Murder City_ Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields - Charles Bowden [36]
The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert for Americans visiting Mexico, especially Juárez. The federal diplomats advise that if an American feels he or she is being followed, then the prudent thing to do is immediately contact Mexican authorities. Also, it is advised that American visitors stay out of areas where prostitution and drug dealing take place.
The alert states: “Violent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade continues along the U.S.-Mexico border. Attacks are aimed primarily at members of drug trafficking organizations, Mexican police forces, criminal justice officials, and journalists. However, foreign visitors and residents, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region.”
Miss Sinaloa
I am looking in at her cell in the asylum. A small mattress fills it, and at the foot of the mattress is a yellow five-gallon bucket for defecation and urination. The walls are white tile because patients such as Miss Sinaloa tend to smear their feces on surfaces. The door is solid metal with a tiny slot because the Miss Sinaloas of the world tend to throw their feces at the staff. Plaid blankets cover the mattress.
This was her home for at least two months. No one could reach her. She raved, she was very angry. In part, she was locked up to protect her from the other patients who craved her fair skin and beauty. And in part, she was locked up because she would go berserk without warning.
And she was bald. The staff had to cut off her long, beautiful hair because it is an occupational risk here. Other patients have a tendency to take long hair and strangle the person with it.
At first, Miss Sinaloa is very violent. She cries constantly and throws things. So the staff gives her pills and she sleeps for two or three days. Then she awakens and is more calm. She tells everyone in the crazy place that she won a contest, she is a beauty queen and also a model. She says that she has known oh so many men who wanted to fuck her, but she had known no one like Ramon, who truly loves her for herself.
Her beauty becomes a problem. When she is let out of her cell into the yard in the crazy place, she stands out in her glory. El Pastor says, “She was like the last Coca Cola in the desert and so proud and the other ladies were jealous.”
She would spend all day doing her makeup, doing it over and over and over. She was very clean. Each morning, she made the bed in her tiny cell and washed all the walls, scrubbing endlessly.
Ramon is a twenty-five-year-old drunk who has wandered into the crazy place and earns his keep serving meals. He is a homely man—El Pastor thinks he may be the ugliest man in the world. He takes plates of beans to Miss Sinaloa in her cell. She falls in love with him and he falls in love with her. Ramon has never had a girlfriend before—he is dazzled by even this ghost of the Miss Sinaloa who arrived in Juárez to party at the Casablanca.
She says, “How wonderful that this happened to me. Because of it I was able to find you, the most beautiful creature ever created by God.”
El Pastor overhears Miss Sinaloa whispering her love to Ramon and is alarmed. Then he notices love marks on Ramon’s neck and dismisses him.
Miss Sinaloa regresses and soon returns to her deep madness. She denounces El Pastor for ruining the great love of her life.
El Pastor stares with me into the cell—maybe nine feet by five feet.
Originally, he came out here and lived in a hut with his wife. He had two donkeys for gathering wood. He started stacking up blocks and bricks.