The New Mexican Family

In Today's New York Times' article, A Mexican City's Troubles Reshape Its Family, Damian Cave studies the broader effect of the violence in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the effect on its demographics. Over the past few years the city has lost and estimated 230,000 people, a starteling 20 percent of their overall population. These losses, which are made up mostly of men have redefined the families of Ciudad. They are "multigenerational, led by women and with several children under 14." According to Carlos Galindo, a demographer for Mexicos's National Popultion Council is a result of three things. He explains, "Its harder to find a job, migration across the desert is traditioinally a thing that men dok, and then there's the violence" which is sending Mexican males out of the country. Women are now becoming the Majority. This, however, has not thrusted females into the work force as much as it has in the past, as they now have families and children to take care of, many of which are not their own. What these shift is doing is bringing communities closer together. A Sociologist at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez says, "People dont have faith in government. They have faith in their neighbors."
Cave's article emphasizes a new way in which Mexico must be helped. We need to offer aid to the Mexican women who have a lack of mobility and protection. My house keepers brother in law, a Mexican police man, was recently killed due to the drug violence in these cities, and his wife, now left with three children is struggling. These cases alone should prompt Americans to view the Mexican Drug War as a problem of their own, a problem that must be faced, even in the smallest ways.