Tag: Mexico

This is a departure from what I had planned to post today. The mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, was so upsetting I had to comment. I lived and worked for many years in Las Curces, New Mexico, which is a few miles north of El Paso. I moved to Las Cruces to take a Controller’s job with a large propane supplier which had dealings in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Plus, this company did significant business within Mexico through Juarez. Prior to this experience I had spent my entire life in Oklahoma, with all of the middle America bias that would suggest.

My experience in a multi-cultural, multi-language border community was an amazing awaking for me. One of my joys in life had been painting, but it had been dormant for a long time. Almost immediately this seemingly barren desert land and its colorful culture inspired me. Everywhere I looked there was something wonderful that I wanted to paint. The awareness of texture, color and beauty that I had felt, when I was young and thinking I wanted to be an artist, returned. I didn’t see a barren desert– it was alive with color and contrast. I have never painted as much as I did while living in this radiant part of the world. I fell in love with cacti—okay maybe it wasn’t love, how about fascination.

Many of my books take place in this part of the world. The Bootlegger’s Legacy has key scenes in Juarez and El Paso. The center of the mystery in the book begins to unravel in Las Cruces. Dog Gone Lies starts in Las Cruces and moves to T or C, New Mexico. Vincent Malone finds his mojo in Santa Fe. Yes, no question, that part of the country had great impact on me.

I attended numerous business meetings in El Paso and Juarez both as the Controller of the large propane company and then later as a self-employed financial consultant. There was one constant over those many years. The kindness and friendliness of the people I dealt with. Often these were Mexicans or Mexican descent Americans who more comfortably spoke Spanish than English. I was always treated with great respect and never did my lack of knowing their language cause any issues. They were bi-lingual and often some of the smartest people I have ever met in business and yet they accommodated me. If they ever thought what a dumb yokel I was, they never showed it.

Over the years I learned that graciousness was not something they did to accommodate a fish-out-of-water Okie, it was who they were; it was part of their culture to treat people in this wonderful manner. Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of bad people who live in this area, but a lot fewer than most imagine. Over a very long business career I can assure you my most horrific experiences with people happen in places other than these border towns. One of the worst business meetings I ever had was in a high rise in LA with some of the biggest jerks on this planet—but that’s another story.

My experiences in Juarez were especially surprising to me. The business people I met in Juarez were some of the most sophisticated and knowledgeable people I’d ever been around. They were often running huge companies with international dealings and yet were polite and accommodating. I never went into a business meeting that did not feel warm and comfortable—even if we were negotiating difficult issues. Every meeting was conducted in perfect English to accommodate me—with no remarks about my inability to speak Spanish.

Some of this good feeling I experienced started to change before I left the region and definitely changed a lot after I left; due to the increased drug traffic. That change harmed both sides of the border and I believe was mishandled as much by us as the Mexicans. But even with increased violence due to the drug gangs these communities along the border are connected in ways it is hard for outsiders to understand. It was not that long ago that most of this area was Mexico. Many of the people who live here have grandparents or great grandparents who were born here when it was Mexico. Calling these people immigrants is the height of ignorance.

Our relationship with Mexico is a complicated mixture of joy, mistakes, misery and national treasure. But it is not foreign. We have great historical links that provide a wonderful cultural gift to everyone who lives in this country. We should celebrate our good fortune every day that we have this diversity. The hate we see from a few is based on ignorance and fear.

The human race has a long and troubling history with ignorance and fear—but we can’t seem to move away and embrace the goodness that exists all around us. Let’s hope someday we can.

Thanks for being a reader!