MEXICO LOVER'S RULES in non-tourist towns \ A Gringo's Years of outlawed romance, love, and sex \ LIVING AMONG THE TARAHUMARA INDIANS - more natural pleasure than modern danger

ONE SCENE:
Background: I had met Miriam after Catholic Mass in the central park.
ANOTHER NIGHT - December 1, 2002: Miriam was dancing with three girlfriends in the park. While I walked past her, I encouraged Miriam by saying “Dance!” Six paces past Miriam, a man ran up and punched me in the eye. Then he ran away… The lens from my glasses cut my cheek and blood ran down my face… A Mexico rule: The gringo can have no contact with Mexican women.
The next day I was having my usual 8 AM fresh-squeezed orange juice at Mago’s outdoor café, which was across the street from the police station. The police pickup with ten police officers stopped in front of the police station. I walked across the street while I scanned the faces of the police officers to see which ones I knew. I saw one very familiar face: Adolfo. I walked around two smirking police officers to reach Adolfo, who was sitting on the edge of the police-pickup bed with seven police officers holding military-assault rifles. My black eye and facial cut were visible. I said, “I got punched.” Two of the police officers laughed.
Officer Adolfo asked, “Who hit you?”
“I don’t know. He ran up from the side and punched me and then ran off.”
Officer Adolfo asked, “Where did it happen?”
“Right in the park!”
“Why did he hit you?”
“I don’t know.”
Adolfo asked, “Did it concern a woman?” Six of the police officers burst out laughing. The other four policemen murderously stared at me. In sum, the police had no interest in prosecuting my assailant.
A rule: Play with fire and you sometimes get burnt. I accepted this. Young women were fire. I also accepted that in the US I wouldn’t have been allowed to meet teenage Miriam in the first place.

ANOTHER SCENE
I backpacked into the road-less Tarahumara outback. It was thus three months after the 9/11 attack when I heard of it. I then gave it no relevance, because I was living as a Mexican Indian.
Welcome to the Tarahumara Indian reservation in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. For the correct local time, set your clock back 3,000 years. I sat on a rock. In her feminine Indian dress, a beautiful teenage female sat two feet away on the ground, which was where Tarahumara Indians sat. We sat for hours. She intermittently watched her herd of grazing sheep, while she weaved and sewed. I sorted through medicinal herbs that I had gathered. I looked and saw the sheep, the creek, the trees, the grass, the sky… I felt that I was in the Garden of Eden. The Tarahumara Indians didn’t destroy the land. Through our children, this Tarahumara shepherdess and I could live forever on this land. The Tarahumara Indians grew corn using a heavy-duty hoe, though some used horses to cultivate crops.
Three-thousand years ago: In 900 BC, shepherd David wrote Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul…” said The Bible, King James Version.