an IBM-certified computer support technician. Jesse is a graphic designer and webmaster. Faera now lives in the Bay Area, where she is a California state-certified interpreter.

My pet peeve is the way Cancun is falsely portrayed as an example of globalization at its worst, an environmental disaster. It's not true. Cancun does have very significant environmental problems that need to be attended to, but the air is clear, the ocean is transparent and there is no toxic pollution from industrial production.

Cancun was designed, financed and constructed by Mexicans. Seventy-five per cent of the hotels are Mexican-owned, as are the overwhelming majority of businesses. The tourists are predominantly middle and upper middle class, about 65% international (mainly American), but the Mexican tourism grows substantially every year. Although they get the most publicity, spring breakers represent less than three per cent of the total.

For more on this, go to CafeCancun.com

You can see information about my latest book at  Mad Laughter: Fragments of a Life in Progress

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