Journey For Justice December 10th, Day 10 - El Paso UTEP Centenial Museum: Pasos Ajenos: Social and Inequalities in the Borderlands: Carmelita Torres!!!

I think I'm pretty well informed - intentionally - yet how did I miss the Bath 'Riots' and the incredible Carmelita? I don't think I would have forgotten her story, especially after I learned about the Braceros and how they were stripped naked and sprayed with gasoline and ddt before they could enter the u.s.

Well Carmelita Torres was a 17 year old teenager who crossed the Santa Fe International Bridge into El Paso every day in order to work cleaning a rich person's home.

She and all the womyn workers were ordered off the trolley after it crossed, to strip naked in order to be doused in keroscene, gasoline, pesticides and forced vaccinations. She refused and convinced the 30 other womyn passengers to exit the trolley to demonstrate their opposition to such inhuman cruelty.

The justification for such a horrific practice was the blaming migrants for the flu, lice, illnesses - sound familiar? Later it was 'discovered' that the military base and the soldiers returning from wwi were the culprits spreading the flu infection not the Mexican workers - and you can believe the soldiers were not subjected to gasoline spray.

Over 200 womyn joined in the protest by 8:30a.m. and by noon there were over 2000 and more womyn lying across the railroad tracks, stopping all rail traffic, demanding the end of fumigating humans. Both Mexican and u.s. police attempted to make them leave but they were pelted with rocks, bottles, and jeers.

Several protestors were jailed including Carmelita, a few even executed.

The protest lasted 3 days but this horrific practice on the Mexico/u.s. border lasted 40 more years - and it was studied by the nazis when they came here to get schooled on how to torture and eliminate humans.

For more information about this informative and historic & present-day truth telling, check out www.pasosajenos.org/exhibit