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Saturday, February 27, 2016

Mexico Drug War-Guerrero: Nestora Salgado, Unswerving Commitment

La Jornada: M. Samuel Mendoza Z.

I arrive at the Tepepan Social Rehabilitation Center at 10:00 a.m., where for eight months Nestora Salgado García has been held in that prison's Medical Tower. For several minutes, I wait on the esplanade before entering. Finally, I arrive where Nestora is. The first thing that impresses me is her personality, very youthful. She has a smile that animates her nearly 44 years and, given the situation she is going through, she is a brave, strong, cheerful woman.

On the bureau next to her bed she has a book by writer and journalist Elena Poniatowska, The Child Star [El niño estrellero, which the author says she wrote about children who ask questions and are curious about everything, because they become either poets or scientists] and in the window are other books, including One Hundred Years of Solitude [Gabriel García Márquez], given to her by the priest and migrant defender Alejandro Solalinde.

On the wall there is a card with a photograph of Las Patronas—women who for more than 20 years have been feeding migrants traveling atop La Bestia [The Beast, freight train hopped by migrants to get north]. The card reads:
"One day you and I begin to change the world. You'll never give up!"
This leads me to chat with Nestora Salgado about the collection taken up from September to November of last year by students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico [UNAM] and Iberoamericana University to support undocumented Central Americans. In the Collection for the Resistance we managed to raise two tons of tennis shoes and clothes for the Brothers on the Road Shelter in Ixtepec, Oaxaca [founded by Father Solalinde]. In response, Nestora remembers:
"I was a migrant, and it wasn't by choice. It's painful to leave your family. The pain of saying goodbye to your children and living with anguish, because there is no security that you will ever be able to return to see them."
In 1991 Salgado was 20 years old, and Olinalá, Guerrero, was a quiet [mountain] town, but very poor because there was no work. The poor families worked in the fields [indigenous subsistance farmers]. One day Nestora arrived home and learned that her daughter Ruby had contracted a stomach infection, had a high fever and was, therefore, dehydrated and weak. Nestora was very concerned about seeking help from the doctor, who put the child in a tub of water to bring down the fever. Nestora relates that she felt "so much pain for not having money to pay for the medicine" that was needed for her daughter, who was barely a few months old.

Like so many other migrants, it was necessity that forced Nestora to leave Olinalá to travel to the United States. When she arrived in Tijuana, she crossed the border and arrived in San Diego, California, where she managed to get a job. Then she went to the state of Washington. Fortunately, after 13 years, she obtained her citizenship in that country.

Nestora Salgado says that the discrimination against migrants is very sad
"because there are people who are dedicated to finding fault with the other. We should all embrace each other because we are Latino, and say: 'we're here, countryman, we are a group'. It's necessary to make a chain of brotherhood that gives strength."
She has always had concern for others, turning her gaze to those in need. From the United States she supported both migrants and the people of her community. Twice a year she returned to Olinalá with food and clothing to give away. She supported the people, because she is convinced that people who walk without shoes are those who have more dignity. She asserts that she is happy having little, in contrast to those who have everything and give nothing.

With her commitment and honesty, the Comandanta [Nestora's title as a leader in Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities-Community Police, CRAC-PC], gave as much support to the Community Police as was possible. In 10 months, homicides and crime decreased 90 percent. She is proof that she didn't surrender to the luxury of remaining in the comfort that was hers in the United States.

For two years and five months, Nestora Salgado has been imprisoned "illegally and arbitrarily and with an unfair process", as noted by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. This is why there are national and international level demands for her immediate release, because there are persistent irregularities whose purpose is to keep her in prison. For example, in the years she has been imprisoned, both in Nayarit and in Mexico City, she has had a total of 20 hearings and not once have her accusers attended to make formal legal statements.

The support that she has received is significant, unconditional and "like the waves of the sea". In each group visit to the prison, very strong is heard:
"Nestora, fighter, we want you free now."
And from Tepepan Prison, she has said that with the support received
"the voice of all of us who have suffered from injustic managed to get heard. I wanted to hug them all, because they worry about me."
Given our troubled country, she recommends that the young people begin to revolutionize things, from education in order to change Mexico:
"Sparks by capable people are needed."
And with unswerving voice, like her heart, she ends:
"What has happened to me has strengthened me. It has wakened me to all the sensitive parts of life."

For more on this story, see Nestora Salgado.

Related MV Translations:
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