Hi all,
I am new here and this is my first time posting so please forgive me if I break any rules.
I have been following this case very closely. Jenny reminds me of myself when I was her age. I had a thirst for independence, immense interest in other cultures and a serious case of wanderlust. In 2011 I decided to travel through Mexico on my own (not hitchhiking...I took buses). I had one very difficult situation that prompted me to head home after a few months. Besides that, everybody I met was lovely, helpful and seemed genuine.
Fast forward to now, I am currently living in Mexico. Mexico is a wonderful place. However, for the life of me, I cannot figure out what Jenny was thinking when she decided to hitchhike across Mexico. I feel like she was either completely and utterly naive, or somebody told her it would be a good idea.
The other day, I recieved an e-mail notification regarding JR's arrest in a massage parlour. This is an interesting development because I myself worked in a massage parlour ( I don't normally share this with anyone, this was a very different time in my life). I would like to clarify that massage parlours ARE NOT all involved in human trafficking. There are actually women who choose to take part in this line of work, for whatever reason. Not all women who chose this line of work are drug addicted/poor/desperate/uneducated. I met many wonderful women who did the job because they were single mothers and wanted to provide a certain level of comfort for their families, or women who had no family support and wanted to graduate from university debt free, etc etc etc. I am not saying that trafficking does not take place, but not every massage parlour is like this. With that being said, in my experience, law enforcement tends to target establishments who hire or have a history of hiring underage workers, trafficked workers or undocumented workers. As well, never once did I ever encounter a client who didn't know what was going on within the establishment...this is just my personal experience from years ago. I just felt the need to let people know that not all workers in massage parlours are victims and not all clients are predators. However, if I was desperately soliciting donations to search for a loved one, the last thing I would be doing is drunkingly seeking a massage parlour, be it a legitimate massage or otherwise. This is just my opinion and I know people handle grief and stress in different ways.
Now that I live in Mexico and following this case, my gut says what most of you are saying. I hope Jenny is ok, and I always keep my eye out for her. Even though there are 125 million people here, I feel like one day I just might see her.
The last piece of irony is that I live right in front of the Corona factory in Mexico City. I see Corona trucks every day and this constantly reminds me that there is a very interesting case in front of us...
