25 expat voices: Ron Buchanan

Expat: Ron Buchanan

Ron Buchanan

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Ana Prado

We asked our 25 featured expats if they have a specific Mexico “moment” or memory—something that always makes them think, “Yep, this is home,” or “That’s what I love about this place.” View Slideshow >>

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Profession: Journalist

Originally from: Glasgow, Scotland.

Lives in: The port city of Veracruz.

Living in Mexico: I lived here from 1981 until just after the 1986 World Cup. Then I went back to London, where I worked with The Guardian once again. In 1994, I returned to Mexico and I've been here ever since. So that's a total of about 21 years. 

Why did you move to Mexico?

After several years working on national newspapers in London (The Guardian and, briefly, the Financial Times), I took a job as editor of a series of publications that specialized in Latin America. Earlier I had lived in Spain and Cuba, so I knew the language. When the job of correspondent in Mexico came up, I was keen to get out of London and went for it.

You became a dual citizen. When and why did you decide to do that?

I became a naturalized Mexican citizen six years ago. I don't intend to live anywhere else and the annual battle of red tape that surrounded renewal of my FM2 was getting too much for me. I have a Mexican wife and son, so naturalization was an obvious option. And Britain has never had any problem about Her Majesty's loyal subjects swearing allegiance to other nations.  

Tell us about your work as a journalist in Mexico.

I was a journalist long before I arrived in Mexico. After a spell as a construction worker and barman, I broke into journalism with a Glasgow daily. Why? No noble reasons really. There's a lot less work and much more pay as a journalist than as a construction worker or barman. Over the years in Mexico I've been a freelance contributor to many publications. I still write very occasionally for the Sunday Times of London, the Financial Times, and others, but my mainstay these days is energy reporting for Platts. I also provide a daily news service for a website on Central America. In the past I've been editor of the Mexico City Times and of a Spanish-language business weekly, El Asesor. Both publications are now defunct. Does that say something about me?

Are you involved in other organizations, activities, or hobbies here?

I wish I could say I had a rich social life, but it just ain't so. Not that it bothers me, though. I go swimming two or three times a week and visit the same cantina every Friday night, except when I'm visiting Mexico City, of course.

Do you have a specific Mexico "moment" that makes you think, "That's what I love about this place"?

I do have such a memory, but it's not one that can be repeated in a respectable publication. 

What are both the best and the hardest things about being an expat in Mexico?

Really I don't think of myself as an expat. I've never really been involved in expat activities in all the years I've spent here, though I do enjoy meeting people from Britain, America, and other countries. In the parlance of Britain's former colonial service, I've "gone bush" here in Mexico.