"They came home with money in their pockets, and they were well dressed and very satisfied with themselves,'' said Celestino. "They said everything was very pretty in the North."

The year was 1943, and 22-year-old Celestino was a campesino, working in corn and bean fields in the west-central Mexican state of Michoacán. His returning friends were braceros, the strong-armed workers whom the United States recruited for the farm and ranch duties left behind by young men who were far away fighting in World War II. Soon Celestino was a bracero himself.

Over the next decade he worked farms and ranches in Nebraska, Montana, and North and South Dakota, then later in Southern California. Each year, the seasonal work completed, he returned home. There he married Angela, who would become the mother of their four children. The last child was born in California, after the family emigrated there in 1957. 

The family settled in Santa Rosa, where Celestino worked at an apple orchard and a golf course, clinging to a dream of returning to México lindo y querido  (lovely and cherished Mexico), in the words of a sentimental song that is a favorite among migrants.

Celestino recounted this family saga 47 years later, when he and Angela were back home in Santa Inés, living in the spacious adobe home that Celestino's father had built and they had enlarged, to have room when their children and grandchildren visit from the United States.

[The Fernandezes] are part of a growing trend that is deepening the ties between Mexico and the United States

"My parents lived in the U.S. for 30 years, but the way they saw it, they were just working here,'' said Celestino Fernandez Jr., a sociology professor at the University of Arizona. "They still had their house in Michoacán, and that was their real home," said the son, who studies the patterns of Mexican migration to the United States.

But the United States gradually became "the real home" for their children and grandchildren. As a result, Celestino and Angela feel they belong to two countries. They divide the year between Santa Inés and Santa Rosa, where they sold their home and bought a home in a retirement community. They are part of a growing trend that is deepening the ties between Mexico and the United States.

For Culberto “José” Maldonado, the return to Mexico took two generations.

With four grandparents who emigrated from Mexico to the United States, Maldonado is a native Texan with an all-American résumé. After high school in Corpus Christi, he enlisted in the Air Force, eventually became a commissioned officer, commanded a missile combat crew in North Dakota during the Cold War years, and ultimately retired as an assistant professor of Spanish at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

At 67, he still has the Air Force in his blood. His Colorado Springs home borders on the Academy's sprawling grounds. But he has never lost his attachment to Mexico, where he and his Mexican-born wife, Gloria, have bought a second home in the colonial town of San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato. They plan on spending half the year there.

"It's a community that has thousands of Canadians and Americans who live there permanently,'' said Maldonado, a member of AARP's national board. "We really like the fact that they don't segregate themselves down there. They're part of the community and they take part in all sorts of organizations down there, from the library to health care."

‘We call it a demographic earthquake because we want to dramatize that we need to do more for a population of older persons that is growing steadily’

Maldonado is also looking forward to the rich cultural life in San Miguel de Allende. "They have a jazz festival and a Cuban festival and things going on all the time, and there are outings to different places every weekend," he said.

Energy and Experience
The trend represented by the Fernandezes and Maldonados delights Pedro Borda Hartmann, who directs the Mexican Institute of Senior Citizens. He hopes to tap the energy and experience of returning Mexican Americans as he builds the new organization, which is gearing up for a big demographic wave that has begun to build in Mexico's population of more than 100 million.

"We call it a demographic earthquake because we want to dramatize that we need to do more for a population of older persons that is growing steadily,'' Borda said. Mexico's 60-and-older population, which now numbers 7.8 million, is expected to swell to 36 million by 2050. Their share of the country's population is projected to jump from about 8 percent now to 28 percent then, he added.

"So we have a lot to do,'' said Borda, who is hard at work. The Institute already has offices in every one of Mexico's 31 states and has organized several thousand clubs that offer classes for dance, public speaking, history, and appliance repair, to name just a few. The classes aren't free—but are almost. "We charge $3 every three months,'' he said.

For 10 pesos (less than a dollar) the Institute also offers medical consultations at four medical centers. The membership card also is good for a 50 percent discount on all lab testing. The growing list of services and benefits was designed primarily for Mexico's elderly population, in which only one in four receives a pension. But Borda said the Institute encourages non-Mexicans to join.

“They have a lot of expertise and a lot to offer,'' said Borda. He would like to invite U.S. retirees to conduct classes and to staff the organization’s offices. "If they could work an hour a day, or an hour a week, that would be great.”

No matter what interests retirees from El Norte, Borda encourages them to e-mail the Institute. "We can guide them on their reintroduction to Mexico,'' he said.

Security, Not Insecurity
Another key organization for retirees from north of the border is the U.S. Social Security Administration, which every month sends payments totaling some $24 million to nearly 50,000 beneficiaries living in Mexico.

About one in five recipients are U.S. natives who have taken up residence in such sunlit retirement communities as Chapala, a lakeside community near Guadalajara, or San Miguel de Allende. The rest are Mexican natives who transplanted themselves to the United States and have returned home for what Mexicans call la tercera edad (the third age).

Not surprisingly, more than half come from the four states in west-central Mexico—including Michoacán—from which the United States recruited most of the braceros, the pioneers of migration networks that remained strong long after the bracero program ended in 1964.

But snafus with Social Security checks illustrate a chronic problem of corruption that underlies the continuous exodus of Mexicans in search of the legendary sueño americano (American Dream).

‘It's important not to idealize or romanticize a place you're considering for retirement, no matter where it is’

"Many of the checks have been stolen in the mail,'' said Faith Hunt, regional federal benefits officer at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City. She had just returned from a town hall-type meeting in Michoacán, where she was promoting a program to provide direct deposit of Social Security payments in U.S. banks.

The program has been a huge success. Guadalupe Alvarez, 92, who harvested beets in Nebraska, cotton in Texas, and almonds in California, explained why. "The check is the only money I have, and when it was stolen, it caused me big problems,'' he said, sitting beneath a small shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe in the courtyard of his home in the village of Eticuaro.

A few weeks earlier, federal authorities in Mexico had arrested six men on charges of pilfering Social Security checks.

While direct deposit offers fail-safe protection against check pilfering, the U.S. State Department encourages retirees to consider another form of protection: health care. Medicare, the Department points out, does not extend to Mexico.

"In countries where many American expatriates reside, such as Mexico, you may find that local private international health insurance companies will offer coverage to U.S. citizen residents,'' the Department advises. "Once you arrive, check with organized groups in the American community to learn about these companies."

This suggestion, along with other information, can be found at the Tips for Americans Residing Abroad section of the State Department's website.

Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, offers another piece of advice about selecting a retirement home. Davidow, who recently wrote a memo filled with stories that recount his fascination with the history, culture, and politics of Mexico, suggested a trial period of three months to a year.

"It's important not to idealize or romanticize a place you're considering for retirement, no matter where it is,'' he said. "So it's a good idea not to sell off the house right away and move lock, stock, and barrel. Maybe rent rather than buy. Give yourself time to size up the place.''

That plan can work as well for returning natives of Mexico as for others. "Sometimes the place that people think they're returning to no longer exists,'' Davidow said.