From their hillside Puerto Vallarta condo, Meg Castellanos and her husband, Tony Aguilar, could see fires burning on from the main carretera that locals and tourists use to get in and out of town.
The couple, who in January moved from Boyle Heights to Alta Vista in Puerto Vallarta, quickly learned the fires were linked to the killing of Jalisco cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes. Castellanos witnessed charred cars and damaged Oxxo stores around her neighborhood.
“We were scared because at one point there were several fires all around us burning,” Castellanos said.
But by Tuesday, Castellanos saw a sense of normalcy. Construction workers were back at a nearby work site where condos are being built. A line formed outside a local rotisserie chicken place that had reopened. By nighttime, local bars had opened up.
“Today actually feels like it’s just a normal day. Crazy, how quickly things can change,” Castellanos told Boyle Heights Beat on Tuesday.
The capture on Sunday of the cartel boss in a Mexican military operation backed by U.S. intelligence led to retaliatory car fires and cartel roadblocks across 20 states in Mexico. The sudden unrest left locals and tourists traveling within the country stranded, and in the U.S., residents of LA’s Eastside urgently sought updates on family members still living in Jalisco, Sinaloa and other parts of Mexico.
Laura Espinoza, who grew up in East LA, said narco violence is what led her mother to leave Mexico and settle in the United States decades ago.
“It’s frustrating having my family over there,” said Espinoza, who has several cousins, aunts and uncles in the tourist town of Mazatlán. “The violence there has shaped what my family is now.”
“I really am so over it,” she added. “I’m over blaming politicians. I’m looking to see if anybody out there is putting any solutions.”
“I try not to watch too much of the news, and when I do, I only listen to the perspectives in Spanish, if possible, of the people that are there,” she continued.
On Monday, a City Terrace business owner – responding to a Boyle Heights Beat Instagram post asking how Eastside families were impacted by the unrest – said family members in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta were OK and sheltering in place.
“But most expressed fear in going out, and driving on highways to get back home. My cousin who is a nurse expressed not just fear, but financial distress [because] they have to miss work, and are barely making ends meet,” they wrote. I have an uncle who is a taxi driver and also relies heavily on the roads. It’s very tragic and staying closely updated to them from afar.”
Other people described family members who got stranded on the roads and scrambled to find somewhere to stay overnight. An Alhambra business owner traveling in Jalisco said their flight was canceled on Monday.
“Everyone is very helpful, friendly, calm but anxious,” they said.
In Puerto Vallarta, Castellanos was struck by a “lack of response” to the fires. Firefighters were nowhere on site, though local residents stepped in, she said.
“That was kind of surreal to see all of these fires burning at once, and not one siren, not one fire truck. Everything just burnt,” said Castellanos. “You had people who had run into the burning Oxxo and were grabbing five-gallon water and trying to put out fires.”
Despite the violence, Castellanos said she feels safe in their new neighborhood, adding she hasn’t seen any instances of violence targeting civilians. As of Tuesday, U.S. officials lifted a recommendation for U.S. citizens to shelter in place in Mexico, and flights and business operations had also returned to normal.
The couple decided to leave Boyle Heights over concerns of federal raids terrorizing LA neighborhoods and the “pushing back on protesters.” Castellanos criticized the Los Angeles Police Department for “protecting ICE.”
“I love LA. I just don’t like to see what’s happening right now,” said Castellanos, who continues to operate Eastside Rehearsal studio in Boyle Heights with her husband and travels back to LA regularly for work. “It’s not good for our community because we lose faith in those that are supposed to protect us.”
