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As the OROGs know, my fellow father-in-law and I share the fact that we both spent much of our professional time during this life in Mexico. We did not go down to have a good time and play on the beach, so much, as we actually did our work there and performed our studies, services, contemplations, business, planning, and execution.
In my case it was a matter of routing, hotel reservations by the hundreds, fifty and sixty day weeks, and my wife's holding down the fort in my absence, as well as doing all of the accounting and administration back in McAllen, Texas. We carried, and accompanied, many thousands of clients…on excursions of from three to fifteen days…my wife carried two tiny children, frequently huge amounts of Mexican and American cash, and a baby bag, driving a five-speed manual sports car (fancy, top-end, Toyota Celica coupe), sometimes five or ten Canadian passports, sometimes Original Naturalisation Parchment Documents of people who had obtained American citizenship (back when such documents were akin to the Two Tablets), along with scores and hundreds of standard applications for the relatively perfunctory Mexican Tourist Visa…so as to have the Mexican Tourist Visas ready for the next group.
That required going over to Reynosa, sometimes at night, and picking up the Visas also a night or on a Saturday, and dumping off another 200 or so new applications for Visas. In the meantime, I would be "working" at very low voltage…but 20 hours per day…or more. The Boss was putting in about the same length of time because she also had a full-time job in the real world…and for most of that time we owned and maintained in excellent condition a moderately large coin-laundromat.
She also had to be one of three or four people in McAllen back in 1989 who had to co-ordinate Rush Limbaugh's Rush to Excellence (while dragging along my mother - As an aside, my mother was not aware at that stage of life that she was Rush's first cousin…twice removed). We paid one-fourth the freight to bring him down, but I was on the road at that time. He jammed the Civic Centre with over 3, 000 people.
To consider the nature of our Excursions, please understand that Mexico is a nation fully three times the size of the Republic of Texas. Also, in those days, travel was…let us say…interesting. While many of the highways were "good to excellent" others were "adequate…or almost adequate". Thankfully, by that time, there were at least numerous adequate restaurants with clean restrooms and decent to excellent forage for the tourists.
And it came to pass:
Little girls and boys grow up and displace other realities. My daughter and my Consuegro's son ran across each other at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University) and the rest is now history. Before long they were littering the landscape with children everywhere.
They have two daughters…both beauties and both really…and strangely…massively complex and intelligent. Not because they are mine…they pertain to four strains of very complex and accomplished blood and genetic lines.
They have two daughters…both beauties and both really…and strangely…massively complex and intelligent. Not because they are mine…they pertain to four strains of very complex and accomplished blood and genetic lines.
NOW TO THE POINT:
My fellow father-in-law developed a talent and capability that was rare. Perhaps some of it came from his service in the United States Navy, perhaps some of it came from a "Grand Tour" of Mexico with his Mom, back when he was a young lad. To go to the root, suffice it to say that my Consuegro arrived at the point of being an expert in the dangerous business of "pressure while storing oil, natural gas, and / or gasoline".
These matters also pertain to pipelines, about which he also is a qualified commentator, but the big deal was the huge storage tanques the Mexican company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) built and maintained during the years of almost insane expansions in terms of oil, gas, and above all, storage.
One can readily assume that all Mexicans are dull, stupid, and incapable. That is a comfortable intellectual hiding place, but it is also the first cousin to fool's gold. In a way, our friend Mr. Trump suffers a bit from that disorder. He would be surprised to learn that Mexican engineers are, in their 75 per cent, excellent…many are brilliant and consult in Europe and the United States, and elsewhere.
Our neighbour at the Hacienda de La Vega has an engineering degree awarded by the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)…aka - Monterrey Tech. This is the Hallmark University in Latin America…absolutely the finest, and most difficult. It includes about 15 per cent of its students from foreign countries and is the pride of Mexico among the normal intellectual class.
Our neighbour at the Hacienda de La Vega has an engineering degree awarded by the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)…aka - Monterrey Tech. This is the Hallmark University in Latin America…absolutely the finest, and most difficult. It includes about 15 per cent of its students from foreign countries and is the pride of Mexico among the normal intellectual class.
One can look at the foreground in the photograph to the left, in the middle of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. The scene is primarily the campus of the ITESM, although not in its entirety. The great geo-emblem of Monterrey…the Cerro de La Silla (Saddle Back Mountain), lies in the background. The ITESM has satellite campus facilities in various cities throughout Mexico.
It is not an easy school to enter, but once in, one becomes an ambassador for the institution throughout the Planet. Our neighbour and his son are both graduates…both are brilliant…both are extremely "upper-case" although, like me, ruralists. Many Americans attend the Nuevo Leon State School of Medicine, as well as the homologue, the Medical University of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. There are several other medical schools that are recommendable as well.
The reason I bring up this matter about the ITESM is not to impress folks with my knowledge of Mexican cultural details. It is place here to cast light on my Consuegro (fellow father-in-law). We passively solicited information about some of his previous activities. He had been forthcoming about some of his work in Mexico…usually in difficult places, difficult engineering problems, off in the boon-docks where replacement parts and master welders, etc. were in short supply.
But then, one time some time back, he let loose with a bunch of stuff that flabbergasted this listener / writer of this screed. The fact is that he was called in, somewhat frequently, to evaluate and to "recommend" (read - "order") repairs, replacements, and procedures to improve oil and gasoline products for the massive company known as PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos, SA de CV).
Mexican engineers of the highest category were given contracts to hire nationals and foreigners at the drop of a hat for any serious structural or mechanical problem affecting storage, processing, or transmission of PEMEX products. PEMEX products ranged and range from mediocre to extremely high quality. PEMEX was and is the fourth leading operator in such products and is in the same category in terms of innovation and adaptation…(environmental, for instance, was solved in its 70 per cent by chemists and engineers from Mexico. in terms of the grand improvement of the air quality in Mexico City).
I pre-ambulate all of this so that the reader will know and understand that any Joe Gringo does not walk into the main office of PEMEX and say, "Gee, fellows…let me show you how to make gasoline out of water." For various reasons, all good, my Consuegro became famous for being able to detect problems and how to solve them. True enough, much was under the auspices of the private Mexican engineering firms that are respected World Wide who required…nay, at times, demanded…the presence of my Consuegro before storage tanques and other accoutrements of PEMEX properties would be repaired or replaced.
My Consuegro was so integral in much of this "oil and gas stuff" that a motion of his hand or a paragraph at a meeting of Grand Poobahs (who were real Poobahs) would cause action in favour of his recommendation. My hearing…and at times provoking deeper response…andhis tales keyed too securely into his stories about "travelling in Mexico" and "working on some projects" down there. Before many months of our association I was all but humiliated that this "Navy Guy" had had more impact on Mexico than I, this "Army Guy" with generational contact with Mexico (we are roughly the same age).
My Consuergro would, at times, open up quite a bit…then go for another cup of coffee or a beer (he and I only drink Mexican beer…another interesting fact)…and not mention another word about this or that adventure. He was "put-up" in homes of the highest, highest, elements of Mexican aristocracy…both industrial and social. He adapted to the roughest conditions while trying to do the best for his family and for Mexico…thence the United States. He went into areas of Mexico where the indigenous did not speak Spanish…and still made himself understood.
El Gringo Viejo puts these words into his "defence" because they come from his pen. A bit of definition is entered below so as to lubricate the readers' understanding of this thing about "Legally working in Mexico"…many are called…few are chosen…my Consuegro and I were two of those who were chosen…
Some necessary orientation points:
(1) Minatitlan - major transportation and control point for the huge refinery at Coatzacoalcos that represented 50% of the Mexican oil industry.
(2) Sub-comandante Marcos - a Sandinista inspired communist activist who decided, after finishing medical school, to establish armed military resistance in the hopelessly poor State of Chiapas.
(3) Black Police - "All Mexican Cops are corrupt"…except when you had these fellows during the time of the insurrection of "sub-Comandante Marcos"…the "Black Police". They had a very good record of escorting people in an area of Chiapas that was made unstable by United Nations, Mrs. Mitterrand, George Soros, and other marxist money fountains, backing "sub-Comandante Marcos".
(WARNING: EVERYTHING IN BLUE PRINT IS MY CONSUEGRO'S. the interruptions are my commentary in red print. This advisory is placed here because some people think that I inflate or fabricate facts…they almost always wind up saying, "Well, now I understand that you are telling the truth, but I thought you were joking before. My Consuegro does not have to invent adventures and heroics.)
Here begins the content of my Consuegro:
It is not an easy school to enter, but once in, one becomes an ambassador for the institution throughout the Planet. Our neighbour and his son are both graduates…both are brilliant…both are extremely "upper-case" although, like me, ruralists. Many Americans attend the Nuevo Leon State School of Medicine, as well as the homologue, the Medical University of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. There are several other medical schools that are recommendable as well.The reason I bring up this matter about the ITESM is not to impress folks with my knowledge of Mexican cultural details. It is place here to cast light on my Consuegro (fellow father-in-law). We passively solicited information about some of his previous activities. He had been forthcoming about some of his work in Mexico…usually in difficult places, difficult engineering problems, off in the boon-docks where replacement parts and master welders, etc. were in short supply.
But then, one time some time back, he let loose with a bunch of stuff that flabbergasted this listener / writer of this screed. The fact is that he was called in, somewhat frequently, to evaluate and to "recommend" (read - "order") repairs, replacements, and procedures to improve oil and gasoline products for the massive company known as PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos, SA de CV).
Mexican engineers of the highest category were given contracts to hire nationals and foreigners at the drop of a hat for any serious structural or mechanical problem affecting storage, processing, or transmission of PEMEX products. PEMEX products ranged and range from mediocre to extremely high quality. PEMEX was and is the fourth leading operator in such products and is in the same category in terms of innovation and adaptation…(environmental, for instance, was solved in its 70 per cent by chemists and engineers from Mexico. in terms of the grand improvement of the air quality in Mexico City).
I pre-ambulate all of this so that the reader will know and understand that any Joe Gringo does not walk into the main office of PEMEX and say, "Gee, fellows…let me show you how to make gasoline out of water." For various reasons, all good, my Consuegro became famous for being able to detect problems and how to solve them. True enough, much was under the auspices of the private Mexican engineering firms that are respected World Wide who required…nay, at times, demanded…the presence of my Consuegro before storage tanques and other accoutrements of PEMEX properties would be repaired or replaced.
My Consuegro was so integral in much of this "oil and gas stuff" that a motion of his hand or a paragraph at a meeting of Grand Poobahs (who were real Poobahs) would cause action in favour of his recommendation. My hearing…and at times provoking deeper response…andhis tales keyed too securely into his stories about "travelling in Mexico" and "working on some projects" down there. Before many months of our association I was all but humiliated that this "Navy Guy" had had more impact on Mexico than I, this "Army Guy" with generational contact with Mexico (we are roughly the same age).
My Consuergro would, at times, open up quite a bit…then go for another cup of coffee or a beer (he and I only drink Mexican beer…another interesting fact)…and not mention another word about this or that adventure. He was "put-up" in homes of the highest, highest, elements of Mexican aristocracy…both industrial and social. He adapted to the roughest conditions while trying to do the best for his family and for Mexico…thence the United States. He went into areas of Mexico where the indigenous did not speak Spanish…and still made himself understood.
El Gringo Viejo puts these words into his "defence" because they come from his pen. A bit of definition is entered below so as to lubricate the readers' understanding of this thing about "Legally working in Mexico"…many are called…few are chosen…my Consuegro and I were two of those who were chosen…
Some necessary orientation points:
(1) Minatitlan - major transportation and control point for the huge refinery at Coatzacoalcos that represented 50% of the Mexican oil industry.
(2) Sub-comandante Marcos - a Sandinista inspired communist activist who decided, after finishing medical school, to establish armed military resistance in the hopelessly poor State of Chiapas.
(3) Black Police - "All Mexican Cops are corrupt"…except when you had these fellows during the time of the insurrection of "sub-Comandante Marcos"…the "Black Police". They had a very good record of escorting people in an area of Chiapas that was made unstable by United Nations, Mrs. Mitterrand, George Soros, and other marxist money fountains, backing "sub-Comandante Marcos".
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(WARNING: EVERYTHING IN BLUE PRINT IS MY CONSUEGRO'S. the interruptions are my commentary in red print. This advisory is placed here because some people think that I inflate or fabricate facts…they almost always wind up saying, "Well, now I understand that you are telling the truth, but I thought you were joking before. My Consuegro does not have to invent adventures and heroics.)
Here begins the content of my Consuegro:
My limited experience with the Mexican Navy, Army, and Marines. Yes! and all in a 5 day period!
In 1994, I traveled by car from Minatitlan to Juchitan de Zaragoza, to Salina Cruz To Oaxaca and returned. This was the period of time that Rebels, led by Sub-comandante Marcos.
The trip going we "hooked up with "the Black Police" Every one was afraid of them but they were traveling to reinforce the station in Oaxaca. We had no problems--- it was an extremely fast trip, top speed all the way. There would be no more escorts until the return.
My first stop was Salina Cruz. This was and is Mexico's largest export oil terminal. I was there to inspect some of the oil storage tanques. Most were in the 300 foot diameter size (a Texan should probably not say anything about this, but 300 feet…only in Mexico…and they did it "better than Belgium"as it was said). At that time, these were huge in comparison to US tanks. Everyone asked if we ran into any problems with Marcos. We said no, but we gave no details.
Later we were given a tour of the Naval Base. This base protects the in-coming and out-going oil tankers. We were invited to Lunch in the Officers Mess. I was taken to see the fuel storage area.
The base was on high alert because of Marcos. I doubt if there was any real concern but it was good training. (Such an invitation is very, very, very rare. Normally, people are denied access, and cannot take pictures of any kind.)
While in Oaxaca we were directed to the Military's locations, they said that if we wanted to go to Acayucan we could join a caravan going through Marcos territory. It was a military convoy taking troops and support vehicles back to Minatitlan.
We were part of the convoy, but only five vehicles were in line with numerous military vehicles. We went with them, and it was slower but very secure…just another of the various adventures we had in the refineries, tank-farms, and transmission stations.
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| This is a relatively old picture of the Coatsocoalcos refinery…quite near the control city of Minatitlan. |
These Indian sub-divisions would fight their allies if it seemed correct by a moon stage or a shaman's directive. I would like to say this is an exaggeration, but it is not.
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One thing is certain…whether a person wishes to admit it or not…in those days it was a dangerous journey, if for no other reason being that there was no way to predict what some shaman would wake up after a night of snops, or how "sub-Comandante Marcos" (world's greatest lackey for the Ortega brothers of Nicaragua) after a night with his favourite girls and a load of cannabis…would want to begin a new offensive against the Gringo Oppressors.
By the time my Consuegro was there, Ernest (Che) Guevara had long since gone to slumber in the arms of the agents of Satan. It is estimated that he slaughtered over 1,000 Indians during his incursion into the northern part of South America. For this he is revered on almost every major college campus, (especially in the northeast and California and the West Coast). A stupid and compliant press is always helpful when it is necessary to advance and promulgate pointless rewards and praise…especially from a likes of a murderous thug such as Ernesto.
My Consuegro laboured to provide fuel, natural gas, and employment at excellent wages and benefits provided for, as one should know, by the income provided by the Company, PEMEX.
The work was hard, but rewarding…and the employment and benefits package offered to him was happily something that my Consuegro could look forward to.
He made a good living at it….for himself, his family, and for everyone with whom he had contact. He is a pleasure for me to have known and to have associated. It is a bit of a comedown for me…but not much…when the Hacendado of the Hacienda de La Vega comes over to the Quinta at my return and he does not ask about my trials and tribulations…first, he always asks about my Consuegro, John.
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| My "first place" for the most despised person in the Universe. Hated Negroes and Mexicans and Americans and yet is revered by the "professorial class" throughout Academia. |
By the time my Consuegro was there, Ernest (Che) Guevara had long since gone to slumber in the arms of the agents of Satan. It is estimated that he slaughtered over 1,000 Indians during his incursion into the northern part of South America. For this he is revered on almost every major college campus, (especially in the northeast and California and the West Coast). A stupid and compliant press is always helpful when it is necessary to advance and promulgate pointless rewards and praise…especially from a likes of a murderous thug such as Ernesto.
My Consuegro laboured to provide fuel, natural gas, and employment at excellent wages and benefits provided for, as one should know, by the income provided by the Company, PEMEX.
The work was hard, but rewarding…and the employment and benefits package offered to him was happily something that my Consuegro could look forward to.
He made a good living at it….for himself, his family, and for everyone with whom he had contact. He is a pleasure for me to have known and to have associated. It is a bit of a comedown for me…but not much…when the Hacendado of the Hacienda de La Vega comes over to the Quinta at my return and he does not ask about my trials and tribulations…first, he always asks about my Consuegro, John.
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We shall be publishing various and sundry articles that relate to the "migrants" and to the political situation in Texas, the United States, and Mexico (and yes, even Canada). Pray for our people in South Texas, in South Carolina, in Central Texas, and in the Republic of Texas in general.
El Gringo Viejo
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