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We have been out for a couple of weeks and things happen in our absence, as well as in our presence. This entry in our blog will try to succinctly summaries various major and minor points and events during these past few days.
(1) Celebrations and gradual returning to some form of normalcy:
We were involved over the period with the confusion of birthdays of "important people" of the locale where the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre is situated. Among those people is the Gringo Viejo. Another is a major personality in the Ejido and in the Capital City - Cd. Victoria as well as in the State government and private sector.
It was decided and then put into force by the various powers that be that we were, in fact, going to celebrate the birth of a relatively useless, anachronistic, out-of-place, Quixotic, eccentric, semi-hermitic curmudgeon and a seriously important personality of some value to the State of Tamaulipas.
And we did. Several score people gathered at the rather elegant home of the "Maestra" (ranking teacher-professor) which is situated about 300 yards from our Quinta. The majordomo of Gringo Viejo and Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre served as the chef d'event and the number 1 Man-Friday of the Maestra served as his assistant. The sister of the Gringo Viejo's majordomo handled the entirety of the kitchen duties, prepping, and back-up. All three are very competent, and then some.
The guest list was primarily relatives, relatives of relatives, and/or friends of the Maestra from many years of State service. A few were people from the Gringo Viejo's posse.
Many were also doctors of medicine of various specialties....including general practice and surgery. It was a convocation, as those things at that social level normally are, of extreme upper-middle class and low/mid-range wealthy/upper income people. They are world-wise and a bit arrogant, as well as generous, friendly, sincere, suspicious, and civilised.
They arrived in toned-down motor-cars, as I have tried to make them and others like them understand, to drive older, less attractive, smaller, even beat-up vehicles. This is so as to avoid scrutiny by cartel gangs who are looking for Escalades and Suburbans to use as battle-wagons and troop transports.
So while the "activity" truly has diminished during the past two or three years, it is still a good idea to stand aside and allow the Army, Naval Infantry, and new Federal Civil Police to do the excising of cockroaches from the body politic. One way to "stand aside" is to drive old beat-up, but perfectly running, autos.
A good time was had by all.....and most, almost all...left in the darkness to return to Cd. Victoria on a lonely, paved farm-to-market back road, largely without concern about the "cucarachas". Why? Because, among other good reasons, many had passed through the new Army check-point upon leaving Victoria earlier in the afternoon and had learned that the check-point would be in-place for the next 30 days, if not longer. Part of the interesting times in which we live......
Among other points, we had several people waiting in line to use the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre for a few nights in order to re-live old memories or make new ones. Another couple had taken a room at the venerable Hacienda de Santa Engracia, and more may have opted for that alternative after our place was absorbed by close relatives of "La Maestra". We understand that two relative pairs were staying at the elegant home of "La Maestra" after the first of those possible stay-overs opted to use our Quinta. An honour, one must assume, since the Maestra's place is really quite elaborate and elegant. Ours is rustic and purposefully out-of-date....something out of the 1880 - 1935 period....but comfortable and perhaps even hypnotically enchanting.
All of this is in keeping with the very gradual improvement in the national and local perception of security conditions, even as a new outbreak by dis0rganised gangs of cartel veterans has brought headlines again concerning violence and brutality. To wit: on the way back up yesterday, over a three hour period, we encountered 62 first-class or deluxe busses heading south....those being busses of normal, scheduled departure, going medium to very long distance destinations in Mexico, having departed Reynosa or Matamoros, Tamaulipas on the border.
We could go on, but there are other issues, and we shall leave something for commentary about these above-described events for a later moment.
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(1) Celebrations and gradual returning to some form of normalcy:
We were involved over the period with the confusion of birthdays of "important people" of the locale where the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre is situated. Among those people is the Gringo Viejo. Another is a major personality in the Ejido and in the Capital City - Cd. Victoria as well as in the State government and private sector.
It was decided and then put into force by the various powers that be that we were, in fact, going to celebrate the birth of a relatively useless, anachronistic, out-of-place, Quixotic, eccentric, semi-hermitic curmudgeon and a seriously important personality of some value to the State of Tamaulipas.
And we did. Several score people gathered at the rather elegant home of the "Maestra" (ranking teacher-professor) which is situated about 300 yards from our Quinta. The majordomo of Gringo Viejo and Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre served as the chef d'event and the number 1 Man-Friday of the Maestra served as his assistant. The sister of the Gringo Viejo's majordomo handled the entirety of the kitchen duties, prepping, and back-up. All three are very competent, and then some.
The guest list was primarily relatives, relatives of relatives, and/or friends of the Maestra from many years of State service. A few were people from the Gringo Viejo's posse.
Many were also doctors of medicine of various specialties....including general practice and surgery. It was a convocation, as those things at that social level normally are, of extreme upper-middle class and low/mid-range wealthy/upper income people. They are world-wise and a bit arrogant, as well as generous, friendly, sincere, suspicious, and civilised.
They arrived in toned-down motor-cars, as I have tried to make them and others like them understand, to drive older, less attractive, smaller, even beat-up vehicles. This is so as to avoid scrutiny by cartel gangs who are looking for Escalades and Suburbans to use as battle-wagons and troop transports.
So while the "activity" truly has diminished during the past two or three years, it is still a good idea to stand aside and allow the Army, Naval Infantry, and new Federal Civil Police to do the excising of cockroaches from the body politic. One way to "stand aside" is to drive old beat-up, but perfectly running, autos.
A good time was had by all.....and most, almost all...left in the darkness to return to Cd. Victoria on a lonely, paved farm-to-market back road, largely without concern about the "cucarachas". Why? Because, among other good reasons, many had passed through the new Army check-point upon leaving Victoria earlier in the afternoon and had learned that the check-point would be in-place for the next 30 days, if not longer. Part of the interesting times in which we live......
Among other points, we had several people waiting in line to use the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre for a few nights in order to re-live old memories or make new ones. Another couple had taken a room at the venerable Hacienda de Santa Engracia, and more may have opted for that alternative after our place was absorbed by close relatives of "La Maestra". We understand that two relative pairs were staying at the elegant home of "La Maestra" after the first of those possible stay-overs opted to use our Quinta. An honour, one must assume, since the Maestra's place is really quite elaborate and elegant. Ours is rustic and purposefully out-of-date....something out of the 1880 - 1935 period....but comfortable and perhaps even hypnotically enchanting.
All of this is in keeping with the very gradual improvement in the national and local perception of security conditions, even as a new outbreak by dis0rganised gangs of cartel veterans has brought headlines again concerning violence and brutality. To wit: on the way back up yesterday, over a three hour period, we encountered 62 first-class or deluxe busses heading south....those being busses of normal, scheduled departure, going medium to very long distance destinations in Mexico, having departed Reynosa or Matamoros, Tamaulipas on the border.
We could go on, but there are other issues, and we shall leave something for commentary about these above-described events for a later moment.
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(2) The Not-so-messy Issue of Immigration, Executive Exemption and Exception, and Supreme Courts and other shiny stuff:
While we leave the above topics specifically, we are guided by the above events and experiences to at least touch upon the Trump issue. This group above is composed of people generally capable of critical thinking. But, hysterical and nationalistic emotions and thinking, however shallow, by otherwise reasonable and intelligent Mexican observers, concerning the "Trump" are almost as bad as the zombie-like march of the dull, bumper-sticker attention-span thinkers in the United States who support Trump, (Sir Edmund) Hillary, and Bernie the Bolshie.
It was easy for this writer to avoid conflict with the group of Saturday night celebrations because I could simply and quickly state that Trump was not an option for me or the vast majority (some 70%) of Republicans, both in the 'Republic of Texas' and the United States. They seemed surprised at that, and they were warned by this writer about listening to either their own or the American media concerning the issue.
We advised that it was necessary to put things into a reasonable context. For instance, it was pointed out that Mexico had people coming into the United States for a good while...people who came and went, as well as people who came under the legal resident aliens to citizen path....who were in fact good producers for themselves as well as Mexico and the United States. We reminded the gathered group that, whether we liked it or not, even at the expense of offending, the combination of the Great Society social welfare programmes of Lyndon Johnson and the Democrat Party and the Amnesty of 1988 for illegal aliens had caused the development of a dependent class of people who now only know the government dole and crime as preferred ways of making a living.
It was also pointed out that the United States, and especially Texas were also being expected by the Obama administration to accept hundreds of thousands of Central Americans who had no intent of adapting to American or Texan norms and citizenship standards, and that almost all of them whom had poured across the Rio Bravo illegally, intentionally, and essentially at the invitation of the Obama administration. As an adjunct, we reminded them that this whole matter is and was a part of the overall plan to import people into an American Dream that might become a nightmare, especially considering that it includes the entry, eventually of as many as 400,000 Muslim "refugees" and "migrants" dislocated by wars in their countries.
We advised them that numerous conservative thinkers thought that the issue of a "Wall" is a red herring....almost a burlesque even....of the notion of international boundary control. We have the technology, if applied correctly, to hermitically seal the frontier from penetration by illegal, unqualified, undocumented, and criminal entrants. It has not been used because, as it is said, Democrats was the votes of dependent people and Republican business people want low-wage workers. I was quick to point out that it was not my opinion that Republican business people want low-wage workers, and that most of the employers who hire truly work-seeking illegal aliens are not paid poorly by the small and medium-sized businesses in America. The abusive wage situation is generally practiced by Chinese businesses against their own illegal Red Chinese aliens, who some suspect are actually "moles" waiting for orders from some Red Chinese official. (Something like the Germans did before WWII).
We also recognised that the Mexican military had done much more than the Obama administration nor the Obsolete American (and Mexican) press would give credit for in terms of trying to stem the flow of people from Central America. The irony of the Central Americans taking advantage of the Mexican military's substantially restoring control over the eastern sectors of was recognised by this writer. lt has been generally agreed by reasonable observers that the Central Americans came up because the fear of being sequestered or otherwise taken advantage of by Cartel people or corrupt police officials had been substantially abated. Hence, last Summer's McAllen Invasion of the "Catch and Release" Mommys and their dependent minor children. All OROGs should be aware that the Mexican general populace has not had a very good impression of the Central Americans, although their mistreatment is lamented. The footprint of the Mara Salvatrucha 13 and similar through Mexico has left plenty of negative response.
Some asked about the settlement of the issues before the Supreme Court. I advised them that the Court would likely vote 4 - 4, which would mean that the case would return to the lower court in Brownsville, and exemption from deportation would be denied. It would, in effect, suspend the President's executive order to allow people otherwise illegally in the United States, to remain so long as they keep their noses clean (definition unknown).
I finished the "round-table" with the confession that we were supporting "....the Mexican from Cuba who was born in Canada...." along with 70% of the rest of the Republicans. That brought considerable, and I think, sincere laughter.
We need to post this to-night....to-morrow there will be a Volume II, revising and expanding our remarks and observations. Some very interesting stuff, to be sure.
El Gringo Viejo
We need to post this to-night....to-morrow there will be a Volume II, revising and expanding our remarks and observations. Some very interesting stuff, to be sure.
El Gringo Viejo
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