Roger Emil Neuman found “Paradise” at Lake Chapala in the 1980s

Among several “how to live cheaply in Mexico” books hitting the market in the 1980s was Paradise found: how to live in North America’s best climate for under $300 a month, by R. Emil Neuman, published in 1986.

Roger Emil Neuman (1941-2001), born in Detroit, Michigan, on 7 June 1941, was the son of Adolph Neuman (1916-1994), who worked as a designer for Ford Motor Company for 40 years, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Barker (1917-1995). He graduated from Allen Park High School in 1959, gained a “BS degree” in accounting, and scored in the top 5% of all candidates in his CPA exam.

Neuman died at his home in Carlsbad, California, on 6 November 2001, and was buried alongside family members at the Glen Eden Memorial Park near Detroit, Michigan.

According to one obituary, his resumé included service in the US Army. In Paradise Found, Neuman describes having worked as a Congressional Investigator in Detroit for 12 years, before moving to San Diego in 1978.

In California, Neuman became an early self-publisher and mail order marketer, setting himself up as the president and CEO of United Research Publishers (URP) in Encinitas, California. URP issued about 25 works by 10 different authors between 1978 and 2005, mainly related to either health or self-help topics. It was a highly successful business: his Detroit Free Press obituary claims it was “the most successful mail order book publishing business in the United States” at the time. Neuman, described as kind, brilliant, philosophical and funny,” made numerous generous donations to churches in Michigan and California, and also supported children’s programs in far flung parts of the world.

Neuman’s grave marker, near Detroit

The story line of Paradise found: how to live in North America’s best climate for under $300 a month is that Neuman decides to take his retired father to visit Lake Chapala to consider moving there. The book, which includes many photos, is written in non-specialist language (a high school reading level) and was published in relatively large print. The story is told via reported interactions with a series of individuals who explain how they came to retire to the area, and why they love living there.

Neuman offers lots of sage advice along the way, with brief, and largely accurate (at the time), accounts of how house purchases, shopping, language, expenses, migration permits, can best be managed by a newcomer.

As background, he writes that:

Wealthy Americans visited Lake Chapala in the late 1880s. Many Americans built homes and spent part of each year on the Lake. For example, Albert Braniff, founder of Braniff Airlines, built a large home near the Lake is about 1885. Tennessee Williams reportedly spent a good deal of time here writing many of his famous novels.”

Even if the details of this paragraph are not quite right, the basic sentiment is accurate. Relatively wealthy foreigners (not just Americans) certainly visited Chapala in the last decade of the nineteenth century. And there is a house known as Casa Braniff in Chapala, though it has no connection to the Albert Braniff of Braniff Airlines. Casa Braniff, designed by English architect George E King, was completed in 1905 for Guadalajara historian and lawyer Luis Pérez Verdía, who sold it two years later to Mexico’s own “Alberto Braniff,” a Mexico City businessman, with no family connection to the Braniff Airline family. As for Tennessee Williams, he only spent a single summer (1945) in Chapala, while writing “The Poker Night,” the basis for A Streetcar Named Desire.

Neuman’s informants in Paradise Found include Jack (73), who rents a home for “only $150 a month. Nice place. Two beds, full cooking facilities, a courtyard, laundry area, big swimming pool out front.” and who figures that he lives here “for under $300 a month. I mean good living too.” Adjusted for US inflation, $300 in 1986 is the equivalent of about $850 today.

Another informant, Tom, a retired truck driver aged about 55, had found Hawaii and California too expensive, Florida winters too cold, and had been living in Chapala with his wife for several years. Heat and all utilities were less than $5 a month, annual taxes were $27, they had their own cook, gardener and maid, and he “lived like a king on about $600 a month.” Tom told Neuman that he was afraid too many Americans will find out about the place and turn it into a tourist area.

Neuman claims that homes ranged in price from about $15,000 ($42,000 today) for a smaller home of 700 square feet or a fixer-upper, to $350,000 ($982,261 today) for a 4,000-square-foot “mansion.”

He also sagely recommends that “Lake Chapala is not for everyone. Before buying you should rent a home for at least six months. This will give you time to check things out thoroughly before you make a commitment to buy.”

Neuman quotes some typical hotel prices. Rooms (double occupancy) at the Hotel Real de Chapala were $20 a night (more in December), the same price as the Hotel Chula Vista. Double rooms at the Hotel Montecarlo were $22 a night, while for budget travelers, the Hotel Nido charged $7 single and $10 double a night.

Posada Ajijic menu, ca. 1986. (Click to expand)

Comparing restaurant menus and prices, Neuman describes how La Viuda restaurant in Chapala, around the corner from the Hotel Nido, offers excellent food and service, and is “owned by Gus, who also owns the butcher shop next door where most American buy their meats.” Gus is Gustavo Sánchez, a direct descendant of Chapala-born photographer José Edmundo Sánchez.

Helpfully, Neuman includes menus for La Viuda, as well as the Real de Chapala hotel, El Mesón (Ajijic) and Posada Ajijic, “the main “hang out” for Americans living around the Lake… The Posada is owned by a Canadian couple who have plenty of restaurant experience. That’s why this place is so popular.” The book lists restaurant prices in pesos. At the time the book was published (1986), the exchange rate was about 900 pesos to a dollar, the following year it was 2200 pesos to a dollar. Neuman, who trained as an accountant, clearly published his book at precisely the right time for anyone thinking of moving south!

At the back of the 148-page book are a several pages of simple Spanish vocabulary, and a basic map of Lake Chapala. This map was originally surveyed and drawn in about 1816 by Spanish cartographer José María Narváez (1768-1840), and was subsequently used, with only minor changes, in many later publications, including Terry’s Mexican Handbook (1909), which is the version Neuman reproduces (without credit) in Paradise Found (1986). Few maps can boast such longevity!

Other works written by Roger Emil Neuman include Write Perfect Letters for Any Occasion (1990); You can collect $$$ from Uncle Sam (1975); How to Collect Big $$$ From Uncle Sam (1985); The Complete Handbook of Health Tips: based on the latest dietary and scientific findings and traditional remedies (1985); How You Can Achieve Financial Independence in Mail Order (1986); and The Complete Handbook of U.S. Government Benefits: How to Collect Big from Uncle Sam (1989). Many of these titles were released in more than one edition, and some had foreign language editions.

The books were promoted via nationwide advertising campaigns, which stressed the advantages of ordering direct from the publisher. For example, an advert in 1987 for Paradise Found informed readers that:“You can order direct from the publisher and save. Send only $12.95 plus $1 postage and handling to: United Research Publishers, 249 South Highway 101, Dept. UP-6, Solana Beach, CA 92075.”

The “departments” in the address presumably enabled Neuman to gauge the relative success of different market areas and ad styles.

While Paradise Found is much derided by modern readers as hopelessly out-of-date and wildly inaccurate in terms of prices quoted, the real question is whether or not these claims were valid when the book was written and first marketed. In my view, they were not as wild as often assumed. For example, the somewhat staid Frommer’s Guides to Mexico published, in 1986, one titled Mexico on $20 A Day, which equates to about $600 a month, the same figure quoted by Tom the truck driver.

On the other hand, some of the claims made by Canadian business consultant Thomas McLaughlin in The Greatest Escape, or How to Live in Paradise, in Luxury, for 250 Dollars Per Month, first published in 1983 (and reprinted in 1985), and competing in the same market sector, strike me as far more dubious. McLaughlin (who died in 1987) divided his time between Ontario and Lake Chapala for several years, marketed his book aggressively with the help of a retired business consultant in Ontario, Gerry Gailius, and organized tours to the lake.

My 2022 book Lake Chapala: A Postcard History uses reproductions of more than 150 vintage postcards to tell the incredible story of how Lake Chapala became an international tourist and retirement center.

Sources

• North County Times: 12 Nov 2001, 14; 8 Jan 2002, 32.
• Detroit Free Press: 18 Nov 2001, 18.

Comments, corrections and additional material are welcome, whether via the comments feature or email.

Tony Burton

Tony Burton’s books include “Lake Chapala: A Postcard History” (2022), “Foreign Footprints in Ajijic” (2022), “If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants” (2020), (available in translation as “Si Las Paredes Hablaran”), “Mexican Kaleidoscope” (2016), and “Lake Chapala Through the Ages” (2008).

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