I came to this post via Hermana Resist’s twitter.

• Five people were murdered at different times throughout the day this morning and into the afternoon…
• Three young men were arrested after crashing a van and fleeing the scene. The men were armed and fired on the police before being arrested…
• One dead body was found floating at the Acequia Madre near the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood. Two others were found injured in that same area…
• One dead body was deposited in the Obrera neighborhood…
• All six members of a family nearly died as they slept. Unknown perpetrators poured gasoline down one of the home’s air ducts and then threw a match to ignite the liquid. The fumes and flames reached every room. Three people sustained 2nd degree burns. The most seriously injured was a 7 year old boy, Héctor Daniel Camacho Esparza…
• Four young men were stabbed last night at the corner of Lázaro Cárdenas and Puerto de Palos; three died and one is in critical condition…
• School was back in session today at the Secundaria Federal. The school had been closed since Friday after two homemade bombs were thrown onto the school grounds…
• The Bancomer bank on the corner of Lara Leos and Paseo Triunfo de la Repbulica was robbed this afternoon…
• A .22 caliber rifle was found abandoned on a public street…
• Three men were detained after having injured several female victims…

The problem in Juarez has spread beyond just homicides. These headlines don’t even include all of the carjackings which are too numerous to report and all the kidnappings which are never reported. There is no one to turn to for help since the police are often the ones orchestrating the kidnappings.

The stories of Juarez aren’t unknown to me pero I do not live them everyday. Yes, I face different kinds of violence daily and maybe it’s because of that perspective I wondered about what wasn’t being said in this article.

The post brings it back to the legacy of colonization and the violence that the Spanish unleashed against Indigenous Mexican communities but also to the survival through mestizaje.

I’m thinking of colonialism on my tongue and through my fingers tapping on my broken keyboard. Living on the U.S side of multiple borders as a Latina, I am aware of the world beyond my building, my block, my hood, my city, my state, my country. What/where is my country? I think I haven’t answered that question.

In the post Mexico, Ciudad Juarez is juxtaposed as third world against U.S. first world.

Finally, I arrive at the bridge again and wait in line with the rest of the thousands of people trying to get back to the United States – back to safety and a better way of life. I see the street vendors and children selling candy, peanuts and gum. I see beggars lying on the street and a man carrying a skinny invalid on his shoulders in 100-degree heat. I roll down my window and give them whatever change I have but every day is the same. For the past nine years I’ve been coming here and it has always been the same. For the past 500 years, the dramatic inequality in this part of the world has always been the same.

Halfway across the bridge, I can see El Paso and I feel safe again. I can see the professionalism, the discipline, the cleanliness waiting for me only meters away. People act differently as soon as they cross the line that divides the two nations. They no longer litter and they stop acting like children and start acting like mature adults. They begin to show respect and consideration. It is funny how a line in the desert is capable of provoking such a drastic change in people’s behavior.

Something about this rings true but also feels incomplete. Where are the answers? In reforming corrupt governments, military, police forces? And one voice feels like I haven’t heard it at all. Where is her voice? Does suddenly crossing a puente change how she stands, walks, talks, looks over her shoulder at footsteps behind her?

When we look at violence on either side of man made and mentally made walls, are we further burying her?