Silent Picture: Lomas De Poleo

On December 1, 2007, a cultural event was to be held at La Granja de Lomas del Poleo where residents from Poleo were to meet with activists, students, artists and concerned citizens from both side of the Border to denounce and raise consciousness over the terror that the Zaragosa family have inflicted on the residents of Lomas De Poleo.  The cultural event did occur but it was moved to Mujeres Tonantzin because the hired thugs of the Zaragosas forbade the entry to Lomas De Poleo.  

With the use of the Guardia Blancas or the hired thugs the Zaragosas have illegally fenced the community of Lomas del Poleo with the intention of dispossessing their homes.  Lomas Del Poleo now looks as a concentration camp with a watch tower and thugs patroling who can get in and terrorizing the residents.  These thugs control what items the residents can bring to their homes and sometimes when they get to their homes, they discover that their houses has been demolished.  The Zaragosas have acted with impunity as the municipal government has yet to protect the residents from the human violations that these family have inflicted.

When we travelled up to Lomas, we were stopped by the thugs and a counterprotest.  With chains, pitbulls, bats, fowl language, and loud music, the thugs threatened us.  With them were people with badly written signs who also shouted obscenities to us and the woman standing next to the pointman with a pitbull shouted a racial slur to one of the residents of Lomas.  The resident who has been fighting against the continual assault and forced relocation responded to the assailant that she may be "Negra" but she was not....  As I was photographing the clash between a nonviolent protest and the violent melee, the offended resident was crying as activist from Mujeres Tonantzin comforted her.  Since the thugs and hired people tried to provoke us, we left before they could harm us.  

Before we left to Mujeres Tonantzin, I photographed the thugs and the counter demonstraters as they let go of the chained dogs and everyone began to laugh.  At the art event, I learned that the counter demonstrators were paid with a bag of groceries to provoke confusion and violence.  

At Mujeres Tonantzin the cultural event occurred where people testified through art and speeches.  Residents voiced their continual injuries against a municipal government that has not protected them and poetry, songs and installation art dealt against these abuses.  Although the Second Forum for Lomas Del Poleo was illegally blocked by the thugs of Zaragosa, they could not destroy the community of Poleo who kept denouncing the abuses of this affluent family.