NewsTaco

By  Marc Rodriguez

Regrettably, for many, human nature is a strong enough force to weaken individuals to the extent that they often concede and elect to “follow the path of least resistance.” And often, this phenomenon becomes prevalent during times when thoughts and ideas are generated or individual postures are taken on matters, including those of critical significance.

It can sort of run akin to multitasking – but in this case, I would imagine, the aversion is to a broad collection of perspectives and principles that need managing. One idea or thought is much easier to handle than several. Or there could potentially be other driving forces that would create this type of behavioral reticence – upbringing, culture, psychology or even politics. Whatever the origin, most people believe broader, more thoughtful and inclusive approaches that are taken to achieve goals regardless of the scope of the mission are wise.

Holistic, multi-faceted strategies more often than not deliver more successful outcomes because they typically employ disciplines that are diverse. The more sophisticated and complicated the piece of machinery, the less likely a rudimentary, monolithic and basic approach will be effective. And there are few more highly complicated pieces of machinery than the issue of immigration.

To date, the immigration debate has unanimously spawned two particular schools of thought – one being a more institutional policy that’s been the general “rule of law” for the past several decades, and the other a more recent perspective that hasn’t benefited from any form of legislation. The two schools of thought are 1) exclusive border enforcement and 2) comprehensive immigration reform.

Since the United States began a less symbolic form of border enforcement (meaning when principles became policy) in the mid-1960s, strong border enforcement has been the tactic used to keep illegal immigrants out of the country. The belief is that a strong and growing Border Patrol force; ongoing construction of fences and walls; and state-of-the-art technologic resources will decrease the flow of illegal immigrants entering the country or prevent them from entering. Illegal immigration has always been a challenge faced by our nation, but it has truly become a significant dilemma over the last four decades. And as a result, the U.S. Border Patrol budget increased by a factor of 10 between 1986 and 2002, and the number of Border Patrol agents has tripled.

In 2002, the Border Patrol became the largest arms-bearing branch of the U.S. Government next to the military itself. The chart below illustrates how profoundly spending on immigration enforcement has advanced during the presidential administrations since 2002. Moreover, Predator Drones are currently flown above our southern border; the only other region in which the United States does this is Afghanistan. So the argument that our government has not done a sufficient job securing our border could be considered slightly flawed.

Regrettably, however, the currently employed mono-tactic of strong border enforcement has not been very successful because illegal immigration has not been curbed to an acceptable level. Ongoing border studies indicate that illegal immigration continues to rise (with the exception of the last two years resulting from economic decline in the United States).

In fact, there seems to be little evidence that border buildup had dissuaded undocumented immigrants from crossing the border. This policy has actually backfired, bringing about outcomes precisely opposite of those sought to achieve. Not only have they failed to deter border crossings, they have promoted a more rapid growth of the country’s undocumented population. Paradoxically, studies are showing the following:

• The cost to taxpayers per border apprehension is increased.
• Immigrants planning on returning to their home countries are more likely to stay in the United States because of challenges crossing.
• There is an increase in the number of border deaths; crossers are channeled to dangerous border crossing areas, which increases the likelihood of death.

Many believe it’s now time to employ a broader strategy that assesses the multiple cultural, ethical and economic factors involved in this issue in order to reduce undocumented immigration. The current migration system functions as a highly integrated apparatus, and would be better served with a multidimensional approach in order to reform. There are several components at play associated with the issue to which our government should respond.

To bring current flows of migrants into the open, Congress should create a new category of temporary visa that permits the migrant to work for two years with a once-in-a-lifetime option for renewal, but only after the migrant has returned home. This program would guarantee the rights of temporary migrants, protect the interests of American workers and satisfy the demands of employers by moving toward a free and open North American labor market.

Additionally, the U.S. Government should consider charging migrants a $400 fee upfront or in low-interest installments for each visa. A $400 fee paid by 300,000 migrants would yield annual revenues of $120 million. As an additional source of revenue, the government could target federal taxes (Social Security and income taxes) withheld from the paychecks of temporary migrants for immigrant-related services.

The US-Mexico migration system functions as a very complicated piece of machinery. Unfortunately, the steps we’ve taken to correct malfunctions have been simple – investing in border enforcement and resources as a single method. The current law is fundamentally at odds with the reality of the North American economy and labor market. The “path of least resistance,” regrettably, has not been successful.

Tackling this issue will take some multitasking and creative thinking rather than a simple and very expensive fix. Once we recognize the immigration issue for what it is (an involved piece of socio-economic machinery), the more possible it will be to improve how the system operates.

The path that needs to be taken to reform the system should not be resisted. It’s also part of our human nature to attempt things that are challenging and difficult. That’s one of the things that makes our country great.

Marc Rodriguez is vice president/co-founder of the Latino Briefing Room, a Latino news-focused Web network providing content on commerce, government, religion and breaking news. The site is geared toward Latinos in the United States who want to stay on top of pertinent issues. For more information, visit www.latinobriefingroom.com.

[Photo By US Govt]

By John Lindsay-Poland, otherwords.org

In the grotesque wars that pit Mexican armed forces and drug cartels against each other and civilians who get in their way, the Zetas cartel plays a fearsome role. Born of U.S.-trained Mexican special forces who began working as muscle for the Gulf drug cartel, the Zetas rapidly expanded by employing methods aimed at terrorizing opponents and civilians alike: decapitations, public hangings, and mutilations.

Although the otherwise dominant Sinaloa federation of Mexican drug cartels is responsible for more than 80 percent of drug war murders in that country, the Zetas’ exotic cruelty gets more media coverage. Last month, alleged Zeta men torched a casino in Monterrey, killing 52 people inside, mostly older women. A policeman and the brother of Monterrey’s mayor have also been implicated in the crime, illustrating how Mexican officials are often participants in the same organized crime politicians say they are fighting.

The Zetas’ gruesome tactics have earned them a place on the United States’ short global list of criminal syndicates, and as a central target in $1.5 billion of U.S. military aid to Mexico since 2008.

And the Zetas are expanding their operations. A recent report by InSight Crime details the Zetas’ move into Guatemala and provides an important understanding of the Zetas’ military and commercial logic. Their income comes not just from drug profits, but by taxing all legal and illicit commercial activity in the territory that they control. Those who don’t pay the Zetas’ “tax” face their terrible and certain wrath. The Zetas draw on their military training and access to high-powered weapons to enforce such territorial advances.

The Zetas have also recruited former members of Guatemala’s feared commandos, known as Kaibiles. The Kaibiles gained a reputation for cruelty during Guatemala’s attempted genocide in the 1980s. In July, four Kaibiles were convicted for their part in the brutal Dos Erres massacre of 1982, in which the soldiers raped women, smashed babies’ skulls, and murdered 251 Mayan villagers. The Zetas apparently saw the Kaibiles’ methods as useful to their own expansion.

For more than two decades, U.S. assistance to the Guatemalan army was partially banned because of these atrocities. Now, the United States is aiding the Guatemalan army, including providing a barracks renovation by the Army Corps of Engineers in Poptun, a remote town in the Central American country’s northwestern Petén province that hosts the Kaibiles training facility. U.S. Embassy officers who visited the Poptun base in October 2009 wrote a glowing assessment of U.S. Special Forces living with Kaibiles forces. Last September, a squad of 40 U.S. Marines trained Kaibiles soldiers on the base.

“The drug cartels are made up of Guatemalans who are guided by the cartels, such as the Zetas and the Gulf. Many of the low-ranking [cartel] officers were trained in the same military school that is located in Poptun,” a government official told Global Post. Former Kaibil soldiers “follow orders, kill, use military strategies to persuade people,” the official said.

Now, according to InSight Crime, the Zetas have established a base in the same small jungle town where the U.S. military has been upgrading facilities and training soldiers from a unit linked to the Zetas.

What better demonstration is there of the Drug War’s perverse logic? The U.S. military trains poorly paid young men with few work options to kill, which plays directly into the game of narcotraffickers.

It’s time to re-cast U.S. drug policy in Mexico and Guatemala and stop supporting military training programs that end up aiding drug traffickers. Reducing the demand for illegal drugs would be more effective than arming the “good guys” in a futile and violent fight to stamp out the supply.

Instead of contributing to a bloodbath in Latin America, Washington should deal with U.S. drug abuse as the public health problem that it is.

By Melissa del Bosque

There were a lot of stark contrasts this week on our weekly NewsTaco roundup.

For example, while we featured a piece by Salomón Baldenegro about Arizona’s racist stance on ethnic studies, a Texas college implemented the first ever totally online Mexican-American studies degree. While Alabama’s immigration law is resulting in students disappearing from its schools, a Texas non-profit is engaging its Latino students to great results. A recent report found widespread abuses by the Border Patrol, even as a few retired military men in Texas claim that militarizing the border is the only solution to what they fallaciously term a “war zone” in that area of the country.

So, I’m going to break it down for you really quickly here and then list my picks for your extensive perusal. Have a great Sunday!

Sara’s Top Pick:

• Steve Murdock: Educating Latinos Vital To Future Of U.S.

Culture:

A new report commissioned by Texas’ next wannabe Lieutenant Governor and current Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples literally labels the border as a warzone. This, despite actual reality and statistics to the contrary.

Ultimately what this report represents is the theft of the daily reality lived by millions of people along the U.S.-Mexico border by partisan politicos who are invested not in the best interests of Texas, but in their own selfish ends. Making the border into a war zone is fodder not just for political campaigns, but for untold gobs of money to be used for “border security,” by say, retired military men and overzealous politicians?

The report, “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment” is bogus for many reasons. First, why is a state-sponsored report that cost taxpayers $80,000 taking a militaristic point of view? Is this about public safety or employing two retired military men with connections? The report’s authors, retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales and Gen. Barry McCaffrey, actually claim that their anecdotal evidence is more important than actual statistical proof (that comes from agencies like, say, the Texas Department of Public Safety) because, ”You don’t wait for the statistics to be rolled out.”

Among the fallacies in the report from The Austin American-Statesman:

…McCaffrey raised eyebrows when he spoke of “hundreds of people murdered on our side of the frontier,” a statistic that far exceeded the 22 killings between January 2010 and May 2011 identified by the Department of Public Safety as being related to drug cartels. When asked about the number, McCaffrey pointed to statements from a Brooks County rancher, who told reporters that hundreds of bodies had been found in the county in recent years.

Most of the bodies were those of illegal immigrants crossing the brush trying to avoid the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias and not victims of direct assaults, according to the Brooks County sheriff’s department.

That these fools made more for one fabricated report than some Texas families make in a year is laughable, but what’s tragic is that this is actually a state-sanctioned action. Half of the report is made up of “attachments” of other agencies’ documents and includes (predictably) untold numbers of military-style acronyms and scary-sounding phrases like, “ Mexico: Our Vulnerable Center of Gravity” (How does that even make sense?). Now, ignoring the fact that normal reports include appendices and references, as opposed to attachment and bibliographies, I’m going to venture to say that these guys are not who we need to be either investigating or prescribing policy for the State of Texas. The fact that the state’s Agricultural Commissioner is sacrificing the dignity and actual pressing needs of millions of Texans to promote some sort of wacko fantasy of two retired military guys that they are going to help prevent war along the border.

And, as I mentioned earlier, the people hurt the most by this are ultimately border residents themselves, who may not be living in the midst of a drug-fueled war zone, but are suffering from other tangible problems, such as poverty, unemployment, lack of health care, under-funded schools and other less sexy, less military-like problems. It’s too bad that Staples and his buddies are too busy playing war games to notice that the closest thing to a war being played out on the border is the one between fantasy and reality.

[Photo By Semhur]

Last week I posted on Facebook that, sometimes, people are frustrated by my Spanglish speaking ways. But, that’s the way I think — so ni modo. I got some interesting response and so wanted to explore this topic further.

The truth is that I learned English and Spanish at the same time growing up, after my parents divorced, my mom spoke mostly English to my brother and I, so I lost a lot of the Spanish I knew. When I went to college I was determined to reclaim my bilingualism, and so to this end, I spent my junior year of college studying in Monterrey.

When I came back to the U.S., I found I had temporarily acquired a Regiomontano accent and that many people didn’t understand or were familiar with the Spanish I spoke. Ah, regionalisms. After college when I started working along the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas was really when Spanglish took root in my soul. Up to that point, I had kept the languages mostly separate.

My time in Brownsville was the first time in my life that I realized there was a language between English and Spanish that was spoken just like any other — with established and culturally accepted rules. You don’t just randomly mix two languages together and get Spanglish, rather, certain phrases are more likely to be said in Spanish and others in English; then both mix together and you get Spanglish.

After my time in Brownsville, I found that it was too late to go back — my mind had come to accept Spanglish as the SOP for my world. It’s especially funny, these days in LA, when I bust out in Spanglish and people don’t really get my South Texas Spanglish, but think I’m talking funny. Although I do know how to speak completely either in English or Spanish, this is often easier said than done when I’m in my normal, everyday mode. My brain simply doesn’t distinguish between the languages with a wall anymore: comparable, one might say, to my life and the way my English and Spanish worlds collide.

So, all I ask is a little bit of understanding from people who think it’s “trashy” or “uneducated” to speak in Spanglish. First of all, it’s ignorant for you to make that judgement when you don’t understand how language evolved this way, what’s more, mixing languages this way is pretty much the way language has been evolving since it began gajillions of years ago. Secondly, for those of my friends in LA who don’t “get it,” I’ll try a little harder to learn the LA version of Spanglish.

By Melissa del Bosque

The Department of Homeland Security is pushing for 14 miles of border wall to be built through Hidalgo and Starr counties even though it could flood U.S. towns and violate a treaty with Mexico.

In 2006, Congress passed its Secure Fence Act mandating the construction of 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Hundreds of Texas landowners were sued and their land seized by the Department of Homeland Security.

Residents in the communities of Roma, Los Ebanos and Rio Grande City got a reprieve from construction, however, because of “engineering and hydraulic problems,” according to U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, who said in a 2008 McAllen Monitor story: “Realistically and practically, they’re basically passing this decision (on the border fence) to the next administration. Certainly, for my constituents, we have a victory.”

The “engineering and hydraulic problems” the Congressman alluded to was the fact that the 18-foot impermeable fence would have to be constructed in a floodplain to fulfill the congressional mandate. Building a fence that costs approximately $4.5 million a mile in a floodplain sounds like a joke. And it would be if taxpayers weren’t paying for it, and if it weren’t common practice for the Department of Homeland Security to build fences in washes, floodplains and riverbeds along the border.

Recently, 40 feet of steel border fence washed away during a flash flood in the Arizona desert. This was after the U.S. Border Patrol had been warned by Arizona park officials that the fence would be washed away during the summer monsoon season. Despite their warnings, Border Patrol issued an environmental assessment saying that the fence “would not impede the natural flow of water or cause flooding.”

The destroyed fence constructed by Kiewit Western Co. cost taxpayers $21.3 million to build, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

When it comes to the border wall, the Department of Homeland Security has a history of avoiding scientific data and environmental impacts when it stands in the way of constructing border fence.

The 14-mile section of border fence through Roma, Los Ebanos and Rio Grande City is no different. Several hydrological studies conducted by a private firm Baker Engineering hired by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have shown that an 18-foot impermeable fence in a floodplain will either push floodwaters into Mexico – violating a 1970 international treaty or it will worsen flooding on the U.S. side of the border.

Despite the findings, government documents reveal that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (the DHS agency) which oversees construction of the fence is pushing the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), which has jurisdiction over the Rio Grande to sign off on building the 14-mile fence in the floodplain.

In a February 2010 letter, David Aguilar, CBP’s deputy commissioner applied pressure to IBWC’s Commissioner Ed Drusina to approve the project despite his agency and Mexico’s opposition to constructing the fence.

“Because the Mexican Section of the IBWC has opposed all proposed border fencing within the Rio Grande and Colorado Rivers’ floodplains since the enactment of the Secure Fence Act (regardless of the expected floodplain impacts), Commissioner Ruth was not optimistic that the Mexican Commissioner would agree to support the proposed fencing and indicated during the January 6th meeting that an unilateral decision would likely be needed to construct the fence segments. We understand that the Mexican Commissioner did in fact recently inform Commissioner Ruth that Mexico would oppose the fence segments if formally submitted to them for consideration.  For the numerous reasons stated above, we respectfully request that the USIBWC and Department of State reconsider your position and approve a unilateral decision to allow us to proceed with the design and construction of the O-1, O-2 and O-3 fence segments.”

The IBWC was not persuaded, however. “Until other analysis can demonstrate that the fence will not deflect flows or increase water elevation above our criteria we must again deny our support for the proposed alignment of the fence…” wrote Commissioner Drusina to Alan Bersin, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

Bersin wrote back asking for a meeting with high level officials from the State Department, the IBWC and USCBP to talk about “challenges” to building the border fence segments “which are urgently needed to secure this area of the border.”  One challenge Bersin listed was “Mexico’s recent opposition to border fencing regardless of hydraulic modeling results.”

IBWC met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection two more times. The end result was that CBP paid Baker Engineering to create yet another flood model, to try and prove that a wall in a floodplain was a good idea, says border resident Scott Nicol, a Sierra Club volunteer and author of the No Border Wall blog. Nicol learned of this during a conference call with IBWC officials. He also learned that the Baker Engineering report will be turned over to IBWC any day. If the agency signs off on it CBP could begin construction of the fence. The Department of Homeland Security has already seized several properties in these cities and is making an effort to speed up lawsuit settlements with landowners.

Nicol started looking into the new fence construction after he saw a brief mention of it in a government report last spring. “I thought they’d given up,” he says. “But apparently they were really pushing to get it done.”

Nicol worries that the new fence segments will flood the U.S. communities. He’s examined the various Baker Engineering flood models and is especially concerned about the Los Ebanos wall.

“It could have serious implications for local residents,” he says. “There at the split point the river takes a sharp southward bend, while the wall runs due east. There could conceivably be a dry space between the community, which would have water sent towards it by the wall, and the river to its south (near the hand-drawn ferry). Even worse, the wall abruptly turns to the north at the end of town. This could bottle up waters that have been split off from the river, trapping flood water in the community.”

The question for these border communities now is will the IBWC be steamrollered by the Department of Homeland Security? It’s happened before and it could happen again. And if it does, once again U.S. taxpayers and border communities will pay the price.

[Photo By newstaco]

By Mariana Garza

What would “good” immigration policy look like?

I think about immigration — the act of entering and settling in a country of which you are not a native — constantly. I was never supposed to be an immigration lawyer, I stumbled upon this practice in a rather different way. I found myself on a weekly radio show in South Texas speaking in Spanish and playing old Los Tigres del Norte songs these days.

The plan was to talk about my bankruptcy practice, in addition to politics. We’d read tips about what to do if you’re pulled over, we announced “no refusal” weekends in Spanish. Then one Friday, from the middle of nowhere (Freer, Texas actually — where my older brother is a high school band director) a woman called and asked me about adopting a young girl who had entered this country without inspection. That is to say, who had entered this country “illegally.”

Then the calls kept coming.

People who had petitioned for their uncles, aunts, siblings, children. People who knew that the Rockport, Texas police department was stopping drivers for being brown, people who wished for a national Dream Act, people who simply wanted to say they were here illegally and they wanted to thank us for talking about immigration, people who had become naturalized U.S. Citizens.

Today in my office I met with a beautiful family. They speak English, their son has just lost his first tooth, they are expecting their second child. The father works in the oil and gas industry, the mother in a restaurant. But because she walked across a bridge two hours away from where we sat and talked, she was “illegal.” Because no one stamped her passport, a piece of paper that is simply for those who can afford it in places like these — she couldn’t afford a passport.

Twelve years ago, she was a teenager who desperately believed in a better life, a life where she could have a home and feel safe. She broke a law, yes. Simply put: she broke a law so she could survive. She left a country that has been gutted by our “good” policies. She left to find work, she left because she could read and write and she saw a better life for herself.

And work she did. From restaurant busing to grocery bagging to cooking to elder care to field work — she has done it all. She worked at a restaurant in a small town near my office when she was set up by her future mother-in-law to meet her husband. Since then, they have done nothing but work for a good “American” life. He is a citizen and she crossed a line two hours from here to meet the love of her life.

They enjoy the Olive Garden and watching their son play tee-ball.

So why are they different from you and I? What does “good” policy mean? I simply don’t know. I do know that I will prostrate my life, mind and soul for these people. For people who simply walked a meter to a better life, to better opportunity. Why? Because I have been there. I grew up in what I thought was a one-horse town. I desperately wanted a better life.

If someone told you that a “better” world was just an hour or two away, what would you do? If someone told you that your children’s school wouldn’t be shut down because of gun violence just an hour away, what would you do? If someone told you that you were safer, that your family would survive, that there was work, that you would live to breathe another day, what would you do? You know what “good” immigration policy looks like? Not like an open border, more like an open mind.

Mariana Garza is an attorney who lives in Corpus Christi, Texas.

[Photo By Daquella manera]

[Editors Note: The following is a press release from the Pew Hispanic Center.]

As the death toll continues to rise in Mexico’s drug war, a new survey by Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project finds that fewer than half (45%) of Mexicans say their government is making progress in its campaign against drug cartels; 29% say the government is losing ground and 25% say things are about the same as they have been in the past.

Still, an overwhelming majority (83%) continues to endorse the use of the Mexican army to fight drug traffickers, virtually unchanged in recent years. Moreover, many welcome U.S. help in training Mexican police and military personnel and providing money and weapons to Mexican police and military forces.

And while Mexicans broadly oppose the deployment of U.S. troops to combat drug traffickers in Mexico (38% support and 57% oppose), more now support this strategy than did so in 2010, when only about a quarter favored the deployment of U.S. troops in their country and two-thirds opposed it.

When asked who is most to blame for the drug violence in their country, more now say both Mexico and the U.S. are to blame than did so in recent surveys. About six-in-ten (61%) Mexicans blame both nations; 51% held this view in 2009 and 2010. Currently, 18% say the U.S. is mostly to blame and about the same percentage (16%) blame Mexico; a year ago, nearly twice as many said the U.S. was mostly to blame as named Mexico (27% vs. 14%).

The survey of Mexico, conducted between March 22 and April 7, also finds:

• U.S. Image: The image of the U.S. has rebounded somewhat since the passage of Arizona’s controversial immigration bill in April 2010, but it remains far more negative than it was prior to the law’s enactment.  Currently, a slim majority (52%) of Mexicans hold a favorable view of the U.S., while 41% express a negative opinion.
• Views of Life in the United States: Fewer than half (44%) of Mexicans now say people from their country who move to the U.S. have a better life than those who stay in Mexico. In 2009, nearly six-in-ten (57%) said this was the case. Most Mexicans (61%) say they would not move to the U.S. if they had the means and opportunity to do so, which is similar to 2009 findings.
• Biggest Problems Facing the Country: Mexicans most frequently name crime (80%) and cartel-related violence (77%) as very big problems. Roughly seven-in-ten (71%) see illegal drugs in the same light. Most (69%) also describe economic problems as a major challenge. Slightly smaller numbers place corruption (65%) and terrorism (62%) in this category. Just half say people leaving the country for jobs elsewhere is a major issue.
• Views of President Calderón and the National Government: Most Mexicans continue to say that President Calderón and the national government are having a positive impact on the country. Nearly six-in-ten (57%) say the president’s influence is good, while 54% give the national government a positive rating. Compared with two years ago, however, views of Calderón and the government have become increasingly negative.

The report, ”Crime and Drug Cartels Top Concerns in Mexico,” can be accessed on the Pew Research Center’s Pew Global Attitudes Project website.

The Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Global Attitudes Project are projects of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, non-advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C. and funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

By Wuicho Vargas

Music, for me is more than just a bunch of notes played together at a certain rhythm. Music, for me, es vida!  I listen to all kinds of music, from the roots rock reggae to classical like Wagner or Chopin — but my all time favorite is Tejano. This music started back the 1800s here in Texas around the San Antonio area and has stayed put as the years have gone by, loyal to its humble roots.

In the 1900s it began evolving and turned into something of an anthem for Tejanos. We must thank the Polish and Germans who came to Texas for their accordion and polkas that proved a huge influence on Tejano, a largely bilingual genre. Tejano is a language, culture, struggle, history and a way of life Music makes up a major part but it does not conglomerates everything about being Tejano.

But times change and, recently, due to an increase in Mexican (national) population in the Rio Grande Valley here in south Texas, the only radio station that played Tejano music turned into an all Spanish station, and, no more Tejano will be played. The change made a lot of people angry, but, it was done due to money, plain and simple. Owners of the station needed ratings and the Mexican population is the one that listens to the radio and buys the CDs, not the Tejano music lovers.

But I think that this still is Texas and Tejano music was created here therefore, I think, we should still have Tejano music in the Valley.  Don’t you think?  Even if it is in the AM radio band, but keep Tejano in the Valley.

It is almost comical to hear such tremendous and painful truth.  When here, on our backyards, gave birth to Freddy Fender, Little Joe y la Familia, Gilberto Perez, Steve Jordan and many other Tejano music legends — legends! Their popularity may not still be way up there, but it never was. Tejano survived all this years because it is a reflection of Tejano culture, from the mastering in the usage and display of la accordión with the bajo sexto, to the musicalization of labor workers’ struggles.

Tejano Music is Texas, and Tejano music is our walking history.

Thanks to the merciful hand of Corpus Christi, our neighboring town three hours north on expressway 77, we still have a Tejano radio station. There aren’t any radio hosts yet; there is no more “la clica crew,” like there was on the other radio station. Without Tejano, we have been sent back at least a couple of hundred years, but at least without it, people will start appreciating it more. Especially because it will show the huge difference between Tejano music and some Mexican music genres, such as narco corridos or the “movimiento alterado,” which idolizes the narco way of life.

I’d rather listen to Tejano music and remember what love is every time a song comes up. I’ll remember my grandpa, tíos and tías working en la labor and remember how my ‘buelito would eat oranges while listening to Tony de la Rosa and Rubén Vela. I don’t believe that the issue here is that the radio turned into an Spanish station, because I am too a Mexican born and raised, but the simple fact that we are denying the importance of the music in culture is a tragedy.

This isn’t a cultural war won by Mexicans over Tejanos, but it is rather an exhibition of division. This has shown me that there is a big gap between Tejanos and mexicanos.  The constant influx of Mexican immigrants into this area is not informed about the culture; they are here for the money and security for their children. We, as Tejanos, should teach the newbies about Tejano culture and open up our arms to welcome them instead of creating barriers which divide and isolate both cultures from each other and in result create this gaps where this types of changes could be made.

For better or for worse, music is people, and if there isn’t any Tejano music, it is as if Tejano people are also absent.

[Photo By jimcintosh]

[Editor's note: This post was originally published on March 9, 2010.]

By Melissa del Bosque

An explosion of violence has occurred in the state of Tamaulipas in the last few weeks, and also around the city of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon. From what I hear from friends and family in Mexico is that both the Mexican and U.S. press are only reporting a fraction of what is happening.

Mexican journalists are being tortured, killed and kidnapped along the border to the point where much of the news about narco violence goes unreported.

The Committee to Protect Journalists yesterday demanded that the Mexican government investigate kidnappings and killings of journalists covering the cartel violence in Reynosa just across the border from McAllen, according to a San Antonio Express-News report Monday.

Increasingly, Mexicans are turning to Twitter, Facebook and online chat forums to document the violence erupting around them. Mexicans have distrusted the media for decades since it has a long history of being co-opted by the government which hands out mordidas “bribes” like candy. (The brave and trustworthy reporters who do exist and do an admirable job are being killed, or threatened with death). Mexicans also don’t trust their government to release reliable information. Often they don’t release any information on the gun battles between cartels and the military anyway.

Increasingly, Mexicans are circumventing the old modes of information and relying on the Internet. The other day I received a mass email from a friend in Durango asking that others in Mexico join her in documenting the violence around them with cameras and putting it online.

“An ignorant people is a people condemned to failure,” my friend wrote. “We use the computer to entertain ourselves with silly things but we can also create citizen networks like they created so many years ago in Colombia, only in Internet form.”

To give an idea of how profoundly social media is shaping the psyche of Mexicans, I canceled a trip to Matamoros two weeks ago because a viral email was circulating there that gunfights were going to erupt between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel that day. People in Matamoros were staying home, keeping their children out of school and not going out.  I felt like a real wimp for not going, but the paranoia was starting to overtake me as well. Why go, if I didn’t need to?, said a nagging little voice in my head. And so I succumbed to the “Psychosis en el Pueblo.”

Grupo Reforma, a chain of newspapers in Mexico, has started chat forums for different Mexican states along the border to give citizens an outlet. Grupo Reforma writes at the top of the forum:

“With the increase in violence in border cities there has been a flood of rumors of gunfights with little information from the authorities. This has created a psychosis among the people. What is reality?”

Good question. What in the hell is going on in Mexico? On February 28, a pretty extraordinary post was uploaded to the Reforma site. Who knows if it is real or not, but it has gone viral in Mexico.

Apparently, the post is from the “The New Federation.” In the post it says the cartels have banded together to stamp out los Zetas and “bring tranquility back to the people.”

The Zetas are former U.S trained government special forces that went into the drug business a few years back. Their territory is around Reynosa and Matamoros, across from Brownsville and McAllen. They’ve split form the Gulf Cartel and hence the gun battles that have erupted in the past month.

Things have been especially awful in Reynosa, across from McAllen. The post says that the turning point for the formation of the cartels against the Zetas was the brutal killing of the teenagers in Juarez in January.

“The water that broke the dam for society was the death of the children at the party in Juarez,” they
write.

They then direct people from Reynosa to keep their children out of school and to not go out into the streets until further notice.

They tell people in Monterrey to go about there business and to not get too paranoid.

“El Chapito, CDG y la familia in this agreement  are going to respect the plazas, they are not going to charge more fees and they are going to prohibit the kidnappings,” the New Federation writes.

They also write that the media is remaining quiet as part of the agreement.   Then they give a tip of the hat to Reforma for its chat forum “We give applause to Grupo Reforma for this space. There is no other, this is the only form.”

Apparently, the media that is not remaining quiet in Reynosa is being kidnapped or killed?

Members of each cartel are marking their trucks so that everyone knows who they are. Friends tell me it’s not uncommon these days to see  a line of SUVs filled with masked men with Ak-47s driving down the street. No one knows who they are or who they work for.

What will happen next? Chances are Mexicans won’t tune into their radios or turn on the TV to find out. Instead they’ll turn on their computer and start looking for answers.

[Photo By @lasantamuerte]

By Melissa del Bosque

On Monday, July 25, there was a riot in the Cereso state prison in Juarez and 17 people were killed. The prison is divided between the Sinaloa and Carrillos Fuentes cartels with the various cartel gangs separated in different wings of the prison. The Mexicles are in one section, the Aztecas in another. The nicest wing of the prison is run by the powerful Sinaloa Cartel. Before the bloodshed began, prisoners were allegedly participating in an “orgy” with prostitutes and underage girls.

The El Paso Times elaborated on it further, “Officials on Wednesday confirmed witness accounts that before the violence broke out, there was a party in the Aztecas area of the Cereso that involved sex, drugs and alcohol. Witnesses told police that several teenage girls and prostitutes were at the party, and that Cereso prison officers also attended.

Officials said officers that night encountered a 15-year-old girl who had been held illegally at the Cereso since June 24.

The fighting, or rather massacre, happened in the Aztecas wing of the prison, where men work for the Carrillo Fuentes cartel. Video footage from the prison shows masked men with semiautomiatic wepaons being let into the prison wing by guards. Mexican officials attributed the shooting to the Artistas Asesinos and Mexicles gangs, which collaborate with Chapo Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel, according to the El Paso Times.

How could a prison be in such anarchy? Recently, I visited the Juarez jail and got a pretty good idea why. Increasingly, across Mexico powerful cartel bosses are running the prisons. While not a new concept in Mexico, prison “self rule” where the criminals run the prison is increasing in the country, USA Today reported in April. These days, jails are recruiting grounds for cartel gunmen. When cartel bosses are in need of more gunmen in their battles over smuggling territories they send a convoy to the jail to pick up inmates. Ironically, Mexican taxpapers, who pay for these prisons, are picking up the tab for feeding and housing the cartels’ recruits.

Following is a short piece in this month’s Observer on my visit to the Juarez jail:

It’s visitors day at the state jail in Juarez. The first tip-off that something is amiss is the sight of a young woman in black hot pants quickly being ushered inside. She’s escorted by prison guards past a line of family members patiently waiting in the broiling mid-day sun. Turns out she’s a prostitute ordered up by an inmate.

Criminals run the Juarez jail and money can get you anything you want. The nicest part of the prison is run by the Sinaloa Cartel. Inside the white stucco fortress are two restaurants, a hair salon, a store, carpentry workshops and even a cockfighting ring. The Sinaloa wing of the prison is overseen by a man the prisoners refer to as “The Assassin,” alleged to have killed at least 200 people.

With so many enemies on the outside, The Assassin is seldom seen roaming the prison. Bodyguards keep a close watch over the floor where he lives. The Assassin runs his section of the jail like a small-town mayor. He recently ordered the construction of a petting zoo with ducks, rabbits and goats for kids to play with on family days. He also instigated the planting of a garden plot with corn and beans.

Under a shaded portico, women chat with their husbands at picnic tables, eating snacks and drinking sodas as children run around the courtyard. Some children play video games. At a prison restaurant called “The Dwarf” (after the proprietor), I order a plate of beef flautas and a Coke. The owner and his wife prepare the food while their five-year-old daughter runs in and out of the kitchen. A TV on top of the refrigerator drones with a popular soap opera.

After lunch I tour the carpentry workshop. The barn-like room is stocked with wood and tools for furniture making. An older Mennonite man, serving time for transporting marijuana, plays dominoes at a card table with his wife and kids. I say “good afternoon” to a short, hunched man holding a broom and he nods back. I’m later told that he killed 20 women.

In Mexico, prisons run by criminals, often referred to as self-rule prisons, are on the rise. In a recent report by the National Human Rights Commission, the agency found self-rule in 37 percent of the country’s prisons—up from 30 percent in 2009. With so many jails being run by inmates, it’s not unusual for convicts to walk out the front door. Last year, in Mexico’s largest jail break in history, 153 men filed out of a Nuevo Laredo prison, boarded a yellow school bus and other vehicles in a cartel convoy and drove away. At the prison in Juarez, an inmate escaped after being carried out the front door in a piece of furniture. The guards never looked inside.

[Photo By derekskey]

Tucson, Arizona – The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) laments the entry into force of SB 1406 today, a measure that will allow Arizona to build its own border wall using inmate labor and private contractors. We believe that this project will be a waste of taxpayer dollars and do nothing to improve the border region’s quality of life or fix our nation’s immigration system.

“In these days of budget struggles and draconian cuts to our state’s health care and education programs, our legislators show more interest in sealing Arizona from the world instead of protecting our most vulnerable,” said Border Action Network Policy Director and SBCC Steering Committee member Jaime Farrant. “While the state claims to have no money for schools, our legislature and governor gave the approval to raise donations and potentially use state funding for what will only amount to a political stunt.”

The public hearings regarding SB 1406 lacked serious debate.  Various legislators voiced concerns about the potential risk of placing thousands of inmates at our international border to build this wall. In response, Rep. Terri Proud (R-26) said, “If a prisoner who is getting three meals a day, clothing, a shower and other accommodations […] wants to flee to Mexico, as I see it, we’ve been taking their crime. They can take ours.”

SBCC Co-Chair Christian Ramirez further added, “The Federal Government currently spends between up to $4 million per mile on its border fence, without taking into account maintenance costs. Arizona, meanwhile, claims that their fence will be built on the cheap, with inmate labor that pays 50 cents an hour. We doubt that this will be the case.”

Furthermore, SB 1406’s sponsor, Sen. Steve Smith (R-23), dismissed questions about how the wall will be designed, where it will be built and how it will be maintained by calling them “great what ifs.” 

The SBCC calls for political leaders to engage in serious analysis of important issues like our immigration system and national security and reject costly and ill-advised measures like this one.  Our border communities have already suffered greatly from non-border legislators such as Sen. Steve Smith, who slander the border in an effort to use it as a political launching pad and score cheap campaign points. We deserve much more than this.

[Editor's Note: This is a press release from the Southern Border Communities Coalition, formed by over sixty (60) organizations along the United States-Mexico border, works to improve the quality of life of border communities, support rational and humane immigration reform policies and advocate for border enforcement policies and practices that are transparent, accountable and fair.]

[Photo By Bri Lehman]

By Melissa del Bosque

It was an early morning in mid-May. Norberto Velez, 55, and his son Norangel, 32, were driving through ranchland in far West Texas. They were looking for a piece of property to buy near the U.S.-Mexico border in remote Hudspeth County.

The Velezes made a wrong turn onto a road that apparently led to private land, and were met by an armed, 52-year old rancher named Joseph Denton who yelled, “Get down. Get down! I’m going to kill you!” Denton then quickly fired a rifle several times, Norangel Velez told El Paso’s KTSM-TV after the incident. “He never said freeze, he never gave us a warning, he never came out in front of us and say what we’re doing here, just boom, boom, boom,” Norangel said. Norangel was shot once. His father, Norberto, jumped on top of his son to absorb the brunt of the gunfire. The older man suffered three gunshot wounds.

Norangel begged the rancher to drive him and his father to a fire station in Fabens, 20 minutes away. Paramedics then transported Norberto to an El Paso hospital, where he was in critical condition but alive. Norangel was treated and released.

Afterward, Norangel Velez told KTSM-TV he thought they’d been shot because they were Hispanic. “The only reason he shot, he thought we were immigrants. I’ve lived here all my life,” Norangel said.

Denton has yet to explain the shooting. Texas Rangers and Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West are investigating, said Renee Railey, spokesperson for the El Paso County district attorney. The Velez family wouldn’t comment further to the Observer.

The shooting comes amid growing panic in the area about “spillover violence.” Nearby El Paso was recently named the safest city of its size in the nation. Hudspeth County has seen only one murder in recent years. Yet Sheriff West has advised ranchers in the area to arm themselves in case of spillover from the drug war raging just across the border. “You farmers, I’m telling you right now: Arm yourselves,” he said during a crowded town hall meeting last year. “It’s better to be tried by 12 than carried by six, and I don’t want to see six people carrying you.” Denton may have just tested that frontier wisdom.

[Editor's note: We wrote about this incident previously.]

[Photo By Drab Makyo]