No where to run
Routine checks with the Border Patrol revealed the quickening pace of Guatemalans trying to cross the river. During the early 80’s large increases of immigrants from any country was a sign of trouble. A respected Catholic research institute was receiving reports from its missions in Southern Mexico about refugee camps being built along the Usamacinta River. And, about a slash and burn campaign by government troops to drive the Indians across the border to Mexico. >more pictures
Sadness in Saragosa
Around mid-evening the newsroom started hearing reports of a tornado touching down in the little West Texas town of Saragosa. Staff from the San Antonio Express-News was dispatched, driving through the night and arriving before dawn on May 23, 1987. The community center in the town of 200 had taken a direct hit during a pre-school graduation ceremony killing over twenty people, many of them children.
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The call came fairly late.
The results of a hotly contested mayoral election were in and they looked rigged. The feel-good story of a young pediatrician, endorsed by the grass roots, conservative National Action Party (PAN), was beaten by a career politician from the ruling party (PRI). The PAN-istas rallied in front of city hall to protest the inauguration.
The PRI expected trouble and muscled up with local police and militia. The PAN-istas sawed branches off trees in the Zocalo for weapons and siphoned gas from cars on the street to fill empty beer bottles and make Molotovs. They overwhelmed the PRI, burned the Piedras Negras city hall and briefly held the city until the army was called in. Casualty estimates ranged from zero according to the government, to 20 according to the protesters. >more pictures
The Itinerant Immigrant
Moises Cervantes was a day laborer in San Antonio. He stood on street corners and waited for the caravan of pickups to come by and offer construction work. He was also had a large farm and a family to support back home. But the drought in Central Mexico burned the corn crop forcing Moises to leave his home near Celaya, cross the border, and earn enough money to buy seed for the next crop. The San Antonio Express-News followed Moises on his trip back for the planting.
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Homeless in San Antonio
It’s better than the street. In response to a rapidly growing number of homeless men and women sleeping in doorways and under overpasses in the city, the First Presbyterian Church opened its gymnasium and locker room doors. Cheese sandwiches and hot black coffee were on the menu. >more pictures