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Friday, July 20, 2018

Migrant Woman Returns to Mexico, Sweeps 2018 Senate Race in Guerrero

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Latinorebels

Moreno's Party;  Nestora Salgado  in middle

By: Sara Gurling
Thanks to Tu Fren once again

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA — At a concrete table painted green, white and red, I sit down to interview the senator-elect from the leftist party of Mexico’s new government MORENA.

Nestora Salgado appears to me valiant but she quickly corrects me and tells me she is not  “valiant” at all, rather she protests, is a “dreamer.”  This woman who migrated to the United States many years ago and labored in blue collar jobs, did something very uncommon, unheard of really. She returned to Mexico and launched a grassroots fight to restore dignity to her township which she had found in distress due to insecurity. A major public figure on the left now, Salgado is charting new territory.

As we settle into a conversation, I remark that the park we are at was proudly proclaimed “Chicano Park” here in San Diego, California by people like us who wanted to preserve this land and they had a vision for it.  Chicanos in the 70’s didn’t want it to be turned into an industry wasteland, so they took it over and proclaimed it for Aztlán. I then ask the senator-elect if there is something in the park that reminds her of her own fight and grassroots efforts in Guerrero.


“Truly, yes there is,” she immediately replies. Salgado then signals over to some color-drenched murals depicting pre-Hispanic deities that were meticulously preserved on the side of a freeway overpass. Above our heads, hundreds of cars pass by going 65 miles per hour, completely unaware that we exist here under the bridges that join Coronado Island to the City of San Diego.  Salgado suddenly points to a statue, “look, there’s even an Emiliano Zapata here.”

Forced Migration:

Salgado is most struck by the faces she sees at Chicano Park. She understands that each face has a story—she is a former migrant. She knows the voyage of the migrant is not an easy one. And she knows that where there is migration, “there is a reason” she points this out and it becomes a theme of our interview.

“In Guerrero, the issue of forced migration is rooted in a fundamental lack of opportunities and real eminent risks” she begins softly.  “Many have chosen to migrate in order to bypass the overwhelming influence that hit men have over communities and to avoid being caught in crime syndicates and many times, to avoid being subjected to human trafficking” she speaks with intensity because her message must carry and she wants Americans to understand what forced migration is.

“There are very humble people that have been forced to cultivate poppy as a crop,” she lamented.  “The insecurity, murders, and disappearances all contribute to Mexican’s dreams and yearnings of something better.”

These are the same reasons she cites as having factored in the elections. One thing is for certain, no margin of error needs consideration. Mexico’s MORENA leftist party didn’t win, they overwhelmingly swept the elections from poll to poll.

With No Alternatives:

The new federal government under Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has declared that Mexico is a country rich in values and resources and must prioritize now all resources to the benefit of its people and not the transnational corporations as in the past. The government must act swiftly on the issue of security.

“We Mexicans must have alternatives to migration,” Salgado states. “A rural farmer must be able to grow and harvest maíz and afford to feed his family from the earnings yielding from his plot of land.”

She points with conviction and a glare in her eye. She really means it. Her vision for the country is shared by the MORENA platform and includes security, peace, and reconciliation as cornerstones for prosperity in the future of its democracy. But she quickly cautions that the citizens of Mexico must all share in the participatory responsibilities.

“It is all of our responsibility” and “change is in our hands,” she says with the same fierce conviction of a woman who has gentle eyes but speaks strong and profound truths about the most pressing issues that confront a North American democracy.

“Guerrero is an abandoned territory, a state that lacks much. We must invest in Guerrero. There is a lot to do so that citizens can live off of their land” Salgado notes, as I look up over the highest point of one of the bridge overpasses. There is a mural up there with some writing: the message reads: the land belongs to those who cultivate it with their own hands (Emiliano Zapata). I look back at her and she raises an eyebrow.  Her deliberate leaning-in tells me that there’s more where that came from.

There’s no doubt that the new president-elect of Mexico has a platform that includes implementing the necessary changes needed to end once and for all the great disparity that exists between rich and poor and that eliminating the benefits and privileges currently enjoyed by a minority of the population at the expense of the majority of Mexico’s citizens is a priority for his administration.

In the final stretch of my time spent with Salgado, I asked her if  she believes the new government will create the necessary  space and put in place compassionate and humanitarian measures to address the needs of our brothers and sisters who are migrating thorough Mexico. I especially pressed her on the issue of the growing number of Black migrants in Mexico, given the Haitian Diaspora and other migrant groups.

I ask because Guerrero, the state she is representing in the senate, is the only Mexican state named for an ex-president. Vicente Guerrero died in 1831, after he led the nation in its independence against Spain and also abolished slavery during his short term as president.

The state of Guerrero is one of the Mexican states that has a larger population of Mexican citizens who are afro-descendientes and have struggled for social and economic justice due to race-based prejudice as have the pueblos indígenas. She assured me that the new federal government and she in particular, as part of her senate platform, will not lose sight of this important issue for our Black brethren migrating through Mexico or of those who are proudly Afro-Mexicanos still fighting for their rights and fair, egalitarian treatment.

As Salgado embarks on a tremendous course of change, and given the road she is traveling, she is walking, talking, living, and breathing history as she makes it.

The Author :

Mexican-born Sara Gurling is a progressive Democrat elected in 2017 as a California Democratic Party 80th Assembly District Delegate. She is a trade unionist with more than 20 years representing workers rights and serves as a Labor Representative with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. She was the Director of Organizing with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego and is known primarily as a humanitarian pro-justice labor organizer, immigrant rights activist and labor studies college teacher. She is also the president emeritus of Border Angels. Her journalistic radio and print work is featured in the United States and Mexico.

57 comments:

  1. The blog has officially gone to the left. Has anyone else notice this left learning trend here on B.B.?
    Great blog despite the liberal flavor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @8:11PM Borderland Beat reports what is going on in Mexico. Do you think maybe the Mexican people have made a turn to the left. It would seem so since the most left leaning Presidential candidate in decades just won the Presidency by getting more than 53% of
      the vote, winning in every state except one small one, the left leaning party won by a large margin both houses of Congress, and 4 out of 7 governors races that were on the ballot. So if Mexico is a leftest country now (or will be Dec. 1) you will probably see more left leaning articles as we cover what is happening in Mexico. If we covered Russia you would be seeing more articles reporting on dictatorial autocratic happening in Russia.

      Delete
    2. Hold your horses chicken little.

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    3. DD be quiet. B.B. writers have always supported the Democrats.
      You guys like The Left because their corruption remind you of Mexico

      Delete
    4. dd is the resident bleeding heart always bleating about the state of Mexico and its causes,you only need look at published comments to see where it leans,always the fault of the gringo

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    5. Actually we have been getting complaints and to go back to organized crime reporting.

      Delete
    6. Left leaning. Right leaning. Doesn’t really matter at all. Once you apply the Horseshoe theory it’s all the same. At their most frenzied extremes they both have as many common points and tactics as they do different ones. - Sol Prendido

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    7. The Mexican government and political parties are part of the organized crime "space" so keep covering them.

      Delete
    8. Yep . Lefties . See a lot of lefty opinion from the people putting stories on BB . Most times if you submit a opposing opinion they wont post it . My observation of these socialist left is they think they know whats good for others but don't apply it to themselves . History shows us that the leaders of leftist regimes live excessively well while their subjects live excessively poor . How is this commune living going to help the violence decline ?

      Delete
    9. Seems to me that the right has moved right into the loony bin and really have no concept of what is going on in Mexico. They have a “Wild West” mentality of “give the people guns and step back and let them shoot it out with the bad guys....”

      How can you honestly think the Right has anything figured out or “right?”

      Delete
    10. Mexico has gpne communist. Thats what they want. The President love the Castros. What does that tell u.has this blog gone left can't say but i will be reading.

      Delete
    11. Sol that was one of the best analogies I've heard in regards to the right left thing.

      To the alt right trolls. Identity politics are stupid, and it's getting old as fuck. Extremists on both sides blast each other with a magnifying glass while being completely blind to their own issues. Neither want to take accountability, they just want to pass the buck on to the other side. It's corrosive and unproductive. Stop living in a world of confirmation bias.

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    12. I was taught never to bring up politics in public. Only leads to arguments.

      Delete
  2. DD, tell em what time it is!

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  3. Great more democratic liberal news😝.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great another conservative knuckle dragger 😝

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  4. Replies
    1. 4:27 CHIVIS! well, congratulations...
      ribbing aside I know what you mean, respectfully.

      Delete
  5. God speed to Mexicans who stay in their country and fight for it! If no one does; who will? Who'll inspire the change mexico desperately needs?

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    1. So true. I am American and live here i see a lot of talent leave mexico. Proud to see the ones that stay.

      Delete
    2. 8:25 how about you do it?
      After all, It is like you broke it you bought it...
      --Never has the US had crime inside the country because Mexico sent its military attachés to the US to be trained in torture and murder as anti-insurgent provocateurs...

      Delete
  6. Now Pro open borders blog!
    300 million africans and muslims want to come to Mexico!
    What you say open borders latina and BB!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @3:19AM I think you have been watching too much Info Wars and Alex Jones

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    2. Soros and Doctors without borders will ship them there by the boat load at first opportunity! That's what's happening in Europe!

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    3. Truth... racist la raza open borders aztlan crap.

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    4. 11:31 far as I can see, Aztlán park "La Raza" still is in San Diego in California, still on the US,
      so, what, you manna make sompin'out of it?

      Delete
  7. Great to dream, but nothing will change.Too much corruption at all levels. When a human life can be ended for a few pesos, or a favor. Sad.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Almost everyone in America wants LEGAL immigration!
    Millions of Americans have been robbed, assaulted, raped or murdered by illegals!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 5:27 - Millions, really? Lol, don't be stupid.

      Phelpso

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    2. Here in San Francisco we love u . welcome love, Nancy and Gov. Brown.

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    3. How many illegals incarcerated nationwide in the USA ? What percentage of crimes get solved ? Phelpso . You really should have done some calculations before calling 5:27 stupid . Millions sounds like a lot but give it some thought with a open mind instead of a pro-sneak across the border mentality .

      Delete
    4. 5:27 Crime by illegals is not even 1% of crime on the US...even US Congress and the Senate do not dare change reports or challenge.the evidence.
      I think you need to change lollipop flavors, there are drugs claiming to make dumbos smart and you could use about a one ton truck dropped on you head.

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    5. 10:18 - You could say millions crimes have been committed by illegal immigrants. But to specify that millions of people have been "robbed, assaulted, raped, or murdered by illegals" sounds pretty absurd. I could be wrong, send me a study that shows i am. Im not opposed to changing my opinion on anything in life, when presented with facts.

      "pro-sneak across the border mentality" what does that even mean? I dont believe in open borders with Mexico or Canada, if that's what you're implying.

      Phelpso

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    6. @2:15 while crime by illegals is hyped it is not low. for example in Texas a state bulging at the seams with illegals. The homicide rate by citizens is 3.9 per hundred, by illegals 3.0 and legal immigrants as usual very low at .5 This is per 100 thousand

      all violent crimes illegals are about 750 per 100 thousand about half of citizens. legal immigrants about 250

      stats from cato

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    7. 3:29 at a time when reports of 0.6% of illegal entry are available, your complaints about open borders look and are stooped.
      Open access to unlimited power on the US, obtained by tricky help from russia, which is no secret anymore, is what threatens the US and the world, not illegal immigrants on welfare and Obama care which doesn't exist either...

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    8. 3:29 . I am in the mix locally . I know much of what goes on . Much is sneak thievery and never really get caught up to . More is probably done by documented aliens and Mexicans that has been citizenship . The really blatant ones get caught . I know of some of the things they do and what the patterns are . There is far more crime committed by Mexican nationals here in the USA than ever gets reported . Sure USA born citizen commit lots of crime . Not an excuse to let other criminals in . USA should deal with their criminals and mexico should deal with their own . We have to have a better filtering system. I know of many times employers caught up to workers and never pressed it . Instead they tried figuring out what could be proven and sought recommendation rather than incarceration . I know what really happens in a lot of cases . I am in the mix . Besides some of my best friends are from Mexico .

      Delete
  9. Claimed it for Atzlan? What a bunch of crap. Here we go again with the socialist racist la raza losers. Great idea Mexico... lets elect socialsts and turn into Venezuela. Immigrants rights activist? More like a pro illegal immigrants open borders advocate. The ACLU is the biggest scam out there. Nothing more than the leftist version of ANTIFA but wearing suits. Atzlan racist " dreamers ".

    ReplyDelete
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    1. 528
      Truth right here

      Delete
    2. I was just about to post the same thing!

      Geopolitical and economic failures (Mexicans) attempting to turn the U.S. into carbon copies of the governments and cultures they fled.

      As far as these women are concerned, they demonstrated their cowardice, lazyiness, disloyalty, selfishness and disdain for Mexico and the Mexican people by fleeing, now they want to preach to those they abandoned?

      Delete
    3. Am I the only one that thinks this is the same alt right troll just talking to themselves?

      Delete
    4. To 10:18
      No, actually he's not. I'm Mexican-American and a conservative. Does that shock you? Alt-right is a made up liberal term used to shut down discussion. You libs are always claiming to be the tolerant ones, for free speech, justice, and for wanting to hear other points of view, but then you're shocked and offended to discover that there are actually other points of views - to paraphrase William Buckley. I used to be a liberal when I was young and your statement reminds me why I'm not one now - because libs are always preaching who you should hate and how much you should hate them.

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    5. 1:34 - Why would it shock me? I'm not a liberal, and i know plenty of Mexican American conservatives. In all likely hood, i probably have more friends that identify as conservative than liberal. I would have called out a SJW the same as i would an Alt-Right troll if they were the ones clogging up this comment section with ridiculous mumbo jumbo. Nobody is 100% conservative or liberal, yet some of you vote for Red or Blue regardless of whether or not you actually agree with the policies put forth by your preferred candidate. So many of you just buy into what George Soros and Rupert Murdoch are selling.

      "libs are always preaching who you should hate and how much you should hate them" - and the right doesnt??

      It wasn't the left that coined the term "Alt-Right", it was that hate filled bigot, Richard Spencer.

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    6. 134 speaks truth again.
      Not,politics,truth,but in this political climate of PC hypocrisy,truth is hidden and brow beaten by statements such as 318,they always bring the race card and shout bigot,ironic since they are the most intolerant and radical thinking of all the political leanings,you only have to view comments here from Mexicans to see their true feelings and dont forget comments are moderated,these are the mild comments.

      Delete
    7. 1018
      yes you are the only one

      Delete
    8. To 3:18
      "libs are always preaching who you should hate and how much you should hate them" - and the right doesnt??

      No, they don’t – not in comparison – not even close! Who on the right incites violence like lefty-loon Maxine Waters when she demands people to rise up and resist republicans at restaurants and gas stations and wherever they find them? Which party is calling for the end of ICE? BTW, whose party is turning a hard left to socialism and embracing it hook, line and sinker? And Bolshevik Bernie isn’t alone anymore, now he’s got the Sandinista Barista (Ocasio-Cortez, ex-bartender) to help him bury the Left into further oblivion this November. Moderate Democrats (the few that remain) are running for the hills and trying to get her to shut up already (gee, I wonder why?).

      But still, I agree that there’s always some outliers not representative of the whole, but considering the venom spewed on any liberal media channel, you’d think it’s open season on republicans, that we're all uncaring, stupid folks.

      BTW, I don’t get my news from Murdoch. He's a lefty anyway and voted for Clinton, but he's a businessman first and is well aware who butters his popcorn. I scour the web for both sides of the story, seek out the truth, and make my own determinations. I don’t need an echo chamber to validate my thoughts. Some of us are informed, very informed. Perhaps you are too.

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    9. 4:04 and 6:12 - I hate PC culture, and i do agree the left gets very over bearing with it. Like i said, i do rag on SJW's as much as i do people on the extreme right.
      You said you dont live in an echo chamber, and i respect that. Unfortunately, there are a ton of people that live in a world of confirmation bias. Just because the term Nazi, Bigot, Racist, fascist, etc, is over used these days doesn't change the fact that Richard Spencer is a hate filled bigot. The left is bashing on ICE, the right is bashing on the FBI. Both have their faults, but both are essential to our country.

      All in all, it is good you look at both sides, i try to do the same and am not opposed to changing my opinions on things if i see im wrong.

      Delete
  10. Poor lady, gonna be chopped up by them salvajes before she trys to do any good.

    ReplyDelete
  11. She can't have a political position in Mexico, because she has a dual US-Mexico citizenship

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    Replies
    1. @7:41PM She presented the election commission with documentation that she had renounced her US citizenship.

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    2. She has to. And cannot vote in the U.S. again. She is in very profitable business in Mexico Politicos. They make a lot $$$$$$

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    3. but she is yet to prove she was divorced from husband number 1 thereby lied to the u.s. and mexico

      Delete
  12. I really like this woman....I see a lot of promise

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  13. Good for her going back to Mexico and do great things. Most mexicans want to leave. She is hero in my book.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That’s one way of getting them to go back to Mexico.
    I love how her citizenship that she spent years if not a decade getting is rebound like So much of a technical inconvenience that it is.
    I wish her a long and happy life in Mexico, but why is she giving interviews in Chicano (la Raza) Park?

    ReplyDelete
  15. 7:59 - Socialsm and communist's arent the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Prediction: Dead within a month.

    ReplyDelete

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