Watching the Border Watchers
What the Minute Men Look Like from the Streets of Oaxaca
Story by Angel Luna // Art by Fernando Amaro Jr.

When I found out about the Minute Men project in Arizona,   my first thought was -- I wonder   what the reaction is at home in Oaxaca.

The Minute Men is a civilian organization based in Arizona that is against the growth of illegal immigrants along the border.   They have become a vigilante group hunting and rounding up immigrants and are expanding into California and other border states. Their argument of organizing this witch-hunt is that the federal government is not taking action along the border, leaving the country susceptible to terrorists and other “illegal immigrants” sneaking into the country.

The response by people in the US that are sympathetic to immigrants has not been strong enough to challenge the Minute Men.   If anything, the response has been soft pressure – letters to Congress representatives and candlelight vigils.   In San Jose, California where I live, people are getting frustrated about this, because it looks like the situation is a lost cause,   and some of them they are just waiting for the worst.   Folks like my Aunt, who migrated here three years ago, say “Hay Dios mio,   protégé   a esa pobre gente”(Oh my lord,   please protect my people)   whenever the topic of the Minute Men comes up.

But on the other side of the border, the attitude towards the Minute Men, and how to handle them,   is stronger.

I recently went back to my home town of Oaxaca,   Mexico.   A lot m ore folks in Mexico talk politics then in the US, and the Minute Men topic in particular has caught everybody's attention.   It's the talk at the local bar, the back of taxi cabs, and even on the campus at Uabjo Univerisidad Autonoma Benito Juares De Oaxaca.   One of my old friends there told me that he had plans to go and reunite with his son in the US, but all hype about the Minute Men was stopping him.   He said ,   “Pinches gueros culeros que no quieren que progrese la raza,”- (damn white boys, they don't want us to progress) - “que mal les hace uno”- (we had never done anything bad to them.)   

The border itself looks very different from Mexico.   First off, it's farther from home than people think.   It is dangerous, tricky,   dirty, unfriendly,   and you can trust nobody.   My Aunt told me a story of how shoe almost got raped when she was crossing the Mexican border   to the US.   It is no easy decision to go. In Oaxaca, people have to really prepare to go.   To begin with you have to decide how much money you have.   If you have enough money for a Coyote(a guide) you go through the desert. Even though people find ways to get water,   in Oaxaca they tell stories of people sabotaging the water stations.  

If you don't have enough money, you catch the train.   People have to ride at the junction where the cargo cars meet.    You have to catch the train while it's running. I f you don't stay awake, you can fall off and kill yourself. I heard many stories in Oaxaca of people getting gthe limbs chopped off, and getting stuck in between trains.

What is probably the most different is the strategy on how to deal with the Minute Men. Word on the street in Oaxaca is that the narcos (drug lords) are going to give juicy rewards to anybody who wastes a member of the Minute Men organization.   I was at a bar with my friends drinking and joking around until a news flash came on the TV about the Minute Men, interrupting the soccer game that was on.   The report talked briefly about the Minute Men, and then went on to go in depth into the situation with los paisanos (our folks).  

I saw everyone gathering around this one older man.   He said he was a lawyer and told the crowd, “The only thing that these people are doing is pissing off the Narcos(drug-traffickers), the Coyotes(people paid to take immigrants across the border) and the Marasalvatrucha (a gang spanning across Latin America).”   Some of the folks laughed. The lawyer went on to explain that the Minute Men would be getting in their business and interfering with their operations.   “Si no te mueves   te chingo.” – (if something gets in your way you take it out.)

In the neighborhood I was raised in Oaxaca, the narcos have a pretty strong following because they are thought to be very generous with their allies and very dangerous to their enemies.   Even though people know the narcos are up to no good, they are thought of as people who don't forgot were they came from, and they don't forget their folks.   Before he left the bar, the lawyer said, “El narco no perdona,   y la sangre va a tener que ser derramada”   -- (The narco doesn't forgive, and blood is gone a be shitted. ) The room cheered.

Reports on a popular websit es in Mexico,   such as La Voz, confirmed what I was hearing on the street.   It said that the Marasalvatrucha, a   gang that is thought to control   the border and is famous for their executions, has declared war on the Minute Men. It said one of the leaders   of the MS-13, who is detained in Texas, gave an order to all the followers of the MS-13 in the US, Mexico and Central America to declare a war in the Minute Men.

The reality on each side of the border is shared, but the how the problem looks, and what the solutions are, depend on which side of the border you're standing on. I am not for the Narcos executing the Minute Men, but I'm not entirely against it either.   I just know that every action has a consequence.