| | |  Entertainment | October 2008 
Roving Gringo Raises Spirits Around Mexico
 Chris Hawley - USA Today
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| | Robert Alexander explains a Mexican-style rodeo during a taping of his TV show Gringo in Mexicoin Mexico City on Aug. 24. Alexander's travel show has become a hit in Mexico. (Chris Hawley/USA Today) | | |
Mexico City — He bounds around Mexico like a fanatical tourist, weaving through Indian markets and colonial churches while urging his viewers to "Come on! Come on!" and spewing Spanish in an awful American accent.
The "Gringo in Mexico," as Robert Alexander is known, has a hit TV show that is half travelogue, half food fest and 100% enthusiasm for all things Mexican. It's a potent pick-me-up in a country that has been feeling pretty down about itself lately.
"Hola! Welcome to GEM, Gringo en Mexico!" Alexander exclaims to the camera as he prepares to invade a Mexico City restaurant.
Since its debut last year, the show has become one of the top programs on cable and satellite channels owned by entertainment giant Televisa, including Unicable in Mexico, Televisa International in South America and Galavision in the USA and Europe.
It's seen in 40 countries and turned Alexander, a former soil scientist from San Francisco, into an international phenomenon.
"GEM! Your show is great!" says Morela Ortiz, a tourist from Venezuela who spots Alexander on a Mexico City sidewalk.
Each episode is a one-man expedition, as Alexander elbows his way into festivals, interviews artisans and swoons over every bite of a taco. He peppers his Spanish with English exclamations — "Oh good!" and "Yeah!"
Over 80 episodes, Alexander has fought bulls, flown on a para-glider and bared it all on a nude beach. He's eaten caterpillars, ant eggs, roasted grasshoppers and fermented agave sap.
Fans say the show is an antidote to the bad news plaguing Mexico lately: an intensifying drug war, a spate of high-profile kidnappings and the U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration.
"With all the bad things going on, he makes us feel proud about our country," says Carlos Romero Piñeda, a taco vendor in Mexico City.
Television action figure is an unlikely second career for Alexander, 58, a physicist who came to Mexico in 1979 to help set up laboratories for analyzing soil. He spent the next 28 years testing farmland and prescribing fertilizers for aid programs and the Mexican government.
"I'm just a scientist," Alexander says. But as he launches into an explanation of soil acidity, it is clear why he has become a successful travel host. The guy literally gets excited about dirt.
During his years in the field, Alexander explored Mexico's most rural corners, learning Spanish from peasants and discovering the country's best food over meals at farmers' homes.
He met his wife, Veronica Gallardo, at an art gallery, unaware that she starred on a Televisa talk show.
In 2007, Gallardo and Alexander pitched the idea of a travel show to Televisa. Within months, the program had a budget and debuted April 1, 2007.
In the first few episodes, Alexander was self-conscious about his Spanish.
"I know the words, but I'll never get the accent," he says. His vocabulary is sometimes imprecise. When he gets excited, his el's and la's (the Spanish articles) go out the window, mixing up his genders. His viewers love it.
"It's kind of funny. It's part of his charm," says fan Azenett Martínez Frutero.
Alexander plows through his lines. During a taping at a rodeo, he tries to explain the competition to the camera.
The cameraman leans in to tell Alexander he has likened the rodeo to a beauty pageant. Does he want a second take?
"Hell, no!" Alexander says. "Once you start programming this stuff, it's all over."
Oddly, viewers have the most trouble understanding Alexander's name.
He always introduces the show as "GEM, Gringo en México," pronouncing the initials as the word "gem." Many viewers think that's his name.
"Gem! Gem!" shouts Oscar Nuñez Tovar, a spectator at the rodeo, as he strains to take Alexander's picture with a cellphone.
After 18 months on the air, the half-hour show has visited 20 of Mexico's 31 states and spawned a travel column in a magazine aimed at foreigners in Mexico.
The show plans trips to other countries, producer Jorge Alfaro says. Alexander says he's exploring the idea of an English version, tentatively titled Latin American Gringo.
"He talks funny, but he brings a lot of respect for our culture," says Ricardo Frijol Mendoza, a customer at the Huarache Azteca restaurant, as he watches Alexander at a nearby table rave about a dish. "He's so curious about Mexico, and it's flattering. That's why people like him."
Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic. |
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