Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Carla Charraga, manager of Estrellita Restaurant on San Antonio Road in Los Altos, is organizing a benefit for the victims of human rights injustices in her native Chiapas, Mexico. The Dec. 22 massacre of 45 Indians in Chiapas, mostly women and children, sparked international outrage.
Carla Charraga had heard of the rampant injustices occurring in her home state of Chiapas, Mexico. But when 45 people, many of them women and children, were massacred Dec. 22, allegedly at the hands of local military personnel, the manager of Estrellita Restaurant in Los Altos could no longer wait for someone else to offer help.
Charraga is organizing a benefit buffet dinner for 6 p.m. Sunday at Estrellita, 971 N. San Antonio Road, to bring the Chiapas crisis to light. She plans to line up speakers, and perhaps a video, detailing the situation.
"There's a big struggle between the owners of the land and the indigenous communities there," she said. "It's not like a civil war - it's a civil rights issue similar to the south in the 1960s."
She said the Mayan Indians in Chiapas are looked down upon as second-class citizens and are living in poverty.
The Chiapas governor, Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, resigned last week after the international uproar triggered by the massacre of the unarmed civilians. Charraga said nine of the 45 killed were pregnant women.
Opponents have criticized the local government, claiming it knew that paramilitaries, some of them members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, were planning attacks on the Indians but failed to stop them. Gov. Ruiz Ferro denied the charges.
Charraga said $15 of the $20 adult cost will benefit two Chiapas humanitarian organizations: Caritas, run by the Catholic Church Diocese of San Cristobal, and the Mexican Project for Democracy. The buffet is $10 for children 13 and under.
The entree for the Sunday benefit is chicken pibil, a Mayan dish made with orange juice and achiote and baked in banana leaves. Also served will be cheese enchiladas with rice, beans and salad.
Reservations must be made by Friday. For tickets and more information, call 941-8976.