MEXICO CITY ― On a perfect, sunny 75-degree day, a group of Black American women gathered at a sidewalk cafe over coffee and pastries to dish about dating, the affordability of weight-loss medications and where to find the best chocolate chip cookie.
They easily break out in Spanish to converse with the servers. They go inside the tiny panadería to check out the display of pan dulces. Though bakeries are plentiful throughout the city, butter can be subpar here.
Dianne Ray-Herman, who sports glasses and a neatly-cropped and graying afro, opts to snack on a plate of falafel and hummus. She’s a retired widow originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. After losing her husband in 2019, she knew she would eventually pursue something different.
She plotted a path to leave her real estate job. And her country.
Ray-Herman, 67, landed in Mexico City, a longtime magnet for some of the greatest writers from Jack Kerouac to Allen Ginsberg. And pioneer Black artist Elizabeth Catlett, who trained with muralist Diego Rivera and lived her life in exile until her death in 2012.
