Monday, October 14, 2013

The 541 Syndicate Part I

When Adán Díaz Herrera started first grade in the small rural school in the
mountains straddling Northern California and Southern Oregon, he was the only
Mexican in his class. In fact, not even his teacher spoke Spanish, along with
the entire crowded class of 31 students.

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His classmates, mostly children of
loggers, many whose parents had come from Oklahoma or Arkansas during the Dust
Bowl, derided him as a "wetback", even though he was a 3rd generation
American. The children of local hippies, who flocked to the area to escape the
urban decline of the day, were no more ingratiating.

Adán had come with his parents, from Chicago, who themselves had followed their
grandparents from the Mexican state of Durango. Finding little opportunity in
the lower West side neighborhood of Pilsen, theyfounded a thriving business as
subcontractors for the US Forest Service, replanting the trees that were clear
cut to provide the jobs and tax revenue that supported the local economy. Soon
cousins and other relatives came to help, some from Chicago, but mostly from
Mexico.

While planting the hillsides with millions of Douglas Fir seedlings, the
workers began to recognize that the lush verdant countryside would provide an
opportunity, similar to the mountains of Durango, for the planting of small
plantations of marijuana.

As they
crisscrossed the rugged mountains planting trees, they became familiar with the
location of every spring, and recognized that the south-facing hillsides that
would provide needed sunlight. They knew the movement of Forest Service and law
enforcement personnel, and they had a legitimate reason to be in the forest,
day in and day out.

Adán’s father, Eugenio, "Gene" Díaz,