Before Saturday, I had never been further south than Florida. I had been as far north as upper Ontario, as far west as Seattle, and as far east as Croatia. I have been to Canada, seven countries in Europe and more than half of the 50 states.
But I had never been to Mexico.
That all changed when I stepped off a United Airlines plane in Querétaro on Saturday. My Spanish skills, despite a fraught effort to learn the language in the months before my trip, were lacking. It was just me and my freshly downloaded translation app against the world.
My final destination was San Miguel de Allende, where my inadequate language skills were luckily less necessary amongst the scores of American expats. But I was not here only to marvel at the towering spires of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel or to explore the colorful colonial streets. I was here for a journalism internship. A nine week journalism internship. In a foreign country where I barely spoke the language.
So why did I choose to come here? What am I hoping to learn in these nine weeks? What do I want to get out of this when I board another jet back to the states at the end of August?
My journalism journey has been changing rapidly since I first stepped into the office of The Daily of the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle as a scared, albeit hopeful freshman. I joined the sportswriting team, and worked my way up to sports editor after about a year on the job. Since then I’ve published over 215 articles (and edited hundreds more) ranging from game recaps to investigative pieces and breaking news briefs.
Even though my goal is a career in sports journalism, Mexico News Daily (despite its distinctive lack of a sports section) was the next step for the summer before my senior year. It wasn’t just another experience to put on my resume to help find a job out of college (although that is certainly a bonus). It was a chance to finally study abroad after other opportunities in Rome and Prague eluded me. It was a chance to explore one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And of course, it was a chance to grow as a journalist — to write unique stories about a new place, to ask new questions, and to find stories about experiences far different from my own.
I found this opportunity through UW’s International Reporting Scholarship, which sends student journalists to English-language outlets in non-traditional study abroad countries around the globe. I was paired with Mexico News Daily, and over the next three months had to convince the university to allow me to intern in Guanajuato, which was under a level three travel advisory from the U.S. State Department.
Limits were put on my travel, even to the neighborhoods I was allowed to walk through in San Miguel. But all eventually worked out, and soon enough I was on a plane to Querétaro (after a three-hour delay in Houston, of course).
After an hour of admiring the rolling hills of Querétaro from Highway 111 in the pouring rain, I was greeted in San Miguel by bumpy cobblestone streets and the ringing of church bells. I woke up in my short term rental the next morning and left my apartment to explore Centro, climb to viewpoints, and meet my bosses for brunch.
I admired the colorful streets of Amsterdam, the churches in Barcelona, and the bakeries in Paris on my childhood trips to Europe. San Miguel can bring a similar experience much closer to home.
So why had I never been to Mexico? Why did my parents never take me here as a kid? Were grand European cities a more attractive vacation? Did the portrayal of widespread violence in Mexico by American media scare me off? Are any of the stereotypes even true?
Throughout the next nine weeks, I am going to try to figure out why more families don’t travel to Mexico, and if more should. So follow along as I travel to Mexico City for the World Cup, continue to explore San Miguel, immerse myself in the local culture, and (hopefully) start to learn Spanish.
Jared Tucker is a summer intern at Mexico News Daily in San Miguel de Allende and a rising senior at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is the sports editor for The Daily UW. He was previously a fellow at TheFulcrum.us, where he covered public participation in American democracy.
