I used to drive to various points in Baja in the 80s and never had issues other than corrupt cops in TJ stealing my beer money. Most states in mexico seen reasonable in the daylight. Michoacan and Chiapas are down right terrifying at night, though it is a generally bad idea to drive anywhere in mexico at night.
A young man in MO from southern Mexico told me quite a bit in the late ‘70s about where he grew up in southern Mexico before then. He was not much over 4 feet tall, for real. He was easy going. With a few nights of narration, he painted a very interesting picture of life down there and back then.
Things have changed much since then according to another laborer in CO a few years back. Work, housing, much of it very different and more contemporary.
Went with family as a boy to visit some stores on a dirt street in Laredo in the ‘60s. Wow. Culture shock. ;)
My friend grew up in a German enclave in Mexico City. The stories he has. Everyone owns a dog and has bars on their windows in the big city. And it is well known that if you have money to keep an eye on your kids, or they will be targets for kidnapping. And never ever trust the police.
A neighbor (Apache descendant, pretty cool) up on the Range in CO tried to talk me into buying Mexican land and moving down there. He said there were no land use or building regulations. :) It probably would have been fun, but we were having enough of an adventure on the Range in spite of the lefty majority there.