# The Demonization of a Mexican City



## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

I had to think twice about using the word demonization in the title of this post, but, yes, it's appropriate --- a city of two million people with a devastated economy and a reputation for being The City of Death when it is also a hard working city of love and life. 

I arrived in El Paso in January of 2000, a new millineum for the world and a very different life for me than the one I left behind in Dallas. When people hear the "c" word (cancer) for the first time in their lives in relation to them personally, I'm told that they often do strange things. I quit a senior programming position in a very well paid IT shop, for instance, and gave up very generous stock options two months before a public opening and hit the road for West Texas in a big U-Haul with three cats in the cab and a big car on a trailer behind me. IT had become a sweat shop job in Dallas where the company literally owned my time 24/7 and some there seemed to want a bit of my soul, too. I would be fine. Why, I had even lined up a job paying $15 an hour automating a little AC repair business, which would all I need to start reputation building and say goodbye to corporate life, forever. 

But the real attraction was Ciudad Juarez. My dad had been raised in Weslaco and had taken our family to Matamoros many times. I needed an American city big enough to support me with easy access to Mexico. It was El Paso or San Diego. End of list.

But I was surprised to learn that the reaction to most in El Paso to the very idea of going to Juarez was akin to the reaction of the villagers in the original Dracula movie when Renfeld tells them he is going on to Castle Dracula that night. "Take this, for your mother's sake," says an old woman as she put a cross around his neck. 

I found this odd since I had made two exploratory trips to Juarez already. The worst thing that had happened to me was an extremely cute waitress at the steak house on Avenida Juarez had come running up to from behind to hand me $80 that had fallen out under the table while I had lunch. She scolded me a bit and told me to be more careful with my money! I was so stunned I just looked at her. She was just doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do, and any kind of tip would be like patting her on the head, so I just smiled and said thanks. But it bugged me that I had not done anything more than say thanks (which I did later). I felt safe the entire time and thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality I received. 

Most everyone who goes to Juarez regularly has this experience --- a sense of shock that any situation can be the exact opposite of the public perception, that common knowledge can be so at odds with reality. Juarez was not The City of Death at that time. 

Fast forward three years. I'm sitting in my little one bedroom on Avenida Vicente Guerrero in Juarez looking out on a rainy afternoon from the second floor at all of the activity below. I could already hear the thump of the jukebox that was directly beneath my feet in the bar on the first floor, Chava's bar, the man who owned our apartments. I had just passed by Camalita's apartment to see my girlfriend brushing her hair as she sat at the kitchen table in her living room. They were actually laughing together which was an extremely welcome development. 

Because of the presence of Lyly's mother in the building, she had put out the fiction that there was nothing going on between the two of us. The mother had moved back to Veracruz, but now Lyly was stuck with the fiction and clung to it to the bitter end. Carmalita, on the other hand, had just begun cleaning my apartment once a week and knew better because of a few items Lyly had left behind in my apartment. Now, somehow during the few days I had been in Las Cruces they had decided to become friends, and now there they were, the young woman I loved as a man and the old woman I loved like a third grandmother. 

There was a computer on the table in front of me, and I pulled up the DreamWeaver software I had bought. It's makes websites. The computer assumed a new significance to me as I realized that the constant, never ending stories about Juarez had become personal to me. When people north of the border warned me that my neighbors would be asking for money and begging rides since I had a car, it was personal, because they were running down my neighbors, who never asked me for anything except a smile and a hello and maybe a little chit-chat. The deserted City Market meant my good friend Nacho, who had a shop there, was actually looking for somewhere cheaper to live because he could not pay his rent this month. It _was_ personal now, very much so, and I was going to do something about it. 

When Time Magazine did a big spread about the murdered girls in the city and talked about absolutely nothing but crime it offended me. I had learned they stayed at a 5-star and rode around in limos with security as though in 1995 Kosovo talking to no one except police, military, and politicians. A couple of days, then gone, and then came the shocking new hit piece in their publication. Sure, it was all true, but it was only a tiny part of life in Juarez. Juarez was being demonized without the slightest pretense of balance or fairness. 

The truth was that Juarez at that time was a lot safer than many cities in the US. The truth was that the city offered a lot of heavily discounted services that people need like eyeglasses and prescription drugs. Leather goods were high quality and affordable. Dental care at the Washington Clinic on Ave. Lerdo was top flight and cost half of what a dentist in the US would charge for the same services. If you liked Mexican music, there were a constant stream of major artists doing concerts in the city. If nightlife was your thing, it was perfectly safe to drink and dance in a bar in Juarez. The fine restaurants alone were reason enough to come. You could spend an entire afternoon at the City Market checking out the goods and then having lunch outside at one of the five restaurants along the front of the building listening to mariachis. If you liked history, the last big battle of the Mexican Revolution was fought in Juarez in 1911, and the city had two nice historical museums. Juarez was a fascinating glimpse into the Mexican world just a five minute walk across the river. 

I'm not the only one who saw it that way, just one of the few. 

So, I began telling the world about these things on my website which went right to the top of Google in just three weeks and still is to this day, although it's embarrassingly out of date and has been since 2008 when the "war" started. I am working to fix it every day. Consequently, I've been interviewed by news outlets that are household words in the US countless times. They have never published a single positive word that I said. Not once. I tried making them submit questions through email versus the telephone so I could give concise answers to their questions --- questions I might add that always centered on crime and the missing girls. How could I defend a city which allowed over 300 girls to be brutally murdered over the past ten years? Were the police involved? Was it one killer or several? How much did I worry about personal safety there? After a while it became clear that talking to them was an utter waste of time. 

Same with the people in El Paso, always advising Holy Water and Crosses to ward off the hoard of non-existent vampires awaiting anyone who dares cross the bridge. Never mind the fact that I was always the only one in the conversation who ever had a young woman I loved to worry about on the streets of Juarez. They were right. They had lived in El Paso all their lives, you see...

You may think, well, since 2008 the crime stories could not be ignored, and I agree wholeheartedly. What happened beginning the summer of '08 was horrific beyond description. In a period of just three weeks all my arrows of truth about Juarez had been broken and lay useless on the ground. Nothing I said would make a difference now. So I've said nothing before now. 

But I also know it would not have mattered if the cartel war had never occurred it all. The US press had been distorting the truth about the city long before that happened. 

I also know that demonization has consequences for those who are victimized by it:


A City Market and downtown district that once attracted throngs of tourists and shoppers from across the border almost emptied out of visitors

Famous restaurants shuttered up and abandoned

Mexican businesses of all kinds eager to provide affordable services to businesses just across the bridge not even under consideration

The only word that comes to mind is devastating, real negative effects on real people, some of whom happen to be friends of mine. So it's about time I dusted myself off and got active again, just as Juarez is doing as a municipality. The downtown area is being refurbished in an attempt to revitalize the district. The soldiers have gone. The city has come back to life. 

It would be nice to see some positive stories in the local and national media about the revitalization efforts, but I won't be holding my breath. If anyone is going to speak up for Juarez, it's going to have to be people from the US who actually know the city for what it really is, not that a bad place at all, and, in fact, an exciting place to be at times. 

Considering all of the economic misery that the demonization of Ciudad Juarez has caused, I am of the opinion that US press coverage of the city borders on being a crime against humanity. 

What do you think?


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

I think that for the 300 or so girls that were murdered it mattered very much that it went on and on and caught them up in it. To say that it was a very small part of the city and that people were having a great time with great music acts, etc says alot about attitudes concerning the poor who work in maquiladoras. I'm glad that things have settled down and the city is revitalized. But the citizens of El Paso had every right to be cautious when they saw bullets hitting buildings in downtown El Paso and a teenager's party in Juarez turning into a bloodbath by mistake. My wife liked El Paso very much and we may move there in a few years. Knowing that Juarez has alot to offer makes it that much more desirable. El Paso is building a Bus Rapid Transit system that will make doing without a car feasible and living there affordable. El Paso/Juarez may be the perfect "Mexican" city for us. But we may stay on the U.S. side if the other stuff flares up again.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

vantexan said:


> I think that for the 300 or so girls that were murdered it mattered very much that it went on and on and caught them up in it. To say that it was a very small part of the city and that people were having a great time with great music acts, etc says alot about attitudes concerning the poor who work in maquiladoras. I'm glad that things have settled down and the city is revitalized. But the citizens of El Paso had every right to be cautious when they saw bullets hitting buildings in downtown El Paso and a teenager's party in Juarez turning into a bloodbath by mistake. My wife liked El Paso very much and we may move there in a few years. Knowing that Juarez has alot to offer makes it that much more desirable. El Paso is building a Bus Rapid Transit system that will make doing without a car feasible and living there affordable. El Paso/Juarez may be the perfect "Mexican" city for us. But we may stay on the U.S. side if the other stuff flares up again.


People in Juarez were concerned about the murdered girls. It was horrific. But it didn't stop people from going about their business. All that stuff you mentioned happened much later, and, sure, I didn't go myself much for five years. It was a failed municipal state. All I'm saying is that it's wrong to write nothing but bad things about a city of two million people. It's really ruined parts of its economy. Mentioning the maquiladoras is interesting, because only few of them ever paid for vans to take the girls home in the middle of the night instead of them standing at bus stops 2-3 times on the way home. Providing safe transportation for them was the immediate, practical answer to a big problem, and I used to wonder why all the clamor in defense of the women of Juarez from people who are multi-millionaires never resulted in a practical solution to actually help them get home at night. I guess it was mostly about them all along, good press to stand there and rail about not enough being done, then hop a flight back to the mansion. Kind of a drive-by event, like the national reporters.


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

ElPaso2012 said:


> People in Juarez were concerned about the murdered girls. It was horrific. But it didn't stop people from going about their business. All that stuff you mentioned happened much later, and, sure, I didn't go myself much for five years. It was a failed municipal state. All I'm saying is that it's wrong to write nothing but bad things about a city of two million people. It's really ruined parts of its economy. Mentioning the maquiladoras is interesting, because only few of them ever paid for vans to take the girls home in the middle of the night instead of them standing at bus stops 2-3 times on the way home. Providing safe transportation for them was the immediate, practical answer to a big problem, and I used to wonder why all the clamor in defense of the women of Juarez from people who are multi-millionaires never resulted in a practical solution to actually help them get home at night. I guess it was mostly about them all along, good press to stand there and rail about not enough being done, then hop a flight back to the mansion. Kind of a drive-by event, like the national reporters.


At least they did draw attention to it and got the Mexicans to make a serious effort to get it to stop. It was a sensational story, and sensationalism sells. But ultimately it was a Mexican problem that they needed to address. If worries over this were overblown,it was the Mexicans who needed to reassure through serious efforts on their part to entice Americans to come over and shop, etc.


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## emilybcruz (Oct 29, 2013)

It's taken me 3 years to start getting journalists to write about some of the good things I've told them about Juarez. I don't know if I'd go so fair to say it's a crime against humanity, but it's certainly a disservice to the borderland. The media feeds on controversy regardless of the topic. I don't know how many interviews I've done about my blog, which focuses on my attempts to live a happy life in Juarez, and only a handful of reporters have taken anything I've said for what it was worth. Debbie Nathan, Ann Hepperman, Angela Kocherga specifically. 

I know exactly what you're saying and I can’t say I’m surprised that no news outlet has ever published any of the good things you have to say about the city. Most people just don’t want to hear it. I just did an interview with KFOX this morning and when I was asked if I felt safe in Juarez, I told the truth. I explained that although there is still some violence in the city, I still live a normal life. A great life actually. I explained how I go to my favorite corner bar on the weekends and walk the tianguis and go walking to get street food at midnight. I’m willing to bet money that they will cut that response down to “there is still some violence in the city.” Ni modo… 

I wish I knew how to show people the Juarez I know but I haven’t quite figured that out yet. So I just write about it as much as possible in my blog. What else can we do but share our stories?


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## emilybcruz (Oct 29, 2013)

vantexan said:


> I think that for the 300 or so girls that were murdered it mattered very much that it went on and on and caught them up in it. To say that it was a very small part of the city and that people were having a great time with great music acts, etc says alot about attitudes concerning the poor who work in maquiladoras. I'm glad that things have settled down and the city is revitalized. But the citizens of El Paso had every right to be cautious when they saw bullets hitting buildings in downtown El Paso and a teenager's party in Juarez turning into a bloodbath by mistake. My wife liked El Paso very much and we may move there in a few years. Knowing that Juarez has alot to offer makes it that much more desirable. El Paso is building a Bus Rapid Transit system that will make doing without a car feasible and living there affordable. El Paso/Juarez may be the perfect "Mexican" city for us. But we may stay on the U.S. side if the other stuff flares up again.


In regards to the issue of the murdered woman, I have to say this. Yes the city mourns for them and yes it was a horrific situation, but I think what the OP was trying to say is that those missing women do not represent all of Juarez and life here as people tend to think. I also want to mention how just how grossly the media misrepresents the city with a quote from an article entitled “Burning the Bridge” and written by my good friend Robert Andrew Powell. 

“Juárez is a murder capital. No doubt about it. Two years ago it was known as the most violent city in the world. But here's the deal: Almost everybody who is murdered in Juárez is male. A man or a boy. By far. The numbers of women and girls killed in Juárez, as a percentage of the total murder victims, have long been lower than in other large cities. I don't only mean Mexican cities, but also American cities like Cleveland, where we know at least one man plucked girls off the street, chained them up, and sexually tortured them for a decade. Cleveland is also where police recently charged a sex offender with the murders of three more women found dumped in an overgrown field, in a garage, and in a basement. Cuyahoga County, or Greater Cleveland, has about the same population as Juárez. In 2006, a year when the murder of women was pretty much the Juárez civic brand — that was the year Borderland came out — there were far more total murders in Juárez than in Greater Cleveland, 253 to 146. Yet more women were killed in the Ohio county, 27, than were killed in Juárez, 20.”

The article is a must read for anyone interested on the topic and can be found here As Season 1 of FX's 'The Bridge' winds down, an author who lived in Juarez takes issue with the show's portrayal of the border - Grantland


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

emilybcruz said:


> In regards to the issue of the murdered woman, I have to say this. Yes the city mourns for them and yes it was a horrific situation, but I think what the OP was trying to say is that those missing women do not represent all of Juarez and life here as people tend to think. I also want to mention how just how grossly the media misrepresents the city with a quote from an article entitled “Burning the Bridge” and written by my good friend Robert Andrew Powell.
> 
> “Juárez is a murder capital. No doubt about it. Two years ago it was known as the most violent city in the world. But here's the deal: Almost everybody who is murdered in Juárez is male. A man or a boy. By far. The numbers of women and girls killed in Juárez, as a percentage of the total murder victims, have long been lower than in other large cities. I don't only mean Mexican cities, but also American cities like Cleveland, where we know at least one man plucked girls off the street, chained them up, and sexually tortured them for a decade. Cleveland is also where police recently charged a sex offender with the murders of three more women found dumped in an overgrown field, in a garage, and in a basement. Cuyahoga County, or Greater Cleveland, has about the same population as Juárez. In 2006, a year when the murder of women was pretty much the Juárez civic brand — that was the year Borderland came out — there were far more total murders in Juárez than in Greater Cleveland, 253 to 146. Yet more women were killed in the Ohio county, 27, than were killed in Juárez, 20.”
> 
> The article is a must read for anyone interested on the topic and can be found here As Season 1 of FX's 'The Bridge' winds down, an author who lived in Juarez takes issue with the show's portrayal of the border - Grantland


But during the height of the cartel wars innocent people were getting caught in crossfires all up and down the border. Headless bodies were hung from overpasses. Dismembered bodies were dumped on highways. Numerous journalists, police chiefs, and judges were assassinated. It's not that crossing the bridge meant dodging bullets or hand to hand combat. It meant the potential was there for violence to breakout, and it made people fearful. To say people should just ignore their fears and come on over to spend money isn't fair to them. Chances are in Cleveland most people get murdered in certain crime ridden neighborhoods. Avoid those neighborhoods and most likely you'll be safe. Violence in Juarez was everywhere for awhile. Avoid it and your safety is much higher. Especially with El Paso consistently ranked as one of America's safest large cities, if not the safest. But I'm glad things are much calmer now, and will certainly come over regular if we move there.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=emilybcruz;2213097]It's taken me 3 years to start getting journalists to write about some of the good things I've told them about Juarez. I don't know if I'd go so fair to say it's a crime against humanity, but it's certainly a disservice to the borderland. The media feeds on controversy regardless of the topic...._

There is nothing new here, emilyb. Of course the media concentrates on controversy because that is what the media patrons want but this glossing over of the terrible chaos in Juarez City over the past few years is also facile. Of course, most of us can go about our private lives in peace despite the itermittent violence and corruption surrounding us as long as the violence is aimed at a few beyond ourselves and does not turn into a general insurrection as recently seen in Syria or lesser so, the Mexican State of Michoacan but that does not mean the incivility is not there. 

This business of the media centering in on the repulsive rather than the attractive aspects of a community has been going on long before there was what we, today, would call "the media".

Juarez is not unique in receiving a bad press and is not being "demonized", simply exploited.When I lived in Birmingham in the 1960s, the city was supposedly a time bomb according to the media but I went about my daily business and did the town at night without encumbrance resulting from the riots and kluxer violence of those days in the 1960s but that didn´t mean the violence and intimidation were not there interspersed around the city. It just meant that it was not interfering with my life.

In about 1958, _TIME _Magazine sent a reporter to the small South Alabama town in which I lived where my father was, at the time, the mayor. These were during the time of racial segregation and violence in Alabama and the _TIME _reporter was looking for some juicy white ******* to humiliate. Well, my father was an articulate man and not a racist and that interview went rather smoothly throughout, a fact of which my father was quite proud since, in those days, the media considered any southern white politician to be an ignorant racist. The interview never appeared in _TIME_. Rather, on the way out of town, the reporter shot a photo of a poor person´s shack and netitled it, "Poverty in Greenville, Alabama". 

Don´t think that you and Juarez City have been singaled out for stereotyping. You´re just thei latest target.

By the way, by far the best Mexican dinner I ever tasted, bar none, was in Juarez back in the 1980s. A great and supurb mid-day dinner before we headed back to El Paso and across New Meixco for home in California. It started snowing in Southern New Mexico and we had to stop and stay at a Holiday Inn in some hick town there where we ate dinner that night. Terrible food at some dreadful buffet because we were snowed in and couldn´t go to town and that Holiday Inn food made us sick as dogs.

No telling when God will strick.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

emilybcruz said:


> In regards to the issue of the murdered woman, I have to say this. Yes the city mourns for them and yes it was a horrific situation, but I think what the OP was trying to say is that those missing women do not represent all of Juarez and life here as people tend to think. I also want to mention how just how grossly the media misrepresents the city with a quote from an article entitled “Burning the Bridge” and written by my good friend Robert Andrew Powell.
> 
> “Juárez is a murder capital. No doubt about it. Two years ago it was known as the most violent city in the world. But here's the deal: Almost everybody who is murdered in Juárez is male. A man or a boy. By far. The numbers of women and girls killed in Juárez, as a percentage of the total murder victims, have long been lower than in other large cities. I don't only mean Mexican cities, but also American cities like Cleveland, where we know at least one man plucked girls off the street, chained them up, and sexually tortured them for a decade. Cleveland is also where police recently charged a sex offender with the murders of three more women found dumped in an overgrown field, in a garage, and in a basement. Cuyahoga County, or Greater Cleveland, has about the same population as Juárez. In 2006, a year when the murder of women was pretty much the Juárez civic brand — that was the year Borderland came out — there were far more total murders in Juárez than in Greater Cleveland, 253 to 146. Yet more women were killed in the Ohio county, 27, than were killed in Juárez, 20.”
> 
> The article is a must read for anyone interested on the topic and can be found here As Season 1 of FX's 'The Bridge' winds down, an author who lived in Juarez takes issue with the show's portrayal of the border - Grantland


Thanks for the link. That is a very powerful article.


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## emilybcruz (Oct 29, 2013)

I agree with you Hound Dog. It's not my intention to "gloss over" the violence here in Juarez though, only to show people that the city is more than just a murder statistic. I don't discount those statistics and I do openly discuss some of the horrific things I saw in 2010, but I choose to concentrate on other aspects of life here, simply because there are enough people concentrating on the death toll.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Hound Dog said:


> [_QUOTE=emilybcruz;2213097]It's taken me 3 years to start getting journalists to write about some of the good things I've told them about Juarez. I don't know if I'd go so fair to say it's a crime against humanity, but it's certainly a disservice to the borderland. The media feeds on controversy regardless of the topic...._
> 
> There is nothing new here, emilyb. Of course the media concentrates on controversy because that is what the media patrons want but this glossing over of the terrible chaos in Juarez City over the past few years is also facile. Of course, most of us can go about our private lives in peace despite the itermittent violence and corruption surrounding us as long as the violence is aimed at a few beyond ourselves and does not turn into a general insurrection as recently seen in Syria or lesser so, the Mexican State of Michoacan but that does not mean the incivility is not there.
> 
> ...


Nice post, but I'll stand by "demonize".


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Here is another quote from the Robert Andrew Powell article as he describes the plot of the TV show "The Bridge":

_"But now that the El Paso police are involved, somebody finally cares. Specifically a beautiful, blonde detective with Asperger's syndrome named Sonya Cross. (She's played by Diane Kruger.) Her cohort from the Chihuahua State Police, Marco Ruiz (Demián Bichir) has to explain to her why Fuentes's disappearance wasn't looked into. She was "only one of 250 girls who disappeared last year. They go missing from buses, factories, always 15 to 20 years old. Dark hair, beautiful."_

250 girls disappearing every single year? Not hardly. This kind of disregard for facts under the pretense of being factual and accurate pretty much qualifies as demonization in my dictionary. I'm glad Powell deconstructs the plot of this series and points it out, because no doubt millions of people will get this warped picture of the city.

It's not accurate, and it's not fair to the people of Juarez.


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## emilybcruz (Oct 29, 2013)

The Bridge is a horrible show for fact checkers that's for sure. It does demonize Juarez and makes a mockery of El Paso. Powell's review was spot on, to say the least. I actually paid to watch it on Amazon Prime. Worst $1.99 I've ever spent.


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## buzzbar (Feb 9, 2013)

I looked at your blog a few days ago when you posted something here emilybcruz and couldn't help be struck by the power and impact of, dare I say, the mundane. 

I refuse to allow the constant narrative of the murders to frame how I view Juarez, and your stories of the city have brought it alive for me. Props to you.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

ElPaso2012 said:


> Considering all of the economic misery that the demonization of Ciudad Juarez has caused, I am of the opinion that US press coverage of the city borders on being a crime against humanity.
> 
> What do you think?


I think you don't know much about the topic you're writing about, nor about the history of the war and other problems in that area ... nor about current events in Mexico. I'll suggest, though, that while you're whipping on the "US press" you begin to read the Mexican press and its reporting on that area ... whom are the principal original and factual sources of information for just about any reporting in worldwide media outside of Mexico. These are the mildest comments I can offer - about what I think.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

ElPaso2012 said:


> Here is another quote from the Robert Andrew Powell article as he describes the plot of the TV show "The Bridge":
> 
> _"But now that the El Paso police are involved, somebody finally cares. Specifically a beautiful, blonde detective with Asperger's syndrome named Sonya Cross. (She's played by Diane Kruger.) Her cohort from the Chihuahua State Police, Marco Ruiz (Demián Bichir) has to explain to her why Fuentes's disappearance wasn't looked into. She was "only one of 250 girls who disappeared last year. They go missing from buses, factories, always 15 to 20 years old. Dark hair, beautiful."_
> 
> ...


TV shows are never accurate, they are made to sell tv time, that's all
We could never ever base our opinions on what a TV show reflects


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

TV shows are irrelevant. I bet you that there are no accurate records on actually how many girls disappeared and whatever records there are , they are understated as many disapearations are not reported.
You need to live in Mexico for a while before you realize that neither TV nor press are acurate so please...do not even go near the reality as seen in a tv show! That is entertainement not reality...Juarez has a bad reputation and it earned it fair and square same as San Pedro Sula, Honduras.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Longford said:


> I think you don't know much about the topic you're writing about, nor about the history of the war and other problems in that area ... nor about current events in Mexico. I'll suggest, though, that while you're whipping on the "US press" you begin to read the Mexican press and its reporting on that area ... whom are the principal original and factual sources of information for just about any reporting in worldwide media outside of Mexico. These are the mildest comments I can offer - about what I think.


Well, what would a thread be without seeing another pot shot from the SS Longford splash harmlessly in the water? Not many in the US read the Mexican press, and the US press is responsible for what it prints. I maintain that the picture is distorted and out of balance. Writing about nothing but crime in Chicago would never be tolerated. What makes it okay to write nothing but City of Death stories about Juarez? Frankly, Longford, you seem to enjoy insulting the intelligence of anyone who disagrees with you, so please accept my apologies for not taking the slightest offense to your remarks.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

citlali said:


> TV shows are irrelevant. I bet you that there are no accurate records on actually how many girls disappeared and whatever records there are , they are understated as many disapearations are not reported.
> You need to live in Mexico for a while before you realize that neither TV nor press are acurate so please...do not even go near the reality as seen in a tv show! That is entertainement not reality...Juarez has a bad reputation and it earned it fair and square same as San Pedro Sula, Honduras.


The whole point of the post you reference is that the TV show is distorting reality and that no one should form an opinion from it. 

How in heaven's name could anyone think I myself was influenced by it, or that I believe TV shows reflect reality. 

Unfortunately, many *will* be influenced by it.


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## emilybcruz (Oct 29, 2013)

Why is there so much tension here? I mean, I know I'm new to this forum but A LOT of people seem to really angry with each other and I don't quite get why... Was there some big expat blow-out that has everyone on edge? I looked back through some older posts but I can't find anything. Well, other than a lot of snide remarks from several of the same people. Over and over. And over.

Can't we all just get along?


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

you may see anger where there´isn´t any.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

ElPaso2012 said:


> Well, what would a thread be without seeing another pot shot from the SS Longford splash harmlessly in the water? Not many in the US read the Mexican press, and the US press is responsible for what it prints. I maintain that the picture is distorted and out of balance. Writing about nothing but crime in Chicago would never be tolerated. What makes it okay to write nothing but City of Death stories about Juarez? Frankly, Longford, you seem to enjoy insulting the intelligence of anyone who disagrees with you, so please accept my apologies for not taking the slightest offense to your remarks.


You asked what people thought of what you wrote, then you whine because you don't like responses you receive. If you want to get only answers you've predetermined are acceptable my suggestion is that you stand in front of a mirror and speak with yourself. Let's not get into an "intelligence" discussion. Especially not with Juarez as the topic; enough factual information exists that even a halfway intelligent person can learn a lot. :yo:


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## emilybcruz (Oct 29, 2013)

citlali said:


> you may see anger where there´isn´t any.


Well I hope I'm just misunderstanding then. 

As an outsider, there's an obvious tension to almost all of the threads I'm reading. People telling other people they don't know what their talking about, questioning people's intelligence, their diets, their immigration status, the city they chose to move to, etc, etc. I find it quite odd and a bit uncomfortable. 

But again, hopefully I am just incorrectly reading between the lines.


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## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

Longford said:


> You asked what people thought of what you wrote, then you whine because you don't like responses you receive. If you want to get only answers you've predetermined are acceptable my suggestion is that you stand in front of a mirror and speak with yourself. Let's not get into an "intelligence" discussion. Especially not with Juarez as the topic; enough factual information exists that even a halfway intelligent person can learn a lot. :yo:


I can deal with any amount of divergent opinion provided it's expressed in a civil way. Otherwise, a forum becomes a sandbox. Perhaps telling someone who has been involved in these issues for 10 years now that they don't know anything about them and to go talk themselves in the mirror is just your way of being polite. Others might consider it a bit rude, however, and push right back a little, especially about issues important to them. 

The purpose of the discussion was to stimulate strong opinions. I've been dealing with them for years in various forms of hate mail and also in some very thoughtful discussions with people who really are experts on the border and the problems we have here. I'd had countless people over the years to write in and say I'm right, the press coverage is over the top and paints an unrealistic picture of Juarez. They go. They have a wonderful time. They come safely back. 

I've been perfectly frank about admitting the horrendous effects the "war" has had on people here, however, and those terrible stories coming out of Juarez for the past five years have all been true. I've had people I was very close to killed in Juarez. For years I have advised people not to visit unless necessary on the home page of my website. The site stayed up because whether they wish to visit or not thousands of people a week must go to Juarez on business or to deal with the US Consulate on legal immigration issues. They need safe hotels to sleep in and need to know about some interesting places to go there. 

What many don't seem to realize is that simply demonizing the city is helping no one. I am by no means the only one writing about the unfair treatment Juarez has received in the media, long before the cartel wars. Try _reading_ the article about the television series instead of dismissing it out of hand. Try reading some of Debbie Nathan's work about the border region. It's so much more complicated that the simple *Juarez Bad* impression that is left behind from the coverage of almost any major article I have read in the mainstream media. 

Those of us who know the city and the people who live there have a perfect right to tell the world about the dozens of truly positive things about both. It may not ring true on your truth-o-meter, but please keep an open mind that a lot of the good things about the city people will tell you just might be true. Before the '08-'13 period Juarez was safe to visit, and I am cautiously optimistic that it is becoming so again. 

Are we going to economically punish the two million inhabitants of the city forever because of events so beyond their control? Do you really think encouraging people to come back to the City Market for lunch and little shopping is putting them in danger? If it was, I would not be doing it, and didn't when there was even a small chance I could be.

Where I'm coming from is that it's not the way to treat our sister city (at least for El Paso)... it's not the way to treat anyone. If you can't agree, that's fine, but don't pretend you're being respectful when you are not, then pretend you were making nice or just stating an opinion.


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## emilybcruz (Oct 29, 2013)

emilybcruz said:


> Well I hope I'm just misunderstanding then.
> 
> As an outsider, there's an obvious tension to almost all of the threads I'm reading. People telling other people they don't know what their talking about, questioning people's intelligence, their diets, their immigration status, the city they chose to move to, etc, etc. I find it quite odd and a bit uncomfortable.
> 
> But again, hopefully I am just incorrectly reading between the lines.


*they're talking about...

Good God my grammar is becoming more embarrassing day by day. Must speak more English!


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