Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Land use and reforms in Mexico
About the mine near San Antonio, (La Laguna), it seems to me that someone, somewhere in Mexico made rules that allow this kind of controversial land
use possible.
Baja’s Metal Hand Axe
When I’m fishing in Baja Sur I usually try to find time to check in with my old pal Chuy Ortiz in Santa Isabela. He’s one of the most successful
commerciantes in the village, owns six hardware outlets that I know about and God know’s what else. He’s a busy guy but we go way back to when he was
just a kid, a despachador, the boat honcho at one of the fishing resorts, so he usually can find some time to visit, have lunch, dinner, whatever.
He was in the main store near the beach and was just heading out the door when I arrived.
“Bob, I was just leaving to go see if I could sell a tractor to a guy over by campamento. Why don’t you drive over there with me, I won’t be there
long and then we can go have some lunch.”
On the way I asked him about the new hotel/golf course/marina project in Santa Isabela. The original ejido land along the beach had been sold four
years ago and this summer would see the first real signs the project was underway; everything takes time in Mexico – the permits took forever, some
infrastructure buildout had been done and finally the big diggers, earth movers and trucks began to huff and puff along the strand where the marina
and hotel would be.
“Another ejido just sold another big parcel for about $15,000,000 dollars. The lucky farmers are going a little crazy with their new-found wealth.
Good for me and my business. This guy we’re going to see wants a new tractor for some farmland he holds outside the parcel. Still a great market
around here for albahaca, basil.” Chuy said.
We roared through the dusty main street of a little village on the mesa near Highway One and headed south down a big long hill into a fertile bajada.
Houses and shacks and little ranches could be seen way back in the mesquite jungle. We pulled off to the left and made a few turns – pulled into an
open gate at our destination.
We were in front of a large but modest house. There was a big red truck parked under a tree, a new ATV was just a few meters away. As we got out of
Chuy’s truck and began to walk toward the house we both slowed, then stopped, awestruck. Just a few meters in front of us lay a dead dog covered in
blood. The brand new truck was riddled with gunshots, all the windows shot out, one big back tire was flat. The ATV was shot all to hell.
Chuy yelled “Carlos? Carlos?” not a sound.
The front door of the house had been blown off the hinges by shotgun blasts, the frames splintered and pulverized. The little wooden stoop was covered
with fresh blood. Chuy went on in so I followed him.
“Carlos? Carlos?” no Carlos.
It was not easy to see the whole room outside the sunlight filtering through the doorway and one small window to the right. The floor was spattered
with fresh or drying blood. A beautiful double-door stainless steel fridge looked doubly out of place in this rustic setting as it was blown to bits
by buckshot and smaller shotgun pellets. A new stove and TV got the same treatment. I stayed put while Chuy searched the rest of the place for people
or bodies. Nothing. He motioned for us to get going.
We were silent until the truck was back on blacktop headed back to Santa Isabela.
“Are we going right to the police department? Are you gonna make a report now?”
“No Bob, no report now. Probably never.”
“But, it’s gotta be reported. All that blood……”
“News travels fast around here. In a few days everybody will know what happened. Not a good idea for either of us to be involved. The police are the
ones who have the shotguns.
I’ve got a lot of things to do at the store today. I better get back. Call me in a couple of days and we can have dinner. Maybe by then I’ll know what
happened and maybe I can tell you a little about it.”
The dinner never happened. I called a couple of times but Chuy was out. I had plenty of time to think about what I had seen. It was the money – that
much was clear. The police were probably the shooters.
It has been 16 years now since the edijdotarios have been allowed to regularize their land. Finally the campesinos are being sought after by
developers from the U.S., Mexico and Europe. They see vast opportunities all along Mexico’s coast and their arrival changes everything.
On the plane as I flew back to Houston I looked out the window at the azure waters of the sea, the ragged, pristine stretches of coastline. I could
not help but think about TV specials I once enjoyed about social scientists struggling with how to handle rock age people found in Borneo, Burma and
elsewhere whose isolation and primitive lifestyles kept them from changing, progressing – the very first such encounter brought up the question about
metal tools. Would it be wise to give these people machetes and metal knives and handaxes? Would just these simple tools make changes in their culture
which could be vastly detrimental or do we owe it to our neighbors (are we our brother’s keeper?) to help them change, advance? Do we have a duty and
obligation or are we arrogant meddlers?
Perhaps in 1992, when the land reform was made final, those who signed it envisioned lush fields of corn, beans, grain spreading out across the plains
of Mexico making honest profits for new-age Mexican farmers for their hard work and enterprise. Perhaps they could not see what I saw at the farmer’s
house.
[Edited on 4-21-2015 by Osprey]
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watizname
Senior Nomad
Posts: 772
Registered: 8-7-2009
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Wow
I yam what I yam and that\'s all what I yam.
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6343
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
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Mood: TEQUILA!
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Great anecdote Jorge!
My feeling is that this one is not a fiction story, sounds to real to me.
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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woody with a view
PITA Nomad
Posts: 15939
Registered: 11-8-2004
Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
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Mood: Everchangin'
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I think Doug should start a new subforum for Baja literature short stories etc. etc. That way it would be easier to find all these collections in one
place print them out head to the beach pop a few sodas in the shade while reading these incredible adventures.
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