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Henry Cardana And The Collapse Of Modern Masculinity
The Henry Cardana case/situation happened in Rio Rancho, New Mexico on April 5, 2023. It’s been covered in the media a couple of times, but not as many as you’d think. I’ll link a full video in a second here, but basically what happens is this: Cardana is 86 years old. He’s caring for a 82 year-old woman, who isn’t his wife but is apparently his “partner,” and the 82 year-old is ornery and, according to her former son-in-law, has “an acid tongue.” Early in the day on April 5, 2023, Henry calls the police and basically says he cannot care for her anymore. The police come out and talk to him, with her lying in a bed in the living room. You can see it on this video:
They have a long talk with Henry and the woman, and some weird stuff is said about how he’s going to kill her and where he has guns, and the cops kinda laugh it off. They leave.
About three hours later, they get a call from neighbors and roll back to the house. Henry is lying in the doorway, bloody and sobbing. The 82 year-old woman is shot dead in the bed. Eventually, Henry gets arrested. It was charged as first-degree at first, then knocked down to second-degree, and now it looks like we’re going towards a plea deal. At this point, the guy is 87 and did not seem in great health, so I don’t know exactly what putting District Attorney resources towards this case really does, but eh. I’m not a county official in New Mexico.
So, you have a lot of major themes in this video and this whole sequence of events. To run down a few:
- Old-age relationships: It seems these people only came together for old-age companionship, and it went horribly south.
- Emotional/caregiver labor: People want to do the best for someone else, but eventually they snap. That’s a “quiet part, out loud” discussion.
- Male loneliness: The cops ask Henry if he has any family. He says he has a son, but “he works and his wife works.” Then he adds, “We…
