Intern Emma Weissmann is on a press trip to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico, to see what the area has to offer. Her third of three dispatches follows. Read her first and second dispatches.
In 1997, Patricia Talley began her vacation in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Sixteen years later, she has yet to return home.
While studying international business at the University of Michigan, Talley was required to complete an extended stay abroad, and she planned to spend one year in Acapulco before returning to her home in Chicago.
Talley's plans changed drastically when Hurricane Pauline made landfall in October 1997, causing her to take an unexpected detour. She ended up about 150 miles from Acapulco in the Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo area, which, along with Acapulco and Taxco, makes up Mexico's "Sun Triangle."
Back then, she recalled, "I had never heard of [Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo], but it met my requirements of beach, sand and sun. I loved it."
And for the purposes of her studies, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo was "small but had absolutely everything of a big community. It was an ideal laboratory for me."
Shortly after her arrival, Talley became heavily involved in the local community and began to promote Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo as a hot spot for English-speaking tourists, living by the rule "Love thy neighbor."
"I always tell folks that if we can't make friends with our own next-door neighbors, how do we think we're going to go globally anywhere else?" Talley said. " [The U.S.] has a growing Hispanic population and is next door to a Latin American country. Start here, with your own next-door neighbor."
After working in three restaurants and establishing her own bed-and-breakfast, Talley created and distributed bilingual training manuals to hotel and restaurant workers in the area, teaching the employees in the service industry "how to be a waiter -- in English -- a maid, a security guard, a front desk receptionist."
Talley also wrote newsletters for the guests staying in her B&B, and, once writing about the property no longer satisfied her, focused more broadly on the area. Soon after, she founded Imagine-Mexico, an online magazine devoted to promoting Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo as a tourist attraction.
"When you say 'Mexico,' people often, because of bad press, have an image of violence," Talley said. "And if you're a tourist destination and you're carrying an image of violence, that's disaster. We are taking assertive action to make sure people know that we are a peaceful community."
Lee Kraft, director of the Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo Convention and Visitors Bureau and owner of La Quinta Troppo hotel in Zihuatanejo, is an immigrant himself. He shares Talley's sentiment.
"Mexico is as safe or unsafe as you make it in your mind," Kraft wrote in an email. "It is merely a question of perception. People in this country are family-oriented, peaceful and fun-loving."
In addition to her business pursuits, Talley has continually kept herself busy with volunteer work in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. In 2011, she won Immigrant of the Year from the local immigration department for her work with Imagine-Mexico and the United Nations. Additionally, she currently coordinates nonviolence and human rights workshops for children in the area's education system.