^[1]CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MEXICO: On January 21, 2008, I decided to skip my last evening class at university to go celebrate with my boyfriend our five months of engagement.

We bought food and drinks and thought it would be nice to go have a romantic dinner. It was about 9:00 PM and we decided to drive to a park in two separate cars.

Suddenly, while we were on Paseo Triunfo de la República, I saw a jeep coming from the opposite direction and it looked like it was on fire. For a moment I thought perhaps it was firecrackers. Then I realized someone was shooting at the jeep. The driver swerved violently and passed in-between my boyfriend’s car and mine.

I immediately braked to avoid crashing into the jeep but the car behind me bumped into me. I thought about getting out to check the damage to my car but another jeep full of armed men drove by shooting at the first one. I made a U-turn and fled the scene. I passed two red lights and didn’t stop till I was far away.

In the end, I got myself to a fast food restaurant and called my boyfriend, asking him to come get me. He came, even though he had to pass again from the intersection where the gangsters were shooting. When he arrived I hugged him and saw that his car had several bullet holes in it.

Later I found out that the driver of the jeep had been killed in the shooting and that another passenger had been injured and was being treated in El Paso, Texas.

It was five months before I passed again from Paseo Triunfo de la República and when I finally did have the courage I realized that the restaurant where I had sought refuge was only two and a half blocks away from the scene of the shootout.

I felt frazzled. An experience that lasted only a few minutes had left a deep mark in me. That night I realized for the first time that Ciudad Juárez had really become a violent and dangerous city. I also found out that my boyfriend would do anything for me, even risk his life.