What does the pope's visit mean in Juarez? This video captures it in 30 seconds

What does a visit by Pope Francis mean to people in Juarez?

To a city with a blood-soaked past, once deemed the murder capital of the world, that still sees hundreds of killings a year? A place defined by a border many struggle to cross, and that prevents many more from returning?

Esmeralda Dominguez crossed the border into the U.S. when she was 11 years old — her American father brought her across. Now, she's back in Juarez. She came from Denver to bring her son across, to see Pope Francis. Today, Jorge Garcia is 11, just as she was once.

In 30 seconds, she sums up what the whole thing means to her. (If you can't understand her, read on.)

To make the moment just a little more emotional, there's a snare drum and clarinet playing just out of view.

The music is anxious — the rat-a-tat of a drum that can't quite wait for what happens next, the woodwind's wail both festive and a little mournful.

Esmeralda was on a march with other women that traveled from a service at the Catedral de Ciudad Juarez, over the Santa Fe border bridge through downtown El Paso and ended at the Sacred Heart Church.

At the fence by the border bridge, they tied ribbons as tributes to migrants who are in the United States, ones who have been deported and ones who died trying to cross the border. Esmeralda tied one in honor of her husband, Jesus, an undocumented immigrant who couldn't join them.

Between the music and the message, the whole scene might be sorrowful.

But Esmeralda is full of hope.

Updates from Pope Francis's visit to Juarez, Mexico

Here, roughly, is what she says:

“I crossed this border when I was 11 years old. And now my son, he’s 11 years old and he’s also crossing this border because I want him to see how immigration and the border divides families. 

"This border" isn't just an idea here. It's literal. That, in the background, is the border itself. She goes on:

"I want my son to learn that one border doesn’t divide us, that one border doesn’t separate us, because for me, love doesn’t have borders. Love doesn’t have colors and it doesn’t have languages.” 

For the faithful flocking to see the pope in Juarez, Esmeralda seems to capture an idea we've heard again and again during the pope's days in Mexico. That somehow, the presence of one man — a man so many consider to be so holy — can make things better. That he can inspire leaders, placate violence, end sorrow.

Whatever you think of the pope, or the border, or Mexico, there's no doubt this visit has brought this kind of joy to countless people — 2 million, perhaps more. Esmeralda is just one.

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Republic reporters Dianna M. Náñez and Ricardo Cano contributed.