Stopped at the Owl Bar on the way down. Took two cats with me, placed one in a good home; the other came back with me. Yowling bloody murder all the way. Both ways. My nerves are shot.
Thanksgiving was nice. Cheryl, my father's freind, and I spoke for maybe an hour about the founding of KPFT 90.1 in Houston. That's the Pacifica station that got firebombed off the air *twice* by the Klan in the late 'sixties, and Cheryl was there for all of it. She spoke of being on air in the control room when bullets came through the plate glass windows among many other fascinating things you wouldn't automatically assume went along with building a radio station. She appreciated the piano rolls from the Mexican Revolution as only a handful of people ever do.
Friday I worked with my mother on clearing out a storage shed full of three generations' worth of crap. It's shocking what we accumulate and don't let go of. I am among the worst at it. There were at least half a dozen boxes marked only with my initials and no way of telling what was in 'em but by opening 'em up. Like comic books and a broken samisen all in one box, with lots of empty space, and other comic books and other musical instruments in other boxes besides. A lot of just complete and total crap, some good stuff (like the samisen) but it was in no sort of order whatsoever. Brought back a bunch of crap I might sell on ebay if ever I get my act that far together.
Saturday did much the same, then had a leftover dinner with a bunch of people who couldn't make it for thanksgiving. My mother made leftover turkey into mole and it was delicious, as were the beans and rice, which she made fresh. Met an amazing lady from Paso del Sur, who's working hard with that organization to stop an illegal "development" plan that would demolish something like 123 acres of low-income housing in the historic Segundo Barrio to put in a phony "mercado" for tourists.
Meanwhile the executive director of La Fe Clinic, who makes roughly a quarter of a million dollars every year running the only free clinic of its kind in the region (which now operates with *one* doctor and *no* running hot water), stands firmly behind the City plan to demolish the neighbourhood the clinic has under past directors served admirably well. (Good luck to all El Paso queers at getting free and anonymous HIV tests.)
This isn't anything new, sadly, there's a long history of developer-backed politicians trying to demolish entire neighbourhoods for the sake of "economic development". This lady was one of the people who met privately with Subcomondante Marcos when he visited Juarez last month, and she gave me a firsthand account of the meeting.
Speaking of economic development, I'm sorry to report that in El Paso, Texas, a city somewhere between 80 and 90% hispanic, it is now *impossible* to get decent corn tortillas without crossing into Mexico. (Even JR Produce down on Montana, which makes their own, has their tortillas pumped so full of preservatives that it just isn't funny.) Big 8, which *was* the only supermarket chain left standing (aside from Albertson's), just got bought out by Lowe's, which operates up here and is as notorious here as Big 8 was down there for tenth-rate goods and smelling like garbage the minute you walk in the door. Blue Sage, which *was* trying to start up a new regional chain in old Lomart locations, went out of business so fast it made peoples' heads spin. To buy a Boston Butt we had to go clear across town to Coronado Prime Meats only to find out they didn't have any, and then clear across town in the other direction to JR Produce which doesn't sell pork. We finally settled on making a brisket. It was delicious, but cost my mother a small fortune, and wasn't the carnitas she had planned to make.
If anyone wants to know what globalization looks like, on the ground, they couldn't do much better than to visit El Paso for about a week, complete with a foray or two into Juarez. If they dare. And heaven help us all the day the supermarket supply chain gets screwed up for whatever reason.
Speaking of Juarez: anyone who thinks the femicides are anything *but* an international problem, I quote at length from an "El Paso Times" article my mother saved a clipping of for me:
MISSING ARIZONA GIRL LINKED TO JUAREZ CASE
By Louie Gilot
El Paso Times, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006
The teenage girl who surfaced in Juarez last week claiming that she had been kidnapped from her home in Arizona, taken to Juarez and sold into prostitution may be a 14-year old Eloy, Ariz. girl who was reported missing Sunday, Eloy police said.
In a news release, Eloy police said the girl was reported to have been taken by two men who allegedly forced entry into her home.
One of the men has been identified as Jose Garcia, also known as Jesus Ramirez, 20, who lived nearby.
"The subject had shown an interest in the victim," the news release said.
"He had made a statement that he wanted to take her back to Mexico. Evidence of correspondence between the two has been located at his house."
Garcia's whereabouts were unknown Tuesday. He was described as 5 feet tall and weighing 140 pounds. His ties to Juarez were not disclosed.
No information was available about the second alleged kidnapper.
An Amber Alert was issued Sunday, police and news media reported. The FBI in Arizona did not return calls for comment.
Juarez police reported last Friday that an Arizona girl escaped from her captors and told them she had spent five days of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of five men.
Police said a physical and psychological examination of the girl seemed to confirm her story.
So now all the Juarez police have to do is pull in anyone named Jose Garcia or Jose Ramirez (I think I've known a dozen such named people in my life), torture 'em into confessing to a hundred unrelated crimes, and whatever pressure there is from the North will diminish for them to do *anything*.
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