July 24, 2009
It is summer and children should be outside playing, but in the city of Juárez, children are not celebrating, they are locked inside their homes, afraid to venture out to the playground. Juárez , Mexico, which borders El Paso, Texas is in the grips of a drug trafficking war. The war has been escalating and the violence has spilled over into all sectors of the community. This year more than ever, many Juárez children will leave their friends in search of safety and start school in the United States.
A playground in Juárez, México
Homeland Security
I was sitting in a Starbucks in El Paso writing this article when I noticed an unmarked black suburban with tinted windows park to the side. A gray Dodge Charger parked behind it and two men wearing dark suits exited the vehicles. I stopped writing. I focused my attention on the men. Paralyzed, reminded of the grim reality I am living, I wondered what the men would do next. I could tell they were body guards because of the earpiece and small coiled wire going into the back of their suits. Who were they guarding? What where they doing at Starbucks? Thoughts raced through my mind. Reason told me to close my laptop and get out of there, but my curiosity told me to stay.
One of the men entered the Starbucks and looked around. He checked the restrooms and then whispered something into his coat pocket. His suit was unbuttoned and I caught a glimpse of a gun holstered to his side. My mind was still racing, trying to figure out what was going on. I was looking for markings on the vehicle, a radio antenna, a badge, anything that might tell me who these people were. But there were no clues, nothing that identified them, and I was not about to ask.
Moments later, one of the body guards opened a back door of the suburban. Out came more people, all men, all wearing dark suits. One of the body guards sat down at the table next to me and another stood outside. There was one in particular who seemed to be the leader but I still had no idea who it was. He calmly and confidently ordered his coffee and purchased a copy of the El Paso Times. They must have been there for less than a minute and then they left. I was able to breathe normally again.
I thought to myself, being in such close proximity to people with guns cannot be a good thing. Later that day I learned that El Paso was hosting the sixth annual Border Security Conference and I assume that the people at Starbucks that day were part of that conference. I will never know for sure.
The violence in Juarez is getting worse and seems to have no end. Just a few months ago, the first drug related homicide was confirmed in El Paso. Miles of brand new fence separate the two countries. U.S. homeland security agents patrol the border in a desperate attempt to keep the violence confined to the other side. But as long as there is demand for drugs, the supply will continue. There will always be someone to take the place of the previous person and while border patrol agents watch DVDs in their patrol cars to kill time, the drug smugglers continue to kill each other.
Three Case Studies
The story does not end here. The problem Mexico is experiencing affects the lives of not only drug smugglers but many honest, hardworking people, including their families and their children. The criminals in Mexico are taking advantage of the lawlessness and are operating with impunity. They are extorting legitimate businesses, restaurants, stores, banks, etc. Restaurants have been burned because they refuse to pay the new “tax.”
Entrepreneurs, corporate managers, and owners of small business are being contacted and threatened. Those people are coming to the United States, along with their children, never to return.
My parents brought me to the United States for different reasons. Back then, people arriving here were poor and tired and in search of the American Dream. Today, people continue searching for that dream but some were doing very well before coming here. As an example, I will present three cases studies of people I’ve met: 1) a family afraid for their own safety come to the United States as a preventive measure, 2) a mother who was threatened and came close to being kidnapped, and 3) a husband and father who was actually kidnapped and lived to tell about it. These cases studies serve to give an idea of the problem.
Case Study 1:
The first case involves a mother whom I will call Elizabeth. She came to El Paso from the city of Parral in the state of Chihuahua. Elizabeth has an eight year old daughter and neither of them spoke a word of English when they arrived this past January. The husband owns a cattle ranch and is very rich, even for American standards, and knew that his family was in grave danger. He heard some of the kidnapping stories and decided not to wait for it to happen to him. He purchased a five bedroom home in El Paso and forced his wife and daughter to leave there beloved city. The husband could not come with them for he had to attend to his ranch in Parral. He visits El Paso only occasionally.
Elizabeth was left in a very difficult predicament. Her first task was to register her daughter in the local public elementary school but this was itself a difficult task for someone who does not speak English. The school administrators were reluctant to help and kept asking Elizabeth for her United States driver’s license. Elizabeth had to explain to them she had just arrived from Mexico and did not, could not, obtain a driver’s license - all she wanted was to register her little girl in school.
After much arguing, translating, and explaining, the school finally admitted Elizabeth’s daughter. Next was the difficult task of helping her daughter with her homework. They did the best they could despite not knowing English. After two frustrating months, Elizabeth’s daughter finally was able to complete her homework on her own.
Case Study 2:
This case occurred a few months ago and involves an ex-neighbor of mine, a Mexican woman whom I will call Isabel. Isabel is married to John Smith. The couple has two boys, one 7 year old and the other 13. They lived in El Paso until the husband was transferred by his company to Queretaro, a beautiful colonial city about an hour west of Mexico City. The blond hair, blue eyed boys did not want to leave but they had no choice. The company sold the house and moved the family’s furniture and belongings to Mexico. The boys attended an all American private school and lived comfortably in a large hacienda style house. John was usually not home for he had to travel frequently. Isabel and the two boys, easy prey for the kidnappers, were unaware that they were being stalked.
The professional kidnapper will typically study the victim for two or three weeks. They will learn the phone numbers of relatives and estimate the victim’s financial worth. They gather as many details about the victim as possible. Many times, the information is obtained by bribing someone: a maid, a chauffeur, a neighborhood guard, or even the food vendor standing on the street corner. Once the person is kidnapped, the kidnappers will ask the victim questions (questions they already know the answer to) in order to see if the victim will answer truthfully.
The kidnappers were ready to make the hit. They knew Isabel’s routine and were expecting her to return home alone after dropping the kids off at school - but something changed that day. A meeting at school, a fortunate and unexpected change in her routine, made Isabel take longer than usual in returning home. The maid who was home at the time noticed that there were men waiting outside and alerted Isabel. The element of surprise was ruined and the plan was foiled. The kidnappers realized that their opportunity was gone and in a last desperate attempt to get their money, they called Isabel. They threatened her and confessed their evil intentions.
In the United States, one would normally call the police or the FBI to report the crime but in Mexico, the police are often also the perpetrators. They are one and the same. With no place to go, Isabel had no choice but to pick up her kids from school and head straight to the airport.
Isabel was one of the lucky ones but the next one might not be as lucky. Kidnappers learn from their mistakes and are always getting better at what they do. Isabel is now safely living in the United States but she is understandably upset that her children and husband have taken away such a bad impression of her country. They will never return.
Case Study 3:
This is the story of a gentleman I met not too long ago. It was not my intention to interview him. It was a chance meeting and a conversation I will never forget. The man, whom I will call Rodrigo, has a wife and two children, an 8 year old boy and a 12 year old daughter. We were in the backyard of a friend’s house, celebrating a birthday for one of the young boys. Rodrigo was flipping burgers. I was just standing there so I figured I would strike up a conversation to pass the time.
“Are you from Delicias?” I asked after noticing the name imprinted on his baseball cap.
“No,” he said, “I am from Jimenez.”
“Oh, what brings you to El Paso?” I asked.
“I live here” he said.
The answer confused me for he had just mentioned he was from Jimenez, Mexico. There was a moment of awkward silence after which he had no choice but to continue with his explanation.
“We came here due to an emergency. You see, I was kidnapped.”
I remained silent. I could hear the sound of the sizzling burgers on the grill and children playing in the background. He continued.
“They kept me in a cave for seven weeks,” he said in a soft voice, almost a whisper, so that others wouldn’t hear.
I still did not say anything. I was trying to get past the initial shock of what he was telling me. The Spanish word for kidnapped, “secuestrado,” kept swirling around in my head. What does one respond to such a statement? I had to say something, and without really thinking, I blurted out the first thing that came to my head:
“Yeah, the situation is pretty bad. I work in Juarez. I go over there every day,” I responded trying to give the impression that I understood his predicament.
“Be careful,” he replied. “If you get kidnapped, just try to get along with them. These people have no education but they know everything about you. My advice to you is to get their minds off of what they are doing. Try to distract them from their job. It’ll make time go by faster.”
I could have asked many questions but at that moment, I felt it would be inappropriate. A journalist would have asked things like: How much did you pay them? Did they hurt you? Did you think you would die? What was going through your head while you were there? I’m sure that if I pressed for details, I would learn these and other horrific things but I did not ask - I simply listened. What more could anyone do?
The Good Old Days
There was a time in Juarez when people did not have to constantly worry about their safety, a time when parents could send their young children to school by themselves, and a time when they could go to the corner store to buy tortillas and bottles of Coca-Cola without the fear of getting mugged.
I was born in Juarez but my parents brought me to the United States when I was only three years old. While in school, I learned to respect the rights and property of others, to not take what is not mine, to give credit where credit is due, to be tolerant of other races and religions, to always help those in need. My parents, who understood the value of a well rounded education, took me to soccer practice and paid for my piano and violin lessons. In the mornings I would watch Mr. Rodgers and Sesame Street on PBS. Not only did the TV shows teach me things like the letter “Q” and the number “4,” they also taught me values and morals.
An American Child
Children in America still watch PBS programs like Clifford, Arthur, and Caillou to name a few. Many of these characters are also published in books by American publishing companies such as Scholastic. The stories are entertaining and also teach important moral values. For example, Clifford the Big Red Dog, teaches children how to: share, play fair, have respect, work together, be responsible, be truthful, be kind, believe in yourself, be a good friend and help others. By way of comparison, about the only things that Mexican television shows children are soap operas.
The White House 2003 Christmas decoration of Clifford the Big Red Dog. Photo by Susan Sterner.
A typical American child does not understand or care about passports and nationalities. They don’t understand that drug cartels are fighting and kidnapping and killing. American kids play with their Transformer dolls and their Nintendo DS. They pick out videos from a stack of DVDs and go about their lives completely oblivious to the problems of the world.
There is a community of children, however, that arrived from Mexico and do not speak a word of English. They have arrived with their parents for whatever reason and will never go back, but they will always live in fear. They fear that someone will ask them where they were born because they hate lying and they would rather not respond. If the child is well behaved and the school does not have reason to believe that they do not belong, then they will be left alone, but the risk is always there.
It is not the child’s fault. Many of these children were not yet old enough to understand about borders and nationalities and the naturalization process when they first arrived. The sky and the clouds and the playground look the same to these children. In time, they learn English and make friends, and then there is no way for them to go back. These children, who were born in Mexico, would not know the first thing about living in Mexico. Many of them, in fact, can no longer speak Spanish.
U.S. schools do not have the time or resources to physically check the validity of each student’s address. Sometimes, a truancy officer, playing the role of a border patrol agent, is sent on an anonymous tip to check on a suspicious case. A spokesman for the El Paso Independent school district said in a recent interview that the district has seven officers checking potential false addresses [1]. But the school will not check unless the child gets into trouble and in most cases the child will remain there, indefinitely, living in fear, living a lie, living a secret life.
My mother worked as a clerk at a local grocery store and my father worked as an operator at a refinery. They worked very hard and for many years and I will forever be in debt to them. Like most other immigrants, I quickly fell in love with the United States. By about age 7, my innocence began to diminish and I began to understand the difference between Mexico and the United States. At an early age, I observed, compared, analyzed, and became a critic. Now that I am older, I think about the differences between the two countries and wonder what makes people happy in one and miserable in the other.
A Happy State
The people of Mexico are going through a very difficult situation but the solution is in their hands. The way to have a happy state, as the English philosopher John Locke said, is to have a sound mind. In his book “Some Thoughts Concerning Education,” Locke wrote: “A SOUND mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this world…. Men’s happiness or misery is most part of their own making.” [2]
The Mexican government pretends to be a democracy but a government cannot function as such unless the majority of the nation’s people are well educated. A well educated person will not be taken advantage of and will not be easily exploited. A country composed of well educated people will be able to choose their leaders wisely. Congress will work efficiently when all of its members are educated. It is less likely that public officials will be greedy, corrupt and dishonest. That is why education is so important.
It is a well known fact that 15 year old students in the United States do not score very high on math and science tests compared to students from Hong Kong or Taipei. The reason, according to my high school math teacher, Mr. Alvarez, is that unlike other countries, the United States tries to teach everyone and doing so brings down the country’s average.
Position in Science / Country / Position in Math / Country
1st Finland 1st Chinese Taipei
2nd Hong Kong-China 2nd Finland
3rd Canada 3rd Hong Kong-China
… … … …
29th United States 35th United States
… …. … …
49th Mexico 48th Mexico
Source: OECD PISA 2006 database [3]
The United States, however, generates more patents annually than any other country in the world [4]. No one would debate that the U.S. is a world leader in science and technology. There would seem to be a contradiction between 15 year old performance in math and science, and the country’s performance at the professional level.
Part of the answer, is that the United States attracts talent. It is the “American Dream” that once motivated my parents to come here. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” says the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. But along with the tired and poor, come many bright people. Here are some examples:
Mario Molina, the only Mexican to receive a Nobel Prize in the sciences states: “My years at Berkeley have been some of the best of my life. I arrived there just after the era of the free-speech movement. I had the opportunity to explore many areas and to engage in exciting scientific research in an intellectually stimulating environment.” [5]
Alexander Graham Bell, who was born in Scotland and immigrated to America in 1870, carried out most of his work on the telephone in Boston, Massachusetts [6].
Albert Einstein once said: "I am very happy in my new home in this friendly country and the liberal atmosphere of Princeton." [7] These are only a few of the millions who have benefited from living in the land of the free.
In conclusion, in order for a country to succeed, its people need to be educated so that, as Locke says, they can create a happy state in this world. A happy state full of educated people will be a magnet for more educated people. Those who are not educated will have to become educated if they want to function in that society. A happy state full of people well versed in mathematics and science will attract companies like Microsoft and Google. In order to create a happy state, the majority of people do not have to be geniuses in math and science but they must have certain moral principles and know a little of every thing: art, music, religion, history, government, math, science, literature, etc. No one is born knowing all of these things; it is up to us to teach them to our children.
Albert Einstein takes the oath of U.S. Citizenship (1940) Left: Einstein's secretary Helen Dukas, Right: Stepdaughter Margot (© Bettmann/Corbis)
It Can Be Done
Where does this leave Mexico? The situation looks grim but not all hope is lost. Parents who uses money as an excuse, who say it can’t be done, who do not insist that their children finish high school and go on to college, gravely underestimate the power of the human spirit. Even for a nation riddled with corruption and violence, there is no reason why 15 year olds cannot be as bright as those from Finland and Taipei. For a nation like Mexico to attract companies like Google and Microsoft, or better yet to create their own companies, it will take much more than just a few bright kids. It will take the commitment of all parents across Mexico. If the teachers cannot teach the children, then it is the teachers who have failed.
Parents in Mexico must let go of their children. They must insist that their children travel abroad. If it is at all possible for them to study in the United States, then they must do so, and if they can study in Europe or Asia, then that would be even better. Mexican students must learn not only English but a third language, any language: Chinese, German, or Japanese. They must not be afraid to leave the comfort of their homes, they must participate in globalization, and they must not use money as an excuse. The future of Mexico depends on the student’s willingness to venture out into the world, leave their roots for a moment, and compete in the global economy. Those that stay home, like delicate little flowers, will eventually wither and die.
Many people will object to these suggestions. They will say that it can’t be done. I know that it can because I was born in Juarez and like me, there are many who have beat the odds and have gone on to graduate from prestigious universities. Those who oppose the idea are either pessimists or corrupt leaders who want to continue the cycle of exploiting the weak and not doing what is best for their country. The cycle must be broken.
Three young boys play their instruments for money in the streets of Juarez.
Children are like little sponges absorbing everything they see. Those who are allowed to roam the streets, to mingle with adults, and to listen to dirty jokes, will be the criminals of the future. Children who play adult games and pretend to belong to drug cartels will be more costly in the long run. It is cheaper to keep them in school today than to keep them in a U.S. prison ten years from now. Children learn through imitation, and in the city of Juárez, children are imitating violence. Instead of sending more guns, the United States should send more books.
How can we help?
We all have different talents and we can all contribute in some way. Being a loving parent and insisting that children stay in school is a good start. There are also a few programs in Juarez that continue to provide assistance despite the dangerous conditions. “Casas por Cristo,” for example, is a non-denominational organization that continues to build homes for impoverished families in Juarez [8].
Giving food and clothing and building houses are all good things, however, they do not address the root cause. Material donations do not make a nation, any nation, self sufficient. I believe that the most efficient way of effecting change is by educating people through media outlets such as television, radio, and newspapers. Conferences, group meetings, and seminars presented where many people gather, may convince parents that education is the key. Telling parents to be caring and compassionate with their children, to love them and be there for them, might be all that is necessary. The idea sounds trivial but how do we know if we’ve never tried. Many parents have never had a proper education. How can we expect them to know what to do if we don’t tell them? Is it wise to assume that because they had a baby, they will know how to care for it? We came to this world to help and only by helping will we find meaning in life.
A public elementary school in Juarez with graffiti on its walls.
The Future
"The future belongs to the nation that best educates its people,” said President Obama in a recent speech to the United States Education Department [9]. In speaking these words, President Obama is standing on the shoulders of giants. From the United States Library of Congress to local public libraries, from Harvard University to public elementary schools, our forefathers have created a treasure greater than all the wealth in the world. If the people of Mexico understood the importance of education, if it provided a safe and comfortable environment in which students could study without the fear of being kidnapped, then the future would belong to them as well.
No one could say it better than Thomas Jefferson and so I will end with his words:
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. [10]
***
References:
1. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/04/28/20080428mexicanschools0428.html
2. http://www.bartleby.com/37/1/1.html
3. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/13/39725224.pdf
4. http://internationaltrade.suite101.com/article.cfm/most_inventive_countries
5. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1995/molina-autobio.html
6. http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/graham_bell.html
7. http://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/princeton-e.html
8. http://casasporcristo.org/
9. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072402203.html
10. http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff5.htm
