Recently in Mexico Category

I'm not usually a fan of the multiple public relations pitches that come through the contact us page on Citizen Orange.  Yet, I have to admit that when someone from Big Think wrote me about the story of Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, I was hooked and had to share the story.  I'll embed the Big Think video that tells his story here, but below the fold I'll expound upon it.

I don't think U.S. citizens realize how closely the rest of the world is following the U.S. election.  I've spoken to U.S. volunteers in Guatemala and everywhere they go Guatemalans want to ask them them what their feelings are on the candidates.  According to the Christian Science Monitor, it looks as if McCain was met with "skepticism" on his trip to Mexico and Colombia.  One student in Mexico had this to say:

Some Mexicans say they favor McCain, but a zeal for Obama, as a minority, is an undertone across Latin America. "Obama will change everything if he is elected... there will be true immigration reform and not a band-aid because he has African heritage and understands the plight of immigrants," says Marco Polo Herrera, a student in Mexico City. "McCain will be more of the same."

Christian Science Monitor - Sara Miller Llana (3 July 2008)

I am still doubtful over whether or not Obama is the best candidate for those concerned with the migrant plight, but it's interesting to know that there are those in Mexico who feel that way.
  

Picture by {the infonaut} at Flickr

Sombrero tip to The Latin Americanist for this article from the Dallas Morning News:

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico – With gasoline prices hovering near $4 per gallon, Texans along the U.S.-Mexico border have discovered a cheaper alternative: Mexico.

Mexican service stations all along the border report brisk sales in recent weeks as fuel prices in Texas continue to climb.

Angela Kocherga - Dallas Morning News (10 June 2008)

As nativists continue to falsely claim that "illegal aliens are stealing from U.S. taxpayers", it looks as if U.S. citizens have found a way to steal from Mexican taxpayers.  While gas prices continue to soar in the U.S., residents are crossing over to Mexico where the gas is significantly cheaper.  Why is the gas cheaper?

I learn by talking with friends and watching films.  And occasionally, I run across a book that brings it all together.  Last week, I finally picked up Across a Hundred Mountains, a book I bought a year ago when I met the author, Reyna Grande, at a writers' conference.  As unfortunate as it was that I let it sit on the shelf for a year, the path I've been on recently, receiving much more input from and about the struggles of brown people, prepared me better to be open to this novel about being Mexican on both sides of the border.

When I came out of the sweat lodge in Tlxacalancingo last year and got hosed down, someone thrust an orange into my hands and before I knew it, I had eaten at least two, maybe three.  I was ravenous for the sweet juicy pulp.

My mind reacted to Grande's book much like my body reacted to those oranges.  I woke up to it and went to bed with it at night until it was finished, thinking about it during the day while I craved to see what the next chapter would bring.

Publishers Weekly calls it, "A topical and heartbreaking border story...Two stories cross and re-cross in unexpected ways, driving toward a powerful conclusion."

Thanks to This Week In History, I learned that there was a mass deporting of Mexicans nearly eighty years ago, implementing many of the same techniques and for many of the same reasons as the current rash of anti-immigrant governmental practices.

"A national program of deportation began in 1928 and peaked in 1931. Secretary of Labor William N. Doak instigated a scare campaign against Mexicans with immigration officers, local police and newspapers publicizing deportation “raids” as a way to frighten Mexicans into leaving voluntarily. Dr. Jorge Chinea writes that one problem with the mass departure lay in the fact that it included legal and illegal immigrants, temporary workers and permanent residents, U. S. citizens and aliens."

Sound familiar?  Find out more at the El Paso Community College Local History Project. 

A friend of mine sent me this informative and beautiful documentary the other day providing valuable insight into the places that U.S. migrants come from.

 

 

As I see things like this and these, I am increasingly heartsick.  How wrong it is, how immoral that indigenous peoples should be so maligned, so brutalized, so disrespected.  How wrong it is that they should have to fight for their space, for their survival, for their lives.  And as I watch these political candidates (and others) openly trying to turn indigenous immigrants into a collective enemy so that uninformed U.S. voters will act to shut them out, I am reminded of my trip to Mexico last March.

I had the great fortune to be allowed to accompany some students to Cholula for eight days and I will never be the same.  When I returned, I blogged about it at Why Am I Not Surprised?, but now, with all that's going on, I want to re-publish my post -- basically a string of memories -- here.  It's admittedly (and I'll warn you now) long.  It took more than a few words to capture the sense of what I learned on that trip.  But I think what I learned is very pertinent to why it hurts me so to see my sisters and brothers so ill used across the mainstream media in the U.S. now.

So when you have a little time, come take a trip with me to Mexico, where I left a bit of my heart and found a bit of my soul.

This month's National Geographic has a stunning feature on Central American migrants and their journey over Mexico's southern border.  Be sure and check out the photos and the video as well as the article. 

Kyle is very familiar with the southern border region.  Before other journalists took notice, he was there documenting the Central American migrant trail.  If you haven't seen it, by all means check out his own migrant's journey, here, and here. 

Thanks to Tomás for his tireless work in bringing articles like this to our attention.