In my experience, there are a lot more than 5,000 miles separating Mexico City, where I've lived for the past six years, and New York City, where I'm from. I'm just not the same person in both places.

For one thing, I'm older in Mexico. I'm twice the age of half the population, while in NYC I'm younger than the baby boomers. In Mexico, everyone who will be famous is already famous in their 20's. In New York, kids dominate the culture too, but there's more room for slow learners and late starters. Here I'm married and about to have a kid, I have a responsible job and I own an apartment and a car. When I'm in New York City, I sleep on couches in four different apartments, I have no real work, and I seem to spend most of my time wandering the streets-- buying books, records and clothes-- because I'm still interested in youth culture there. In Mexico I would love to kill the kids in the high school across the street who wake me up blaring Mexican pop music from their car stereos.

In Mexico, I have more access to high society. My New York circle was made up of waiters, bartenders, bookstore clerks, editorial assistants, underground movie stars and aspiring writers. In Mexico, I hang out with restaurant and bar owners, movie stars, pop singers, owners of publishing houses, directors of museums and galleries, grandchildren of great dictators, Nobel Prize-winning poets, etc. They invite me to their parties and openings, and photos of me and my wife appear in the social pages the next day. Most of my high-powered connections in the New York art world and the Hollywood film world are from Mexico.