CJ Diary

2007-07-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Lost another round of jalapenos to the dogs. We've been growing them in pots on the back patio. Since when do dogs eat hot peppers?!

There's a great Mexican saying about the importance of peppers: "Without chile, food tastes of nothing." They also say that about lime here.

How can we cook like real Mexicans if the dogs pop the jalapenos as fast as they grow?

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-06-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

I didn't know that illegal immigrants die crossing desert near here:

"Immigrant dies while crossing desert

Associated Press

Article Launched: 06/22/2007 05:21:49 AM MDT

DEMING, N.M. - A 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico died while trying to cross the southern New Mexico desert, Border Patrol agents say.

Agents recovered the body of Ismael Serrano-Mendez of Leon, Guanajuato on Wednesday. It appeared that he succumbed to heat exhaustion, but an autopsy will be done by the state Office of the Medical Investigator to determine the cause of death.

Seventeen illegal immigrants have died since Oct. 1 in the Border Patrol's El Paso sector, which includes parts of Texas and all of New Mexico, said sector spokesman Patrick Berry. Six of those deaths occurred in the Deming area, he said.

The latest victim was traveling with two other men when he died, Berry said. The two men were picked up but they didn't immediately tell the agents about Serrano-Mendez. One later told an agent, Berry said.

---

Information from: Albuquerque Journal, www.abqjournal.co

I shouldn't be surprised, though. In the 1.5 hours it takes to drive from the nearest city in New Mexico to Deming, you pass little human habitation and not a single tree.

2007-06-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Another U.S. article about dental tourism in Juarez:

From washingtonpost.com
"Discount Dentistry, South of The Border"
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Judy Salvador, a retired American Airlines ticket agent, recently typed two words into Google's search engine: "cheap dentists."
To view the entire article, go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061701297.html?referrer=emailarticle
© 2002 - 2006 The Washington Post Company

I have learned one thing about dentists here: if you go to one locateed on a dirt road, you get what you pay for ...
© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-06-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

Now I know another reason why it's so hard to grow food in a desert: wiiiiiiiiiiiiind. We had gusts up to 50 or 60 (again) the other day.

We've had three 100-degree days so far, and yesterday it hit 102. K's car said it was 111 in his parking lot at work at 5:30 pm.

So far, because the humidity remains very low, it's pretty easy to handle. You can't go hiking unless you leave extremely early (to allow for 1 hour to cross the border), though, and it's best not to run errands in the afternoon. Up to 95 degrees is easy, but your face turns bright red from the heat when it's 100 and over. Only 3-4 more months of summer to go!

I actually spent 5 or 6 hours in bed the first weekend of June from not drinking enough water. I ran errands in the car Friday and Saturday afternoon. I think it was 95 one day and higher the next. Since then, I don't drive anywhere without a can of water in the cupholder.

On the plus side, the dogs are a lot quieter during the day these days...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-05-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

Ooh, we had a big wind and rain storm last night. Mucho flooding. So what happens when certain neighborhoods get too much precipitation? The water goes out in the houses, of course!

Traffic jams in some parts of the city were biblical this morning. Driving to work, I came across a puddle that was more than 5 lanes wide. It covered an entire intersection. At a 4.5-lane-wider, a bus driving by threw water high enough to cover a small car.

Hail-damaged cars are still on sale at dealerships in El Paso from the last hailstorm. Some colonias got a little more last night, too.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-05-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Our Spanish teacher told us that the border agents who are meanest towards non-Americans entering the country are Hispanic Americans. Go figure.

He said that when he crests the top of a bridge leading to a multiple-lane "port" of entry, and sees what agent is working his lane, he's relieved if it's someone Caucasian. Otherwise, he cusses.

He pretends that he doesn't speak English well when he gets a Hispanic agent, though he speaks it very well, and listens to what they say about him. He's been called a monkey, and worse.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-05-16T19:01:00.000-07:00

If children are Mexico's greatest treasure, why do no Mexican parents supervise their kids -- riding their bikes on the road, playing with sticks, climbing on the playground equipment -- while they're running around our compound?

Here's something else they should be looking out for: peeing! A notice went out to all the compound families, which said that kids both large and small had been observed peeing in the park: in the grass and in the sandbox. The letter urged parents to watch their kids, as "we do not want to have to send pictures [of the perpetrators] with this kind of communication." (i.e. a community-wide bulletin)

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-05-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Uh, oh -- it was still 90 degrees at 9 o'clock tonight. I think summer has arrived....

2007-05-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

Last night, a family in our compound hired a four-man mariachi band to play for a dinner party of theirs. A party of 10 people.

Sometimes I think we might be on the poor end of the compound families, and not just because we don't dust our car regularly. But now I know.

But here's something low-rent that some neighbors here do and we don't: let their dogs bark on and on. We live next to a super-wealthy family that has a large Labrador. They never take it out of their tiny yard to run and play with other dogs, so sometimes it barks and barks when it's outside. She's probably begging other dogs to come and spring her from prison. The neighbors say they never expected her to grow so big. Whatever.

When their dog gets to barking next door, it sets ours off. As does the outdoor toy poodle at #13 and the 3 outdoor dogs across the park. Imagine how fun it must be for 3 dogs to live in a yard that's about 7' by 40' -- they never ever go out either -- and you can guess how much they bark. Off and on all day and night. I was up at 3 a.m. once, and that gang of 3 were yelling away. How the neighbors on either side of them can stand it, I can't figure out.

So when these 5 dogs go to DEFCON 5, we can't get ours to shut up. Sadly, this now goes on in our house day and night. Hope we get to move on before it's too late.

You can't blame the dogs, though. The ones in our neighborhood must be bored and lonely. The 3 across the park from us live surrounded by a 2-story townhouse, a 20' wall and a 15' wall, and only have a 3' view on the world, through an iron fence. The two that can see over the bottom of the fence have a view of the world, that is. The shortest one can see nada.

Some of the owners in the neighborhood around the corner, the one that has a big park along one end, just let their dogs loose. That park is nice, but has broken glass in it and the area is more urban than suburban. And the owners don't supervise their dogs. So what's to prevent those dogs from being hit by cars, stepping on glass, getting bit or pregnant by others (because few spay and neuter here) running loose? Nada.

There is a pair of Great Danes in a house in that neighborhood. When they come out, (to leave giant poops in the park, of course) you can see they have sores on their elbows and knees, as if they live on concrete or tile most of the time. When a new batch of big, loose males came over to investigate our females one day, we stopped taking them around the corner for exercise. It was always depressing, anyway.

Now we drive 30 minutes each way once a week to a big park in El Paso, where there is no broken glass but no longer any dog runs, either. We can only speed-walk them there on the leash. No more off-leash freedom. They're both getting a little fat from the Juarez lifestyle.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-05-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

Can't we have normal rainstorms, like everywhere else?

We should have known to expect bad weather last week, after washing the car for the first time in months. It's kind of pointless to wash it often, as it just get covered in dust days later. (seriously, people DUST THEIR CARS here) But the tiny bits of road tar should come off periodically. So wash it we did. And the next day: rain, hail and tornadoes. Even though it only rains about once every six weeks here, and then only very briefly.

It hailed on and off for almost a half-hour. Hail about the size of an eye. Luckily, our car happened to be under a roof at work, and the two tornadoes were elsewhere in El Paso County. But the rain turns the area dust into .... mud. And the car got filthy on the drive home.

So this past weekend, K. went at it again. The car sparkled anew. And then Monday night, all of Juarez awoke at 3 a.m. to a hailstorm to end all hailstorms. Eye-sized hail again. There was so much of rain and hail piled up on our back patio, it looked a cranberry farm when they float the berries out of the bogs. Amazingly, some were still there the next morning. (we went back to bed at 4)

So now the car is black again, and will probably stay dirty for a long while. Most of the giant puddles on the roads have dried up. I spent a lot of time Tuesday morning trying to figure out the safest way to work. I opted for the route with the lowest speed limit -- wise choice. There were only a few potholes that would have swallowed a non-SUV wheel.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-04-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

Drove to work for the first time last week. Was surprised to see what appeared to be the whole police force standing at major intersections. To expedite morning and afternoon/evening rush hour, each busy intersection gets one cop, who waves traffic on even when the light is red, if it makes sense. Where the U.S. uses computers to reset and reroute rush-hour traffic, Juarez does it by hand -- ha ha ha.

Though temperatures at night are still deceptively cool, it is getting hot during the day. In a parking lot yesterday afternoon, our car's computer said that the outside temperature was 100 degrees F. Strangely, it seemed cooler than the day last week that the computer read 95 degrees.

In fact, the temperature in our house -- I should say temperatureS -- are weird. Our house boasts three temperatures: one downstairs, another upstairs, and yet a third in the master bedroom. It isn't a good thing. The fact that the downstairs has a tiled floor and is mostly blocked from the sun by the 15-foot wall means that it feels 5 to 10 degrees cooler than upstairs. And requires you to wear a sweater and socks. The master bedroom, because it faces south and west, feels 5 to 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the upstairs. And requires you to take off your sweater if you're coming from downstairs.

The biggest problem is when we turn on the air conditioning at night to cool off the bedroom before going to sleep. (our landlord was too cheap to put in dual-thermostat system) You freeze downstairs while waiting for the bedroom to cool off upstairs.

The dry air in the area also means that your daytime driving outfit (t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops) is way too skimpy once the sun goes down, even if the daytime high was in the upper 80s, as it was yesterday. You need a sweater, too, to sit outside at night. Not that anyone in Juarez does, though. That would require rubbing off the day's dust, a chore few people want to do at least twice every day...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-04-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

Summer is upon us, and we're having trouble grilling outdoors. For 2 weeks after we set up our electric grill, we waited a long time each time -- and in vain -- for it to get hot enough. We didn't seem to have enough power in the outlet outside to cook our steaks. The last 2 weeks, however, the grill is getting too hot and is burning the meat.

Whether the steak is cooked correctly or not, we couldn't eat it outside anyway. The weather might be great, but it's way too dusty. You might not mind wiping down your porch table each time you want to sit outside, but forget about keeping the chairs clean. As of right now, we don't even have room to store chairs anywhere else. (inside is too small; garage is open on 2 sides) All our American friends here agree that many porches here are a waste...

p.s. The local ice cream plays the song, "Home of the Brave," as it rides around the neighborhood. Even harder to understand is why the song makes some dogs nearby howl...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-04-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

MSN Money yesterday reported that Juarez is "the largest center for maquila production" in Mexico, and the second-largest in the world. Let's hope that it all doesn't blow away. Yesterday's big wind storm continues today, at speeds of 50 m.p.h. When you live next to a junkyard and drive an SUV, however, it seems worse than that. This is going to be one of those stay-home-if-you-can days.

The wind has brought more trash into the yard than usual. This morning, in addition to the usual candy wrappers from neighborhood kids, we have a styrofoam tray that used to hold meat, wrapping paper, and tape. In El Paso, realtors are having trouble selling new houses because the porches keep filling up with tumbleweeds and the yards with debris.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-04-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

Though the vast majority of Mexicans consider themselves Catholic, the long Easter weekend isn't a religious time. Rather, Mexicans head for the beach, Disney World, anywhere out of town. Or out of the house: driving along the main park Easter Sunday afternoon, I saw what looked like half of Juarez picnicking. Even though the park was packed. Even though some people had to take spots on the busy road. I guess that two national holidays -- Holy Thursday and Holy Friday -- are too tempting to spend at home.

One strange thing about Easter here, though: kids were out of school the week before, the week after, and there are still some playing in the neighborhood during the weekday...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-03-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Interesting article from a New Mexico paper this week about crossing from Juarez to El Paso: www.daily-times.com/news/ci_5475812. It's part of a series they're doing about this area.

Indeed, those of us who invested $750+ in border speed passes (Dedicated Commuter Lane passes) find it easiest to ferry pass-less people into the U.S. by dropping them at a pedestrian bridge, crossing as normal via the vehicle speed lane, and then waiting for them at the U.S. end of the bridge. It's much faster for visitors to cross on foot than by car.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-03-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

The first brazen hit since we arrived happened this week. At a busy intersection in broad daylight, 4 young men in at least one car got multiple bullets in an apparent assassination attempt. The news that night said that 2 had survived and 2 had not.

Mexican t.v. coverage of the incident was great, as usual. Press are allowed in the middle of such crime scenes, even when the forensic investigation isn't finished. Or hasn't even started. They show all sorts of dead bodies in situ, even their faces.

Anyone with enough money can hire official Mexican police bodyguards for protection. As we don't go out much at night, (remember, drunk driving here isn't necessarily a crime if the driver can pay cash for whatever damages he/she might cause) I only saw my first bodyguard in action last week, too. Usually, you see them and their clients in the nicer restaurants at night. It is not recommended that you stay in or enter the restaurant if you spot them. This 2-man team was following close behind a fancy Cadillac SUV as it weaved fast through traffic, and dropped off when the SUV got to the border. The Cadillac ended up in front of me in the DCL line to enter the U.S.

It's not uncommon in El Paso to meet Hispanic Americans, even those with family in Mexico or Juarez, who are afraid to go to Juarez. U.S. Border Patrol agents reportedly have prices on their heads, so they don't visit. But lots of regular folk confess when they hear I live in Juarez that they never cross the border. Frankly, I wouldn't either if I didn't live here.

Like in Tijuana, there are areas in Juarez that are more tourist-friendly than others. But even there I worry about pickpockets and/or damage to the car. (Remember our hubcaps?) We went downtown once, on a Saturday afternoon. That will do it for us. It was nothing but gridlocked traffic, loitering men, and a main square too tiny to be enjoyed.

Outside the downtown area, there are people who all day loiter or cruise businesses frequented by middle- and upper-class Juarenses. If you leave a bag or a briefcase on the seat of your car while running into a convenience store or dry cleaners' for a few minutes, even if you can still see your car through the plate-glass windows, it wouldn't be uncommon for your window to be smashed and your belongings gone.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-03-10T06:59:00.000-08:00

It was hard last week to relate to the snowstorms on the East Coast, as here we had record temps all week: 84, 85, 86+ degrees F. In a parking lot on Monday afternoon, the car's thermometer said it was 92 outside.

It seems normal to us, but apparently we are only supposed to have highs of 69 at this time of year. That's almost how warm it is in the morning.

It feels nice, though. We cool off the bedroom at night with a little air conditioning, but the near-constant breezes make us feel as though we're on the coast of Florida. And as the 15-foot wall on the south side of our house is about one foot thick, we've always got cool shade to sit in during the day.

In other news: our tap water was dirtier for about a month, perhaps due to this being the windy season. Glasses had milky streaks on them after drying. But maybe it was due to no crowds of visitors visiting. Apparently, when there are regional or international festivals, the city dumps extra chlorine in the tap water to make it safer for out-of-towners to drink. Yuck...

We use three kinds of water at home: we wash the dishes and brush our teeth with what comes out of the tap; (so far no illness) we cook and wash food with water from an under-sink filter; and I wrestle home from the grocery store 5-gallon jugs of water for drinking and coffee. The brand of the bottled water, though hecho en Mexico, is "Alaska."

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-03-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

Time to turn on the air conditioning already? Yes. I started sweating this morning while drinking my coffee downstairs -- the cooler part of the house. I had to put my hair up in a ponytail to cool off.

Last week, the nighttime temps were in the 30s. (F) This week, they're in the 40s. During the day, however, it reaches the upper 70s in the afternoon, which feels like the upper 80s if you're in the sun or in your car. The temperature can climb 30 degrees in a day because the humidity is so low -- 15 to 25% most of the time.

Why the architect made the master bedroom the hottest one in this house and not the guest bedroom, I'll never know...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-03-05T08:29:00.001-08:00

So we had the air conditioning repair guys come to check out a rattling noise in the system that keeps us awake at night. We assumed that a fan belt in the a/c unit was rubbing against something metal, but the reason was much easier to see: upon removing all the upstairs vents, the workers found that whoever installed the system had left behind an empty Tecate beer can -- inside an air duct... Maybe the fact that they were drinking on the job explains why the house is 10 degrees hotter upstairs than down...

Now that the a/c is fixed, the temperatures have dropped again. It was in the 40s last night, and is still cold in the shade now though it is almost noon.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-03-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

Dust Storm -- Part Deux

We had a dust storm with stronger winds last week. This time, a little bit of dust came in around the windows, and I taped up the laundry room door shown in the last picture. The above picture is from the first dust storm of the season. That's how much dust was still piled up on the back of the car four days later. Our garage, though covered, only has two walls.

Here is a good article from the "Tallahassee Democrat" newspaper about drug-running on the Juarez/El Paso border, entitled: "Mexico, Part I: Border issues are not terrorism and immigration." (www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070301/OPINION05/703010350/1006/OPINION)

U.S. Border Patrol cars on duty in certain sectors have to be parked behind plexiglass "windows," to protect agents from rock throwers on the Juarez side of the border.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-02-26T15:08:00.000-08:00

Starting on March 12, when the U.S. changes to Daylight Savings Time earlier
than usual, Juarez won't. So for more than two weeks, when Juarez changes its
clocks, kids who attend school in Texas will have to leave one hour earlier
in the morning. Usually, they leave at 6 or 6:30, Juarez time...

2007-02-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

If you want to be on Mexican t.v., male or female, you have to be able to:

1) cry a lot, if you want to be on a telenovela;
2) dance well, if you want to be on a talk or variety show.

Just a warning.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-02-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is one aftermath of yesterday's dust storm. This photo is of the floor in front of the laundry room exit door, which we recently had resealed against the outside world. The picture of what seeped in around the front door was less impressive.

Yesterday, there were gusts of wind from noon-ish until early this morning. The wind blew at 30 to 55 miles per hour. How fast is that? Enough to blow boxes and trash all over our yard, cover you (hair, clothes, face) in grit within minutes, and move dirt from the yard onto the driveway in noticeable piles.

Some roads in the greater El Paso area were closed due to low visibility, and the TV news showed tumbleweeds bouncing all over the place. Running errands yesterday afternoon, I saw that the mountains were "whited" out.

Apparently March & April are windy months here. So, 9 weeks to go of the windy season...

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-02-20T07:12:00.000-08:00

Been outside, enjoying the weather, instead of inside, writing you -- sorry! We're solidly back in "weird winter weather" again: freezing at night, but in the 60s (or higher) during the day. There is still a little snow in surrounding mountains 6,000 feet or higher. Nonetheless, the sun is getting strong.

One downside in being in the last stages of winter, however, is the dust. Yesterday, we had another dust storm. The wind was strong enough to blow tumbleweeds across the highway. Any open dirt lot in the Juarez/El Paso/Las Cruces, New Mexico, area made huge clouds in the air. It wasn't a great day for people allergic to dust...

Even when the wind isn't whipping it into the air, dust continues to pour into the house through our heating and air conditioning unit on the roof. Last week, the setting sun lit up the air in our living room. It was thick with dust. Scary...

This morning, there was a "Dallas Morning News" article (www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-bordertown_0216gl.ART.State.Edition1.1265552.html) about security on the upcoming film, "Bordertown." The film tells the story of the unsolved murders of 400+ women in Juarez since 1993. In short, they had some problems filming here. The film's director attributed Juarez's "radioactivity" to the fact that it's "the only place where the First World and the Third World meet." Interesting angle.

The "Dallas Morning News" always has investigative reports into Mexico and Mexicans in the U.S. That website is: www.dallasnews.com/investigativereports/.

Finally, if you're ever in the area on the weekend, go to White Sands National Monument national park outside of Las Cruces. (www.nps.gov/whsa) Like the website says, it's like no place else on earth ... because you can sled down white sand dunes while watching huge mountains in the distance. Or splash in lakes, despite the fact that you're still in the Chihuahuan desert.

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-01-29T07:09:00.001-08:00

'Maquiladora jobs on border decline

Matamoros loses more than 3,000 positions

By MATT WHITTAKER
The Brownsville Herald

January 28, 2007 — The number of workers in the Texas-Mexico border maquiladora industry fell from September to October.

U.S industrial production lagged during that period, dampening work in the manufacturing and assembly plants in Mexico that form the backbone of part of the Rio Grande Valley economy.

Most of the six main border industrial cities — Reynosa, Matamoros, Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Acuña and Nuevo Laredo — recorded job declines, driven primarily by losses in the transportation and textile sectors, according the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Mexican government figures.

Development officials in McAllen and Brownsville pay attention to factory employment in Reynosa and Matamoros, the Valley’s maquiladora clusters, because some jobs in the U.S. cities are tied with those south of the border.

Suppliers and logistics companies that cater to the exporting factories, as well as maquiladora management, often locate and live on the U.S. side of the border, pumping dollars into the Valley.

Maquiladora plants along the border take advantage of lower-cost Mexican labor to manufacture products for distribution north or the border, and they form the front line of exporters in Mexico, the United States’ No. 2 trading partner behind Canada.

...

Maquiladora factories along the Texas-Mexico border employ about 450,000 workers, with more than 12,800 jobs added from December 2005 through October. The industry as a whole in Mexico has about 1.2 million workers, including more than 31,000 positions added from December 2005 through October.

“Adding 31,000 jobs in a year ... that’s a mediocre figure,” Sargent said.

For the medium to long term, competition from China will limit Mexico’s maquiladora growth, he said. The industry will enjoy small employment gains but not large growth as Chinese wages remain low and the exchange rate between the Chinese yuan and the U.S. dollar remains more favorable for Chinese exporters than those in Mexico.

While the U.S.-Mexico border gets niche operations looking to take advantage of Mexico’s wage advantage over the United States and prime location to reach U.S. markets, “We’re not playing with the big boys,” Sargent said.

At some point, he said, jobs will return from China to maquiladoras in Mexico as the Asian country’s wages rise and currency appreciates to the dollar.

For the short term, the outlook for the maquiladora sector remains mostly positive, with the U.S. industrial sector regaining its upward momentum in November, increasing 0.2 percent, according to the Dallas Fed.

Since many of the Mexican factories produce intermediate parts that are shipped to U.S. automobile, electronics and other manufacturers, maquiladora orders and shipments rise and fall along with U.S. factory output.

2007-01-29T06:49:00.000-08:00

Haven't written for a quite a while because I've fallen out of love with Juarez's weather... The last two weeks, the skies have been almost entirely cloudy and it has either rained or snowed (3 inches one morning) every few days. Due to ice or flooding on the roads, I've been stuck at home a few days here. Though you would think that a desert would soak up rain pretty quickly, the clay soil here is very poor and the roads have no drains. So heavy rain just pools on the ground for days, and causes new potholes overnight. If you have to drive through a puddle, some of which can be one or two lanes wide, you never know if you are going to drive over trash or a hole, and how large the hole is. Last weekend, we had to rescue some neighbors who drove through a giant puddle and got two flat tires in the process. One tire was torn in two places.

The weather has been much sunnier these past few days, however, and the daily high temperatures are back up to the mid-50s (F). Let us hope that it stays that way, because who moves to Mexico for cold weather?

© 2007 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-01-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

U.S. dental tourism is "booming" in Juarez, according to the Houston Chronicle:

'Jan. 14, 2007, 6:23PM

Dental tourism is booming in Juárez

By ARTHUR FROMMER
King Features Syndicate

Defying the advice of most homegrown dentists, Americans without dental insurance are flocking to border towns of Mexico for crowns, bridges, implants and other work on their teeth. An associate of mine recently paid $560 for such treatments in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico (right across the Rio Grande from El Paso), that would have cost five times as much at home.

To reach El Paso, from which a short walk over the Santa Fe Bridge brings you to Juárez.... From your hotel in El Paso (and it's more comfortable and safe to stay in El Paso while receiving treatment), it's only minutes to Juárez; a U.S. citizen can quickly move back and forth over the bridge, and some dental clinics will even pick you up from your El Paso hotel and deliver you directly to the dentist.

It's significant that the Web site of the U.S. consulate in Juárez lists three prominent dentists in Juárez for which it either vouches or about whom it has received favorable recommendations.'

We haven't been to to dentist yet here, but people do say they're good in Juarez.

2007-01-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

The following description about the wild days of illegal border crossings in El Paso comes from an article yesterday in the Fort Wayne, Indiana, "Journal Gazette". The time-frame described is probably 20-30 years ago.

'One recent morning, Reyes stood in the dust of the frontier at the end of the infamous “black bridge,” the old rail trestle where a friend and fellow agent was hit over the head and killed, where hundreds of would-be immigrants would mass on the Mexican side and sprint across in “banzai runs,” overwhelming the Border Patrol.

“To appreciate the peace and tranquility that is here now, you’ve got to imagine what it was like,” he says.

It was chaos.

When the river was dry, the Mexicans walked over. When the river flowed, entrepreneurs set up ferry services; peddlers sold Cokes and snacks. There were crazy hot-pursuit chases on downtown streets, through backyards, even across the campus of a high school on the border.

Enough! decided the first Hispanic sector chief in Border Patrol history. One Sunday morning in 1993, El Paso and Juarez awoke to find the border sealed by 400 agents spread along 20 miles.

At first there was an uproar. Protesters threw rocks, closed bridges, burned effigies. Merchants fretted about lost sales. The Catholic Church pleaded for mercy. The Mexican government complained to the State Department. Even Border Patrol brass in Washington gave Reyes a hard time.

...Daily illegal crossings plummeted from up to 10,000 to a few hundred.'

Apparently, illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. became significant in the 1970s. Currently, 10% of Mexico's population lives in the U.S., half of whom are there illegally.

About 80% of El Pasoans are hispanic, and 67% speak Spanish at home. That seems to also be true of the greater El Paso part of Texas.

2007-01-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

The holiday season officially ended Saturday with the celebration of the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day. Nonetheless, some of our neighbors' over-the-top Christmas decorations remain in place: the giant lawn snow-globe with figurines spinning inside it, the inflatable Santa-on-a-motorcycle sitting on someone's balcony, the nodding lighted reindeer...

2007-01-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

It seems cruel to mention it, but this week it has been possible to open the windows and doors during the day because the afternoons are so mild. Probably because humidity is so low here, it's common for the temperature to rise more than 30 degrees (F) every day.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2007-01-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press yesterday reported that El Paso averages about 6 inches of snow a year. Isn't that a bit much for a desert??

2006-12-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

'Posted on Fri, Dec. 22, 2006

Mexican shoppers helping make Texas' holiday season profitable

ALICIA A. CALDWELL

Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas - Hundreds of last-minute shoppers jammed the streets of downtown El Paso on Friday morning, many carrying armloads of plastic shopping bags.

A pedestrian line leading to an international bridge connecting the far West Texas city with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was just as crowded with bundled up shoppers heading back to Mexico.

It's a typical scene this time of year, and with just three shopping days left until Christmas it looks like this holiday season is on track to be a very lucrative one for border-area retailers from El Paso to McAllen.

"It looks very good, real positive," said Steve Ahlenius, president and CEO of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. "My prediction ... was a 7 percent to 10 percent increase over last year."

Ahlenius, who works with retailers in and around McAllen, said Mexican shoppers spent much of the more than $3 billion in November and December of last year. He said he won't know for sure just how profitable this holiday season has been until January.

"It's crazy, that traffic is unbelievable," Ahlenius said. "You drive through ... a mall property and you see an overwhelming number of Mexican license plates."

Mike Breitinger, executive director of the Central Business Association in El Paso, said retailers are reporting having to restock shelves as often as twice a day.

Friday morning some stores employees were even unloading merchandise on crowded sidewalks in front of busy stores.

In years past, Breitinger said, shelves weren't empty until the end of the day.

Breitinger said sales totals for El Paso's downtown retailers also won't be available until at least January.

The sunny outlook is a departure from stores in the rest of the country in December, one retail analyst said.

"Regular shopping has ben muted so far, except in November," said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Consulting Group in Nutley, N.J. "A lot of retailers in the month of November posted big discounts. Once (shoppers) got them in November there was little enticement to wait until December."

Along the border, the strong sales may be the result of a growing Mexican economy and stable political situation has likely fueled this year's strong sales, Ahlenius said.

"The elections in Mexico went well and (President Felipe) Calderon is ... very much pro-business," Ahlenius said. "And we haven't seen any signs of a Peso devaluation."

For Julieta Perez, a 36-year-old mother of two from Ciudad Juarez, politics had little do with her choice to walk over the crowded bridge Friday morning.

"It's a tradition," Perez said in Spanish.'

2006-12-21T11:16:00.000-08:00

Forgot to mention that on Dec. 8th, Juarez marked its 347th birthday.

Also that about 2 million Mexican men worked as braceros ("strong arms") in the U.S. during/after WWII.

Also that 9% of those born in Mexico currently live in the U.S., according to the Mexican Institute of Political Migration. The same report said that most Mexicans working in the U.S. (52%) work in construction

Finally, here is some of what Juarenses will be eating for Christmas:
Tamales
Bizochitos (sugar cookies flavored with anise)
Fruit or meat empanadas
Pork and red chile, or chicken and green chile, posole (hominy or corn stew)
Menudo (tripe stew, which is also eaten for breakfast on weekends)

!Felices Fiestas!

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-12-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some descriptions of modern Mex-Tex border music, slightly adapted from "The Dallas Morning News." The subject of narcocorridos has come up in the past few weeks, as several famous singers have allegedly been killed or threatened by cartels.

Narcocorrido: a modern version of the traditional ballad that is dedicated to the real or imaginary exploits of drug traffickers, mostly in northern Mexico. A corrido is a centuries-old ballad style that generally begins with a short personal story followed by a moral. It is the bedrock of traditional Mexican music. Narcocorrido songs are sometimes requested or paid for by the traffickers themselves or based on media reports.

Norteño: a musical style popular along the Mexico-Texas border that is influenced by accordion-dominated polka music. It developed in rural northern Mexico in the early 20th century. At its heart is the corrido.

Grupero: a more general term to describe several forms of Mexican music, such as norteño, tejano, or a mixture of different forms.

Ranchera: Romantic ballads often sung to mariachi music, which includes guitars, violins and horns.

2006-12-12T07:56:00.000-08:00

Dispatch from the frontlines of the local War On Dust: (Here in the desert, you have to dust every single surface in your house every second or third day if you want to keep up with the Joneses. Or rather, the Jaliscos, Jaimes or Jotas. And that's even if you never crack a window to let in fresh air.)

Want to know what they play at office holiday parties in Juarez?

Answer: cumbia, cumbia, and still more cumbia. To hear a sample of the song that has been ringing in my head since Saturday night, go to:
iTunes STORE / iTunes Latino / Power Search
Type "Chiquilla" into the Song field. Select the first result.

Try dancing to that with people you work with, (it's mostly close-contact, couples dancing here) and still respect yourself the next morning...
© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-12-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

Two interesting brands of coffee are on sale at S-Mart, our favorite jumbo grocery store: Monky and Combative. (I swear)

Juarenses seem to be much bigger consumers of instant coffee than regular, so I don't know if either of those brands are any good. But we'll send some home for the holidays if they are.

p.s. Slept terribly last night. A family in our development left one of their dogs, a young cocker spaniel, outside last night until at least 3 a.m. It was barking and barking and barking, maybe because the temperature was in the 40s. We're lucky that on all 3 sides of us are relatively quiet neighbors. It could be so much worse.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-12-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

p.s. It snowed here a little during yesterday's morning commute.

Here's a description from a Houston t.v. station of how much Christmas shopping Mexicans -- Chihuahuenses, in particular -- do in the Southwest U.S. This tracks with what we've heard here. After Thanksgiving, Walmart and the Eastside El Paso malls are impossible to shop at, due to all the Chihuahuans and their list of presents.

p.s.s. I think Mexico bans imports of products made in China...

Proximity, prices attract shoppers from across the border

06:39 PM CST on Friday, December 8, 2006

By Angela Kocherga / 11 News

Click to watch video

With only 16 shopping days until Christmas retailers say holiday sales look encouraging.

Some of those sales in Texas come from our neighbors from Mexico.

Many shoppers are crossing the border to spend their Christmas bonuses.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas along the border.

Shoppers from Mexico are making a list and spending their cash in U.S. malls.

“The shoppers there are very savvy and they’re very brand oriented,” said Cindy Foght, Simon Malls area marketing director.

Proximity and prices attracted Catalina Estrada from Ciudad Juarez.

She’s buying gifts for her grandchildren.

During the holidays more than half of the shoppers at this El Paso mall are from Mexico.

“It becomes very important because you know not only do you have the people that do travel say by air, but then you’re also able to take advantage of everyone driving,” Foght explained.

Monica Henrichs drove three hours from Chihuahua City to the border for the prices and quality

She bought high end handbags and trendy clothing for her daughter, but still saved money.

Import taxes in Mexico make many items more expensive.

A holiday tradition in Mexico makes this season especially merry for U.S. retailers in Border States. By law most employees in Mexico are entitled to a Christmas bonus, which can be as high as a month’s worth of salary.

Those bonuses boost sales and make the season bright across the southwest.

And the benefits extend beyond the border to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and more recently Phoenix.

Some of those cities have shopping packages from Mexico that include airfare and a hotel.

And the benefits extend beyond the border to Houston and other Texas cities, many of which offer shopping packages from Mexico to include airfare and a hotel.

2006-12-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

Stray animals are crossing our path at the rate of 10 a month since we moved out of the hotel. This is bad news.

Before the stray cat made our garage into a maternity suite (pictures of the kittens to follow), the dog that lives full-time in the park around the corner gave birth to 5 or 6 puppies when the nighttime temps were in the 40s. A woman in the neighborhood took in the mother & pups, but now the mother is outside full-time again. We don't know if she's still nursing, but she's skinnier than ever.

While picking up some colleagues at the Hilton this week, I found a kitten has moved into some bushes at the hotel that are next to the 10-lane road. It doesn't have anything to eat or drink, and I don't think that the hotel staff are going to take care of it.

What to do? Last month, pre-puppies, we were thinking of a way to get the momma dog off the streets and into our house. Now with 3 kittens that need to be situated, we're wondering whether the pace is going to let up during the rest of our time here...

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-12-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

Some short facts about El Paso, from a Missouri newspaper, "The Missourian," on 12/4:

El Paso is the fifth largest city in Texas, with a population of 563,662. It is the 23rd largest city in the United States.
The city’s culture is a mixture of American Indian, American cowboy, Spanish and Mexican. It was founded on the Rio Grande and became part of the U.S. at the end of the Mexican War in 1848.
El Paso is most famous for its Mission Trail, one of the oldest roads in the country, dating back 400 years.

2006-12-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to yesterday's article, here is the tale of a traffic stop that happened to our Spanish teacher two weeks ago. She was stopped while driving without her seatbelt on. It's said here that traffic cops are more active before holidays, when they need to take in more morditas (bribes).

While looking at her car and papers, he noticed that her car wasn't registered in the state Chihuahua, her bumper was loose, etc. So he started talking about impounding her car and issuing her several tickets. After a half-hour of discussion, however, she left after only paying him the equivalent of $10. Not bad! I always thought you had to haggle with them for an hour to avoid paying outrageous fines...

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-12-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

Interesting article from "The L.A. Times "about how corrupt/desperate the police are here (this happens all the time, to non-immigrants and gringos, too):

The road home for the holidays is paved with extortion

Despite sending money south all year to aid families, fund public projects, O.C.'s Mexican nationals find themselves prime shakedown targets in their homeland.

By Jennifer Delson
Times Staff Writer

December 3, 2006

When 40 Santa Ana residents return in a caravan of vehicles this month to La Presa, a small village in Michoacan Mexico, they will come with presents for relatives and to dedicate a new town plaza partially paid for with money they earned in California.

But that doesn't mean they will get the red-carpet treatment.

Even though they are Mexican nationals, the migrants say their American cars and clothing are dead giveaways to men claiming to be police who shake them down for money as they wind their way home for the holidays.

Though Americans might be considered untouchable because they are foreigners, migrants say they are easy prey for extortionists, who usually ask for $20 to several hundred dollars.

The demands are an insult to those who annually provide millions of dollars to Mexico in the form of remittances to their families and contributions to local public works projects, immigrant leaders say.

If they protest, the migrants say, they are threatened with having their vehicles impounded, or other tactics that might delay their annual return to their native towns. As a consequence, many fortify themselves with a handful of $20 bills before crossing the border, resigned to paying.

"[It's] an aggression toward migrants returning home. It doesn't matter where it happens. It's part of the culture and I wonder if it will ever stop," said Aureliano Serrato, a Santa Ana gardener who said he has been forced to pay extortion on highways and at airports on his trips home to La Presa.

"You cross the border and the corruption begins," said Serrato, who led a drive to collect $40,000 for the La Presa plaza. "It's like they are waiting for us."

In the last 15 years, the Mexican government has made efforts to curtail the practice, and some immigrants said they noted fewer solicitations since Vicente Fox became president in 2000. They hope the situation will improve more during the presidency of Felipe Calderon, who was inaugurated Friday.

Yet Mexican immigrants remain "perfect targets" for low-paid police officers looking to supplement their incomes, said Eduardo Bohorquez, executive director of Transparencia Mexicana, a nonprofit group that tracks Mexican corruption.

Police "know the migrants have dollars, that normally they do not have high levels of education and that they don't know about Mexican law," said Bohorquez.

This year, Florencia Martinez, the national coordinator of a program that seeks to help immigrants as they return home, visited several U.S. cities to educate migrants about their rights in anticipation of the holiday travel season, when 1.2 million Mexican nationals are expected to return to their hometowns.

"We've made great strides, but we still have work to do," she said.

Martinez talked to immigrants about how much new merchandise they are allowed to bring into Mexico and how to legally enter with a foreign car. Knowledge of the law, she said, is the migrants' greatest weapon against extortion.

Though migrants can refuse to meet extortion demands and can file official complaints, few turn to the Mexican government for help.

In 2005, only 40 people filed complaints, Martinez said. "What we want to show is that we are taking these complaints very seriously, that there is a value in complaining."

Southern California immigrants are angered about the way they are treated by Mexican authorities. At a recent meeting in Santa Ana, they told her and other Mexican officials about their experiences.

Yet for many immigrants, the thought of refusing to pay extortion or filing a complaint seems risky and, at the very least, time consuming. Many say they just pay.

Juan Alvarez, 44, of Garden Grove said he filed a complaint last year but was never told of any consequence.

Alvarez, who spoke during the recent Santa Ana meeting, said he returned to his native Mexico City last Christmas and was halted while he stopped for gas in the state of Sonora by a group of men. Armed with rifles, they demanded all of his money — $200 — saying it was a toll for using the road, Alvarez said. When he reported the incident to federal police, Alvarez said he was told he shouldn't have been on the road because it was dangerous.

Once in Mexico City, he said local police stopped him because he had an American driver's license and asked him for $100 or they would confiscate his car.

"Traveling on the highway is really dangerous. You just don't know what can happen," Alvarez said.

Others take matters into their own hands. To avoid problems, some families travel in caravans to watch one other, said Adolfo Sierra, who heads a group of immigrants that annually returns to Guanajuato state in the central highlands.

Carlos Sifuentes, president of the Federation of Zacatecas Clubs in Orange County, said when he was stopped and asked for money by a man wearing a police uniform, he replied that he was a ranking member of an immigrant club. He said the man seemed impressed and immediately let him go.

"When [officials] can't find something illegal that you have done, they just outright ask for money," said Sifuentes, who said on another recent trip he was approached by a man dressed as a federal police officer who asked him for $20 for coffee.

When Maria Torres and her family were returning to Aguascalientes, they were pulled over in Ciudad Juarez by men dressed as police officers. She said they told her they would have to confiscate the car because the headlights were not on.

She and her husband asked the officer for his name but he would not give it, Torres said. The family was given the option to pay a fine on the spot or wait until the next day when municipal offices would be open.

Her husband, she said, gave the men $20.

jennifer.delson@latimes.com

2006-12-03T18:55:00.000-08:00

It snowed briefly here one night last week, and the temperature has been between the low teens and the low 30s at night since. Quite unexpected, especially since I used the air conditioning in the car just 2 weeks ago.

In other weather news, we had a serious dust storm 3 weeks ago. One day, the winds whipped up the dust for hours and hours. We had the windows open that day, and were gone when the storm started. Dust blew in several feet past the window screens.

Of course, it's worse here than it is in El Paso, since there's more exposed dirt. Dust is a daily problem. There are signs along parts of I-10 in New Mexico that warn drivers that dust storms can impede their view. I was taking care of a neighbor's pet the week of our storm, and after 7 days the car that they had left in the garage (which is open on 2 sides, like ours) was so covered in dust that it looked as though it hadn't been moved in a year or so.

p.s. Did you know that birds can hold onto the little razors on concertina wire without hurting themselves?

p.s.s. Went to Carlsbad Caverns National Park this weekend. (http://www.nps.gov/cave/) The most impressive part was seeing park rangers cleaning human "lint" off the walkway and cave features.

p.s.s.s. Both surviving kittens are doing well, though The Little Reject seems more hairless and has a harder time getting around. I hope it isn't because of all the time he spent wet in 40-degree weather....

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-11-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

7 p.m.: Wellll, I was going to catch up on blogging tonight since K. is working late. But at the end of the dog's last soccer session in the yard, I heard mewling in the giant stack of empty, dusty boxes in our garage. Turns out a local stray cat is giving birth in there, despite the fact that our dog has never given her a warm welcome. At this point, one kitten seems OK and two are dying a slow death. How Juarez...

10 p.m.: The kitten born with its intestines outside of its body is no longer alive, but the kitten rejected by its mother has been resuscitated and has fought its way to the teat. Both the sickly kittens fought long and hard, though, out in the cold. How Mexico...

2006-11-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

Scorpions, coyote and jackrabbits -- it's been quite the week for wildlife.

Last week this time, the cleaning lady sweeping K's general office area found two scorpions -- one live and one dead. They were little; and the littler, the more concentrated the poison.

On a visit Sunday to the El Paso Desert Botanical Garden, one coyote was prowling around 50 yards away. Perhaps he was after the handful of jackrabbits zooming around the brush.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-11-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

What this San Antonio columnist says about Chihuahuan support of El Paso's economy is true. Lots of chihuahuaenses shop in El Paso, particularly on the weekends and for the holidays. They go to the shopping malls, as well as to flea markets around town.

After hearing about El Paso's poverty and bleak economic outlook, I was surprised at the busy, clean city that we saw upon arrival. Except for a few national stores and wealthier houses, there is no difference between this city and ones with only 4% unemployment. The difference between reality and the statistics must be the border factor: "guest shoppers" and immigrants, both legal and illegal.
Jaime Castillo: New license plates display reality in debate over border security
Web Posted: 11/05/2006 11:53 PM CST

San Antonio Express-News The absurdity of our country's one-sided border security debate recently lay before my wife and me in a parking lot in my hometown of El Paso.

As we sought a bit of life's necessities, namely diapers, from a Target store at a shopping center I frequented as a child, the sea of license plates told a story of remarkable change.

Thirty years ago, there were plenty of license plates that unmasked the roots of vehicle owners — more importantly consumers — as citizens of the neighboring Mexican state of Chihuahua.

But the plates occupying parking spaces on the American side of the border two weeks ago had changed in not only number, but artistry. Stuck in my memory were the rather ugly black-and-yellow Mexican license plates of the 1970s, which bore two strange contractions at the top: "Front Chih."

Some El Pasoans Anglicized that as a two-syllable border adjective. "Look at that frontchih car."

Others knew that it referred to motorists from El Paso's sister city, Ciudad Juárez, which lies on the "Frontera Chihuahua" or the Chihuahuan border.

Like many things, those "Front Chih" plates have been replaced over the decades. Occupying their place now are more elegant plates depicting the area's mountains, which, like the drivers who consume American goods, treat the border as a natural gateway, not a stopping point.

On our way into the store, I made a mental note of the last 20 vehicles we passed. Nine of them were from Mexico.

Thinking it may be an anomaly, I made the same calculation, in a different row, after we finished our shopping. Eight out of 20 were from Mexico.

What does it say?

To me, it says the issues of border security and immigration in places like El Paso are nonnegotiable. You don't, as some congressmen want us to believe, "secure the border first" and then talk about a guest worker program.

What are we securing the border of El Paso from? Consumers who are keeping the city's four major shopping centers afloat?

The contrarian argument is that border crossers in places like El Paso are simply shopping and then going back home. Therefore, it has nothing to do with immigration.

But it does if you live on either side of the Rio Grande. As a country, we can't in one breath talk about erecting border fences to keep Mexicans out and then expect their compatriots to flow over international bridges to bolster our economy.

Richard Dayoub, president of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, knows this firsthand. Particularly frustrating to him is the fact that most congressional proposals to "seal the border" are coming from lawmakers who couldn't find El Paso on a map.

"If you're a congressman from Pennsylvania, God bless you," Dayoub said. "But you really don't know what's going on down here.

"Anything that comes from inside the Beltway (in Washington, D.C.) and says 'we don't want these people here' is a little myopic," he said.

Sadly, politics is often less about good policy than it is about good talking points. But Dayoub is one American businessman who hopes the passing of Tuesday's national elections will lead to more reasonable border legislation.

"You cannot be in the job I'm in," he said, "and not hold out that hope."

2006-11-03T17:32:00.000-08:00

These are the downtowns of Juarez and El Paso, as seen from the 5,800-foot Franklin Mountains. The tall buildings on the left are in El Paso; the smoky part is Juarez. Despite the smoke, you can how it flows like one big city.

And apparently they are tied closer than I thought. Silly me, I thought it was difficult to enter the U.S. if you're Mexican. Perhaps not, based on this tidbit from the "El Paso Times" newspaper on Halloween morning: "People who cross the border from Mexico to trick-or-treat in El Paso today should wait until they are in the United States to put on masks and makeup, officials with Customs and Border Protection said." I wonder why they have those long lines for visas if it's convenient enough to cross for candy....

By the way, we did not do anything Mexican for the Day of the Dead yesterday. We didn't even taste any "dead bread," which I gather is something tasty that's made only one day of the year.

Finally, I forgot on Tuesday to note what kind of costumes were popular in our neighborhood. We saw the same thing you would in the U.S.: superheroes, cowboys, skeletons, etc.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-31T18:05:00.000-08:00

This week, Mexican kids get to take advantage of American Halloween today and Mexican Day of the Dead on Thursday. (more on that later in the week) Ain't globalization great?!

K. is unbearably cute doling out los dulces to the trick-or-treaters. You can hear the rowdy ones coming because they chant, "We want Halloween! We want Halloween!" (!Queremos Halloween!) Before he set out on his first trip to the gate, we reviewed some key Spanish vocab for the holiday:

"Only one." -- Solo uno.
"There are no more Reese's." -- No hay mas Reese's.
"Hey, don't wreck my lawn!" -- !Oye, p^@a de @(%$e!
"Go away!!" -- !Andale! !Rapido!

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-30T18:34:00.000-08:00

Saw our first tarantula yesterday. No, not at home; next to the aerial tramway in El Paso. It was waiting in line, as if to buy a ticket.

The park ranger said that it was a Mexican brown tarantula, and was in a more public place than usual as this is their mating season. It wasn't as big as the ones they scare us with on TV, but it looked plenty serious. Luckily, their bite is just like a bee sting, according to the ranger.

A friend of K's was driving once near Socorro, New Mexico, as dark fell. He started to hear crunching sounds coming from his tires. He turned on his headlights, and saw that tarantulas were swarming all over the road.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

The "El Paso Times" newspaper yesterday reported that the following items were among things found this week at the international ports of entry -- also known as bridges -- around town:

2,219 pounds of marijuana in 15 separate seizures;
87 illegals (people);
3 live chickens;
1 handgun and 1 rifle.

Meanwhile, we had our first "secondary inspection" while crossing back into Mexico yesterday evening. At first I thought, "Oh, great! There goes the new Skype phone from Best Buy, Kent's new boots from Tony Lama, and all our groceries." But all the officer did was to look in the windows of our car a little bit. Most importantly, he didn't take our leftover ribs from the Rib Hut with the extra container of their oh-so-fabulous barbeque sauce.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

Beggars: I'll say this for Mexico, their beggars work for your money. Except for women of Indian descent, I've so far seen few beggars just standing next to the road, waiting for a handout. In El Paso, however, the gringos don't juggle or "eat" fire or walk on their hands. In all 3 or 4 cases I've seen, El Pasans who beg just stand there. The Juarezians try to entertain you.

Guns: This is the first place where I've seen the universal "no guns" symbol -- the white circle with a black gun in the center and a red line across it -- where it isn't meant as a joke. You see at least one such sign when you drive across the border. Apparently the Mexican government has a zero tolerance for gringos bringing in guns, because you go to jail for several years if you're caught with one. There is another sign in a well-known tourist restaurant, one where there are a lot more Spanish-speaking tourists than gringos.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Favorite Store: Rapiditos Bip Bip, a local chain of convenience stores. Runner-up: Bif, which may sell pork and chicken, but definitely sells steak.

Favorite brand of cheese: Fud.

Our new house, luckily, has much better toilets. They’re mini-sized, but are an improvement over the splash-o-matics that we had in the hotel. Other Mexican features of our rental include: lots of floor tile, no dishwasher, a tiled carport, and an 18-wheel truck graveyard (AKA a yonque) out back. Our gated community is one square block with, as most have, a little park in the middle for kids and/or dogs. A Yorkshire terrier and a lhaso apso patrol the park during daylight hours.

To get to our colonia, you either drive past maquilas on both sides or skirt the border. You can clearly see buildings in El Paso as you turn down our street. It is very strange to be living less than a quarter-mile from the U.S…

While still in the hotel, the dog got a walk in Juarez’s Central Park once a day. Home to a large lake, about 200 ducks and geese, and many trees, it’s a nice place to escape the dust and heat. It even has a giraffe, whose paddock-mate is a stag. There is an another enclosure which housed some sort of predator, but he/she is long dead.

The park is often full of people, particularly after the hottest part of the day is over: students, joggers, duck lovers. There is a school for gifted children in the middle, a library and classrooms for kid karate and ladies' dance and yoga. You can also tour a cactus garden.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing we're finally getting into a house, with a garage, because last night someone stole the hubcaps off of K's car here at the hotel...

2006-10-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

www.jac-ccc.org/webcams.html

The above website has photos showing how large Juarez is, as well as how good/bad its air quality is. The pictures are taken from a south-facing mountain in downtown El Paso.

I suspect that the longer you live here, the shorter your life gets. The environment contains a lot of noxious fumes from deliberate tire-burning and gas escaping as it's pumped from tankers into holding tanks. Emissions from cars and trucks driving around town are already bad, and the vehicles idling in line at the U.S. border for an hour or more, just waiting to cross, don't help. I wonder if the maquilas pollute, too. Apparently they do in Tijuana, at least.

But it's always sunny here, so that's nice.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

We finally got a house, and move in 2 days hence.

It looked great from the front, but the second story in the back overlooks a .... serious ... junkyard. How serious? Try razorwire on top of the wall type of yonque. It's beyond unattractive. (photo to follow)

Also, strangely, it's at most a quarter-mile from the U.S. It's a 15-minute drive from the nearest Dedicated Commuter Lane border crossing, but you can see El Paso, Texas, easily from the neighborhood. How weird to move to Mexico and then live right next to the U.S.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-10-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

Little vignettes from Ciudad Juárez, México:

Seen: Two guys on matching white mopeds, casually dressed and riding side by side. Strapped to the back of their bikes were the official plastic bins used to pick up and deliver mail in America. Each guy had a bin marked, "U.S. Postal Service." I don't think they were USG employees.

Heard: Friends had just crossed the border a few weeks back and were driving through downtown El Paso, Texas. They saw a family running along the side of the road who were wearing only underwear and were carrying their clothes. They were all wet, presumably from having just swam the Rio Grande. They didn't look norteamericano. This was in broad daylight.

Fact: The twelfth car in one year has run into the fence at K's place of employment. (see Sept. 17th post below for explanation of why this is hilarious)

Impression: Most of the lower-level employees at this American chain hotel seem to work 6 days a week, perhaps more than 8 hours day. One maid said she only gets 8 days of vacation per year.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-09-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

Our hotel is right on the Pan-American Highway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-American_Highway), it turns out. With 4 or 5 lanes in each direction, traffic here is truly impressive -- an amazing number of squealing brakes and 18-wheelers honking hourly. Luckily, the hotel itself is very quiet. Or maybe we just don't hear anything over the din...

As it's busy and not very populated, this neighborhood is a difficult one in which to walk Our Dang Dog. You miss the interesting mix of architecture because your eyes are glued to the sidewalk to avoid stepping in one of the hundreds of shards of broken glass. Tough town. Nonetheless, we have noticed some interesting houses -- more like mini-mosques (pictures to follow) than colonial houses. The fanciest ones are in a local version of gated communities: one short street of townhouses all fenced-in together, with a little park in the middle.

Friday was a very big day: we applied for our DCL (DCL = Dedicated Commuter Lane? The website didn't readily provide facts) passes with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. These are muy, muy importante, as they can cut waiting times at the U.S. border by ONE HOUR.

You drive just over the border to apply for them, which requires a long application, fingerprints, and at least $500. While waiting our turn, we got to watch the border patrol in action. They are constantly on the move, walking down the lines of cars (the line was 30 or 40 cars in each of the 4 lanes when we went; took 20 minutes or so to get to the front). They chased off people who were loitering behind some wide poles next to one of the lanes. Hardy souls can walk across the border, passing through turnstiles, but that meant a walk of miles and miles for the folks crossing at the bridge where we were. In total, there are 5 bridges linking Juarez and El Paso. At least one is private, and requires a 35-cent toll.

p.s. Hotel bathroom starting to smell like sewage, too! I should note, however, that when the gritty wind blows, it does at least cut down on the smell outside...

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-09-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

I miss American toilets...

So far, the paloma (tequila, lemon soda and lime juice) is an improvement on this hotel's margarita. Thank goodness. We had some of a Corona Familia, a 40-ounce beer, last night. Maybe familia means, "for the whole family to enjoy"?

We saw our first Volvo-destroying pothole the other day on the biggest road in town. It was not wide, but so deep that an SUV hitting it at 30+ miles per hour would have also lost a wheel. Now I'm glad we didn't bring a nimbler, little car.

The dust isn't as bad today. Perhaps it's less windy. However, now that the rain from last week's storm has completely dried, a distinct sewage smell has crept into the neighborhood. It is also emanating from our friends' toilet and shower...

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-09-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Ay, chihuahua! (They really say that) It's so dusty today. Walking around the block, you get grit in the corners of your eyes. There is a visible dust cloud hovering over town. Makes breathing unpleasant, because I bet it traps the vehicle/maquiladora pollution. And I could swear that my laptop -- which hasn't left the hotel room since we arrived -- has dust on the keyboard. It must be coming in through the a/c, since I wash my hands often (TRAVEL TIP), a good way for gringos to avoid getting sick. Can you tell that the air quality here is freaking us out more than a little?

But other than that the weather is great. The low temp last night was in the mid-50s (F), so this morning was nice and freezing cold. Highs this week are supposed to be in the mid-80s (F). No humidity anywhere in the forecast.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-09-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

Had my first margarita yesterday. It was very disappointing, too watery. Also met my first Mexican who worked in the U.S. illegally. He spoke excellent English.

Typical breakfast: fresh pineapple or fresh papaya with lime juice, fresh orange juice, mango yogurt, and either an omelette with green chiles or something more Mexican, like chilaquiles with salsa verde. I've seen lots of pig parts and beef things on offer for breakfast, as well as a soup called menudo (tripe soup -- thanks for the translation, Helene!). For lunch, I've been having either tortilla soup (with avocado bits on top and a whole chipotle pepper laying in the bottom of the bowl) or a "waffled sandwich." (grilled ham & cheese with mayo)

Typical traffic stories: the outer fence around the compound where K works has been hit by cars 11 times in 1 year. The cars have to travel more than 10' of sidewalk to reach the fence. Nonetheless, 11 drivers accomplished such a feat. Second, a colleague of K's hit a pothole with his car and the front grill fell off. Finally, the city has such poor drainage, you have to change lanes to avoid standing water when it rains really hard. You have to avoid the water because you never know how deep potholes underneath will be. This week's "El Diario" had a picture of a Bluebird-type bus sitting in a giant pool of water, with its nose submerged.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

2006-09-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

Our first day in Mexico:

"15 Sep 2006 --
Ciudad Juarez is a mess! All diesel fumes, dust and traffic. Pretty standard for a city of 1.7 million, I suppose. But the people are open and nice, a good change from our last place. The weather is good, not too hot, but the sun is pretty strong -- probably because we're at 4,300 feet in altitude."

The night before, in El Paso, TX:

"We arrived in EP this afternoon, to spend the night before crossing the border. We were really surprised by the scenery since Pecos, TX. It was all mountains west of there. Huge mountains, one peak 8,200 feet high. I never knew that West Texas was anything but flat & boring. We were in 2 spots in the mountains where there was only 1 station on the radio, near Van Horn, one town in the movie, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." Sadly, there are mosquitos in a place as empty and dry as that, as we discovered at one rest stop. (Texas has wireless internet at all its rest stops, and fire hydrants or posts for male dogs)

El Paso and Ciudad Juarez sit on a huge plateau ringed by tall mountains. The combined population is 2.5 million. Traffic was awful in EP where we spent the night, and there's no place to walk the dog. Hopefully, the rest of the city isn't as bad."

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/