Three Kinds of San Miguelenses

Among the people I've met here, I've found it interesting to classify them in three groups:

Urbanites: These are people used to living in cities, who can get along fine without a car. They live near the center of town, and walk or take taxis everywhere. Occasionally they venture out of town, but are usually quite happy just being surrounded by the activities in the city. We fall into this category (as do many of the teachers from Laurel and Bryce's school surprisingly).

Suburbanites: This group lives more on the edge of town, or in a development like Los Frailes that is too far away to walk into town. They own cars, but may also have an ATV or motorcycle to get around. They may occasionally venture into town, but only for errands or occasional fun nights since parking is such a hassle. Jim and Adriana fall into this category.

Rancheros: These folks live on a ranch, way out of town. Some of the Los Charcos parents fall into this group, as does Fernando grande's brother Cuautli. (Liz and Fernando seem more metropolitan in spite of where they are living now). Generally, if you like to be surrounded by a lot of land, with no nearby neighbors you're a Ranchero.

Of course, there are people who have characteristics of more than one of these groups, so you can't generalize, but knowing where a person lives can be a useful stereotype as you're getting to know someone. We've met lovely people in all of the above categories.