Speaking with people from Jaripo, Michoacan comes news that the small town now has a cell of the La Familia camped out and controlling access.
They apparently drive around armed and with walkie-talkies, questioning any who enter the town.
This is sad.
Jaripo is a small, sweet town in northern Michoacan, largely deserted. Most natives have moved to the United States — Chicago, Dallas, Stockton, Santa Ana and other places. It’s inhabited mostly by empty houses, built by migrants through the 1980s-90s, when they returned every year for Christmas.
I wrote about the town in Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream — a place of clean air and quiet, except at fiesta time, when it filled with folks from the US and their trucks and mariachi bands brought in from Guadalajara.
Few return any more. Its only new residents, I’m told, are folks deported: for DUI or felony reentry into the US; a few for more serious stuff. Some of the latter have formed an alliance with this La Familia cell, I’m told.
But Jaripo lies on a paved road between Apatzingan in Michoacan’s Tierra Caliente (Hot Land), which is home to a robust drug trafficking culture that spawned La Familia, and Guadalajara. So this isolated place has become a strategic point in Mexico’s inter-cartel drug wars.
(Btw, a lot has been written about La Familia Michoacana — a pseudo-Catholic narco clan, who present themselves as defenders of Mexico against drug traffickers and smuggle large quantities of meth into the US. They have allied with the Sinaloa Cartel lately in a battle with the Zetas. They appeared to be on the decline since the arrest and death of several of its leaders in the last year or so. )
Well, I can only speak from my personal experience.
I was just there recently to bury my dad’s ashes.
Few people knew of my arrival, and I had keys to the family home in the main street, Calls Nacional.
No one stopped me not questioned me in the 2 months I was there.
I walked around the town at all hours of the day and night, alone.
No one ever bothered me.
After the first couple of days everyone pretty much knew I was back, as in the granddaughter of Don Jesus Guerrero is here. And there were some snide remarks, as to how and why I’m still single and was I there to find a husband
But other than that it was welcoming with children still in the plaza playing until after 9pm and then being sent home, people going to mass at 6 am and Sunday’s packed with people from the villages.
I took a huge amount of pictures of you’re interested.
Also, we have a Facebook page called Rostros de Jaripo.
Might be worth a view.
Well let me well well, I’ve returned to learn more of my family roots after 34 years. I’m proud to say I’m having the best time of my life getting to know Jaripo and how beautifully the community care for its surroundings. Many locals have migrated to the US and back. Granted some have no interest and some wish to reconnect.
Something is happening here and its growing. The communities are growing and work is more available. I’m glad to be apart of it and see more of my family supporting me and more of my family following me back to La Joya del Aire. It is a spiritual place! Take back and visit your family!
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