For this week’s content, I have some stuff I want to talk about but they don’t really go together so you will have to bear with me as I skip around different topics.

First off, I moved from mexico about 14 years ago precisely for some of the reasons that the book outlined; or maybe I should say my parents moved us out of mexico. In any case, as they saw the uncertainty that lay in Mexico, they decided the best ting to do would be to move out. They did not want to get caught up in what was happening and they wanted to provide a better future for their children (my brother and I). I think, that if they had not had kids it may have been different and they may have chosen to do something different because after all it is different to have to worry about yourself than to have to worry about someone else as well.

Next story is actually about my dad as he was in some of the areas of Mexico city where the 1985 earthquake hit the hardest. He has told me stories that have really shocked me and I could never have imagined experiencing something similar. I remember him telling me about all the buildings that had collapsed and of all the people that got trapped in the rubble. He told me how unorganized everything was and that it took a very long time to get some people out (a lot of them not making it out). One of the building in his area, he told me had sunk several floors so the people in the lower levels were trapped underground. According to my dad, the official numbers of those died in the earthquake was actually far larger than they officially said. That being said from 1985 till now, there have been clear improvements. This year an earthquake hit Mexico pretty hard on the exact same day. The difference being that there were less collapsed buildings, although there were still a bunch. And people were a lot more organized and people were able to get a great number of people out safely. They were able to minimize the loss of human life compared to that of 1985.

Finally I wanted to say that I am glad that Dawson talked about the positive effects of migrants in the United States as there seems to be a strong negative stereotype around the, Often times these people move there out of necessity and not maliciously. Something quite sad that happened a while ago was that there was a huge influx of children illegally migrating (passing through extremely dangerous routes like “el tren de muerte”) with the hopes of finding their parents. I would highly recommend watching the movies Under the Same Moon, Which Way Home and Desierto. They all are about illegal immigrants.

Anyway, to finish of my last blog post, I would like to say that I have learned a whole lot through this course which has weirdly left me feeling more confused and wanting to learn more about Latin America.