The hour cometh and now is, that El Gringo Viejo will be heading down to our little adobe hideaway. It is a pleasant thing to have rain, and the folks who are our neighbours here in Texas, coming to tell me that their ranch near Cerralvo, Nuevo Leon...somewhat mid-way between McAllen and Monterrey, received over 7 inches of rain during the past few days.
Cerralvo is a city that during the colonial period of Spain in the Americas, was a capital of an area including most if not all of what is the Republic of Texas. It is in a spring-fed pocket of good soil, near mountains that were store houses of lead and silver, and blessed with good ranching land for cattle, sheep, and goats. Our neighbour, however, also wanted to confess to me that he did not believe me when I told him that in a contest of violence, the one who is controlled and knows how to use his weapons will almost always win the encounter.
I told our neighbour that during dark moments in the early days of what would finally become a war that good would beat bad. It was my certain belief that the conflict between, good and bad, some kind of law against no kind of law, and against the cancer of quick riches as opposed to the development of merited wealth, the Mexican military would win.
He declared that it had been months since they had had to shudder when the swaggering trash would drive by their ranch in their stolen, late model vehicles...sometimes Escalades, Grand Cherokees, and other types of SUVs. They had not had to walk past them in Cerralvo when doing basic shopping for the rancho. The cockroaches had all but taken over the little hotel on the main plaza....as sort of an office for a couple of months....leaving it all but a ruin when they finally took flight at hearing from their "falcons" that the Army was approaching in force to occupy the city.
What broke the back of the cartel people was that the Army and Naval Infantry came and, in a strategic sense, stayed. Always hunkered down here, and on patrol there, always collecting information, and always choosing the place for armed encounter. But my neighbour made an unfortunate mistake, thanking me for giving him the optimism to stay the course. The fact is, of course, that I should thank him...because it is this nature of person who makes the quality of the populace worth defending.
He was also advised by El Gringo Viejo that the War is in no wise over. It never will be, actually. But the excesses, the wantonness and depravity, the making of so much money that causes so much death and destruction....by people who will never live to see their grandchildren or perhaps even produce them.....has been reduced very, very markedly. Like the fellow said, when asked by a Gringo, "How come Ciudad Juarez became so peaceful all of a sudden?"
The Mexican fellow, who lived in Chihuahua and had to travel frequently to the border city of Juarez, thought for a moment, then answered," Well, Sen~or, eet ees thees way, They jus' ran out of pipples to keel." Sometimes the best answer is the simplest one.
In any regard, we are going down to relieve Alvaro and to do a bit of engineering an re-engineering of the gardens. Plus we shall be having clients in....another sign of the improving times....and we understand that it has rained a little to quite a bit almost every day for the last week and a half. Lots of Birds.
We shall return sometime before the end of the month, but only for a week or so. We are taking a client down to Mexico City and this should be interesting...in that I haven't been there for a few years....on purpose...but it is wondrous place to visit for a few days.
More later, perhaps before we leave in the morning
El Gringo Viejo
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