Sergio Troncoso's The Loss Of Juarez

The Loss of Juarez Experience
In the "Loss of Juarez," the narrator and his family experience the eye-opening violence across the U.S. and Mexican border. The personal narrative conveys information of the citizens who are affected due to the drug cartels and the insecurity of the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. The narrator is a Juarez born native and a well-educated graduate from Harvard. After completing his studies, he decided to live in Mexico for another year to decide which side of the border he belongs in. Through this journey, he realizes that he belongs in the United States. Society might have a cinematic idea of the U.S. and Mexican border, however, Mexican American families such as Troncoso’s, experience a sense of insecurity
and Mexican border has changed by revealing personal experiences from his life. The story is filled with sadness because the main character will never be able to give his children the “opportunity to transform the Spanish language and Mexico to more than just academic subjects” (175). Cuidad Juarez was not only Sergio Troncoso’s home, it was “[his] history,” and the fact that his parents have not been able to return to their homeland in five years says a lot about the danger on the other side of the border (175). Troncoso understood that his hometown in Ciudad Juarez is now filled with murderers and considered a “forbidden, forsaken territory” (177). Moreover, Troncoso’s love for the history he lived in his country is filled with happiness. Why should happiness end at the U.S. and Mexican border? Juarez was a “portal to another world to” Sergio Troncoso which “felt at once deeply familiar and strangely fascinating” (176). Troncoso wished he could give his children a taste of the “indomitable spirit” which his parents once had “that had been nurtured not in America, but on the other side” (176). At a certain point, the border between Juarez and El Paso used to be a mysterious, peaceful place where Troncoso’s parents met and were happily in love; however, the border has become a dangerous place where thousands flee to the U.S. to start a better life
border is filled with violence and society should be aware of all the danger. This story reveals Troncoso’s experience of the insecurity and danger along the border. The drug violence has bloodstained money and power against the civilians living along the border. We can see that the violence along the border can even affect distant families that live in New York such as Troncoso’s not just the population living in the border. Troncoso, just as many other Mexican American families have felt the loss of their Mexican culture due to the insecurities across the border without being able to express their authentic Mexican culture to their future generations. The essential idea of freedom in a place filled with danger is unexplainable for the civilians living so close to Mexico and U.S. without being able to connect their cultures leaving behind their memories. Hope is the only word that keeps them alive in this world filled with corruption along the U.S. and Mexican