Foreword

Kent Anderson, PhD
 

For centuries, people have left their homes and familiar surroundings in search of "the other."  This is a term long used by anthropologists to describe the urge in so many people to seek and experience "the exotic."  Many humans seem willing to depart from a common culture, extended family and native tongue to enter a very different and unfamiliar setting.

What you are about to read in BAJA DIARIES are the experiences of "the other" by George Puckett and his wife, Tina.  In 1994, they embarked on a great adventure, leaving behind the United States of America, many friends and family, to settle in a beautiful enclave near the Pacific Ocean in the Mexican city of Ensenada in Baja California.

The episodic nature of BAJA DIARIES reveals the high accomplishments of the Pucketts, their dashed hopes, and, ultimately, tragedy.  The reader will learn about the many characters the Pucketts met during their stay, some saintly and some unsavory.  A large portion of their experience details the religious infighting among the Americans they encountered in Ensenada.

After several years in "paradise," George and Tina were overwhelmed by systematic Mexican skulduggery in the form of dubious real estate dealings (and double-dealings!) and the brutally pernicious behavior on the part of law enforcement.  At the same time as their taste of "the other" was coming to a nasty climax, they were beset with a tragedy of unbelievable circumstance.

I invite you to experience these strangely unsettling years of George and Tina Puckett.

Table of Contents

Baja Diaries, Chronicles of a Paradise Lost

Contents

1. Baja Diaries, Stories from Paradise
2. Tecate Bound
3. The Country Road
4. The Hotel Property
5. The Campos, Camps

6. Valverde Camp
7. La Jolla Camp
8. Land's End, La Bufadora
9. Ensenada Swap Meets

10. The Americans of Punta Banda
11. The Characters of Punta Banda
12. Visitors to Our Place
13. Cora Kerr, Val Verde Camp
14. Ann and Ricardo
15. The Year of the Horse
16. The Thanksgiving of our Discontent
17. The Mexican Drivers
18. A Most Perfect Business
19. The Cesspool
20. Memoirs from Howard and June
21. The Night of the Soldiers (Soldatos)
22. Interview With an Evictee
23. The Baja Christian Church
24. Church Wars, The Beginning
25. Church Wars Armageddon
26. Leaving Paradise
27. Book Two: The Return From Paradise

Afterword

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