(MintPress) — As the U.S. deals with its own issues of racial discrimination and illegal immigration, its Mexican neighbors to the south are engulfed in a drug-fueled war that has taken the lives of innocent men, women and children.
With mass shootings in Mexico becoming more and more prevalent, the issue has begun to be ignored, tossed aside as just another Mexican bloodbath among the ‘other’ group of people to the south, leading Americans away from an understanding of the U.S. role in the conflict.
While the drug wars in Mexico are fought on Mexican land, the entire picture includes the United States, serving as the market for the illegal drugs that are produced in Mexico and trafficked over the border to meet the needs in the U.S. among those involved in the illegal use and trade of narcotics.
From that perspective, those in Mexico caught in the crossfire of the war should be of concern for America, as it has a role to play in the violence that is closer to home than realized.
Recent violence among neighbors
On Wednesday, 14 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico, just four days after seven Americans were killed while worshipping at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. While many located in the South were closer in proximity to the Mexican atrocities, the coverage on such events went largely unnoticed.
Three separate instances Wednesday led to the deaths in Mexico, in what is being pegged as another round of drug-fueled violence. Yet while that may elicit images of men fighting in barren deserts, that’s not exactly the case.
One man entered a bar outside of Mexico City, opening fire on a crowd and killing four men and two women. The other deaths included in Wednesday’s bloodshed occurred in an Acapulco home and near a baseball field in northern Mexico.
While Mexico and the U.S. may be two entirely different and separate countries, the proximity of many Americans to such violence is not so far away. Someone living in Los Angeles, for example, was roughly 1,555 miles away from the bar shooting outside of Mexico City. That same person was 2,059 miles from the shootings in Oak Creek, Wis.
Who fuels the violence?
Drug violence in Mexico is nothing new. In May, the Atlantic reported that 50,000 people had died in drug-fueled violence since 2006. Naturally, Americans have become used to reports of such violence. Yet the U.S. is Mexico’s market for the drugs that fuel the very violence American society has grown numb to.
This issue is touched on, with a humorous twist, in the recent movie, “Casa De Mi Padre,” featuring Will Ferrell. The film, presented in Spanish with English subtitles, illustrates the destruction the drug war has on the people of Mexico, using humor to point the finger north to the U.S., the consumers of the commodity that is at the center of the nation’s violence.
Mexican actor Diego Luna, who plays a leading role in the film, indicated in an IAR interview that the film, while a comedy, has a political message.
“It’s a comedy, a comedy from beginning to end, but also a comedy that has many layers and a political comment — I thought it was a smart thing,” he said. “In fact, I was a little pissed I didn’t come up with the idea myself.”
Perhaps that was the reason it didn’t take off in the U.S. The film grossed $5 million, $2 million of which was gained through a foreign audience. That’s a far cry from other movies released around the same time period. The film, “A Thousand Words,” featuring Eddie Murphy, brought in $18 million. Even that, according to E Entertainment, was a bomb.
Subtitles and the obscure humor could have kept Americans away, yet the release of a semi-politically charged movie touching on Mexican-American relations is a risk, especially with the current stigma attached to the issue of immigration and the politics surrounding it.
Impact of illegal immigration
The non-tolerance of Americans toward illegal immigration has led to harsh legislation in states like Arizona and Alabama. While residing in America as an immigrant without the proper Visa is undoubtedly against the law, Hispanics have claimed that the provisions put forth unfairly target those who are Mexican, legal or not.
In Arizona, for example, SB1070 gave law enforcement officials the ability to ask for the papers of any individual the officer suspects of residing in the U.S. illegally.
While certain provisions of the laws implemented through SB1070 were struck down, including mandating that immigrants carry papers on them at all times, the Supreme Court did uphold the ‘show me your papers’ provision, to the dismay of immigrant rights groups that claim it perpetuates racial profiling and racism.
Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Mexican American Legal Defense, to name a few, asked a federal court to revisit the issue, claiming it would lead to widespread racial profiling.
In Alabama, similar legislation has caused tension in the community and schools. The Department of Justice in May sent a letter to the state’s Department of Education, expressing concern that tough immigration laws were having a negative impact on Hispanic students.
Specifically, the DOJ addressed a law stemming from a portion of its bill, HB 56, that allowed schools to question the immigration status of students. While an injunction was later placed on that portion of the law, the DOJ said students suffered mentally and academically, with many Hispanic students dropping out altogether. The climate within the classroom also changed, as students became aware of the racial tensions within their communities.