Was absent for a couple of days here, went to what seamed far far away. How many hours have you traveled while driving your vehicle to...let's say...a trip? Try twenty eight hours, for me. My family before me are from way down south. It used to take us two days to get there but now it takes us three days. The reason it takes us three days is because you, under any circumstance, cannot travel at night while in Mexico. Yup good ole Mexico. Love the culture don't really care for the people anymore. Let me explain, you see when you cross into Mexico and it's still night you have to wait until daylight to continue your journey for too many things can happen...two being you can get robbed or get killed. With us it is more like waiting to continue before a crooked cop pulls us over just for the hell of it. You follow all of the rules yet you still get pulled over just for having an American license plate. On the way back we got pulled over by several cops at one stop to try to take our vehicle away. Instead they decided to let us go if we would just give them a little money for dinner. (More like just paying them to leave us alone.) You probably ask why do I go, and why in a vehicle? My parents come from a small beautiful quiet town. Why deny where you come from? Why deny you the right to visit what you left behind? my parents married, built a house that now stays vacant, and we try to visit so that the spirit of the house doesn't get lonely. Haven't you seen how a vacant lonely house slowly deteriorates? Why do we like to go by vehicle rather than fly? You get to see the cities as you pass them by and stop, if need be, to learn from them.
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| las grutas de cacahuamilpa guerrero |
Don't get me wrong, when I go I get scared like going to a place that if something was to happen how will anyone else know how to help or how to find you. That's why joining my parents makes me feel safer knowing they are okay. I pretend (without having powers) to be their body guard. The corrupt cop that stopped us when we were trying to come back to the states told us that it was good that my father was traveling with family, for if he were by himself, he would not have let him leave with his truck. Scary to know, what if? I just have to think that they can't control the situation. I've witnessed a lot in my life time and can honestly say I've lived experiences that some of you would have never thought possible. What scares me is that I'm only half way through the end of my days. If you ever get the opportunity to visit beautiful Mexico please do, but only with company. My life partner will be visiting soon. I want her to feel and live what and where my roots came from. I will be her bodyguard as well. Sometimes I think it will get better, but it doesn't. I am afraid sometimes of not wanting to go back, but can't let that stop me from visiting. Don't have family there that you can say I'd want to see but the atmosphere and the culture is what makes me think how I could never leave it all behind. I stop having fun trips whenever I visit Mexico. It seems like I always have to be on guard even in our beautiful tiny town. I have a trust issue with Mexico.
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| ACAMBAY |
Crossing the border almost around six in the the evening, I saw a young women carrying a rolling suitcase and two Coleman water coolers. I point and tell my parents, "look they are walking that girl back into Mexico." I don't know what made her think she was going to be able to just live the American dream, but she felt she could. Two border patrol officers, one female and one male, walk her to the tip where she has to begin her walk on the bridge back into Mexico and they begin laughing. I get mad and upset...how dare they laugh! They laugh at this young lady now alone getting dark in Laredo Mex!! One place a young woman should never be. They laugh at her with such mockery when who are they, but Mexican themselves? Yes two Mexican (north)Americans laughing at another Mexican (central)American when all that divides them is one glowing light on the bridge that divides the continent. Think about it for a minute...what if Texas was owned by Mexico? Would they be laughing then? A divider separates those so close to that American dream. The border into the United States is the most dreaded stop on my trip...it is degrading the way they make us unload our entire truck so they can search all the nooks and crannies. Breaking the little tokens given to us by our Mexico families in their carelessness.
