My name is David Cunningham
I am an electrical engineer, now retired, living in San Miguel de Allende Mexico. Prior experience included control system design for spacecraft subsystems at Honeywell. I am not an electrician, but I do have an appreciation for what is behind the National Electrical Code (NEC) used in the US.
Our first house in Mexico was about 30 years old and the wiring was not right. Actually, it worked fine, but it looked awful with exposed cables, broken outlets and switches, huge knife switches for disconnects and really ugly sub-panels. Looking behind some of the wall plates revealed more horror. Most of the conductors were green, but none of them were earth grounds. Fixing all this got me started, and I kept records and photos along the way thinking that what I did might be of use to other gringos who had time on their hands and a desire to live in an electrically safer and tidier home in Mexico.
Our second Mexican house was newer and appeared to be wired more to US standards. It had grounded outlets which tested correctly using a 3-light plug-in tester, and the devices were all the more modern Decora style. But further checking revealed that this house also was not wired correctly and that the simple testers do not always tell the truth. So another house was rewired.
I then got involved in the construction of a new house as a joint project with a local architect/builder. We wanted a house that came close to US standards but was built using standard Mexican masonry type construction. The electrical specifications and drawings for this house are provided as part of the book, and may be used for any new house construction.