Pardon me if I deviate from the whimsical for just one edition of Mile 14 Southern Bureau. I've been wanting to write this for some time now and to tell you the truth as I start to type I have no idea how it it is going to turn out....what can I say that makes sense about the people of Mazatlan who love so much and hurt so much at the same time.
As MPeasy and I walk the streets and watch the town awake on our especially cool Sunday mornings we bump into it all. It's obvious. Great joy everywhere like this young Lady telling us ' I can do anything through Christ '.
Or these three guys who were gut chuckling their way along Cameron Sabalo and gave us big a buenos dias and asked how we were. When I asked if I could get their picture for the blog they said of course, of course you can.
Or the kids playing soccer on the beach. Their folks get them to this wonderful place and they do exactly what they'd do at home but barefoot and carefree. I watched them play and well, all of us know the joy of youth.
These two sold us an anniversary silver pendant at Rubio Jewelry for MP on our wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful talk about silver and then about marriage. This young woman in her 30's told us of her 5 lifelong best friends of which 3 of them are divorced , she and us shared marriage success stories.
But then this...We were so excited when we first arrived to do our Sunday ' up and over ' hike. We take in the views, have breakfast on the beach and then on our way to the Mercado to get the bus we walk through Revolution Plaza that borders the seat of Government and come across this.
Dozens and dozens of people laying out homemade posters looking for information on loved one that have disappeared in the ongoing Cartel war. The missing are all young men . It's quiet and when I ask if it's O.K. to look and take a few pics a woman told me ' please do '....it was solemn .
At first I thought it was a memorial, a remembrance and out pouring of grief . But know it wasn't that at all, it was people doing all they could to find lost ones and at the very least put the effort forward keep hope alive....Maybe somebody knows that their son just decided to leave for Mexico City for a while to look for work...maybe...
Just a day later we went to sunset with friends at the start of the Malecon in front of Valentino's . It's usually a place of energy , people having Cerveza, taking pictures in front of the Mazatlan sign with family....and at the same time looking for those disappeared. The very next day we passed here on the bus and as we approached I tell MP that I'd bet anything that it's been taken down and it was. Sadness, joy, optimism, grief and desperation and beauty all at the same place, at the same time.
Everybody is used to seeing the Military. All of our years in Mazatlan we see convoys and police trucks with armed men but now it's different. The National Guard now patrol and you can tell it's not just routine, the soldiers are looking, paying attention . Now they walk the Malecon in security teams and are part of everything...everything. Hundreds of soldiers .
We did one of our ' staycations' at the La Siesta . amongst the sunset crowd I took this pic. The soldiers act like it's normal and they even say hi and smile....and of course I always say thank you .
So...So....Without going into this deal and try to sort out the cause, the right and wrong, the zig and zag , I'll just say this. The human spirit is alive and well in Mazatlan Mexico. Love will win, it always does . One thing I've learned in my life is that nothing is lineal, there are no straight lines, no easy answers . And while you look for those things you carry on, looking for love.
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