Series 2 Episode 20 Transcript

Series 2 Episode 20

Podcasting in Mexico City: David Bevis transcript powered by Sonix—easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.

Download the “Podcasting in Mexico City: David Bevis audio file directly. This mp3 was automatically transcribed by Sonix (https://sonix.ai).

Podcasting in Mexico City: David Bevis was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.

Katia:
On today’s episode…

David:
As the father of a five year old girl, I often end up listening more to the soundtrack to Frozen than what currently people are listening to…

David:
And it suddenly occurred to me that the title Over the Wall has lots of different meanings. So, I wanted that to be the name of the podcast…

David:
I found it quite reassuring to know that other people have been through the same things that you have…

Katia:
I’m Katia León, and you’re listening to Mexico Over the Wall, a podcast about Mexico from the other side. My next guest is the host of this podcast. He’s from the U.K. and has been living in Mexico for over 20 years. I’ll let him introduce himself…

David:
Hi, I’m David Bevis, and I’ve got a translations agency. I live in Mexico City and I also run a podcast called Mexico Over the Wall.

Katia:
What’s the name of your agency?

David:
It’s called the Seven Seas Translations Agency.

Katia:
Here are some questions from former guest of the podcast, Christopher Lockwood.

Chris:
As somebody who’s lived in Mexico for a long time, what was the thing that initially you didn’t like or couldn’t get to grips with culturally but that now you couldn’t live without?

David:
I think possibly chaos. Mexico’s a very chaotic place and the UK is quite ordered, organised. And I think that was quite difficult for me to get used to at the beginning. But now, every time I go back to the UK, I find it a bit too structured for me. I like a bit of the chaos that you get in Mexico.

Katia:
Really? That’s interesting.

Chris:
What do you think is the most difficult part of doing business in Mexico?

David:
I think people would expect me to say maybe corruption, but it’s actually not. The biggest problem for me is taxes. The tax system is very complicated. You need an accountant to do anything and you have to declare your taxes every month. So all the money that comes in has to go out every month, and that’s probably the most complicated thing about doing business. Also maybe making sure that clients pay on time. That’s something that have to work with.

Katia:
What would you advise to other people who want to come here and to invest in Mexico or establish a business in Mexico? What would you advise them?

David:
I’d advise you to learn about the local systems. Find out what you need to do legally, get a good accountant. But that’s about it, really. Yeah, find out about how the country works legally and for finance and things like that.

Katia:
When did you decide that you wanted to establish a business in Mexico? How was the story?

David:
I think I decided to set up a business when my daughter was about to be born. I started thinking more about the future then, and I’d already been translating for several years up until that point. I was teaching English too, and I decided that I could probably handle the business of getting clients and doing translations myself. So that’s when I decided.

Katia:
What have you learned about doing business in Mexico?

David:
I’ve learned to be flexible, I think. You have to wait for the right opportunities, I think. I think patience. Patience, that’s what it’s taught me.

Chris:
What music, for you, captures the sound of Mexico right now?

David:
That is a very good question. And as the father of a five year old girl, I often end up listening more to the soundtrack to Frozen than what currently people are listening to. So, I asked a few friends for some advice to see what they were listening to. And here’s what they had to say. Carlos, who has his own band called Mental Códec from Mexico City, says definitely not reggaeton. There’s a lot of Mexican influence on hip hop, like cholos, things like that. And he says maybe cumbia or banda. There’s a lot of regional variety in Mexican music. Max says there are lots of music genres that represent Mexico. It can be as varied as electronica or banda. Mexico is very diverse. And each genre represents a microcosmos of our reality. Karen, our niece, says sadly, reggaeton. She says Cumbia and Banda are from the olden days, according to her. And finally, Omar, who’s done a lot of work in radio over the years, gave me a list of bands. So, I’m just going to read them out and maybe put a few clips in so people can can have a listen. So, Porter from Guadalajara, he says that their album, Moctezuma is is a point of reference in music at the moment. Rey Pila, which is produced by Interpol. Dawn Avenue from Cuernavaca. La Garfield, which is a kind of jazz fusion band from Guadalajara. Drims (or Dreams), from Monterrey. Primavera Club from Monterrey as well. Rubytates from Toluca, or Technicolor Fabrics from Guadalajara. And I’ve had a listen to a few of them. They’re quite good. I like… La Garfield’s quite good. Porter, I’ve liked for quite a long time. I’d also say Hello Seahorse. They’re quite good. Their lead singer’s very good, very good singer. So, I’d say somewhere between those Hello Seahorse or Porter, for me. But obviously, there’s so much variety in Mexican music that it’s impossible to say what’s the best thing right now.

Katia:
And what Mexican music do you like most?

David:
I think rock, alternative, indie, electronic, that’s the kind of stuff I like most from Mexico.

Katia:
And here’s a question from Ely Rocha. Why would you consider returning to the UK and under what circumstances would that favor your personal growth?

David:
I’m not sure if I would consider returning to the UK. I like it too much here. I don’t know. If there was some major disaster here in Mexico like a pandemic or something. [Laughs] No, I really can’t imagine myself back in the UK.

Katia:
Why not?

David:
Because I like it here. I like living in Mexico. I like the culture. I like the people. I like the food. And I’ve kind of got used to it. I don’t know. It’s part of me now, I think. I can’t imagine myself living anywhere else.

Katia:
What about your your daughter? Do you speak in English with her?

David:
Yeah, I speak in English to her and she speaks in Spanish to me.

Katia:
Why did you decide to make a podcast called in Mexico Over the Wall and interview foreign people and British people?

David:
That’s a very good question. It was called… I called it Mexico Over the Wall because it was… I started it just a year after Trump became president and he was talking about the wall, the wall, the wall all the time and it suddenly occurred to me that the title Over the Wall has lots of different meanings. So, I wanted… I wanted that to be the name of the podcast. It can mean kind of crazy or maybe Mexico from the other side or it has lots of different connotations. So I thought… That’s why I called it Mexico Over the Wall. I made it because I wanted to tell other people about Mexico, to get people interested in Mexico and maybe change people’s ideas of what Mexico’s is and what it’s about and what it means to people. And I did that for five episodes. Then, it was basically just me talking, giving information and opinions about Mexico. And I stopped after five episodes because I had too much work and it was a lot of work trying to come up with a script every week to talk about Mexico. So, I stopped it. And then, this year, I decided to start it again. But this time, interviewing people, other people about Mexico, what their experience of living in Mexico was. And I’d just joined a few Facebook groups with some expats here in Mexico. And I decided to reach out to them and ask them what their experience of living in Mexico was. It was easier doing it that way because they spoke English. So I knew that, it’s an English language podcast, it has to have English language interviewees. But I started with Brits. I’ve interviewed an American. I’ve interviewed a few Mexicans. And I’d like to interview people from all over the place, really, to see what they think about Mexico, because it’s a bit like what we were saying about music. It’s a very varied country and there are lots of different stories. And I want people to tell different stories about Mexico.

Katia:
Did you find something surprising. How has it been?

David:
I think a lot of the interviewees have kind of confirmed things that have already happened to me. Their experience has been quite similar when they first came here. I think obviously now, they’ve all kind of done their different things. And they’ve got different experiences of living here. But I found it’s quite reassuring to know that other people have been through the same things that you have. I think that’s the thing that surprised me the most, kind of finding common ground with people, and not just the Brits as well. I mean, the Mexicans who live in other countries, they’ve also had kind of similar experiences of adapting to a different culture. So, I think that’s the surprising thing to me, the things that we have in common.

Katia:
Did you expect that people, expats or foreigners living in Mexico, were going to be interested in this project?

David:
I hoped they would. I didn’t know if they would, though. I hoped they would, because I was. I thought if I’m interested, maybe somebody else would be interested.

Katia:
And what happened?

David:
There’s been a lot of interest. I was quite surprised that lots of people have come on board. Lots of people have shown interest. I’ve interviewed some people who’ve actually been listeners of the podcast, too. It’s been more successful than than I had imagined at the beginning.

Katia:
What’s your next project?

David:
[Laughs] Next one? I’m still working on this one. Yeah, there’s there’s a lot to do here, I think. And there’s a lot more things I can do with the podcast, I think. I’m kind of looking for ways to make it different.

David:
So, I was answering questions there from my wife, Katia León. Many thanks to Katia, Christopher Lockwood and Ely Rocha for setting me those questions. If you’d like to ask me any questions yourself, you can do so via Facebook messenger at mexicooverthewall.com/messenger. There should be an option there for sending voice clips. Many thanks as well to Carlos Salas, Raymundo Muñoz or Max, as we call him, Karen León and Omar Ramos for helping with the answers. You can find links to all the bands mentioned in the show notes for this episode at mexicooverthewall.com/davidbevis. Over the course of this series, I’m going to be interviewing people from all over the place about their experiences of living in Mexico. If you live in Mexico, and would like to take part, please get in touch by writing to feedback@mexicooverthewall.com. Please support the podcast by giving us a review, which you can do via mexicooverthewall.com/apple for Apple Podcasts if you have an iOS device or iTunes or you can review us on Stitcher by going to mexicooverthewall.com/stitcher. You can also support us with hard cash by sponsoring us on Patreon. One of the benefits of sponsorship is that you can get extended versions of these interviews. Go to patreon.com/mexicooverthewall for more details. That’s it for this episode. I hope you liked it. See you next time.