kikibalt wrote:
My wife and I with some friends and Santa, on a cold December day...1982 L.A. toy run
About 15 years ago there was terrible flooding in this area. Tijuana was hit very hard. The news in San Diego showed houses in TJ that had slid off the the side of hills and low sections of the city that looked like a lake. Americans were loading up their vehicles with supplies to take down there to help out the helpless. But there was a snag. When they got to the border,the Mexican Cops would direct the vehicles to a row of semi trailers. The cops told everyone to unload the stuff in back of the trucks and they'd handle the rest. The rest meaning sorting through everthing to see if THEY could use any of it, A sweater for my wife and a blouse for my girlfriend?
The school that I worked for at the time was a mile from the border. The staff and students collected a ton of stuff. Food,clothes,blankets,and medicine. I offered to take it down there. Well i knew the cop's scam,so I was ready for them. I wore my old CETYs shirt(CETYs is a prestigous private school in TJ) and had a few important and influential names I could drop on the cops.
The line of cars trying to cross was backed up pretty good. I could see the cop holding up his hand and motioning the people to drop their stuff off at the big rigs. Finally it's my turn and the hand goes up. I told this big SOB that I worked for CETYs and the principal was waiting for me and can't you see the shirt,and here's my badge. He sighed and waved me through. Why would he hassle me after all that,if I could potentially embarass him. Beside ther were 20 more cars in back of me. I'm sure none of them had worked at CETYs.
The traffic in TJ was backed up for miles. People along the sides of the road saw what was inside my van. They came up close to the van. They looked horrible. Wet,their bodies packed with mud. If I saw they had kids with them I gave them something from my van.
I was headed to Colonia Florido. It was the hardest hit area. Strange though. When I got to the mouth of the road leading into Florido,there was a huge Cali Max to the side. A giant grocery store with tons of food and people starving a few miles down the road.
I saw what looked like an elementary school. There were cars and trucks parked everywhere outside. I also saw the cop cars. I walked inside and asked if I could bring what I had inside. People were scurrying around . There was a food line. Red Cross workers were holding babies and tending to the injured. I saw someone distributing clothes, The only people not doing anything were the cops.
I went to the van and brought out a couple of sacks. A cop put himself in front of me and told me to put the sacks next to a truck that said "Policia Municipal" on the side. NO WAY. I told one of "Tijuana's Finest" that I was going to hand deliver what i had to people that really needed it. I saw a line of shivering souls along a wall. I held up a bag and motioed for them to take it. They paused. Finally I walked up to one of them and handed the bag to hom. Then the rest took his lead. The stuff I brought was gone in a flash.
Just then a helicopter soared overhead and landed in the middle of the courtyard .People scrambled to get out of the way. The rotating blades blew everything around. Out of a small building at the far end of the school,someone came out and shouted,"AQUI,AQUI!!"
One of the men in the helicopter ran out with a stretcher and went inside the building. I followed curiously and with some hesitation.
Inside there were people surrounding a table. On the table was this tiny baby. It looked like it was just born. Blood was on the side of his head. A Red Cross girl wrapped the baby in a blanket and gave it to the guy with the stretcher. Some one said an Indian woman tried to cross a slippery road with her choildren when she lost her balance and dropped her baby. The helicopter took off again and disappeared.
I was stunned. I turned to go to my car when the Red Cross girl asked if I could give her a ride into town. As we were goinmg along,I couldn't get my mind off what had happened with the baby.
"Wasn't that a terrible accident?"
The Red Cross girl loooked at me and paused. She studied my face.
she was Mexican.but spoke English well.
"What makes you think it was an accident? A woman homeless with no man and seven children."
I thought I was in a dream. I get to town. She thanked me. We hadn't spoken since she told the probable cause of what happened.
By the time i got home it was dark. My wife was cleaning hard pinto beans on a table. She asked me how it went. I started to tell her the story of the Indian woman and the baby. Before I could finish she said to me still seperating the beans,"What makes you think it was an accident?"
I went to the bedroom and tried to sleep. With the sun beginning to rise,I finally fell asleep.
