16 de Septiembre Parade in Juarez
By ricky carrasco
9 Oct 2009
In the months and years to come, you may hear about Juarez. If this is read in those years, you may see these pics and wonder why it looks so peaceful.
Random facts about this city:
It is currently mired in an all-out drug war, the stuff movies are made of, with violence so grisly, no movie would be able to show it. Rival cartels in Mexico have converged in Juarez to grab a piece of the multi-Billion dollar pie that is the corridor that is Juarez on one side and El Paso, Texas, on the other side, my hometown. While my town has been rated as one of the safest cities in the US (top 5 safest cities over 500,000 citizens for the last 10 years) , Juarez is now one of the deadliest in the world. It has been compared to Baghdad. My mom now takes note of the kill rate: 10 in the last two days, more than 2000 in 2008 alone, on pace to break that record this year. At first we believed only drug dealers and clients need be worried. In the last month alone, men, women, children, elderly, American citizens and Mexicans have been killed. Two drug rehab clinics were raided by drug-funded assault teams, its occupants told to kneel in the street and unceremoniously shot in the head. Just today, the mayor of a small suburb of Juarez was kidnapped and killed. Just in the last month, a man (who was later found to have drug ties) was kidnapped from his own home in an El Paso suburb (that's in the U.S., folks) in the afternoon daylight in front of his wife, kids, and neighbors at gunpoint. His mutilated body (his hands were chopped off, apparently a sign that this man stole from the cartel) was found dumped in a Juarez roadside just days later. I laughed cynically because the news reports up until that day debated who and how the abduction could be done, when anybody with current events knowledge knew how the story would turn out.
If you haven't heard of Juarez, or El Paso, or this drug war, you need to be worried. I was recently reminded that it took days to begin to send aid of any kind to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. On our own turf, our government dropped the ball to send aid to our own people...how? It seems to me that if an earthquake hits some random part of China, or if a storm hits some remote island in the middle of the ocean, US aid, be it militaristic or humanitarian, is being dropped off a helicopter before the dust can even settle.
A couple of weeks ago Texas Governor Rick Perry promised that he would start sending teams of Texas Rangers, like your state troopers, to help defend the border. Didn't we just spend a billion bucks on a coast to coast wall? (by the way, we laugh at that wall, I can only imagine what others think) I hope that its not way too little too late.
Then why this story? Because though I am a loud and proud US citizen, registered voter, educated, etc I understand my heritage comes from this country. My mother, herself a naturalized citizen, still watches the news and is hurt at how her homeland hurts and how many people are hurting it. She tells me stories of good times in Juarez, of partying, of culture and other elements of a vivacious city. Now, every time I cross, I fear for what may be around the corner. If you have read my other stories, you know that even taking out my camera, a Nikon D60, gives me pause. I fear that someone may see the money in it, or may be suspicious of my intention, or may see me as an American, an easy target or an righteous one. My mom, at 70 years old, still walks over the bridge to shop at the market two or three times a week. She gives money and food to the panhandlers. When she tells people she simply GOES to Juarez, people, young and old, men and women, are simply aghast and incredulous. They invariably turn to me and wonder why I would let her go, as if I should put my mom in shackles for her own good.
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The parade I present here is from a 16 de Septiembre celebration, similar to our 4th of July festivities. Many there worried that the parade would be cancelled. What better message about who runs the city than a few high profile kills on a celebration day. The 4 murders were actually done later that day, then back to business.
The majority of the people you see here are honest, hard-working people. Being called salt-of-the-earth is a huge compliment. Even through their current crisis, the greater majority of the people I run into are generous, polite to a fault, and hopeful. They're not jaded or cynical, for the most part, though they deserve to be. They are as proud to be Mexican as I was and am to be American after 9/11. Its almost defiance. Being here for a wide open parade is an act of defiance against, for lack of a less dramatic term, the forces of evil. The Tri-color (green, white, red) were on display everywhere, like the red, white, and blue was on defiant display post 9/11. Trust me, the kids you see here want to grow up to be Mexican and maybe wear these uniforms in proud service of their country.
From these people, you in Middle America have nothing to fear or hate. You should be rooting for them and hope they can retake their country from the drug dealers, like we should hope to take back our streets from the gangs.
I just looked over my own pics and noticed only the firefighter smiled. I also noticed that the ones being celebrated were the authorities; the officers, soldiers and service people that would enforce the peace and peace of mind in the city...and students, the ones who inherit the problems and might be called upon to solve the sins of their predecessors. Interpret what you will.
Update: The new # of dead/murdered in Mexico in the past 2 years is 14,000, and 4,000 in Juarez alone. There is a referendum in the United Nations to send their troops to stabilize the area. Remember, we share an international border, my house is just less than two miles from the border. Ft Bliss, one of the largest Army bases in the world, is less than 10 miles away (thru the city).
