Jumanji Reality

Yesterday at 1 a.m., I literally woke up to our reality, the mexican reality. Expecting a drunk neighbor (after I heard some men yelling to each other) I found an operation from our Marine forces. Guns, full-on masks, around 10 trucks, cars and vans were blocking the path.

For a minute I was wondering first, what was I doing at the window, as men hurriedly descended from the trucks to run towards another building. Secondly, I was trying to understand how an event that seemed so foreign, was now developing so close.

I watched with certain fascination and fear how all these men work together as an armed force and controlled means of power. In another country, you may get some relief from watching justice served from these events, but in Mexico, anything that looks like military, federal or a marine force is regarded in very ambiguous ways.

What was chilling actually, was the silence and the stilness of my neighbors. Nobody was on the windows, all lights were off, no one was interested or wanted to know. After the incident, no one wanted to be outside.

Some thoughts came by as I imagined the despair of some Ayotzinapa students who knocked on doors asking for help and all the people that were scared to let them in their homes, terrified actually of retaliation from any force of this kind.

This thought poses another question, who, what kind of neighbor, doing what, was saying hello and goodnight before 50 marines were putting him or her on a van? [update]

I have a great masters student from El Salvador, who told me today how he read on a meme of how living in Mexico is kind of a Jumanji reality. You wake up one day and you might have an earthquake, or fires that pollute the air so much you worry about taking each breath, or endless traffic jams that appeared after a Zapatista's blockage or a volcano that keeps awakening bit by bit.

Resilience is needed in this country and certainly high doses of Berlant's cruel optimism.