Convergence
(When two or more come together in one at the same time)
Or connecting the dots
Kidnapping and extortion rumors fly across the border. From San Diego to Brownsville. Mexican Citizens, resident aliens and Americans of Mexican descent all have relatives, family and friends on the other side of the border. Even mothers and fathers are separated many times from their grown children. This is perhaps the prime lifeline of communication on what is going on in Mexico and most especially what is going on along the border.
Connecting Dots
Item: Long Time friend relates observation of an acquaintance from Michoacan Mexico and his strange behavior. His hatred of the united states and disassociate demeanor all add to the puzzle. He proclaims that in two years all the gringos along the border will be killed. Then the man from Michoacan relates the story of the meat grinder in his little village. The crowd gathered at the point of automatic rifles and the wood chipper, or was it meat grinder? cranked on, whirring and sputtering.. then the screams, the grinding, and of course the blood. Two victims are left to be processed when the machine clanks to a halt. It’s current occupant still screaming, only partially hamburger, or should it be said, human burger. He would die soon enough, the shock may get to him before the blood loss does. El Jefe loses patience, he yells vamonos! Apurate.! His sicarios mercifully make an end to the man in the meat grinder and the two awaiting it. The cost? Tres balazos to the back of the heads. The mojado from Michoacan displays no emotion during his tale, for there is no emotion left to display. There is a thing that remains and it crouches behind his dead eyes, waiting….
He makes his living now as a mojado en el otro lado. He’s one of the new breed of undocumented workers. The mojado of yesteryear was a poor individual, but honorable and hard working and loyal. Now, he’s something else entirely. He is not his fathers wetback. Some times he’s downright nuts. War will do this. War kills and wounds and maims. Not to leave out any one, it drives the rest insane.
Details of the story were fictionalized. But the grist of it is the same. No pun intended, but gallows humor is always hanging (here we go again!) o pun deaths door. ( I’m groaning as this transcribes itself seemingly out of my control).
Item 2
Twice told tale
The same tale told at the least twice from different sources. The story is essentially the same but the details are changed. For example:
A couple is driving their Suv down the highway to Cuidad Victoria, or it could be Monterrey, or Tampico or wherever. Suddenly, there is a roadblock ahead. The Federal Policemen running the checkpoint have all the requisite equipment and arms , but the gold-plated pistols pointed at the heads of the couple surely are not regulation. The couple is ordered out of their Suv and told to get the hell out of there, because the Mexican Government needs their vehicle for “propositos por estado”. These are pseudo police as you may have surmised. The pseudo-federales zoom off down the road, with the commandeered SUV. The couple walks for a few miles, then another Suv with dark tinted windows pulls up in front of them. Heavily armed men get out, open the hatch of the vehicle and there are six decapitated heads bought out for display. “ Do you recognize these guys?”
Well…Yes, they took our vehicle a couple miles back up the road”. The couple gets their vehicle back along with the explanation that they are the beneficiaries of “The Kinder, gentler cartel” that doesn’t approve of the carjcking, raping, robbing, kidnapping and extortion of La Raza…The everyday people, the civilians. This has been a common pose throughout the drug war; The Robin Hood ploy. The Noble Outlaws that protect the poor and rob the rich, or in this case sell drugs to the gringo norte-americano scum that deserves only the very worst. Because they did steal Texas, California and the entire Southwest from Mexico, and they support all the crooks in the Mexican Government etc. They don’t mention jealousy and envy and the fact that Mexicans need a scapegoat for all their self-inflicted wounds. Of course in the end it’s all just a pose.
But even bad guys want to be seen as good guys sometime….
The same story appears in other forms…The detail differs: The Suv is a tricked-out late model pickup. The carjacked couple catches a ride and only comes on the scene of the murdered pseudo police, There are as many variations as there are imaginations…But the gist is the same. Is it one story told many ways, or many stories that are very similar, or a mixture of the two scenarios. Quien sabe? Welcome to the world of Modern mexican mythology.
