I'm Mexican and have lived here all my 30 years of life on the Northeast side. You and your family will be safe. Cartels avoid messing with foreigners—too much heat. Look up Kiki Camarena. They (Cartels) are never as bad in the eyes of foreigners.
The low-status Mexicans working extraordinarily hard to make a living in the rural areas of Mexico have it bad, yes. They're usually exposed to minor crimes such as assaults.
But the biggest issue in Mexico is that you can't stand out. Middle, upper-middle, and high-class individuals (before having enough money to afford bodyguards) try to keep a low profile. There is a real risk that someone may want to kidnap you for as low as 25k USD. Even if you want to pay the ransom, something can go south and end badly. Crimes that are catastrophic if they happen to you.
You can't really have an apples-to-apples comparison of how safe something is because it is context-dependent. I may feel "safer" in South Chicago compared to an American, as I don't quite grasp how or why it is unsafe.
The low-status Mexicans working extraordinarily hard to make a living in the rural areas of Mexico have it bad, yes. They're usually exposed to minor crimes such as assaults.
But the biggest issue in Mexico is that you can't stand out. Middle, upper-middle, and high-class individuals (before having enough money to afford bodyguards) try to keep a low profile. There is a real risk that someone may want to kidnap you for as low as 25k USD. Even if you want to pay the ransom, something can go south and end badly. Crimes that are catastrophic if they happen to you.
You can't really have an apples-to-apples comparison of how safe something is because it is context-dependent. I may feel "safer" in South Chicago compared to an American, as I don't quite grasp how or why it is unsafe.