About the Series.

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In 1994 Mexico turned its back on years of protectionism to join forces with the US and Canada as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Shortly thereafter, an armed rebellion broke out in the south, political chaos ensued and and the currency was severely devalued. All this lead to one of the worst economic crisis in the country's history -- inflation hit 52% and many people lost their homes and livelihoods. I was one of many young Americans, the mExpats, who had gone down south seeking their fortunes, only to find themselves in the midst of the madness. 

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I lived in Mexico City from 1991 - 1997, first as a student and then as an economist at the American Chamber of Commerce. By day I conducted original economic research and assisted companies and government officials who were trying to make sense of the chaos. By night I played in a funk rock band that was trying to make it to the big time -- ultimately appearing on Mexican television several times. All along I captured my experiences on videotape. Somehow, I always ended up being in the right place and the right time -- becoming the "Forest Gump" of 1990s Mexico.

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With time I had forgotten much of the detail of what had happened while in Mexico; however, during the pandemic I rediscovered the video footage in the basement and began to piece things back together. In light of America's recent retrenchment from globalization and the fall of the primacy of rock music, I felt now was a good time to explore how we got here. I was able to take advantage of the advances in AI to bring the low-quality VHS footage back to life, releasing the episodes as a "Sitcom Documentary" -- perhaps the first such effort in what could be an exciting new media genre!

Despite the current "relevance" of the series,  for me the story is more personal and timeless: how individuals find their place in the world and the eternal struggle to pursue an artistic life in a market driven reality. The theme develops slowly. The initial episodes are more mundane observations of life in Mexico  -- however, as the series develops, the theme of finding one's calling becomes more dominant . The final piece "A Hero's Journey" more explicitly covers these themes and development of long-range wisdom that comes with age. In a way, I have created a YouTube series and a website in lieu of writing any memoirs. To some degree you could argue that this whole series was created so that I could give a final tribute to the many bands I've played in over the years -- but that never had the benefit of mass distribution of the Internet at the time.

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Final notes: Most of the music highlighted in the series is either from one of those bands, or material that is in the public domain (for details see the YouTube descriptions). Special thanks go out to my sister Wendy Cohen, a filmmaker based in New York City, who served as a creative consultant throughout the series. Outside of that, mExpats was a one-man effort that was slowly edited together over the course of a couple of years, late in the night, after Laura and the kids had gone to bed.