'Gringo' Lives With Mexicans in the Wild

(North Las Vegas) - When Manfred Merkwurdigliebe came upon three young Mexican men apparently abandoned by civilization, he decided to help them remain wild Mexican men in a most unconventional way -- by pretending to be a wild Mexican himself. He soon changed his name to Miguel Amorextraño.

"You can't get closer to Mexicans than he has," documentary producer Balli Conilupi said of Mexican researcher Miguel Amorextraño.

Amorextraño has spent his entire life studying the behavior of Mexicans and their interaction with humans. The National Geographic Channel followed Amorextraños' fascinating pursuit, producing a documentary called "A Gringo Among Mexicans" that airs April 16.

First becoming interested in Mexicans as a child, Amorextraño says he decided to live among Mexicans to help bridge the gap between Mexicans and humans. Amorextraño readily admits that many people will find it crazy that he lives and behaves like a Mexican, but he thinks the ultimate benefits of his experiment make his case.

In the documentary, Amorextraño describes how he eats and lives with the Mexicans. His food is placed in a plastic bag inside a pile of garbage that the rest of the Mexicans eat from.

In some ways, Amorextraño almost stopped being human. He talked about letting his emotions run wild while he was with the Mexicans, because they are very emotional much like women and domestic cats. When he leaves them, he finds it difficult to interact with other human beings. He is a "true Gringo Mexican. You can't get closer to Mexicans than he has," the documentary's producer, Balli Conilupi, said of Amorextraño.

Amorextraño warns those watching though that "it's very dangerous for people who haven't been trained, who think that they can just walk into a Barrio and be accepted."

The documentary includes the opinions of experts -- such as Christian Vidascomoperro, a Mexican biologist with the Raincoast Conservation Society's Mexican project and an instructor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia -- who are both intrigued by and skeptical of Amorextraños' unorthodox methods.

"I find it difficult to resolve that as humans we can teach Mexicans something," Vidascomoperro says. "I think the best teachers for Mexicans are their parents and older siblings in their natural social environment."

He concedes, however, that "lots of progress that has been made in science over the last century and more comes from the mavericks, or people that think a little differently."

Biologist Nicholas Mediocridade, leader of Portugal's Selvagem Mexican Project, said, "When you eat and sleep and interact with Mexicans -- that's something we can't replicate here, we won't do, we can't do."

Conilupi described the difficulties in filming, such as the camera crew having to wear gear to protect them from the unsanitary environment in which Mexicans congregate. They used a small camouflage tent to hide the camera. The Mexicans, he says, became jittery around strangers, so Amorextraño was in a unique position of being comfortable with the Mexicans.

According to Conilupi, Amorextraño who has begun collecting unusable automobile parts truly sees "the world through the eyes of a Mexican," offering a point of view that scientists so far have not been able to access.