SAN LUIS POTOSÍ — A phoenix tattooed on his chest tells of the agitated and dangerous life of Pedro César Carrizales Becerra, who is nicknamed “El Mijis”, a “gang-banger” (gang member) in his youth. Now, at 39, he will be a deputy in the Congress of the state of San Luis Potosí, in central Mexico, EFE news agency reports.
“El Mijis”, a variant of the contraction “mi’jo” (my son), an expression with which thousands of young Mexicans greet each other — “What happened, mi’jo?” — experienced an endless number of shortcomings since he was a child. He was recruited to join gangs and lived a troubled youth.
It was during that stage that he was about to die, both from street fights and suicide attempts.
“I was wounded in a street fight between gangs, they piercerd my liver and my lung, my operation was 19 hours and I was almost dead,” Carrizales tells Efe.
Later he participated in more fights, sustaining knife and gunshot wounds.
That violence fell on his son, who also suffered similar attacks since he inherirted his father’s problems and rivalries. “My life was a constant war”, explains “El Mijis”.
He admits that he had to “live many tragedies to understand”, but when he was a child he did not intend to be a gang member. “I wanted to be an actor and be like Juan Ferrara (famous telenovela actor in the 1980s and 1990s),” he says.
“My life turned abruptly because of my parents’ separation, but I wanted to study and life took me to another place, as there are many people who do not have opportunities, nor are there public policies or anything for them,” he says.
“With so much free time, young people go to the streets and make the gang their family.” In your home and on the street, you make a family, but both give you totally different advice,” he says.
Cesar sometimes helped his mother, who had kidney problems, but on one occasion, when she was more seriously ill, he decided to spend the day with the gang in a drunken stupor. “The next day my mom died and I could not say goodbye to her,” he recalls.
“It was a very hard blow and I did not want to live anymore,” he says. That loss caused him to fall into drugs and a deep depression that led to several suicide attempts. “I tried five times but I could not, until a Christian came to take me out of the street,” he says.
He received help and after a period of recovery he went in search of a second chance. He started helping other young people who suffered from the problems he had experienced and that’s when he started his new life.
In 2002, he created the Popular Youth Movement, which he runs in San Luis Potosí, which seeks to “channel children in street situations and claim their rights and fight against discrimination,” according to an information sheet on their Facebook page.
The Movement, composed of members of 240 gangs in the state, is also called “A cry of existence” and aims to make visible young people who suffer discrimination because of their clothing, their tattoos and the areas where they live.
That work and the following that César has among the youngsters caused several political parties to notice him as a possible candidate.
At the beginning of this year the coalition Together We Will Make History, led by the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), offered support. The alliance led by the future president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was the one that assured him autonomy in his decisions.
His work and the impulse of López Obrador led him to win at the polls.
Seeing his incredible triumph in the elections on July 1, his adversaries lashed out with everything against César, who was the target of a campaign of denigration.
Carrizales was criticized, singled out and discriminated against by photographs published on social networks. In the images, César, who has a criminal record due to a firearm incident in 2011, appeared with other “gang guys”.
“No one is better because of how you saw them, not because of how they talk, we are going to the Congress (state) to work, we have had many threats, but I am not going to flinch (cowardly),” he warned.
He explained that his case made visible the racism and classism that millions of people live in Mexico every day, and therefore he will try to promote public policies in his state, which he hopes will also have a national impact.
“We do not want to be judged or criminalized, and those behind a desk say that if they have studies, masters and doctorates, that they work and see people, as we have done and will continue to do,” said Carrizales, who has a high school degree but is “looking forward to going to college”.
To the 12 tattoos that cover all his body, including the image of his mother on the left side of his chest, of which he feels proud and that they narrate part of its life, soon he will add the thirteenth. Although the future member of the Congress of his state still does not know on which part of his body will be placed that mark, he knows what the inked message will be: “We won.”
Source: EFE news agency
