Tag Archives: alamos sonora mexico

Otra Lado

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The border between where, who, what and why …

Indian woman walks acoss Plaza on a quiet summer day, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

Summer afternoon in the Plaza, two story Hotel Alamos is in the background.

This is a simple moment in a complex world. A woman of Indian blood crosses an empty Plaza as she returns home from her daily shopping trip to the Alameda. The lack of people goes hand in hand with siesta time on a summer afternoon. Stepping back, taking a satellite view, she is surrounded by Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Sea of Cortez and not far to the the north, the US – Mexico border. She is in the middle of a violent and costly battle moving drugs across the border to feed growing addictions in the United States: an estimated 660,000 pounds of cocaine, 44,000 pounds of heroin and 220,000 pounds of methamphetamine were sold on America’s streets last year. The first question that comes to my mind is why is there a need by so many addicted people to escape their realities and cross a internal border that has no borders? Why? What would be the Indian woman’s answer to this question?

Looking north at the plaza from the church steps, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

The Plaza from the Church looking north and beyond to the other side.

The US-Mexico border fortifications have grown over the years: 650 miles of prison grade fencing and sheer concrete walls, 17,600 Border Patrol Agents, 1,200 National Guard soldiers, 165 truck and train x-ray machines, thermal imaging devices that turn night into day, 467 remotely controlled surveillance cameras feeding control bunkers, 4 predator drones overhead – along with helicopters and light aircraft, 10,800 ground sensors and… The border separates families, towns, valleys, histories and futures. Last year 254,000 pounds of cocaine, 3.6 million pounds of marijuana and 4,200 pounds of heroin were captured trying to smuggled across the border. None the less, drug gangs are to have made $25 million dollars last year fulfilling some of America’s many addictions. This is Big Business: an industry of logistics and persuasion serving markets that demands networks and complicated systems to feed its escalating needs. At some level it becomes, “hey, it’s just business – nothing personal.”

There are other costs. On the US side it is estimated that the drug addictions’ health services, interruptions of economic and social progress, crimes and legal systems, jails, court rooms and prisons total $193 billion a year. This is RBB: Really Big Business. Guarding the border over the past decade has cost $90 billion alone, a train x-ray machine costs $1.75 million. Many unsuspecting peace-loving famalies, on both sides of the border, owe their livelihoods, directly or indirectly, to the drug lords, these titans of greed and their investments, corruption and violence. And what is the cost to Mexico? Again the question must be asked, why do so many Americans need drugs to answer their physiological and psychological addictions? Why?

Looking northeast at the Plaza from the Hotel Los Portales, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson

The Plaza framed by a classical world: timeless, enduring, thankful.

The border is many things to many people: It is neighbors, economies, opportunities, sovereignty, entrance, exit, hope, pride, burdens, politics, law enforcement and… Most of the two dozen counties that are on the US side of the border have Hispanic majorities. On one side is San Diego, Yuma, Nogales, El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo… On the other side is Tijuana, Mexicali, Cuidad Juarez, Laredo, Matamoros… On a map it is is hard to tell by place names where the US or Mexico begins. When on the border, the poverty- lack-of-consumerism on the Mexico side is stunning compared to just across the border before, and after, the barriers went up.

Hispanics made up half the USA population growth in the past decade. New York, according to the 2010 census, has 2.3 million Hispanics, Los Angeles – 1.8 million, Houston – 920,000, San Antonio – 840,000, Chicago – 780,000, Phoenix – 590,000, El Paso – 523,000, San Jose – 313,000 and San Diego – 376,000. The USA is turning a little Hispanic. And the southwest, for so long the nation’s frontier and place to go when there was no more room or opportunity back East, was part of New Spain before the United States was the United States. Today, the border region, north to south, from San Francisco to Alamos is its own world, and Hispanic influence is spreading nationwide. Workers, from foreign countries have always made, and make, the USA rich compared to the world. There must be something in the Constitution that supports cheap labor.

Sierra de Alamos, Bishop Reyes Cathedral, Plaza de Las Armas garden and kiosk and Hotel Los Portales. Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

A mountain, cathedral, bandstand, hotel and a heartbeat, priceless.

Ten years ago 1.6 million people, without documents, were caught at the border trying to cross into the United States. After 9-11-2001 the concept of secure borders began a national mandate as border fortifications, protection strategies and assets were developed. In 2010, 463,000 souls were apprehended attempting to cross to the “other side”, in many cases to join relatives. There are several causes for the decrease: controlling, with military precision, populated sectors along the 1960 mile border, growing dangers while passing though Mexico from the south, crime against “crossers” at the border, difficulties of crossing in remote mountains and deserts and… And there was the Great Recession that lingers on, the slow moving elephant blocking the way for paying jobs, especially in the construction industry.

The Great Migration across the US – Mexico border has been going on for decades and the economy took advantage of the resulting population increases: more workers, more consumers, more home owners, more citizens, more tax-payers, more possibilities and…

Migration for many species is the meaning of their lives, they are their migration. The history of the United States is one of migration, we are a nation of migrants: Asia, Europe, Africa, Central and South America, Middle East, East to West, South to North, rural to urban, city to suburb and… Migrations into, out-of, up-down and across will continue in search of water, food, resources, work, comfort, security, education, retirement… Migration is the human way. This is true for Vancouver, Chicago, Shanghai, London, Baghdad, Melbourne and Phoenix as well as Alamos, Sonora, Mexico.

A peaceful summer afternoon, sky darkened with moisture, young girls headed towards the Alameda. Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

Any Politics' continuity most focus on child development to ensure its future

Let us look into the future by understanding today. 45% of children aged 5 to 17 in San Diego County are Hispanic. Baby Boomers, mostly white, in ten to twenty years, will need Hispanics to keep the economy going. And today, the Hispanics kids, who are the majority and in many schools almost all of the student population, need an excellent education to be in the position to function in a productive work force. There will be a huge population, they are already here aging, of Baby Boomers who will need this large trained work force to make their retirements comfortable. The Hispanic school kids need these Baby Boomers to vote, today, for better educational resources. In an era of I, Me and Mine it is nearing a time to consider You, We and Ours. What happens in Los Angeles is important to Alamos, Sonora, Mexico and what happens in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico is important to Los Angeles. It has always been so, and it will always be so, it is the human condition.

Three school girls, good friends – sisters in life, walk across the Plaza and into the future.

From the Alamos Journal.

©2013 Anders Tomlinson, all rights reserved.

Anthropocene

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On Modern Times, Anthropocene and Human Nature…
Part Three of Three on an Eternal Debate.

family walking by airport on the outskirts of town, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

Old and new as a family walks past the airport towards the campo.

The recently revised U.N. population estimate for 2050 is 9.3 billion people A projection for the USA in 2100 is 478 million. Challenging times are ahead but this is nothing new, survival is challenging for individuals and societies of all species.

Driving across the Mexican Sonoran desert on a star-filled 1984 spring night listening to a Hermosillo rock station’s uninterrupted presentation of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung was the best of two worlds. Music is universal. Friends are universal. Traveling is universal. Being is universal.

In the USA there are 78 million baby boomers aged 45 to 64. This is a force of change. They will go where they can get maximize their resources for survival and comfort. How many will leave the USA for retirement is dependent on the USA’s ability to cope with growing pressures and increasing challenges.

Graffiti on a street corner, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

1984, directions and graffiti painted on a school wall along Calle Rosales.

September 1775, De Anza is leaving with a Spanish expedition to create a fort in San Francisco to head off the Russians coming down the west coast. George Washington and his Continental Army have besieged the British in Boston as Colonel Ethan Allen is captured at the Battle of Montreal by the British. Much has happened in the following 236 years leading up to 2011. Some say this is part of a new epoch, the Anthropocene, as human events, consequences of collective actions, alter-change the planet.

Human impact is equal to the population times affluence times technology. Global affluence in 1900 was 2 trillion dollars, 5.3 trillion in 1950 and 55 trillion in 2011. These are all in 1990 dollars. The population in 1900 was 1 billion, 2.4 billion in 1950 and will reach 7 billion in 2011. As for technology, there were 141,000 patents in 1900, 412,000 patents in 1950 and 1.9 million patents in 2011. The growing human biomass is 100x greater than any large animal species that has walked and faced extinction on planet earth. Currently, 65,000 text messages are sent every second. This is the Age of Great Acceleration.

This three part series was prompted by an internet group created in late 2002 for North Americans interested in Álamos. This group, 613 members as of 5-7-11, communicates needs, haves, events, thoughts, desires, alerts, recognitions, questions and answers. Here, at the end of April, 2011 a discussion started about influences that are changing Álamos. It began with a post by a recently arrived American who had started a dance studio in Álamos. She was coordinating a community participation dance, as part of an international event, to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Another group member responded that this was inappropriate and bad for Álamos. A digital conversation with several North American members began: who is doing what to whom? Why, what, when, where? How?

Watching a soccer game in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

T-shirts, wearable bumper stickers, make contemporary statements.

A tale of two T-shirts, one celebrates Selena, the Queen of Tejano, born and raised in Texas and a superstar in Spanish speaking countries. Shortly before the release of her first album featuring songs sung in her native language, English, she was murdered by her former manager. The other shirt promotes the American dream, everyone own their own home. Unrelated but related, today, the world’s largest military, and consumer of oil, is the United States. It spends nearly as much on its armies, navies and air power as the entire world collectively. Meanwhile, the Mexican army is engaged in a war with ruthless drug gangs fighting, with weaponry smuggled from the United States, over distribution routes to meet growing heroin, cocaine, meth and pot market demands in places like Fairfield, California, USA.

5% of the world population speaks English and 5% speaks Spanish. There are 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States, 14 million in California and 4.7 million in Los Angeles County. On Cinco de Mayo, 2011, a presidential commission declared a need for a museum devoted to Latino and American history. A Smithsonian study in 1994 stated that Hispanics were the only major contributor to American civilization not recognized in the museum.

Alamos, Sonora, Mexico seen from the north on a spring morning. Photo by Anders Tomlinson.

Here is Alamos, east to west, on a spring morning from the north.

At one time, the 1770’s, there were two to three times the population as seen here in 1996 which is half the population of 2011. When I first visited Álamos there was talk of building a freeway from Navajoa through Álamos to El Fuerte and Sinaloan farm land. The United States was interested and engaged because food would arrive in Southern California hours faster. Since I last visited, roads from the west, Navajoa, and southwest, Masiaca, are new or rebuilt. Now it is easier and faster to drive to Álamos if one is headed north or south on the Navajoa-Las Mochis section of Highway 15. Roads are a major stimulus for change – expansion both at the destinations and en-route. Once there was Indian foot paths and then El Camino Real and now improved auto routes to, and through, Álamos. Pave it and they will come.
One can only wonder what the population of Álamos, Sonora, Mexico will be in 2050.

Anders Tomlinson on Plaza bench in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Antonio Figueroa.

Anders reflects on the day's work notes, photo by Antonio Figueroa.

Human impact on planet earth is equal to population times affluence times technology.
A climate change report commissioned by the Vatican, issued 5-5-11, indicates there are three things we need to do: “reduce worldwide carbon emissions by stopping deforestation and other initiatives: reducing the amount of warming air pollutants such as methane and soot by as much as 50 percent, and preparing for chronic and abrupt changes that cannot be avoided.” No mention of population. It is human nature to promote growing populations, this is a “healthy” economic condition. Cities that grow are doing well, cities that are lose people are doing poorly. New homes being built is good, ghosts towns are sad. This human nature was present yesterday when we lived in caves and present today in urban super-sprawl. And tomorrow?

In my mind, the big issues in the future are women’s role in society, abortion and sex-education. I know these are long standing ideological battles. It is human nature to reproduce to save-replace oneself and the species. We will be dealing with Anthropocene consequences because stopping population growth is the same as trying to stop a super volcano from erupting, or is it?

Human impact, and change, is equal to population times affluence times technology.

From the Alamos Journal.

©2013 Anders Tomlinson, all rights reserved.