By Michelle Kim
NEW BOSTON – Normally around this time of year, when snow blankets the ground and Granite State residents fight icy winds and roads, Cyndie Katz is someplace a bit warmer. – like Mexico.
For the past 10 years, the Katz family has split their time between Morelia, Mexico, and New Boston, heading south from October to April like the migrating herds of Monarch butterflies that precede them.
Besides having the experience of living in another culture, this has allowed their youngest daughter, Alice, 10, to grow up completely bilingual.
Cyndie and Geoff Katz had often vacationed and spent time in Mexico, partly because it was a place they could take their combined family of five children for a decent vacation on a budget and partly because of their affection for the country and culture. Geoff Katz hitchhiked through Mexico after college and studied Spanish there.
But it was still a surprise when Geoff came back from one such vacation in Morelia, shortly after Alice was born, with a significant purchase, said Cyndie.
“He came home and said, ‘I bought a house. If you don’t like it, I’ll sell it,’” she said.
The relatively inexpensive high-ceilinged house was in a quiet neighborhood close to the historic center of Morelia, the pink limestone capital city of the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan.
The couple bought and renovated properties for a living, along with running the Garden Center, which they recently gave up after 15 years. Because they were self-employed and could close the Center during the winter months, and because, as veteran parents, they felt comfortable raising their youngest in this slightly unconventional arrangement, they decided to try it.
Cyndie said they found the people there to be very warm and accommodating and to delight in little children.
“It’s as if all children belong to all people,” said Cyndie. “If you bring a baby to a restaurant, the waitress will probably pick up your baby from the table and take her to the kitchen.”
She also described a place with low crime rates, markets with vendors selling fresh foods and supplies daily, and a lack of over-regulation.
“If you need something done, they’ll find a way to do it,” said Cyndie.
But the biggest difference, besides the culture, is the “city life” in Morelia and the “country life” in New Boston.
Alice, a precocious, bright-eyed fifth-grader, said she likes her “country” life in New Boston. She attends a private Montessori school in Morelia with only 25 other students in the entire school – about the size of her class at New Boston Central School. She said she finds spelling much easier in Spanish than English, which can have all kinds of tricky rules and exceptions.
“Her brain thinks in both languages equally,” her mother observed. “She’ll talk in her sleep in Spanish. When she first comes back, you see all these Spanish words in her writing that she doesn’t even realize.
“I think that’s fascinating, since I try to learn by studying it so hard, that she can just sort of do it,” said Cyndie, who admitted she was the least fluent of the family.
This year, they decided to stay a few extra months in New Boston to strengthen Alice’s written English skills with her teacher, Ms. Racey, whose strengths are teaching reading and writing.
Cyndie said part of the dilemma of living in two places is missing the one they’re not in.
“I think people think I’m on vacation for six months” when living in Mexico, said Cyndie. But she said she stays busier in Morelia than she does in New Boston, taking care of their properties remotely, taking art classes, and publishing a monthly newsletter the family bought three years ago, “Adventures in Mexico,” for people interested in retiring in Mexico.
“We’ve cobbled together a life so we can live in the two places. I don’t know how other people could do it,” she said.