By David Sefton 12/4/16
Ernest Hemingway, the great hunter, wrote a novel in the 1930’s. “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. The title was a quote from an old poem by John Donne in 1624, see the poem at the end of the article. The point of Hemingway’s novel, was “For Whom the Bell Tolls – it tolls for thee”, and the events that occurred in the Spanish Civil War, directly led and were a precursor to World War II. In the same vein, the headlines in the article below are a precursor of a very real developing problem. Many of us, perhaps most of us, have hunted or fished in Mexico; it’s truly unimaginable that we can no longer enjoy our pastimes, in a country that has historically been safe and friendly. With many of our members with family in Mexico, owning property in Mexico, and hunting in Mexico, what is happening has a direct bearing on our lives – now, here today. Combined with the recent (just a couple of weeks ago), the unprecedented act, of the sovereign nation of Mexico filing potentially bankrupting suits in US courts against our gun manufacturers blaming US gun makers for the violence in Mexico – suddenly these events are brought home. Consider the following:
DATES AND HEADLINES OF ACTUAL NEWS STORIES
April 28th 7 Victims Rescued in Austin Kidnapped by Drug Cartel
September 30th US Tourist Murdered on Jet Ski, Falcon Lake
October 12th Mexican Detective Investigating Jet Ski Murder Beheaded
November 1stA Texas National Guardsman Murdered in Juarez
February 15th US Special Agent Assassinated in Mexico
March 29thNapolitano Says Border Safer Than Ever
April 21nd 35,000 Dead in Mexico Drug War So Far
April 22nd Mexico Sues US Gun Makers
April 23rdKiller Mexico Drug Gang “Zetas” Crosses Into US
September 28th (1810) The Little Turkey Hen
Juan José de los Reyes Martínez was a deformed little man. Born in 1782 with a severe vertebra problem, only able to walk hunched over somewhat humped back. Thus his cruel nickname, el pipila – turkey hen – the incongruence between the masculine article “el” and the feminine noun for hen intentional – ridiculing the core of his masculinity; the man that wasn’t. Of simple Indian stock he labored through life as a miner, one of the few things he could do, sad but tenacious.
Mexico’s dream of independence, in the early throes of revolution, was already sputtering to an early demise. The Spanish troops, well armed, were soldiers of one of the era’s greatest nations. The freedom loving Indians for the most part were armed only with machete’s, sticks, and tools; lacking even the most rudimentary military skills. On September 28, 1810 the rebels had been beaten to a standstill, the Fort in Guanajuato – impregnable. No guns, no cannons: the rebels suffered a relentless onslaught from Spanish musket fire. Guanajuato was a key colonial city that stood at the gateway to their mining wealth.
As more and more peasants were slain (the same who had bullied and scorned him), El Pipila surveyed the catastrophe, finding a large slab of marble he tied it to his back with rope, then crossed the road and courtyard under heavy fire from Spanish snipers, hunched over at a shambling gait. Wounded repeatedly from chips of flying marble, he struggled the distance to the Fort’s gate carrying a bucket of tar and burning torch. The moat surrounding the Fort was filled with bodies of fellow rebels, blood flowed down the cobblestone streets, a river of blood. He was now within the archways of the large gate, safe from the hail of musket fire. El Pipila coated the gates in heavy tar, then set it afire fleeing back across the way with the slab of marble his only protection. The gates burned down, the rebels flooded the Fort and massacred the Spanish to the man. This brutal revolution was “no quarter asked none given”.
The success of the indigenous peasant against the European Spanish spread like wildfire across Mexico. Peasant Mexicans seized armories, even enlisted the help of one of my ancestors, Pedro Elias Bean in opening a rebel cannon foundry, finally throwing the Spanish from their shores thus gaining liberty.
Historically the Mexicans have been ferocious in protecting themselves; in another war, another time, a corps of twelve year old boys stymied our troops at Chapultepec, finally before accepting defeat leapt from the citadel to certain death clutching their national flag. I know – you point to the Alamo, what most Texans don’t realize is that tyrannical Santa Anna, forced conquered Mayans to attack the Alamo walls – without loaded guns! When Mexicans can arm themselves they have been able to take care of their own problems.
Mexico can look to their own history of El Pipila, and realize that the cartel problem, within their boundaries, could easily be solved by ARMING their own citizens. Mexico suffers the most repressive gun laws in the world prohibiting law abiding citizens from owning weapons and thus allowing the cowardly cartels to thrive. Rather, slick politicians lobby our government to implement similar vastly unsuccessful laws in the US, and now try to bankrupt our gun manufacturers through frivolous litigation. The Mexican army can’t solve the problem, the police can’t solve the problem, nor can the federal government: yet a properly armed Mexican populace could.
As time progresses, I can’t help but be awed our forefathers clearly anticipated the problem of unarmed citizenry and realized our only true protection lies with each of us having the right to arms. The turkey hen, El Pipila, now is a national hero of Mexico: a magnificent monumental statue stands proudly on a mountain overlooking the Fort he conquered. One can’t help but think he points the way to solving the carnage in what was once one of the most peaceful and stable countries in the world. The Second Amendment isn’t just for gun nuts as the press implies, it protects the innocents that don’t have guns as well.
As the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata said “Prefiero morir de pie que vivar arrodillado” – I would rather die on my feet than live on bended knee. Thesolution to the cartel’s crises is a “Segunda Enmienda” for México – not us losing ours.