YA BASTA!

(art by Tina Hernandez, "Chicana Badgirls • Las Hociconas")

It's been months. Feels like years. To tell the truth, I've felt quite bummed out lately. Disappointed. Heartbroken. Lonely. Dreamy. Overwhelmed. And I couldn't figure how to get that all out in words. On paper. In digital type. It's taken this long and I'm not sure if I quite found the words still.

You see, all I've wanted to do with this blog is tell the world how awesome El Paso is. But it's very hard to do that when everyday I read how a little part of it is dying, quickly. Juarez is technically a part of a whole other country, but anybody who's from El Paso knows that it's not that simple. That it's not just a place you hear about that is dirty and poor and full of murderous drug lords. It's where we went on Saturday mornings with our families to enjoy with sodas and candies and life all around you; it was where we went with friends when we were waaay too young to get a drink and dance; it was where we went to find a nice afternoon with loved ones in the mercado. It was part of us. It IS part of us. Juarez is El Paso. El Paso is Juarez. It's what the rest of the state, the country, the world doesn't understand. This was one of the few borders in the world that had a mutual respect and understanding for what was on the other side. And, quickly it is falling off the face of our world, our planet. Becoming a den for those assholes who value money over life. Becoming a ghost town because of sadist cockroaches that enjoy others' pain.

I became overwhelemed wondering what I can do, wondering what we can do to change this and I came up with no answers. And then one day I thought, "It's so easy." The answer starts with me. And you. And every one else. It means that we say "basta!" "Enough!" It means that we change what we do that supports these scum who are killing everything that we love just so they can live comfortably beyond anybody was ever meant to.

It means that we stop dealing with our pain, fear, apathy by inhaling false consolation. It means we stop sniffing false courage or energy or whatever it is that we think we're doing up our nose. It means we stop fooling ourselves by saying that every time we get high, we are hurting no one but ourselves. It means that we stop supporting an underground economy that has come at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

It means that we stop wasting our days on the Internet looking at smut that encourages men to degrade women and fools women into thinking they need to be whorish to please others. It means that we stop chasing those few seconds of satisfaction only to run away from the source because we really don't care about that person after all.

It means that we stop buying "purebreed" puppies at the pet store, only to not spay or neuter them, breed them, and then sell those puppies on Craigslist or in the newspaper for $300 each. It means that we stop pretending to be tender only to keep a terrible practice going, all at the hands of helpless creatures.

Everything we do has a consequence. From filling our lives and homes with clutter that only satisfies us for mere seconds to not caring about anybody else's needs, we enable the scum who are destroying Juarez. By being afraid and running away, we give them power. By turning our head, we say "Continue doing what it is you are doing, because I will not stop you, and in a way, I will help you."

It's time we stop. It's time we stop running and being afraid. It's time to stop being selfish. It's time to go back. In large numbers. In hordes. It's time to stand in their way. To say, "You might get me, but there will be hundreds behind me. And thousands more behind them. Like you, we will not stop. Like you, we will not back down."

It's time we start bring Juarez back from the dead. Through our prayers. Through our words. And especially through our actions. Ya basta. Bring Juarez back.