Juarez, Juarez

Juarez, Juarez: the March on February 13, 2010


1.
Ben Sáenz and I had walked over the bridge to be a part of that. There's not much else we can do. It’s a deadly waltz, these two dancers--the narco traficantes and the Mexican Army. The music is courtesy of the federal governments on both sides of the river. The Mexican government plays the guitar and the trumpet, and the U.S. strums on the bajo sexto, keeping the beat. Everyday citizens, like Gabriel who works for Lee and me, will tell you they don’t know what’s worse--the traficantes who are murdering each other and innocent bystanders, or the soldiers who are abusing the citizens and the society that are supposed to be protecting. The citzens are deathly afraid of both. Ben and I were happy we went. It was invigorating. Mostly young people (1500 by one count, "hundreds" by other count and I guessed it as 1,000 at least), lots of enthusiasm and vitality and joy, lots of anger, lots of solidarity and friendship. The marchers walked from the Parque de Benito Juárez to Avenida Diez y Seis de Septiembre to Avenida Juárez and then north to the Santa Fe Bridge where the pink cross stands commemorating the deaths of women in the city over the last two decades.

2.
Ben Sáenz and I had walked over the bridge
to be a part of that.
There's not much else we can do.
It’s a deadly waltz, these two dancers--
the narco traficantes and the Mexican Army.
The music is courtesy of the federal governments
on both sides of the river.
The Mexican government plays the guitar
and the trumpet,
and the U.S. strums on the bajo sexto,
keeping the beat.
Everyday citizens, like Gabriel
who works for Lee and me,
will tell you they don’t know what’s worse--
the traficantes who are murdering each other
and innocent bystanders,
or the soldiers who are abusing the citizens
and the society that are supposed to be protecting.
The citzens are deathly afraid of both.

Ben and I were happy we went.
It was invigorating. Mostly young people
(1500 by one count, "hundreds" by other count
and I guessed it as 1,000 at least),
lots of enthusiasm and vitality and joy,
lots of anger,
lots of solidarity and friendship.

The marchers walked
from the Parque de Benito Juárez
to Avenida Diez y Seis de Septiembre
to Avenida Juárez and then north
to the Santa Fe Bridge
where the pink cross stands commemorating
the deaths of women in the city
over the last two decades.


Bobby Byrd

Posted over on his blog site White Panties and Dead Friends

1. Bobby's prose
2. Line Breaks by Glenn Buttkus