Sergio Troncoso's The Loss Of Juarez

The Loss of Juarez Experience
In the "Loss of Juarez," the narrator and his family experience the eye-opening violence across the U.S. and Mexican border. The personal narrative conveys information of the citizens who are affected due to the drug cartels and the insecurity of the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. The narrator is a Juarez born native and a well-educated graduate from Harvard. After completing his studies, he decided to live in Mexico for another year to decide which side of the border he belongs in. Through this journey, he realizes that he belongs in the United States. Society might have a cinematic idea of the U.S. and Mexican border, however, Mexican American families such as Troncoso’s, experience a sense of insecurity
due to the drug violence along the U.S. and Mexican border. This leads to a loss of participation in their authentic Mexican culture due to the unscrupulousness corruption in Mexico.
Sergio Troncoso depicts how the history within the U.S.
and Mexican border has changed by revealing personal experiences from his life. The story is filled with sadness because the main character will never be able to give his children the “opportunity to transform the Spanish language and Mexico to more than just academic subjects” (175). Cuidad Juarez was not only Sergio Troncoso’s home, it was “[his] history,” and the fact that his parents have not been able to return to their homeland in five years says a lot about the danger on the other side of the border (175). Troncoso understood that his hometown in Ciudad Juarez is now filled with murderers and considered a “forbidden, forsaken territory” (177). Moreover, Troncoso’s love for the history he lived in his country is filled with happiness. Why should happiness end at the U.S. and Mexican border? Juarez was a “portal to another world to” Sergio Troncoso which “felt at once deeply familiar and strangely fascinating” (176). Troncoso wished he could give his children a taste of the “indomitable spirit” which his parents once had “that had been nurtured not in America, but on the other side” (176). At a certain point, the border between Juarez and El Paso used to be a mysterious, peaceful place where Troncoso’s parents met and were happily in love; however, the border has become a dangerous place where thousands flee to the U.S. to start a better life
(176).
Troncoso paints a picture of his past in order for the reader to understand that the border between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso was once a peaceful cultural place which has now become a violent battle zone for drug dealers. Troncoso explains the flexibility they used to have of traveling back and forth from the U.S. to Mexico in a couple of hours being able to enjoy both cultures personally by eating at “La Fogata” while listening to Mexican music. The violence at the border has devastated past experiences of family interaction. They might never be able to share “another set of rules and values” with their future generations (175). Troncoso’s children question their parents’ will of not taking them to Mexico, believing that their parents are over protective or narrow minded (175). Moreover, Juarez is now a danger place where the families do not have the freedom to cross the border and enjoy a cultural family dinner due to “the wall” and “current violence” which discourages them to travel in the weekends (175). Troncoso witnesses the dramatic change from a safe environment to a dangerous, violent atmosphere.
Americans may not understand the different problems the Mexicans go through, these problems involve a corrupt government, racism, drug violence, and the kidnapping of their loved ones along the Mexican border. Troncoso explains how “an unprecedented orgy of drug exploded in Juarez,” meaning that the government was against the drug cartels (176). Moreover, Troncoso portrays the government politicians being extremely corrupt because they have “an ineffective national government” that has failed to provide basic security to Mexico’s citizens (177). Additionally, kidnaps, extortions, and shootings are part of the reasons why Mexicans flee to start a new life in the United States. According to the Washington Post, “Mexico’s 2014 murder rate of 13 per 100,000 is twice as high as Afghanistan’s” from what the journalists report (Priest). The newspaper reporters are the one’s affected because they are “hated by the people” because they do not publish the whole story (Priest). The reason they do not publish all the corruptions and murders in Mexico is because they have been kidnapped by the cartels and extorted to keep silence about the drug violence happening (Priest). As a result, these victims leave their old lifestyle including their jobs and abandoned houses to move to the U.S. for a safer life. Furthermore, some individuals may not understand how close Juarez and El Paso are and how the Spanish-speaking and American-speakers treat the Mexicans around them. For instance, a racist remark from an Anglo sniggered “that’s one fat flee” when Troncoso was wearing a shirt which stated, “I’m one of Lee’s fleas” (176). At this point, Troncoso’s pride of honoring a famous Mexican American like himself “turned to shame” (176). The reader notices the different factors that contributed for Troncoso’s disappointment toward his Mexican culture.
Over the past decades, the U.S. and Mexican border has changed from interchanging cultures and languages to a battle zone where thousands of innocent individuals die due to drug violence. This story analyzes the aspects in which the citizens used to live by, further revealing how Juarez used to be a peaceful place where they grew up reading tons of books and sharing family culture living within just a few hours apart from El Paso. This story reflects the differences that they now behold to by staying indoors and fleeing to the U.S. illegally due to drug cartels attacking them. In general, several citizens do not report such events as kidnapping, undocumented immigrants traveling, and the mass murders of all the innocent individuals that are accidentally present in drug mafia’s shootings for their owns family safety. Dana Priest states that bodies are “abandoned” and “hanged” in a bridge by the Mexican border with their bodies showing how they were beat and tortured to death (Priest). According to the Washington Post, reporters are told “what to publish and what not to publish” which they have to follow if not their family as well as themselves will be found killed and tortured by the cartels (Priest). Troncoso paints vivid portraits of Juarez by explaining his outrage of the violence that has overtaken his home. Juarez has obscured the possibility of someone to thrive in a city where great danger lives. The drug cartels have devastated Troncoso’s view of Juarez, as “a place to appreciate another way to be” (176). Troncoso states his concern for the Mexican American people in America waiting for the “darkness to pass” and for Juarez to be “peaceful again” (177). Hope is the only word which can describe the situation above. In this story, the Troncoso’s family witnesses that their way of life and culture has changed and is nearly lost due to all the crimes in a forsaken territory. The drug cartels have not only taken their freedom to travel and express their culture, they gave taken their faith that the U.S. and Mexico will never return back to a lovely, calm place. Certainly, they might hope to return back home one day, but nothing will ever be the same. Troncoso exclaims how “thousands of lives have been lost next to the Mexican border” due to the drug cartels actions (177). Just as Pope Francis says “injustice is radicalized in the young; they are 'cannon fodder,' persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs” (Maniscalco). In the U.S. and Mexican border, innocent lives are lost, especially in Juarez where a “breakdown of society” happen in Mexico which made Mexicans have the desire to flee to the United States (177). Troncoso states that the root of drug violence in Mexico is due to the American guns illegally exported to Mexico (177). Many question themselves by thinking “when will this nightmare end?” (177). One can see the ongoing events along the U.S. and Mexican border which have caused families to lose their culture, without being able to return home due to the dangerous situation.
For that reason, the Mexican and U.S.
border is filled with violence and society should be aware of all the danger. This story reveals Troncoso’s experience of the insecurity and danger along the border. The drug violence has bloodstained money and power against the civilians living along the border. We can see that the violence along the border can even affect distant families that live in New York such as Troncoso’s not just the population living in the border. Troncoso, just as many other Mexican American families have felt the loss of their Mexican culture due to the insecurities across the border without being able to express their authentic Mexican culture to their future generations. The essential idea of freedom in a place filled with danger is unexplainable for the civilians living so close to Mexico and U.S. without being able to connect their cultures leaving behind their memories. Hope is the only word that keeps them alive in this world filled with corruption along the U.S. and Mexican
border.