Scenes from 2007
"Don't Stop Believin'"--Postcard from Nogales

October 9, 2007
Dear friends,

Things here on the Mexico/US border are really blowing my mind.
Recently, our group of 20 students on Earlham's Border Studies Program traveled 5 hours to Nogales, which is a border town like Juarez/El Paso.  It is very different, though.  Here in El Paso, the Rio Grande separates the two cities, and a bridge connects them, but in Nogales there is a big metal wall that literally cuts the town in two.  It looked like an old medieval picture, and the wall encircling the city looked like a castle wall.
In Nogales we got the incredible opportunity to meet the Border Patrol (la Migra). They are responsible for patrolling the border, and the outlying desert where migrants attempt to cross.  They do this with trip wires, cameras, and physical patrol via ATVs, horses, and helicopters. Migrants trek for days through a treacherous landscape, from the desert in Mexico to the desert along the 2,000 mile-long border.  A lot of the immigrants from Mexico and Central/South America make it out on the other side, but this is usually after a few tries.  Many die of thirst and hypothermia (hypothermia in the winter, drowning in the flood season), and the death count is almost 500 just in 2007.  When immigrants are found alive they are held at the BP facility until they are deported.
The problem of migrants in the desert is recent; it has only existed since 1994 when the US and Mexico (and Canada) first implemented NAFTA.  This is when the formerly-permeable boundaries in towns like Tijuana/San Diego and Juarez/El Paso first became walled off to each other.  This forced the migrants to seek new -and more dangerous- ways of traveling into the US for jobs.  The fact is that there are not enough jobs in Mexico.  The NAFTA sweatshops (which I also had the privilege of visiting) only pay about $50 a week to their workers, and the cost of living is only 20% cheaper than the US.  People can make a lot more money if they cross into the US and take on seasonal jobs as undocumented workers on farms, in hotels/restaurants, or at any number of other low-skill, low-paying jobs.
After visiting the Border Patrol, we went to a project called No Mas Muertes (No More Deaths) at the Mariposa Border Crossing in Nogales. We walked over to the Mexican side, which is where migrants are deported to after they are detained at the BP headquarters.  Most folks I saw were exhausted and had bloody sores on their feet.  Many had not eaten in days, and some refused the bean sandwiches and drinks, either out of shame or because they were in a hurry. Coyotes (human smugglers) hover by the tent, and they always have business.  The No Mas Muertes tent is supported by the Mexican government, and run by mostly Mexican volunteers who bandage peoples' feet and give them food.  After the deportees are treated there, they go straight back to the desert to try again.
That night we slept in the No Mas Muertes camp in Arivaca, Arizona, a swath of land that 1,000 migrants pass through daily.  Folks at the camp were mostly white American volunteers/activists.  They go out during the day looking for people who are lost in the desert and give them water, food, and first aid.  Many migrants are left behind by coyotes that don't have time to wait for sick or injured travelers.  No Mas Muertes also maintains water tanks that are dispersed throughout the desert. 
We camped out under an incredibly clear sky.  I couldn't believe how hot it got the next day (around 100), because during the night the temperature dropped to almost
40 degrees.  The sun was so strong, it was like being at the ocean, but instead of water there was just dust and cacti.  It was more beautiful than I can describe here, and the sunrise and sunset were surreal.  We woke up to Journey blasting from a pickup truck, a wake-up call for the group going out on the 6 a.m. patrol. "Don't stop believin,' hold onto that feelin.' "...  It was the perfectly lovely moment in an imperfect place.  Such is the border. Hasta pronto, Antioch,
Marissa

Back to top

Back to Scenes

Earlham Home Page