Readers angry at festive Mexican town

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Our story on the Mexican town of Jalpa, Zacatecas, organizing a December fair to greet returning migrants and their children drew a variety of responses. About half a dozen people wrote comments like this one: ‘These aren’t migrants, rather illegal trespassers, felons.’ Many others were filled with ethnic slurs. Apparently, these days it isn’t possible to write the word ‘immigrant’ without a certain segment of the readership thinking ‘illegal,’ even though according to several studies, including this one, the vast majority of immigrants are legal residents or U.S. citizens.

Indeed, my story quoted several U.S. citizens among the returnees, including many who are the children of people who migrated from Zacatecas decades ago. Other comments were from people with roots in Jalpa, many happy with the story, including a California state senator who sent us a message from his BlackBerry en route to Jalpa — he was going to visit his wife’s family there.

But one Jalpa native now living in the U.S. wasn’t so happy with the tough-looking guys in the photos that ran with the story: ‘You should of taken pictures of beautiful scenes of Jalpa and the town.... Not all people from that town are ghetto.’ Point taken. Here’s one shot from our camera that didn’t make the paper. From left to right: Adrian Garcia, Alberto Guerrero, an unidentified friend, Ruby Rodriguez and Henry Rodriguez, all natives of Southern California, who had just finished shopping in Jalpa’s town center.

— Héctor Tobar in Mexico City