by Al Benson Jr.
Since Title 42 is supposed to expire later this week it brought Mexico to mind. I’ve been to Mexico twice over the years–once in 1960 and again in 1986. Needless to say, conditions in Mexico have not improved. If anything they might be even worse now than back then. In 1960 you didn’t have the drug cartels to worry about–all you had were plain old Mexican bandits, almost like the ones you see in the movies.
The other young man that I went with and I spent much time in Mexico, at least as far as Mexico City, on what was euphemistically called The Pan American Highway. In 1960 it was a two lane highway, with large parts of it unpaved, often with batches of rusting highway equipment, sitting beside some of the unpaved areas as though someone had just walked away from them thirty years ago and never returned.
When you got away from the cities, much of rural Mexico looked exactly like what you see in Western movies. There were times, driving along the “highway” when we saw groups of horsemen come out of the brush and ride along the cleared area next to the highway. There would be anywhere from ten to fifteen of these guys, all with the big Mexican sombreros, all armed with rifles and bandoliers of ammunition across their shoulders and all with machetes. We never knew who these guys were and since they were armed and we weren’t it did not seem prudent to inquire. Here and there in some of the towns we stopped in we saw men wearing handguns.
I don’t know what the politics in Mexico were at that point. I was not politically aware at that time. Political awareness did not come for me until after I was married, nine years later. My impression of Mexico in 1960 was that in many ways it was 75 years behind the times. In many small towns we went through the mode of transportation was about evenly divided between autos, trucks, and horses and wagons. We were stopped at what I presume were inspection stations between Mexican states, which gave the local police or whatever they were a chance to rummage through our possessions. I remember one stop in particular where the cop thought he had something on me because he saw a typewriter case of mine in the car trunk, which he commented on. I could literally see the disappointment on his face when he opened it up and found only aftershave lotion and deodorant.
Our reception in Mexico was a mixed bag. Some folks were interested and friendly, wanting to know all about the US. Others were sullen and one place we stopped someone said “Hey Americans, how much money you got?” He could have figured that out by looking at us. We were traveling on the cheap and had just enough to get by, nothing extra, and our clothes showed that. If I had to guess at the political climate in Mexico in 1960 I would say it was somewhat to the left, but then Mexico has had that problem at least since the early 1900s.
The second time I was in Mexico was in 1986 when my family was with me. This time we only went into extreme northern Mexico because I wanted my wife and kids to be able to say they had been in Mexico. We took a ride across the Rio Grande in an aluminum rowboat and then rented donkeys to ride up to a Mexican town from the river. The scenery was spectacular and just before we got to the town there was an old wreck of a car right where the road divided. It was an old Ford Edsel, a car they have not made since the early 1950s. Who know how long it had been there!
When we got into the town what amazed me was that it looked exactly the way the Mexican towns I remembered from 1960 had looked. No improvement! No improvement in Mexican rural life in 26 years! My son commented on the rundown appearance of the town and I told him that this is what socialism has done for Mexico. It was like taking a step back in time to 1960 again. I couldn’t get over it. Towns in our country didn’t look the same as they did in 1960, but it seems as if in Mexico, at least some of them still did. I understood why so many Mexicans wanted to come north. And it’s not that Mexicans are lazy. They are hardworking people that have basically been screwed by their own government that has no real interest in their welfare. Sound familiar?
What I’ve seen in Mexico is what the Biden Regime has planned for us and they are using the current immigrant situation to implement that. This country can’t solve Mexico’s problems by turning us into another Mexico, yet that’s what Biden and company are working at. They seem enthralled with that idea! They want Mexico’s socialism for us and they see a way to implement that here by giving illegal immigrants the right to vote if they can just make it across the Rio Grande. The idea is that most of these illegals will vote Democrat and help to turn us into a socialist country. Our leaders are planning for the future–their future–as they work to turn us into yet another socialist paradise.
revisedhistory 