Posted on 02/15/2009 3:06:05 PM PST by IbJensen
TUCSON, Ariz. -- I am a border rat. I've been one since the day I hopped back and forth between countries over a fallen, rusty barbed-wire fence in the woodland along the Arizona-Mexico line some 40 years ago. Since that act of joyful anarchy, I've traveled the entire length of the frontier numerous times, dined and slept in just about every border town on both sides and chatted with folks of high and low life throughout.
There are lots of us border rats, really -- most from the U.S. side but many from Mexico as well. We share music, food and a language. Some live within a few miles of the line and know it intimately, while others, like me, are chronic visitors.
For decades now, I've maintained that the entire border is a third country no more than 20 miles wide and about 2,000 miles long. We border rats can navigate this 40,000-square-mile turf far more easily than we could the interior of our own homelands. We know where the tortillas are thinnest, where the music is jazziest, where the cops are friendliest and where the crossings are easiest.
Horrific moments
But that was yesterday. Today the U.S.-Mexico border has been pancaked between a collapsed economy to the north and brutal drug thugs to the south. Most Mexican border towns have endured at least one horrific moment recently in which a ranking police officer or journalist or politico of some standing has been murdered or kidnapped in public, often with a number of innocents unfortunate to be near him -- almost always a him -- as collateral damage.
Then there's that ugly wall scarring our beautiful borderland, whose repulsiveness will surely outlast its short-term effectiveness.
One result of this dreadful situation is that border towns in both countries, but far more so in Mexico, have seen their economies disappear. It used to be common for borderlanders crossing over to shop, dine, visit family and friends (on both sides), see a doctor or pharmacist (the Mexican side) or just soak in a different atmosphere.
Now, from Brownsville and Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico to San Diego and Tijuana on the Pacific coast, shopkeepers on the U.S. side see only a trickle of Mexican customers.
On the Mexican side, matters are far worse. The main boulevards, which used to jump with tourists in the cafes and in shops that sold goods from the interior, are now like streets in a ghost town.
Late one afternoon during my visit to Ciudad Acuna (est. pop. 175,000), I was shoeshine man Valencio Ayala's second customer as he wrapped up his 11-hour workday. Hidalgo Street was deserted save for one elderly American couple poignantly dancing to the sunset sounds of three street musicians.
A State Department travel alert last fall warned of violence along the Mexican border and mentioned Nogales, in the Mexican state of Sonora, by name. One week before Christmas, when Obregon Avenue in this city of about 190,000 is usually packed with shoppers from Arizona, my wife and I took a one-hour walk through town to her dentist and saw barely a handful of Americans along the way.
As if to reinforce what lies south of the border, a U.S. Forest Service sign north of the line cautions visitors: ''Smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area.'' (Or, as California author Ruben Martinez paraphrases it, ''Don't feed the Mexicans.'') The U.S. Army has warned soldiers stationed at Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Huachuca in Arizona to stay away from the Mexican border.
Lest you think that rampant narco turf wars there are fairly recent, it was more than 10 years ago that Tom Russell, who lives outside El Paso, went to the afternoon bullfights in Juarez with a friend. Afterward, they headed to the nearby Max Fim restaurant, then impulsively decided not to have dinner there after all. Later, they learned that drug thugs had attacked the eatery, killing a rancher and five bystanders.
A month later, Russell told a magazine interviewer, he and his friend passed up a post-bullfight meal at another place, Geronimo's. As their cab pulled away, an automatic weapon began to fire at the restaurant. Six people were killed.
Border rats stay put
Russell is an acclaimed singer-songwriter, and borderland nostalgia has seldom been as evocatively expressed as it is in his song When Sinatra Played Juarez. He sings of Uncle Tommy Gabriel, a Texas border rat who once used to gallivant around Juarez. But now: 'He lives out on his pecan farm. `I don't cross the bridge,' he said, 'cause everything's gone straight to hell since Sinatra played Juarez.' ''
Whenever I go to El Paso, I ring up local friends to arrange a foray across the river. A visit to Juarez cafes, a baseball game, a nightclub or an open-air marketplace is always a high point of any El Paso trip.
My border rat companions, some of them natives of that metropolitan area, have always been game and have invariably introduced me to yet another locale to add to my list. When I called during a visit last September, though, I heard hemming and hawing. They stay in El Paso, they said; Juarez is no longer on their dance card. These are people whose judgment I trust, and a sad, uncomfortable feeling sank in.
I began to understand Uncle Tommy Gabriel: ''I don't cross the bridge,'' he said.
Or the border rats.
Ping!
Sorry pendejo, it's not "your borderland," it's the border of OUR COUNTRY.
Bullsh*t! I cross the border about 3 times a week through the San Ysidro crossing. Typically, there is anything from a 45 minutes to a 2 hour delay to cross the border, unless you have a SENTRI pass, when the delay can be up to 30 mins.
Right now there are 21 lanes open, northbound, plus 3 SENTRI lanes, and there is a 50 minute delay. That translates to approx 400 cars, in line right now and that has been steady all day.
I agree that border towns are a mess right now, including Tijuana, but the contention that Mexican customer are trickling across, is tripe.
Too funny,
“’’Don’t feed the Mexicans.’’”.
But allow them to invade your country and use your medical and schooling and welfare programs?
Anarchists are border rats too.
“As if to reinforce what lies south of the border, a U.S. Forest Service sign north of the line cautions visitors: ‘’Smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area.’’ “
I can take you to that sign. Problem is, it’s not near the border or your “borderlands”. Its located 80 miles north. A few miles further west you can watch a constant flow of drug runners and illegals filtering up the road to Red Rock. Last time I camped out there it looked like the Ho Chi Minh trail at night.
The border was once such a nice place. Then the US selfishly began to try to defend herself in an ugly way against the depredations of her enemies and ruined it all.
It's okay for us to be attacked. It's not okay for us to try to defend ourselves. Let me guess for whom this author voted in November ....
Good post. Good article. I spend a good deal of time at the border in Laredo. I would concur that cross border shopping has decreased dramatically on the US side, and is virtually non-existent on the Nuevo Laredo side.
I think we’d do well to understand that Mexican immigrants generally fall some where between to polar extremes.
We have the characterization of the welfare, food stamp, healthcare, criminal gang leading Mexican. (I call them Mexifornians)
Then we have the guy that swam a river and walked a desert to ask for the chance to finish concrete on your jobsite and refuses even minor medical treatment out of fear of deportation. (I call them Texicans)
I think that the State policies of California coddle illegals with entitlement - therefore they get most of those looking for Government handouts. Here in Texas we don’t extend such liberal benefits to illegals (or anyone for that matter) so we get many more of those looking for honest work.
While we can’t endorse illegal entry or try another amnesty program. We would do well to try to tailor our immigration policy to favor allowing a greater number of “Texicans” while trying mightily to screen out “Mexifornians.”
I grew up in El Paso long ago and remember a time when lunch and a Carta Blanca or two in Juarez and Zaragosa was an enjoyable thing to do. It wasn’t uncommon to take our dates over there. There really was a “border rat” culture like the author describes. Those days are long gone. The dangerous anarchy on the Mexican side, and the corruption and bitterness brought about by the brazen illegal infiltration of this country (and our own governments willful neglect of the problem) have ended the time when there was anything enjoyable about our border with Mexico.
Which side of town did you grow up on? I grew up i the Northeast. Right by WBAMC. Just north of Dyer.
We used to go to Juarez all the time. Shoot I could get a really good steak dinner for dinner with a drink for 100 pesos or about 4 bucks at that time. Pick up my grandfathers $70 perscription for $5.00.
I moved away 14 years ago but Mom and Sis still live there. We don't go across the border any more. My sister used to show dogs in Juarez, and Mexico City. We know people who have had to close up there shops over there as well. One set of friends lost their son in a shooting. He was a good kid. He was working at the family store and was shot one day in broad daylight. There were some narco thugs in front of the store.
Sad... Juarez used to be a nice place. The worst thing about Juarez was the beggars on the bridges.
I left El Paso 8 years ago but I still miss the desert. Not being a native I was surprised at first the way people live in a bi-cultural environment. Actually it was a separate environment all together. It was sort of cool the way kids from Paloma, Mexico commuted to school in Columbus and Deming NM, and the way firefighters from both countries helped each other. It was that way for a long, long time but no more. Kinda sad. I lived for awhile on Ambassador near Kenworthy then moved to the Westside.
From your description of where you lived, I place you somewhere at the foot of Sugarloaf.
Sororities and fraternities at the University of Arizona would charter buses and drive down to Nogales to walk across the border to party and drink in Mexico not so long ago.
Pretty much everyone who lives on or near the border crossed daily or at least on a regular basis. Now you feel as if you are taking your life into your hands. It’s not worth it for a dozen fresh tortillas and cheap booze!
About 10 years ago I was doing a sunrise photo shoot next to the Coronado Bridge. It was a day time open parking lot so I was in the open with about $25,000 worth of equipment by myself (stupid, I know.
I was ready for the sunrise and I saw about 100-200 people coming out of the dark running toward me. They didn't want me or care about me. They were were all running towards open train cars.
I s l o w l y started walking up the bridge ramp to get the hell out of there. I didn't dare put a camera up to my eye thinking there could be a shot at me from more than a camera.
Scared as could be I got out of there. Heck, that was ten years ago. It must be even worse today.
I have often wondered why those train cars were open just for them. Guess it is a way for the railroads to try and help San Diego get them out of town.
Really good article.
They were still in use back in '93 when I did my hospital rotation there.
When I was in high school, friends and I would walk over the Santa Fe St. bridge from El Paso to Juarez and go a long way into the backstreets of Juarez where gringo punks like us were seldom seen. We’d visit cantinas and drink beer and play pool with the local Mexicans. Everyone was cordial and friendly and never a thought of any danger. They ordered food for us (usually those wonderful picadillo tamales wrapped in corn husks) and we bought rounds. There were jukeboxes full of that Mexican music with blaring trumpets and the older Mexican ladies had great fun dancing us around. It’s a good memory. Yea, those days are definitely gone, and so is that world.
Don’t you think it’s past time our government calls the situation in and coming from Mexico what it is???
Official United States Government Definition of Terrorism
“[An] act of terrorism, means any activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping.”
(United States Code Congressional and Administrative News, 98th Congress, Second Session, 1984, Oct. 19, volume 2; par. 3077, 98 STAT. 2707 [West Publishing Co., 1984])
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