Us and the Others...At the Southern Border of Mexico

By Amelia Acosta Leon

This book is a progressive work in the effort of revealing what
is happening in a small part of a shared territory, where despite
the government's progress in creating legal frameworks, in
addition to the aid and support granted by many national and
international humanitarian organizations to migrants, time
seems to have grinded to a halt. The phenomenon remains
persistent. The floating population increases day by day. The
modalities of snaring migrants have become diversified and
more aggressive; but questions arise: is there a limit to human
suffering? Would you give the victims in their interrelationships,
human suffering, the minimum ethical conceptualization, even
when you know immorality dwells inside some of their homes?
Would life still make sense to them? What happened to the
individual and collective moral conscience of policymakers?
This is a narrative wherein, while in principle reflects reality,
the author used her knowledge of the context and extraordinary
imagination to give life to an unprecedented work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palibrio
• Release date: Mar 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781463378660

Amelia Acosta Leon

Amelia Acosta León is a Doctor of philosphy, she is a professor and researcher at the Universidad Juárez Autonoma de Tabasco in the southern part of Mexico.

Book preview

AS A REFLECTION

By way of introduction

To us, be the shame, and to others be the hope: this is a reality that hurts Mexicans with individual and social moral conscience. The author takes the reader on a journey of several years that it took her to analyze the testimonies of others, on the southern border of Mexico—long forgotten, but remembered today—with problems that are yet far from resolution, but increasing day by day around a diversity that comes down to the same thing: human misery, intricately intertwined with a high degree of corruption.

Discussions [on the matter] had been taken and had been left, yet this had not kept humanity from working for their rights on so many occasions—like most of those traveling on the back of the beast—that even without knowing them for certain and only for moral survival principles—they apply it to their knowledge so that they can overcome their battles and a war to come.

It seems that in this part of the Mexican territory, there exists no social moral conscience, or even individual moral conscience in these so called characters that make public decisions in Mexico. By this, it is worth pausing to reflect: What is social moral conscience and individual moral conscience? Especially for public policy makers that, even while knowing the content of these values, have forgotten them.

One conscience denotes singularity, the other, plurality. A social moral conscience is considered as a set of principles, norms, values and ideals that reflect the material conditions of life that characterize and identify a person as a collective group of people at a stage of their personal and historical development. Individual moral conscience is the very particular and unique way in which the existing conception, in a given society, is expressed on a personal level. It represents the set of emotions, feelings, knowledge and beliefs which summarize, in some way, the social moral conscience that transforms the personality on the basis of his individual existence.

The moral growth of an individual transits from a personal process that assimilates the society that surrounds it. It is at this time that his social conscience is consolidated. This knowledge is directed towards achieving certain goals and these are materialized by means of instruction and education. Do people who ride on the back of the beast fit in the standards of the objectives that come into fruition through instruction and education as mentioned above? I believe that in general, no. Then why do they leave their vital space, their families, customs, beliefs, habits—or to put it- their entire life? It is obvious that they are the victims of a political, economic, judicial, and social system, and a depressed society with an endless list of evil spirits, such as anger, lust, temptation, bitterness, folly, violation of even the most basic human rights, foolishness, lies, gossip, morbidity, jealousy, envy, disappointment, rejection, guilt, depression, hostility, apathy, insensitivity to others, greed, power, etc…

Inefficient, ineffective, corrupt and insensitive governments is exposed in the objective of this narrative and essayistic work that aims to show, through social representations that are revealed in the contents, the various actors that participated, who are sometimes depressed, others with the smile of hope drawn on their faces, yet always with genuine interest in disclosing the sufferings they have endured, so that someone may step up to their defense and finally legislate and enforce the laws.

It is my hope that this writing will move the will and the intellect of those currently in power and for the authorities of the countries of these migrants to realize that most of the them (migrants) are young, and that with their departure (sometimes with no return,) the hope of straightening the paths of their respective nations is diluted, that there are entire villages where the inhabitants are comprised of just adults and older adults, that the phenomenon of inverted pyramid population is unstoppable, and if our young people are leaving, what will remain of us as countries?

Please respond, dear reader, after you have read the harrowing testimonies of several Central American characters and those from other continents as a whole, including Mexicans who dare to climb on the back of the beast as their only alternative to achieve an acceptable standard of living. And if there are any public official beside you or near you, kindly advise him. Tell him to look over the horizon in southern Mexico and to act… or at least do something in compliance to his individual moral conscience.

The author

PREAMBLE

We traveled all night—my former sociology students and I, including an intruder, a former law student. The latter had the idea of learning much about Human Rights of transmigrants, the laws that protect them and their living conditions in their stay in our country, including everything that moved around them.

We all really wanted that. That was the goal of our research. We never imagined that the reality we were about to see would surpass that of any fictional work.

We arrived at the southern border, to the Land Of No One And Everyone at around 10:00 am. We just found a guest house to rest for a while. The heat was stifling and we only had the ceiling fans to cool us. We parked my van where we could, and took some rest. We had no water to bathe ourselves with but our own sweat, and so we went to eat some tacos and headed out to our target territory.

Once there, we divided our group among the sites where we spotted some people. Until that point, we still did not know which ones were migrants, transmigrants, and citizens.

Nini, Pato, Mau, Nico and I got to work. We began at almost 4:00 pm, and agreed to meet at a certain point at 8:00 pm to discuss our experiences of the day.

And so we did. Only Pato had acquired an interview. He told us that he was in a sad mood and that he would tell us all about it the next day once he had made the transcript of his interview.

Pato, that night, missed point four of the following work plan, as previously structured:

1) Travel from our established site to the Border

2) Arrive, eat and rest

3) Go to the field and conduct interviews

4) Return, meet, listen, analyze and propose possible solutions for every interview they have each conducted.

5) transcribe them and store them in a folder.

As we were all tired, we really did not pay much attention to it and went to buy some cakes and refreshments for dinner. I was so tired that I did not even eat. I was sound asleep until 7:00 the next morning. By God’s grace, we finally had water and were able to bathe.

We met for breakfast, during which, we commented that we had not yet succeeded in locating transmigrants the afternoon and night before. The only exemption was Pato, who asked us to wait to until we’re back at the University to—already having transcribed the interviews—be able to discuss her findings, learnings and so on. We all disagreed since we have settled to abide by our work plan.

PART ONE (2006)

INTERVIEWS WITH THE OTHERS

Cast: The Professor, Nini, Pato, Mau, Nico

Characters: Migrants of the world, reflected in this small part of a shared territory

FIRST INTERVIEW:

THE PROFESSOR—TOÑO

Interviewee: Toño

Interviewer: The Professor

The Professor: Sleeping on the train tracks, blanketed only by the light of the sun that struggled to hide, he was a young boy that I never expected to be so young.

I walked slowly towards him. I immediately asked, ‘are you not afraid to sleep on railroad tracks and remain there asleep?’

Toño: Yes, my friend, but my companions warn me if a train comes.

The Professor: What companions? No one’s here.

Toño: Look, young lady, the others appear when they have to appear, not before.

The Professor: Okay, my friend. What’s your name? You look very young. How old are you?

Toño: Who are you? You ask a lot of questions!

The Professor: [Extending my hand] I’m Meli, a university professor and researcher, and I would like to have