Woman Of Monterrey Mexico

Open Letter to Conscious Men and Women Of This World

July 22, 2011

Last night I took an airplane to go to Italy. I had to arrive in Tuscany to meet with friends and compañeros to share experiences in Latin American struggles with them. I wasn’t able to make it to my destination because it occurred to the gringo government that not only did I have no right to pass through its territory, but through its “air space” as well. That’s what happened on a supposedly Mexican airline— AeroMéxico—that was operating with another flight from an airline in a different country called Alitalia. It didn’t matter that the closest I would get to “its territory” was 30,000 feet above the ground.

I’ll tell you what happened:

On Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 10:35 in the evening I boarded Aeroméxico flight 033 in Mexico City to go to Barcelona to connect from there to another flight to Rome on Alitalia. A friend was going to accompany me from Rome to Tuscany by land.

The flight was going normally until a little after midnight when the captain said that we would be returning to Monterrey because US airspace had been closed off. He explained that since we would have to fly by another route the plane would have to refuel.

Like that we returned to Monterrey with some nervousness since what was said over the speaker was very strange.

To my major surprise, when we landed in the city a little past one in the morning on July 21, a flight attendant approached me and asked for me to show identification. I showed it without any problems. I had my voter card and my National Autonomous University of Mexico credentials with me. Once she saw my name she asked me to collect my things and accompany her to the door of the airplane.

When I got to the door of the plane with all of my luggage there were a few Mexican federal police and two or three employees of Aeroméxico that asked me to identify myself again and to leave the plane. I told them I was not leaving until they explained to me what was going on. They said that “the United States government had refused the plane because I was on it.”

Before my astonished face, a very nice Aeroméxico person from Monterrey told me that they were also very surprised, and asked if I could please accompany them and we would see what could be done. I had no choice but to get off the plane; meanwhile, they were already taking my checked luggage off of the plane.

Bad-Ass Woman of the Day: Ms. Alanis from Monterrey

“Yes, my love, everyone on the floor” is the first thing you hear Martha Rivera Alanis say in the video uploaded to YouTube of the incident .

Throughout the video you hear Alanis referring to her students as “my loves,” “precious” and “little ones” in a soothing voice as she directs them to lie on the floor.

“Nothing is happening to us, my loves, just rest your little face on the floor,” she says.

A few seconds later you hear her say “I know! Let’s sing a song.” And then the teacher begins singing a Spanish-version of a Barney song that’s already familiar to her kids.

“If all the raindrops were made out of chocolate, oh how I would love to be there.” she sings.

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