30 años- COLOSIO. 23 años- DOS TORRES. 10 años- ESTUDIANTES
Events have a way of leaving their mark. No one can say for certain the form it will take. It is there, no one can deny, yet what is said about an event after it has happened leaves some other kind of mark. Or even what is written about an event.
There is a thread which connects the events listed above, no matter where they happened; they have by now an all too familiar scent in one’s nostrils, an all too familiar ring in one’s ears, an all too familiar way of being told. Like any event, big or small, they participate in that all too familiar demand for an absolute, which is fair, but at the same time, very dangerous, kind of ‘not lie.’
The truth about the events above are still worth investigating. The truth, as it has been disseminated through ‘official’ channels, is just but one side, or their side, their version, of the truth, or what passes for ‘true.’ One can never truly know the truth, right? One can ask the right kind of questions. One can present the right kind of evidence. One can present the right kind of witness. One can try to do it the right way in order to hopefully determine the truth. That is la batalla. To truly understand what really happened in Tijuana in 1994. To truly understand what really happened in New York in 2001. To truly understand what really happened in Iguala in 2014.
HBO has released a 5-part docuseries that looks at the events that took place on September 26, 2014 in Iguala, Guerrero. If you aren’t familiar with this story, if you haven’t been paying attention to all of la desgracia, o desmadre (your preference), of the years leading up to this event, and its aftermath, then clear your schedule. Not only is this series tragic and heartbreaking, but it is a series that will also, hopefully, fill you full of rage.
That sweet rage which is lit within which seeks out justice in an all too increasingly unjust and violent world. Mexico is no stranger to violence. Perhaps, who knows, violence es la sombra en que camina. We all know that nuestros ancestres liked to throw down. We all know that cuando llego un tal Cortés, blood soaked the temples, trees and lakes, and we all know that so far in this century, violence has reigned supreme due to los carteles and the two governments that are opposed to them (or not, depending on your perspective): the Mexican and US governments.
Some of us have been paying attention. Some of us haven’t. What makes this story on HBO all the more troubling is that this violence, through reasons and explanations that are presented, decided to come and hold these students in its bloody grip on a night in September. Students trying to educate themselves. Students trying to find a better life. Students hoping to escape their environment and fight for a better world. Students who simply wanted to make their parents proud. No one is sure what happened that night. Neither the parents, nor the police, nor the state officials can be sure of what happened. Each of them, however, have their own version of the truth.
What is true is that for decades violence in Mexico has claimed too many lives. It has not only been students, but women as well, journalists, ordinary folk who have been caught in the crosshairs of this violence which is enacted by criminal enterprises and the state alike. It’s been happening for far too long and this series is a reminder that this violence isn’t simply about bullets, but about the structural mechanisms which embrace violence: patriarchy, capitalism, the military industrial complex, the war on drugs, the war on terror, etc, operating under la mano del estado. I forgot one: history. Who writes and what one writes contains its own logic of violence.
For those of us living on this side de la frontera, it is sometimes easy to forget or not pay attention to the violence which takes place on that side of la frontera. We probably should, there and elsewhere; la violencia no duerme.
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