so i'll be staying in el paso for a while kids, the weather's been kind to me and there's too much to do, it seems (unexpectedly)
our ride here from Austin Texas turned into a plutonic love affair with two Chicagonians whom we spent every waking moment with making food, dressing up like mariachis and 1990's office clerks, checkered coats and one piece stretch jean pantsuits. we biked around the steep hills of El Paso thanks to miriam and her neighbour that let me borrow her bike AND her recent issues of 'small farms journal'. el Paso, also known as 'el Chuco' or 'Chucotown', has consumed our time with tours of miriams clinic where she is studying to become a midwife. she showed us a placenta just born, met the other midwives in training. we've been to an open mic night at a fancy restaurant with BYOB - awesome talant. we've watched the tribal dances for Guadie on La Dia De Guadalupe on the steps of the catholic church downtown at night, and have found the coolest watering hole in town, the tap, which is like the woodbine only with about a seventh of the patrons and spanish love songs on the jukebox. another night we cut our hair and got tattoos.
sheri's bday took us to Soledad Canyon by Las Cruces for a hike in the mountains. we are never surrounded by trees here, only shrub, cacti, juniper, thorny bushes and patches of long grass. later we played pool and ate a massive plate of flautas with beans and rice and guac... and of course payed for it the next morning with an uncomfortable poo.
learning some interesting facts about Poncho Villa, leader and hero of the northern mexican revolution. he was a womanizer and murdered 90 soldaderas by tying them in bundles of 10-12 women, then shot and burned them because they wouldn't tell him who fired a bullet.
Juarez, the sister city south of the border, is a place i assumed i'd bypass considering it is the most violent border city on the US/Mex border. two warring drug cartels run the town, one is best friends with the president and about 10-20 murders occur daily. there have been over 1000 murders this year alone, 83 of them are targeted women that are mutilated or tortured. they are not just sex trade workers or in the drug business, they are family of doctors and teachers who refuse to accept and buy "security" from the cartel, a gangster or police. the complexity of the situation is overwhelming, the players with long stories and grudges, the history of the violence incomprehendable to me right now. 1400 women are missing in the last 10 years.
we visited Juarez yesterday and had a great visit. a dude we met randomly was going to visit friends who have been living there for 13 years, and took us along. crossing the border was breezy, we simply paid the toll and crossed the bridge over the Rio Grande (which is just a trickle right now). in Juarez, we met an amazing nun and priest (75 and 85 years old who look about 60) doing great work with womyn's organizations and youth. from there we met some local women who have started a collective making ecological toilets with ceramic, and then sell them cheaply and educate people in the community how to use them. they also have an apothecary cabinet using local herbs and someone in their community teaches them how to make salves and tinctures. there is also a computer training at this centre, and they are awaiting the arrival of a milking cow from the NGO Heifer. it should be coming soon, we saw the pen ready. these women lead incredibly hard lives raising kids, volunteering at the centre and working in the 'maquila' (factory). two women we met, Berta and Tina build cell phone chips all night long in the maquila. NAFTA has done a great job of leaving Mexico starving for processed goods. cheap mexican labour is used for assembly lines, not producing real goods or services - that is left for bigger markets in Canada and the US.
driving around Juarez was totally third world, we needed a dune buggy to evade some holes in the desert streets, most houses were made out of pallets and roofing paper or some had cinderblock walls. black crosses line the streets to mark the life of every woman that has been killed this year, militia men in head to toe black with assault rifles pull over anyone they want. we saw 3 cyclists being accosted near the border highway and were glad it wasn't us. crossing back in to the States took about 1 hour (which was not a long time for a Tuesday apparently) and due to our whiteness, a passport check wasn't needed.
i know the cold air is pushing hard on you. while the cactus christmas is totally upon us. i expected less evergreen themed yard decorations all around. santa is still in his red fleece with white trimmed fur and mittens, the plastic snowpeople somehow remain frozen in the desert heat. lots of people cheeze it up with singing LED lights all night long. there is not a lot of cacti decorations, and the town square in el Paso is lit up continuously. kinda gross...
we have decided to stay until the 25th to be with miriam. i'm hoping you all have a good holiday, spend the solstice outside, hug your neighbour, eat well and slowly, drink til rosy and stare wide eyed at the moon
love dani
No comments:
Post a Comment