Mexico

I’m here at the Provincial Chapter in Stony Point, trying to get posts up on the sly, writing during breaks and during any spare moment I can find.  Things can get a little tedious, but one of the good things is I’ve gotten to see people from around the Provence I don’t run into very often.  Because the province is so big geographically, covering the Eastern US and the entirety of Canada, we can go months and sometimes years between seeing our brother Salesians.  

One of our confrere, Fr. Eric, came back from his assignment in Mexico to be an observer at the Chapter.  He teaches scripture down there, and was the American on staff during my years in Tlaquepaque.  It’s been great catching up on the old neighborhood, if you will.  Even though we don’t send theologians to my old parish of Santa Cruz de las Huertas anymore, Fr. Eric still visits and helps out with confessions and Masses once in awhile.  And so we’ve been catching up on who’s getting married, who’s having a baby, where different Salesians I studied with are and things like that. 

I have been truly blessed as a Salesian priest, and I count my three years in Guadalajara one of the many graces the Lord has bestowed on me in my life. The openness and hospitality shown to me by the people is my strongest memory.  I am often reminded of the Gospel where Jesus tell us that a person who gives a cup of water to one of his followers, simply because he is a disciple will receive a disciple’s reward.  Well, I received much more than a cup of water, simply because I was a seminarian and later a deacon and priest.  Yes, there was the food and drink, but there was also the laughter, the smiles, the simple hospitality and the real love that comes from the heart.  I saw a hard working people who took pride in their country and their families, and knew the meaning Christian charity.  

There were problems to be sure.  Many lived in real poverty, and that should never be idealized.  While the poor often have a certain detachment from material things and an appreciation for the deeper values like family and faith that can put the rich to shame, there was also alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence that can accompany those whose grinding poverty leads them to believe that there is no hope.  Yes, I saw, or at least knew, of these and other problems, but for the most part I experienced the friendship of people who were very down to earth and, like I wrote before, hard working and truly joyful.  

It broke my heart to hear about what’s going on now in Mexico today.  We know little about the history of our neighbors south of the border; of the revolutions, foreign occupations, economic turbulence and persecutions suffered by Catholics over the decades.  Well, Mexico is suffering again, this time at the hands of the narcotraficantes, the drug cartels that are waging war with each other and the government.  I’m told Guadalajara has been calm, but the cities by the boarder and in other northern states are in chaos.  Salesian schools in some cities have stopped having parent meetings at night because it’s just too dangerous to come out after dark.  Children are seeing their parents executed in the streets and the press is afraid to report on it.  A television station in Monterrey, the major city in the north, was attacked with grenades as they broadcast an expose on the drug rings.  Journalists have been killed, and now the newspapers simply don’t report the violence.  The government, mainly because of corruption, has been powerless to stem the violence.  Again, we here in the States are pretty much ignorant of what’s happening just to the south of us.

Corpus Cristi procession at Santa Cruz, c.1999

Why is it happening?  The reasons are many.  There is a culture of corruption in the government and various Mexican police forces that has compromised their ability to respond.  We were talking amongst ourselves, asking if terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda could have a part in promoting the violence in order to weaken the border, thus making entrance of terrorists in to US territory easier.  Let’s not forget that Germany tried to use Mexico during World War I to destabilize the US.  It didn’t work then, but it could under the right conditions.  The economic system in Mexico works against the entrepreneur and small business person; this makes getting ahead for an industrious go getter that much harder.  So many find it easier to turn to illegal means of making a living, or yes, jumping the border into the States to find work.  We have to be honest and ask ourselves where do the illegal drugs consumed in the States come from, and how are we cooperating in this tragedy. 

Drugs are not a victimless crime.  The dope sold on the streets of the Bronx, the South Side, and South Beach all have a starting off point.  John Paul II told the people of Columbia not to use First World drug consumption as an excuse for the drug production in their country.  Evil is evil, and shouldn’t be tolerated. At the same time we need to understand that our country’s collective addiction to illegal drugs has consequences.  It destroys the lives of the addict, which is tragedy enough.  But it also destroys the life of people where the stuff is produced and trafficked.  It is now destroying an entire country.  When will we say enough? 

The Parish of Santa Cruz de las Huertas, Tonala, Jalisco

I choose to remember the Mexico I left for the last time in 2001.  I choose to remember the people who welcomed me into their homes, who fed me, clothed me, and made me feel like I was a member of their family, simply because I was a Catholic seminarian.  I want to remember the good times.  But I hear the cry of a people held  hostage in their own country.  A country they love, but one that is now experiencing a long Good Friday.   I pray they may soon experience the rebirth of Easter Sunday.