Sloan & Bill

When American Airlines Flight 157 wheeled up to the customs shed at Mexico City's airport one day last week, a mariachi band struck up Guadalajara. After a suitably dramatic pause, smiling Sloan Simpson O'Dwyer, wife of the 41st U.S. envoy to Mexico, appeared in the plane's doorway, slim in a dark suit and rust-colored hat. Ambassador William O'Dwyer followed her into the morning sunshine.

Sloan was swept into a series of abrazos from the women in the unofficial welcoming party, emerging with two bouquets and smeared lipstick. Somewhat eclipsed, the new ambassador listened to a brief welcome from Alfonso Castro Valle, sub-chief of protocol. Then from his light grey suit he fished a diplomatic little speech of his own. Said O'Dwyer, in Spanish that had gone a bit rusty since his student days in Salamanca: "I feel deeply honored that I have been chosen to succeed the distinguished and able former ambassador, Mr. Walter Thurston, and I am gratified that he is remaining in Mexico* where I hope I may call upon him from time to time for advice and counsel."

Later, at the newly refurbished ambassadorial residence, O'Dwyer cautiously told interviewers that 1) Mexico is a great country, and 2) bullfighting is a great sport. Until he presents credentials to President Aleman this week, O'Dwyer will confine himself to such pleasantries.

Regardless of the U.S. political maneuvering which brought him his new post, Bill O'Dwyer seemed a happy choice for a sunny job. Mexicans were complimented by his political prominence in the U.S., pleased that he is a Catholic, and tickled with his pretty wife and his appreciation of bullfighting. In the bullfighters' Cafe Tupinamba, a torero seriously explained, "A good fan of the bulls cannot be an imperialist."'And the ballad singers in buses and bars spread the news in a hastily composed corrido:

The gringos sent an Irishman, And a girl to idolize. We will sign any treaty now, For Sloan has beautiful eyes.

* Gentle, capable Careerman Thurston, not pleased at having been shuffled out of the Mexican post to make room for O'Dwyer, has retired, at 54, to Cuernavaca, there to live with his ailing mother.

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