Archive for March, 2019

BORDER PULP NEWS: There’s work in Mexico if you wanna be a coyote.

 Our economy is doing okay but there’s also plenty of work in Mexico. Coyotes are staying busy. Recent research indicates that three out of five coyotes are American citizens. They are American males of Hispanic descent. They get their clients from a Mexican social network and make schedules based on final destinations.  

Just think twice about starting your own coyote business. You’ll have to payoff some nasty people and get an approval from the local cartel. Most smuggling groups are part of a cartel or a syndicate that pays a cartel to stay in business.

An American coyote is paid higher wages than their Mexican counterparts. Last year they got $850 per head per migrant that they get across. Mexican Coyotes will get about $300 less. Central American coyotes will make only $150.

Normally one coyote will take three people and maintain them while they guide them across the border. Payment can be made in installments. Final payments are made upon arrival at the agreed destination. Migrants bound for California will have to pay in advance, and can pay up to $10,000 a head with no guarantees.

Still wanna be a coyote? Buena Suerte.

JACUMBA’S GHOST STAGE.

Okay, so we’re on our way to Jacumba.  Yeah, we’ll pass Rocky’s house, but he’s not there. He’s in Mexico City doing some work for a cartel.

In the 1800’s there was no border fence. You could look south and not see anything but open country. You’d need a map and a transit to find the international line, or you might step on a lead marker with a brass plate imbedded in it saying you were standing on the border.

In those days the only road through Jacumba was dirt. It was a wagon road used by local ranchers or the military. There was a cavalry post a few miles away. Eventually the track became a stagecoach road for the Butterfield Line and others going to and from San Diego.

Old Highway 80 built in 1932 wanders over and around the original dirt stage road that passed through Jacumba in those early days.

The photo shows a part of the road about fifty feet south of Old 80. A small bridge between rocks, built out of post and lintel slabs acts as a drain and flattens out the roadway, although faint still runs over it.  

The Pierce Arrow and Locomobile touring cars of the Pickwick Motor Stage line operating from El Centro and San Diego in 1911 used this road.

If you were traveling from San Diego you could purchase tickets in Bill’s Cigar Store, and in El Centro it was Brad’s Smoke Shop. It was mainly a male crowd that traveled on the line, wearing hats and suits. Most sat inside the vehicle while others had to ride outside on the toolbox.

Dynamite was carried to clear rockslides and the driver carried a firearm for bandits. There were lots of wicked people running around in those days, a trend that continues. 

Locals who live around the old trail tell me that on a moonlit night they can sometimes hear the ghostly grumble, rattle and growl of an old rig downshifting to take the grade into El Centro or San Diego. Its dim lights flickering over the bumpy terrain, the driver, a skeletal figure wears a uniform cap and coat.