so that was unexpected confirmation

Weird moment of memory dissonance; while surfing trutv.com's crime library, I ran across this:

Adolfo Constanzo: the Godfather of Matamoras

Okay, I don't know how much this kind of thing applies to non-border states, but Spring Break Terror (YOU WILL BE KIDNAPPED AND SACRIFICED TO SATAN or YOU WILL BE DRUGGED AND RAPED BY COLLEGE GUYS or YOU WILL BE DRUGGED AND KIDNAPPED BY COLLEGE SATANISTS) was like, a perfectly normal thing to hear. For Texas, South Padre was a hive of villainous college activity where at any given moment, someone was being drugged and raped and henna tattooed that will cause scarring and a lifetime of shame; it was like, going there was DEATH and TERRIBLE TATTOOS of SHAME. Or that's the impression you got circa age of reason to going to college yourself.

The thing is, I recognize the details of this one while reading, and I remember hearing about it when it happened. But at the time, most of us thought it was just the usual spring break scare tactics. I am deeply, deeply unsettled to read all the ridic details that I remember--I seriously do, this story was huge at school--and realize some of them actually happened.

Comments

[vickita]

I was a graduate student at UT when this happened. Absolutely remember it very vividly. Gah.

[seperis]

I'm just weirded out that for once, there was fact behind the fiction of EVIL SPRING BREAK when I was a kid. That one of the most outrageous ones were true, however, does make me nervous.

[vickita]

Heh. It's always the craziest frickin' stories that turn out to be true. Peoples is crazy.

I remember being extremely, extremely freaked out about the whole thing, and, I mean, I was ostensibly a semi-grownup at the time. If memory serves, the kid was in a physics lab section that was taught by a friend of mine.

Gaaaaaah.

[petronia]

Wow. o_o

[seperis]

It's weird to realize one scare story was actually true.

[metaphortunate]

Dude, I remember that one!

People called Matamoros "Matagringos" for years.

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I remember hearing those kinds of stories when I was growing up too.

Weird.

We went to South Padre and Galveston a ton when I was a kid because my stepbrother's family was living there at the time. I always hated the place..I thought that South Padre/Galveston were dirty little tourist trap pits.

Come to think of it, that's probably why I won't go near there today...I still think of them as dirty little crapholes where only tourists and drunk college students go.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I remember hearing those kinds of stories when I was growing up too.

Dude, they were standard fare. That and the yearly COWS EVISERATED DEVIL WORSHIPPERS. We were rural, and cows apparently were sacrificed like hourly if the stories are to be believed.

I like mustang island adn south padre, but not Galveston. I need to watch the ocean when I go to the beach.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember that one, too.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*winces* I can remember now, but dude, I seriously thought it was a more dramatic version of scare tactics.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

Well, that was the year I graduated (and a couple years after I started reading up on paganism) so when the newscasters started going "WOOOOO, SANTERIA*" with the spooky-ass arm motions implied, I followed the case in the papers.

It was scary as hell that the first few arrestees confessed so easily and so simply because they honestly believed they were "protected." Just. FUCK.

* Which it wasn't, but I guess it "sounded" scarier because more people had heard of it? Or some shit.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, Santeria was pretty well-known?--in Texas, and by that, I mean, the word was known because of our immigrant population. On a guess? It "sounded" like Satanism if you were, you know, really selective in hearing and dumb. Palo Mayombe doesn't sound scary, and palo is in everyone's vocabulary already in any border state with any kind of Spanish or Mexican influence for the names of towns, cities, and for that matter, pet names. Plus there was no google back then.

I think some people who were involved might have at one time practiced Santeria, but some also practiced Christianity and brujeria and et al, so not really an indicator of anything in particular except the guy was really charismatic about converting people from myriad religions to his--thing.

[vic-ramsey.livejournal.com]

Being mexican, my family took this shit seriously. I don't remember all of it because I was a kid but I do remember being completely scared because of it. The boogey man was real and he lived in mexico. We cancelled a couple of trips down to the valley because of it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I have coworkers from the valley I asked today and they really remember that happening; one was going to school in Edinburg at the time. It was surreal to read that now, because until now, I honestly thought it was some kind of exaggerated EVIL SPRING BREAK/EVIL MEXICO thing.

Weirdly, the part that completely freaked me out was near the end of the article when Constanza was all freaked out/enraged that they did a full exorcism at his death shack. I mean, the article never stated outright that he believed in what he was doing, but that kind of just--holy shit. He believed in what he was doing.

*hugs to you* I cant' imagine what it must have been like with family living there, too.