评论
打印
Everything we know about Carmelita Torres is from a few newspaper accounts in 1917.
我们对卡梅丽塔·托雷斯的了解全都来自1917年的一些报纸报道。
They called her an "an auburn haired Amazon."
他们称她为“赤褐色头发的亚马逊人”。
Just 17 years old.
年仅17岁。
She led angry women in anti-American rioting and shut down the US-Mexico border.
她就领导愤怒的妇女进行反美暴乱，还关闭了美墨边境。
But hidden within her story is something much bigger than a single riot.
然而，她的故事中隐藏着比一场骚乱还要重大的信息。
It’s a story about American paranoia at the border, about a toxic campaign of disinfection and discrimination,
这是一个关于美国人在边境问题上何其偏执的故事，一个有关一场卑鄙无耻的消毒与歧视运动的故事，
and a US practice, that would go on to inspire Nazi scientists.
也是一个日后启发了纳粹科学家灵感的美国式行径的故事。
At the border between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico,
在德克萨斯州的埃尔帕索市和墨西哥的华瑞兹市的交界处，
thousands of people cross back and forth for work and school everyday.
每天都有成千上万的人因为工作或学习往返于两地之间。
They line up in Juarez and often wait for hours to get through the US checkpoint.
他们在华瑞兹市就开始排队，经常都要排几个小时才能通过美国这边的检查站。
But the border, didn’t always look like this.
然而，情况并非一直都是这样。
"Crossing this border used to be free and unrestricted.
“过去，人们可以自由且不受限制地穿越这一边境。
People would come and go without a passport.
连护照都不需要。
But after 1917, Juarez and El Paso became two separate communities."
但1917年以后，华瑞兹和埃尔帕索分裂成了两个社群。”
It was a turbulent year at the border.
对该地而言，1917年是动荡的一年。
The Mexican revolution was ongoing.
当时，墨西哥革命还在继续。
And the US was about to enter World War One.
美国又即将加入一战。
"All of a sudden you have the war hysteria created by World War I.
“一战引发的战争歇斯底里症一夜之间就爆发了。
People here in El Paso that are deathly afraid that the Germans are going to attack from Ciudad Juarez."
埃尔帕索的百姓非常担心德国人会从华瑞兹对他们发动进攻。”
The fear of invasion brought tensions to the border, while across the US, a different movement was gaining strength.
对入侵的恐惧在华埃边境制造了紧张的气氛，与此同时，另一场运动也在整个美国悄然觉醒。
The eugenics movement, based on junk science, aimed to create a genetically and morally superior population.
以垃圾科学为依据的“优生学”运动企图打造一个基因和道德都更优良的人口群体。
That meant stricter controls on immigration… only allowing those deemed fit to enter.
这就意味着加强移民管控……只允许那些被认为条件合格的人进入美国。
On Ellis island, one of the busiest ports of entry at the time,
就拿当时最为繁忙的入境口岸之一埃利斯岛来说，
US health officials were tasked with weeding out immigrants they thought were unfit, or disease carriers.
该岛的卫生官员就肩负着清除他们认为不适合入境或携带有疾病的移民的任务。
And across the country, that process coincided with the stereotyping of Mexicans as inferior and unclean.
放眼全国，这一操作和墨西哥人不干净，低人一等的刻板印象可谓不谋而合。
Dozens of film titles included the word “greaser,” a derogatory term used to describe Mexicans.
几十部电影的片名中都有“上油佬”(greaser)一词，这是专门指代墨西哥人的一个贬义词。
This racist sentiment was strong at the US-Mexico border.
这种种族主义情绪在美墨边境十分浓厚。
El Paso’s Mayor Tom Lea had developed an obsession with cleanliness, and it defined his political platform.
埃尔帕索市长汤姆·利亚逐渐对洁净着了魔，该词也逐渐成了他的政治纲领。
"This obsession with not only racial purity but physical purity.
“而他所谓的洁净不止包括种族上的纯净，也包括生理上的纯净。
He was going to literally clean up El Paso from all these ‘bad elements’
他计划让埃尔帕索摆脱所有那些“糟糕因素”，
and by ‘bad elements’ he often meant racially bad elements.”
而他眼里的‘糟糕因素’通常指的是种族上的糟糕因素。”
One of Mayor Lea's biggest fears was a disease called typhus, spread by lice.
利亚市长最担心的问题之一是一种由虱子传播，名为“斑疹伤寒”的病。
So under the pretense of “sanitary betterment work”
于是，他打着“卫生改善工作”的幌子，
he helped lead a campaign to inspect “every house” in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood.
帮助领导了一场运动，对一个以墨西哥人为主的社区的“每一所房子”进行检查。
If the inspectors found lice,
如果检查人员发现有虱子，
“occupants were forced to take vinegar and kerosene baths, have their heads shaved and clothing burned.“
“住户就要被迫洗醋浴和煤油浴，还要剃光头，烧衣服。”
Hundreds of homes were eventually destroyed.
还有数百座房屋被毁。
Lea also expanded the supposed ‘health measures’ to include inmates in the El Paso jail.
利亚还将这些所谓的“健康措施”扩展到了埃尔帕索监狱的囚犯身上。
"They had to strip naked.
“他们被剥去衣服。
Take a bath inside a tub full of kerosene.
在装满煤油的浴缸里洗澡。
And on one occasion, it seems somebody lit a match."
有一次，好像有人点燃了一根火柴。”
27 prisoners, majority Mexican or Mexican American, burned to death in the fire that the newspapers called “the jail holocaust.”
有27名囚犯，大多数是墨西哥人或墨西哥裔美国人，在这场被报纸称为“监狱大屠杀”的大火中被烧死。
But, despite the tragic fire, Mayor Lea pushed forward with even more aggressive plans.
然而，尽管发生了这场悲剧性的火灾，利亚市长非但没有收手，还推出了更加激进的计划。
"He sends a telegram, a Western Union telegram, to Rupert Blue who is the surgeon general up in Washington D.C.
他发了一封电报，还是一封西联汇款的电报给华盛顿特区的卫生局局长鲁伯特·布鲁，
and basically — well let me just read it.
大致内容是……算了，还是我念给你们吧。
'Hundreds. Dirty. Lousy. Destitute. Mexicans arriving at El Paso daily.
“每天都有好几百又脏，又爬满了虱子，又穷困潦倒的墨西哥人到达埃尔帕索。
Will undoubtedly bring and spread typhus unless a quarantine is placed at once.'"
除非立即对他们进行隔离，否则势必会带来并在我市扩散斑疹伤寒。’”
