Remembering the Dead in the Border Region

Around the time of El Dia de los Muertos, it is believed that a closer connection with the departed may be achieved. As many celebrated the Day of the Dead in various forms across the Americas, people in the U.S.-Mexico border region used this holiday to get across some very political messages about some of the dearly departed.

In Ciudad Juarez, where 2,000 people have died so far in drug-related violence, Mexicans came out to mourn those who are victims of drug war violence. Families came out in droves to mourn those killed in the cartel war in Ciudad Juarez, which has become a murder capital.

"We don't play at the cantinas anymore because it is too dangerous. We do two funerals a day instead," said musician Jose del Villar at the San Rafael cemetery after serenading a grieving widow, a black accordion strapped to his chest.

In a mass in the cemetery, Ciudad Juarez's archbishop Renato Asencio called on drug gangs to "put away their guns" and urged city authorities to stop the killings.

In El Paso, Texas, the Border Network for Human Rights held a candlelight vigil and placed wooden crosses along the border to remember the migrants who have died crossing the border.

At the Tijuana border in Mexico, the Pro-Migrant Defense Coalition placed an offering of flowers. Activists came out to address the deaths of migrants crossing into the United States by placing 5,100 wooden crosses in memory of the dead.

Online Sources: Reuters, Associated Press, KFOXTV, Border Network for Human Rights

Image: dismalworld.com